National President of Izzi Nnodo Youth Forum, INYF, Comrade Andrew Chibueze Elom.
By Victor Nwegede
The National President of Izzi Nnodo Youth Forum (INYF), Comrade Andrew Chibueze Elom, yesterday said the Forum has rolled out massive empowerment, human capital development, and peacebuilding programmes to reposition the youths of Izzi clan in Ebonyi State.
Speaking in Abakaliki on Monday during a media chat, Elom announced that 30 indigent but intelligent undergraduates from Abakaliki, Ebonyi, and Izzi LGAs — 10 from each of the council areas have been placed on full scholarship from their first year until graduation.
“We see them as our own responsibility until they graduate, so that at the end they will know Izzi Youth Forum stood by them from start to finish,” Elom said.
He revealed that another 60 youths — 20 from each LGA of Izzi extraction, are undergoing advanced digital skills training in areas including data analysis, digital marketing, and other ICT packages to steer them away from cybercrime and open legitimate income streams.
“There is so much money in information technology without killing people or visiting native doctors for rituals. Our aim is to teach our youths how to earn legitimately with their skills,” he stated.
Beyond ICT, the Forum according to the President, has also sponsored trainees in nine vocational skills, including motor mechanics, tailoring, barbing, fencing, interior decoration, music, and others, with plans to establish them after training.
Elom, who described his tenure as “a radical departure from the past,” emphasised productivity over cash handouts and urged youths to embrace self-reliance, saying every leader is “a small governor” complementing the state Governor, Builder Francis Nwifuru.
He lauded Governor Nwifuru’s People’s Charter of Needs agenda as youth-friendly and a model worth emulating.
On the lingering kindred dichotomy between Igbojima and Onwuera in Izzi land, Elom made a passionate appeal for unity, and declared that: “No one becomes who they are by the effort of only their kindred. Both must work together. Let’s sustain the names for heritage, but never to divide ourselves. We are one.”
He also called on families to instil discipline in children from the home as a long-term strategy against crime and societal decay.
One of the beneficiaries, Chiemere Ikwekwa, a Mechanical Engineering student in Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike Ikwo, said the ₦200,000 education grant he received would help him pursue his dream of inventing machines for local industries such as palm oil extraction.
The Izzi Nnodo Youth Forum’s programmes cut across education, skills development, moral reorientation, and communal harmony, reflecting what Elom called “a deliberate effort to raise a productive generation for Izzi nation.”
