Ebonyi PDP governorship candidate promises to stop child labour and hawking

Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Ebonyi State, Dr Ifeanyi Odii, has shared his plans to stop children from being sent away from their communities to work as domestic helpers, hawkers, and in other forms of child labour if he becomes governor in 2027.

Odii spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday. He highlighted youth empowerment, education, and skills development as the main focus of his future administration.

He mentioned that poverty and unemployment are reasons families send their children away from home to work. He believes that his administration can solve this problem by setting up skills-acquisition centers across the state. This will provide young people with practical training that could lead to jobs or self-employment.

“We’ll be reeducating our people. The youths, some of them, we train them in skills acquisition, building skills acquisition centres,” he said.

The centers will offer training in areas like carpentry, POP installation, tailoring, animal husbandry, fishery, and other vocational skills. He assured that this program will reach all 13 local government areas of Ebonyi State. Each local government will have facilities that can accommodate about 3,000 people.

“That means if we do that, we’re accommodating about 39,000 Ebonyians,” he added.

Odii linked child labour to the larger issues of poverty and lack of access to education. He promised to prioritize education, offering scholarships and improving learning environments. He believes children should stay in school instead of being forced into work at a young age.

His administration will also focus on agriculture, healthcare, and job creation to help reduce poverty in households. He stressed that building a strong local economy will give families better chances to keep their children in school and lessen the need to send them for domestic work.

“We must create opportunities at home. Ebonyi has significant agricultural and mineral resources that could be developed to create jobs and improve household incomes. And I will end child hawking, house help culture in Ebonyi State, if elected.”