‘There should be no prison congestion’

The motivation came from the rate at which I see youths going into crime. A few years ago, I was running a pharmacy in Gwagwa. While there, I had the opportunity to come face-to-face with the plight of many downtrodden Nigerians. While running that pharmacy, I discovered that I was doing more charity than making […]

The motivation came from the rate at which I see youths going into crime. A few years ago, I was running a pharmacy in Gwagwa. While there, I had the opportunity to come face-to-face with the plight of many downtrodden Nigerians.

While running that pharmacy, I discovered that I was doing more charity than making money; because most people who live in that area really struggle to make ends meet and could hardly afford basic medical care. When they come lamenting their situation, I end giving them medication for free as well as money to go and eat; it happened over and over again. So one day, I sat back and began thinking why many people live in such a way; meanwhile some are so rich.

I found it devastating and decided that it was not enough to sit and complain but to make a positive move and make a difference. For me, it is not enough to live, but you have to exist. And in existing, you have to make a difference and leave your foot prints on the sands of time.

How successful have you been in realising that vision?

So far, it has been well. We have been able to go through about three programs since last year. We started with a re-orientation program in secondary schools. Students were sensitized on the need for uprightness and the need to shun corruption being the leaders of tomorrow and the need to grow up with the right attitude.

It is a no-go-area to try and fight corruption from the top, which is why we decided to start with the roots, the young ones. I believe this will carry us some where in the near future. We want them to grow up with the attitude of sacrifice rather than personal interest.

We also empower them through skills acquisition where they were thought how to make soaps, detergent, shampoo, beads and many other things, so that later on in their lives, they can have something to fall back on without having to go into crime.

In what other ways are you helping youths?

I am very passionate about youths being in prison and especially those who are there forever on awaiting trial or being unable to pay the fine option and ending up behind bars. If you have visited the prisons, you will understand what I mean.

I meet hundreds of youths wallowing there. Children as young as 14 years have been left there and some have spent more time awaiting trial than they would have if they had been tried and convicted. This is so because the justice system has failed them, and this moves me to tears.

Knowing fully well that if these children are out of prison and rehabilitated, they can be reintegrated into to society. It will be the better for them and Nigeria as a whole. I take it upon myself to pay for their bail and for fines for those who have been given this option. For others who can’t afford lawyers, I assist with lawyers. There is no need for the prisons to be congested.

I found out that while they are there they pick up more negative habits. Some go in for minor offences but come out more hardened and a lot worse than they were before going in. Prisons are supposed to be correctional centres.

The country has gained nothing because it seems these children are sent to prison to unleash terrors back into society. This is what I am trying to stop. So when they are released, I get counsellors to talk to them so that they get the inner healing that they need to move on. After this, we ask them what they want to do. Some prefer to trade, others feel embarrassed and want to learn a trade. We help put them through their choices while emphasising the fact that crime is not the way out or blame the system for what they have gone through. We also let them know that they have a choice to make or mar their lives and it is better for them to amend their ways so that they can be valuable to themselves and the society.

Do you have situations whereby some of these youths resist to change?

Oh yes, we do. What we do is keep at it trying to counsel and re-orient their minds. We believe that there is a soft side to everybody and we make an effort to reach that side. These children were not born hardened. Situations made them so and they can get back to the unique human beings God created them as. We try to find out where things went wrong and deal with those issues. As time goes by, we find that they begin to soften and open up. It is not an event but a process and we go with them through it all.

Most of them pride does not allow them to humble themselves to do petty trading so we try to accommodate them to the best of our ability.

We also do something for the grassroots where go to villages where the youths there have no opportunity to go to school. We teach them and empower them to be self reliant. We try to discourage them from coming into the city and not to be restive but to improve their environment. At the end of the day, crime will not be to them an option for survival.

Do you have fulfillment going from pharmacy to what you are doing now?

Yes, I have, even though it is almost the same thing I was doing then but on a different plain. The passion for this came from my mother when she passed on. I tried to immortalize her humanitarian values which she passed on to us. She thought me that life was all about making somebody happy and living for others.

I am looking up to the authorities to play their roles fully. I am not asking them to partner with me. If any of them would so their own bit and do it effectively, a lot of these crisis we have will not exist at all.

Do you follow up on the progress of these children?

Yes we do. We don’t joke with that at all. They are part of our sensitisation efforts and speak to other children as they swerve as life testimonies of what positive change can do to one’s life.