By: Odeh Favour Adiya
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State, Dr. Ifeanyi Odii, has outlined comprehensive plans to tackle the movement of children from their communities into domestic work, street hawking, and other forms of child labour if elected governor in 2027.
Odii spoke during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, where he presented youth empowerment, education, and skills development as key components of his proposed administration.
He noted that poverty and unemployment were among the major factors forcing families to send children away from home to work as domestic helpers or engage in street hawking.
According to him, his administration would address the problem by creating skills-acquisition centres across the state and providing young people with practical training that could lead to employment and self-employment.
“We’ll be reeducating our people. The youths, some of them, we train them in skills acquisition, building skills acquisition centres.”
He explained that the centres would provide training in areas including carpentry, POP installation, tailoring, animal husbandry, fishery, and other vocational skills.
He maintained that the proposed programme would cover all 13 local government areas of Ebonyi State, with each local government having facilities capable of accommodating about 3,000 people.
“That means if we do that, we’re accommodating about 39,000 Ebonyians,” he said.
Linking the problem of child labour to the wider challenge of poverty and inadequate access to education, the PDP candidate promised to make education a major priority.
He pledged to provide scholarships and improved learning environments, stressing that children should be able to remain in school rather than being pushed into economic activities at an early age.
Odii added that his administration would also invest in agriculture, healthcare, and job creation as part of a broader strategy to reduce household poverty.
He argued that creating a productive local economy would give families greater opportunities to keep their children in school and reduce the pressure to send them away 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,” Odii said.
