Imole Youth Corps : Endless Waiting And The Promise Of Gov Adeleke

By Hammed Tajudeen

Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State whose destiny eventually made him the executive governor despite all hurdles he confronted in his bid to the Bola Ige White House in Abere.

Governor Adeleke, the destined Governor of Osun claimed he won his first attempt to become Osun Governor against former Governor who is the current Minister for Marin and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in 2018 but he was rigged out.

Like Governor Adeleke had promised to embark on continuing with uncompleted projects of past administrations in Osun under his five point agenda this made the completion of Osogbo-Ikiriun-Ila-odo phase 2 quickly accomplished by his administration in less than one year in office with hope of bringing back O’Yes remains uncertain.

Blaze Newz gathered that O’Yes was part of the schemes introduced to Osun by former Governor Rauf Aregbesola to engage youth of the state with payment of monthly stipend.

This did not only solved issue of unemployment but became a yardstick to curb hooliganism, cultism and other social vices in the state as those who are genuinely ready to work left the street to pickup OYes work.

Imole Youth Corps : Endless Waiting And The Promise Of Gov Adeleke
Photo : OYES cadets on parade ground

Cadets of the O’Yes were fixed into different sectors to fill vacuums where Osun Government could not hire staff like school teachers, Blaze Newz gathered.

The very visible ones was in the environment sector, O’Yes cadets swept, cut bushes on the road sides across the state and also joined Osun Waste Management Agency,OWMA in disposing refuse usually dumped on road side for the agency to evacuate.

The neglect of this scheme was implication of Osun State capital, Osogbo being rated by Transparency Action Group (TAG), as the dirtiest state capital in Nigeria.

Though, OYES was a volunteer scheme, meaning that participants are not normally entitled to any gratification, they are paid a monthly stipend of N10, 000 that some may think as being too little but the youth work only for three hours daily.

Another benefit is the multiplier effect this stipend has on the local economy in the state since the money is definitely not one that the participants can use to junket all over.

A story was told of a young man who graduated five years earlier and was still being housed by his father who joined the scheme and handed over the entire stipend to the father. The old man, speechless and could only cry wondering who helped his son to be strong enough to give him money which he has never done in his life till then, the cable reported.

During the administration of Aregbesola’s successor, Adegboyega Oyetola, OYES was not given serious attention, the scheme lost its purpose and the emergence of Governor Ademola Adeleke ended the scheme by slacking the 10,000 volunteers engaged by Oyetola’s administration.

Immediately after Governor Adeleke was sworn into office on November 27,2022 the form of Imole Youth Corps was widely shared on social media as some prominent PDP members boastly said the form was free and available for pickup in all local government across the state.

Unlike the previous administrations of Aregbesola and Oyetola , when the form was filled electronically through a designated website, the PDP administration is settling for analog process of filing the Imole Youth Corps form using paper and pen.

365 days after , different sectors have received attention from the governor like road infrastructure, health and education but the hope of the Imole Youth Corps coming to reality remains unknown as Governor Adeleke who promised during his electioneering campaign to engage youth remains silence about the scheme.