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Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Ebonyi State, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii, has outlined plans to tackle the movement of children from their communities into domestic work, hawking and other forms of child labour if elected governor in 2027.
Odii spoke during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, where he presented youth empowerment, education and skills development as key components of his proposed administration.
He said poverty and unemployment were among the 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 re-educating our people. The youths, some of them, we train them in skills acquisition, building skills acquisition centres.”
Odii said the centres would provide training in areas including carpentry, POP installation, tailoring, animal husbandry, fishery and other vocational skills.
He said 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.
He linked the problem of child labour to the wider challenge of poverty and inadequate access to education.
He promised to make education a major priority, including scholarships and improved learning environments, saying children should be able to remain in school rather than being pushed into economic activities at an early age.
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Odii said 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’
Odii said Ebonyi had significant agricultural and mineral resources that could be developed to create jobs and improve household incomes.
He proposed greater investment in mechanised farming, rural roads, skills development and policies designed to attract private-sector investors into the state.
He also promised to establish skills-acquisition centres capable of training thousands of young people, arguing that empowering youths economically would help address unemployment and reduce their vulnerability to exploitation.
The PDP candidate said the issue should not be addressed solely through prohibition, but through policies that tackle the economic conditions that make child labour possible.
His comments form part of his broader campaign message ahead of the 2027 Ebonyi governorship election, in which he is positioning poverty reduction, human-capital development, employment and economic diversification as central priorities.
