…Site Aba leatherworks at Correctional Centre as secret seed that may soon bear big fruits
Some youth groups in the Niger Delta have pointed at what they consider a silent revolution or ‘civilian revolution’ going on in Nigeria for good.
Some of those who pointed this out said the ‘civilian revolution’ is brewing at the Ministry of Interior’. They are already claiming the good outcome as evidence of what young leaders can do if given opportunity and backing to try their innovative minds.
Some of the youths commending the Minister of Interior said they owed no tribal nor religious bias to their opinion. The young people cut across political loyalties as they claimed they are ready to applaud good anywhere they saw it. The Niger Delta Rights Agenda (NDRA) is one of the groups making the observation and calling on all eyes to look at the Minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo (PhD).
Another group of young politicians is led by Darlington Nwauju, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.
The groups drew attention to what they termed policy initiatives and programmes going on at the Federal Ministry of Interior as a revolution.
Nwauju said in a statement in Port Harcourt that the programmes and policies serially churned out from the Ministry of Interior under Tunji-Ojo appeared awesome.
At different forums and platforms, he had declared that Nigerians must place their microscope on the happenings at that Ministry, and to dispassionately compare the key performance indices set by the Ministry and the visible or tangible score card.
Nwauju said the majority opinion of several analysts remains that Tunji-Ojo and the Ministry of Interior remain the silver lining in the current administration. He said they both are therefore a positive reference point for service delivery, planning, excellence, team work and frugality.
He stated: “This was one Ministry in Nigeria once seen as “Ministry for Holiday Affairs” under past administrations, but a young patriotic and selfless Nigerian stepped into the same dead Ministry and has turned it into the envy of both diaspora Nigerians and those at home.”
Nwauju mentioned some of the revolutionary steps of the Ministry of Interior as the promotion of over 50,000 paramilitary officers across the agencies under that Ministry; rehabilitation of some correctional centres; remodeling of fire service academy; launch of contactless biometric passports; deployment of over 40 eGates across Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Enugu and Port Harcourt international airports; establishment of Command-and-Control Centre; launch of safe school initiative; enhanced e-passport facilities, etcetera.
He said the recent launch of the eGates by President Tinubu which is one of the achievements of the Interior Ministry, is a glimpse of reassurance for safer borders and improved internal security.
He went on: “Unarguably, the Interior Ministry under Dr Tunji-Ojo has set very high standards of performance for all public office holders in Nigeria today and clearly, his appointment by Mr President oxygenates debates for recruitment of more youths to handle sensitive positions.”
On the ‘Aba Miracle’, the NDRA which had applauded the Minister of Interior for the project in Aba and some other cities insisted it did well, going by further evidence.
The group has welcomed the opening of a Garment & Shoe Factory in Abia State, saying Abia is one of the nine Niger Delta states.
In a statement, Bright Ngolo, chairman, NDRA, said the successful launching of this project lifted the hearts of the youths in that state and by extension the Niger Delta region.
Ngolo said the singular project would trigger the local and national economies, cutting down/saving the nation hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money that would have been expended on kitting our officers/men of the correctional services. “The buzz that this will trigger for allied industries can only be imagined.
With the launch of the brand-new Garment & Shoe Factory at Aba in Abia State by the NCoS, through a groundbreaking initiative carried out in partnership with Erojim Nig Ltd, decades of fetters around genuine empowerment and reformation of inmates who have to go through our correctional centres and providing them with the skills they need to start afresh and rebuild psycho-socially and psychologically has been birthed, he stated.
Interestingly, he added, this heartwarming achievement is coming on the heels of the opening of a class-act furniture showroom in Borno State by the NCoS.
“NDRA restates our previous call on the Federal Government of Nigeria and the National Assembly to as a matter of urgent public interest, further oxygenate the silent revolution taking place with custodial centres by increasing budgetary allocations to the NCoS and indeed Interior Ministry. We in the NDRA believe the best way to get even better results out of a performing Ministry or agency is by paying such a Ministry more attention. We therefore reiterate our earlier call that Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo and his team be seriously encouraged to completely rebuild and transform our decayed custodial centres owing to several years of criminal neglect.
“For us in the NDRA, this initiative is a testament to the fact that Government and its agencies can actually serve as vehicles for transformation of lives of our citizens. This factory and the furniture factory at Borno State, will offer inmates top-tier vocational training, giving them valuable tools to earn a living both inside and outside the correctional facilities.
