The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurial Education, Abiola Arogundade, has described the current administration as determined to reduce crime rate in the country through enduring schemes that will empower first-time offenders and integrate them into the society.
He said such will also forestall recruitment of promising young men as foot soldiers of insurgents and bandits.
Arogundade made the declaration on Wednesday while speaking with journalists in Abuja.
He revealed that several inmates have since been trained at Kuje Correctional Centers chosen for the pilot scheme in vocational training in sewing and hair dressing.
She further disclosed that the scheme would be replicated in other Correctional Centers across the country.
She said: “We’ve also started training in the correctional centres. We launched the scheme in Kuje. We took a few members from my office to the correctional centre to do an audit of the needs of the inmates. I’m happy to announce that we started conducting the assessment and auditing of the trainees. If you look at this document that I passed, it says breaking barriers. It tells everything about what we’ve done there.
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“And I am happy to announce that every single person that we train there is also going to be certified. They will not be left behind. It’s the same curriculum that we have and we are partnering with global bodies to make sure that any skill you acquire in Nigeria is going to be recognised worldwide and we are happy to also announce that we have secured it for every single person in training. At the end of their prison term and our training, we give you N500,000 to set up your business so you don’t become a second-time offender at a correctional centre. This scheme is ongoing.
“So after Kuje Correctional Centre, we are moving to Suleja. We are going to try and duplicate this intervention in all our correctional centres across the country. “
The President’s aide also told journalists that her office is partnering with the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) on skill acquisition for youths who could be at the mercy of terror gangs across the country.
“We are also working with the Office of the NSA, what they are trying to do is counter-terrorism and the way they want to do that is through skill. So we are working with them on skills and to train people to make sure that they don’t become terrorists. If they already are, bring them out as a sort of income.”