Council donates materials to Immigration

Our Reporter

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Ikeja has received chairs and air conditioners from the Ikeja Local Government.

The donation coincided with the council’s poverty alleviation programme held at the secretariat, Ikeja for over 250 people.

The council Chairman, Dr Mojeed Balogun said the donation to NIS was to reduce the burden of crowd that thronged the place for collection of passports.

“When you go to passport office, you find out that people loiter around. We met the management on the way out and they requested for office chairs and air conditioners. We feel we need to assist them as their host and due to the service they render to the public,” Balogun said.

The poverty alleviation programme, he said, was to stimulate the economy of the area.

“The impact is going to boost the economy of our council. We are making them self-reliant. Some of them will employ some people to manage their businesses and that will in turn reduce the number of unemployed in the area,” he said.

Wife of the Chairman, Mrs Abigael Balogun, said the empowerment was timely and critical going by the rate of poverty in the country.

“The administration is committed to poverty eradication, economic empowerment and job creation for our people. We recognise the fact that teaching a man how to fish is more rewarding than giving him fish. This is because when he finishes the fish, he becomes hungry and the hunger could lead to a devastating circumstance in his life, but when we teach him how to fish, he eats and feed others,” she said.

According to her, “when the youth are gainfully employed, when the head of the family is able to put food on the table and the woman at home was able to support the head of the family, the high rate of crime in the society will be reduced. The essence of this continuous poverty elevation is to establish our people in whatever capacity we can do, so that they can grow their own businesses and become self-sufficient.”

The Council Manager, Mrs Mosunmola Otaiku-Okoka, advised the beneficiaries to make good use of the materials.

“We gave them what they requested for. So, we are expecting them to use the materials to increase their wealth and create wealth for others,” she said.