“We end by saying that one strategy that the current Federal Government must adopt to dissuade increasing vices amongst our vast youth population, is by multiplying the shape and size of vocational skills acquisition and trainings. This will help shut the gates of our custodial centres to the youth and cut down drastically on the number of inmates within the 240 custodial centres across the nation.”
Other groups have started paying attention to the many initiatives coming out of the Ministry of Interior, a place where most persons hardly heard anything encouraging in years gone by.
These reasons must be why the louded support for the retaining of Tunji-Ojo as minister during the cabinet reshuffle came from the Niger Delta.
Read also: Tunji-Ojo rallies interior ministry staff on support for retirees
Nwauju was one of those who welcomed the restructuring of cabinet by President Tinubu and believed it was long overdue. He had also hailed the retaining of the Minister of Interior, (Tunji-Ojo).
Now, he still stands on his belief that Tunji-Ojo is godsend.
Comrade Nwauju had joined his voice with other notable civil society groups and party leaders to demand a rejigging of the cabinet including demanding for the merger of the Ministry of Police Affairs with the Ministry of Interior in consonance with the Steve Orasanye report on restructuring of Government parastatals and agencies to cut government expenses and make for greater efficiency and productivity.
Now, he says, “For most of us who have been advocating for a generational shift in governance, Tunji-Ojo remains a shining example of how my generation can bring a touch of brilliance and multi-pronged approach to solving the perennial challenge of poor service delivery in our public service and we are impressed with the fact that Mr President listened to the overwhelming opinion of Nigerians on the retention of Tunji-Ojo as Interior Minister based on the transformative leadership and the cocktail of achievements recorded by that Ministry under his watch.
For example, Nwauju declared, “The correctional centres across the country have recorded significant improvement in both aesthetics and inmate wellbeing which is a paradigm shift from punitive to holistic rehabilitation. Response to challenges around these custodial centres have received prompt, definite, and wholehearted attention.”
In August of 2024, he went on, a 50% increase in daily feeding allowance per inmate across the 254 correctional centres nationwide was achieved plus orchestrating the clearance of fines and compensations worth N585million for 4,068 inmates. He said these were strong evidences in the push to reform the criminal justice system.
“With strong commitments to partnerships entered into by his Ministry through the Nigeria Correctional Services, an ultra-modern furniture factory was completed at Borno State, while a garments and shoes factory has been completed at Abia State.
“The Interior Ministry has also ended years of stagnation in the paramilitary services under its supervision by ensuring the promotion of over 60,000 senior and junior officers across the Immigration, Civil Defence, and Immigration services. Also, a functional Pensions Board has been established aligning paramilitary salaries with those of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).”
Nwauju also noted that under the supervision of the Minister of Interior, a backlog of 204,333 passports at the Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS) was cleared off the desk, completion of state-of-the-art Data Center and Command and Control Center at the NIS headquarters for ease of visa/passport application; and installation of E-gates at several airports across the country has been achieved.
And when there was an infraction in the Correctional Centre system few months ago, the voices that defended the minister and encouraged the actions he took came also from the Niger Delta. They even demanded for increased funding for NCoS, Ministry in the 2025 budget.
The scandals rather attracted commendation to the Minister of Interior from the unlikely quarters faraway in the oil region.
The NDRA commended the Federal Government for launching into the alleged corruption and gross violations of standard operating procedures within the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS).
A statement signed by Ngolo (Chairman) and Chuks Alozie (Head of Research) said it viewed the swift responses from the Government through the Minister of Interior as testament to diligence and efficiency that a visionary and energetic Minister of government can bring to oxygenate the business of government in the country which Nigerians have been yearning for.
“We recall the September 1st 2024 response by the same Ministry to the public concerns over the feeding condition of inmates at the Afokang custodial centre in Cross Rivers State and the 50% approved increase for inmates feeding allowance across the 240 custodial centres nationwide.
“We demand that the issues of overcrowding of these custodial centres and lack of medical facilities/recreational centres should be prioritized by the Federal Government and the National Assembly in the 2025 Budget by ensuring that budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Interior should be significantly increased to solve this national challenge with the aim of implementing the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the United Nations in 2015.”
The NDRA, however, commended the effort of the Ministry of Interior and its partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which they said had made it possible for vocational centers in custodial centers across Nigeria starting with Borno State, to be adorned with skillfully designed furniture which can empower inmates with tools for employment, reduce reoffending and aid their successful reintegration into society.
“This partnership of the Ministry with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Government of Germany and the US Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), is the first of its kind in Nigeria and we demand for more partnerships with NGOs to make our custodial centres inhabitable.”
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