There are no area boys in Sokoto – Commissioner

One of the greatest achievements we can talk of is the skills acquisition programmes. It is a programme for the empowerment of the youth. It is one of the greatest achievements in the state. The skill acquisition programme is newly introduced in ministry for Social Welfare and Culture. Whatever your situation, we have some place […]

One of the greatest achievements we can talk of is the skills acquisition programmes. It is a programme for the empowerment of the youth. It is one of the greatest achievements in the state.

The skill acquisition programme is newly introduced in ministry for Social Welfare and Culture. Whatever your situation, we have some place for you. We teach you, stimulate you, get you something doing. The aim of this programme is to get our teeming youths who are mostly idle in our towns and villages gainfully  employed, become self-reliant and be useful to themselves and the society in general.

There are the State Government Skills Acquisition Programme and Local Government Skills Association Programme. The state government skills acquisition programme also has divisions—one is the In-House and the other Attachment. The In-House programme is a school near Kangiwa Square where all our teeming youths of different trades come together to be taught the skills.

The Attachment Programme is one where the youth are attached to mechanic, automobile, vulcanizing, home economic workshops.

The Local Government Skills Acquisition Programme is aimed at making our youths gainfully employed. The sum of N5,000 was earmarked as allowance for all the unemployed youths. Since the inception of this programme, 10,000 unemployed youths are gainfully employed.

We have about 42 trades in the skills programme in Sokoto State.

How much was earmarked for the skills acquisition programme?

The sum of N32million was approved by the Sokoto State Government for purchase equipment for these trades. The equipment include generators, vulcanizing equipment, knitting machines, tailoring machines, computers etc.

The sum of N11million was approved for purchase three vehicles and 40 motorcycles for the monitoring and inspection of this programme.

It was observed that some of the youths involved in the skills acquisition programme do not attend training classes but only receive the allowances.

The payment of allowance to unemployed youths is not automatic. I mean it is not a must to pay all of them. Only those who attended classes for 25 working days in the month are entitled to the money.

Actually, 15,000 youths were   supposed to have graduated but some of them could not attain the minimum qualification. There is no problem if you are targeting 15,000 and you get 10, 000, it is very successful.

Some people refer to the Neighbourhood Initiative Programme of the present administration as “thugs in uniform”.

The Neighbourhood Initiative Programme is one of the programmes meant to let the teeming youths be gainfully employed. It is a three-week programme where 50 unemployed youths drawn from each local government area in the state making a total of 1,058 except the two metropolitan local governments in the state that is Sokoto South-south, Sokoto North which include 125 making the total of 1,300.

When we bring this teeming youths together, the issue of calling them political thugs or area boys, does not arise because different skills are introduced to them such as fire fighting, guidance and counselling, security matters and other things.

At the end of the three weeks, these unemployed youths become gainfully employed. We send them back to their respectful local government areas and they work in motor parks, hospitals etc. Up till now, we have never ever received any complaint about their wrongdoings.

We pay N10,000 monthly to those involved in the Neighborhood Initiative Programme. They are 1,300 and  each gets N10,000 irrespective of their educational background.

Many have decried the menace of Area Boys in Sokoto which is noted for peace.

There are no area boys in Sokoto State. But we have unemployed youths who are now trying to be gainfully employed.