Israel Sunny Goli, member, representing Brass-Nembe federal constituency of Bayelsa state, in the House of Representatives at the weekend gave out five hundred and seventy-six motorcycles to some of his constituents.
This is in continuation of his empowerment scheme geared towards creating alternative means of income for his people.
Crude oil exploration and it’s negative effect on the environment, has forced people of the area to abandon fishing and farming, their traditional occupation.
The 576 motorcycles were given to constituents, drawn from the twenty-three wards that make up the constituency, an improvement on what he did in May, 2021, where 75 constituents were empowered with a motorcycle each.
This is as another 150 constituents were empowered with tricycles, hairdressing equipment and generating sets to power the equipment.
He has also enlisted 50 constituents for the Federal Government’s NPower Scheme with another 30 women enlisted and given grants from the Women Empowerment Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
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Education is also prominent in Goli’s empowerment programme, as he is supporting many constituents in secondary schools and tertiary institutions.
He has also assisted 6 constituents to secure scholarships to study abroad.
Goli in a speech at the presentation ceremony, held at the OX-Box Lake Pavilion, Yenegoa, the capital of Bayelsa State, said “It is no secret that there’s a dearth of sustainable means of sustenance in our communities presently, as our people have been forced to abandon their traditional means of sustenance (fishing and farming), by the resultant effect of oil exploration and exploitation activities”.
Bothered by the above mentioned situation that the people are confronted with, creating alternative sources of livelihood for them became imperative, according to Goli.
This consequently informed his decision of making provision of alternative sources of income for his people, a cardinal part of his “Zonal Intervention Projects”.
“No doubt, we have in a number of ways, carried out people-centred programmes, to help ameliorate the effect of economic hardship, faced by many of our constituents”, he stated
