By Oboh Linus
Lafia – Mr Abubakar Mohammed, an aide to Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, said on Saturday that the government was ready to support product-based cooperative societies to eradicate poverty among the people.Mohammed, who is the governor’s Special Assistant on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), made this known in Lafiya when he received in his office, a delegation of heads of cooperative societies in the state.The delegation, which was led by Mr Michael Mailafiya, the Director of Cooperative in the state’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperative, were on a visit as part of activities to mark the 2019 World Cooperative Day.According to him, there are a lot of things cooperatives can do other than engaged in loans and thrifts.“Although that too is good, we will encourage production and partner for development to achieve one of the United Nation cardinal goals of poverty eradication and hunger,” he said.Mohammed said that the state government, under the administration of Gov. Sule, was determined to support any programme aimed at improving the lives of the citizens.He, therefore, advised cooperative societies to come up with their programme blueprints and action plans.He noted that cooperative societies were one of the organised, well-structured, and viable platforms, which the law has recognised and endorsed for the government to use to reach out to the people.“We want to encourage you to diversify into production cooperatives.“The synergy must be among you and within you to motivate others to join you.“It is when you have inclusiveness that you have development.“The encouragement we want to give here is that we want you to assemble your cooperatives and give them the voice so that they can enjoy what those in other states are benefiting from.“SDGs is the prime mover of cooperatives for stabilisation and growth.“People have not really identified cooperatives with SDGs; when you belong to a cooperative, you are helping the United Nations to achieve its cardinal goals of eradicating poverty and hunger.“When you eradicate poverty, you can fund education, medical bills and eventually have peace.“Out of the 17 goals of SDGs, we will do as much as possible to make sure that each of them is implemented,” he said.On his part, the leader of the delegation expressed appreciation to the governor’s aide for the warm reception and noted that the cooperative societies would take advantage of the state government’s disposition and make cooperative societies in the state more viable.According to Mailafiya, the Day is an annual celebration of cooperatives movement that took place on the first Saturday of July 1923, with the aim of increasing awareness about cooperatives and their contributions to the development of society.He added that the cooperatives societies in the state would embrace productive ventures to help in the fight against poverty and hunger in line with the SDGs. (NAN)