Unable to withstand the ravaging pangs of hunger, which has become terror to many homes owing to the frightening unemployment in the country, the general run of female youths now ekes out daily living on Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos and other suchlike flourishing “markets” of prostitution.
Willy-nilly, their male counterparts – especially those that do not see a sense of pride in menial jobs like truck pushing – secure jobs for their idle hands in the underworld, though at their risk. Not a few among them embrace touting and hooliganism, just to keep body and soul intact, despite the inherent risks.
However, about 1,000 of such deprived youths have now keyed into an ongoing effort by Senator Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon of Lagos West Senatorial District to change their story through an intensive two-week training on various vocations aimed at making them economically self-reliant.
The flag-off of the training was held same day at two different locations – the Senator’s Olateju, Mushin Constituency Office and Ojo. The training which began on February 17 will be rounded off on February 28.
Besides Solomon, present at the kick-off included officials of the Ministry of Youths, Sports and Culture, which co-sponsors the project with the Senator; a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Alhaji Kola Oseni; Chairman, Odi-Olowo/Ojuwoye Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Aremo Adeyemi Ali and his counterpart in Mushin Local Government, Hon. Babatunde Adepitan. Ali was said to have represented his colleagues in the district.
An excited large crowd comprising the youth and APC supporters, especially women, welcomed Solomon and his entourage into the venue with various heart-warming songs. They commended the Senator’s philanthropy to high heavens.
Members and beneficiaries of the Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon Foundation, which was inaug-urated by him over a decade ago to cater for the needy, were a cynosure of eyes in branded green T-Shirts, singing the praise of the lawmaker whom they roundly adjudged a “rare giver.”
Through the programme, which is being handled by Stable Technology Limited, a consulting firm, the youth are being trained in tailoring, knitting, beads & wire works, dish installation, cake-baking and decorations, among others. The lucky beneficiaries were said to have applied through the internet, thus ensuring equitable selection.
Oseni, who described Solomon as his very good son and a true representative of his people and constituency, urged the benef-iciaries of the training to make good use of the opportunity to prepare good future for themselves.
Ali, who echoed his view, added that the programme “is in furtherance of the anti-poverty programmes of the APC,” adding: “What we are doing here today will further convince you all that APC is truly a people’s party which people must be loyal to in their best interest.”
Declaring the training open, Solomon said: “Apart from the fact that it is my life to share in the plight of the less-privileged, this training is a response to the worrisome fallouts of rising unemployment in our country. After the training, the beneficiaries will have the opportunity not only to be self-employed but be employers of labour. When a youth is jobless, he is frustrated and if the frustration is not promptly attended to, it easily leads to aggression and eventually, criminal tendencies that will suffocate the society as we have now.”
“We will be strict on attendance and discipline and we won’t condone unruly behaviour. Inspectors will be available to monitor the programme and there will be a feedback mechanism to ensure that the effort yield the desired fruits for the beneficiaries and the society at large,” he added.
Within minutes after the brief flag-off ceremony, the enthusiastic trainees, armed with appropriate learning facilities, got seated in their various classes, listening to introductory instructions from their instructors. Solomon and his guests later inspected the classes, one after the other, with words of advice and encouragement for the trainees.
A trainee in the disk installation class, Kamorudeen Animashaun, praised Solomon for the gesture, saying: “He is giving us our future by teaching us how to fish without collecting a kobo from us. Other leaders of ours in this country should emulate him.”
An instructor in the cake-baking and decoration class, Mrs Funke Awofolaju, enjoined her students to be serious, adding that after the training, there would be a competition before their eventual graduation.
It was praises galore for the Senator at Ojo, when he kicked-off the same exercise. An elder, Pa Bade Odetunde heaped prayers on the senator even as he urged government at all levels to draw a cue from the gesture as a way of fighting crimes in the land.
When The Nation visited the Mushin centre last week, the trainees paid rapt attention to their respective trainings as some others were working with their tools under close watch by some inspectors. For them, it was about time to say final “bye” to idleness.
