The Emeritus Bishop of Ekiti Catholic Diocese, Bishop Michael Fagun has identified the increasing unemployment rate among youths as the source of major crimes across the country.
The cleric, who noted that stakeholders must join efforts at addressing the ugly trend for the society to experience peace, harped on the need for skill-acquisition for more Nigerians to be self-employed rather than waiting for the non-existent white-collar jobs.
Bishop Fagun spoke during the commissioning of a Skill Acquisition Workshop building donated to the Nigeria Correctional Service, Ekiti Custodial Centre, by his foundation in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.
He noted that the project was conceived by his foundation in a bid to ensure that inmates, after serving their terms and returning to the society, have something doing rather than engage in crimes and other social vices.
According to him, “It was in the process of Correctional Centre visitation that the project of empowering inmates was conceived; that they be enabled to be useful to themselves and to their society through this Workshop Centre being commissioned now.
“This is being done as an example for others to help the helpless in our society. Despite our material poverty we are moved by Christian charity to help others live decently. We hereby appeal to the privileged in the society to help others have the means of living decently.
“Lack of employment builds crime in the society, and one needs to be trained in some skills to be employable. This is exactly what we are about here. With no meaningful productivity, a people cannot develop. It should be noted that buying and selling, the overwhelming business of Nigerians, doesn’t qualify for productivity.
“We pray that our citizens be enabled towards productivity, to live decently and promote the development of our country.”
Responding, the Controller of Corrections, Ekiti command, Mr Joseph Ojo, commended the Bishop Michael Fagun Foundation for the gesture, the first of its kind towards rehabilitating and reforming the inmates for the development of the society.
While expressing optimism that the skills acquisition centre would in no small measure boost the capacity of the inmates when returning to the society, he said, “the foundation has made the dream of several years a reality at the correctional centre.Most youths are not gainfully employed and these has led most of Nigerian youths into crime.
“This edifice donated by the foundation will be effectively used in the reformation and rehabilitation of inmates in both formal and informal education which will make them useful to themselves during the period of incarceration and to the larger society after their discharge from the custodian centre,” he said.
Ojo advised other stakeholders in the society to emulate the bishop’s foundation in collaborating with the correctional center in building a sane and safe society.
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