After organising a one-month intensive practical training on entrepreneurship for youths in Borno State, Governor Babagana Zulum, yesterday presented N100m to 152 reformed youths who were prominent members of a violent political thuggery group, code-named: ‘ECOMOG’, in Maiduguri.
Zulum made the presentation at the Ramat Polytechnic in the State capital, the venue of the one-month training.
Recall that in response to the Governor’s ban on thuggery at the end of 2019, the 152 youths had renounced their participation in such activities.
Following the governor’s announcement in August 2019, he had directed the enrollment of 2,762 youths into a ‘waste for cash’ sanitation programme, in which the youths cleaned the drainages to earn monthly stipends. Satisfied with the improving conduct of the youths, Gov. Zulum directed the selection of leaders and most prominent persons who were engaged in thuggery since the 90s before renouncing the practices.
As part of a strategy to prevent children from towing the paths of parents, the governor announced that the State Government will shoulder the education of 152 children, one each to be nominated by the 152 repentant political thugs.
The 152 persons were then selected and made to undergo one month of training on business enterprises, fishery, animal rearing and animal fattening. The training was coordinated by the Directorate of Entrepreneurship at the Ramat Polytechnic, where Professor Zulum was an engineering diploma student from 1986 to 1988, and rector from 2011 to 2015.
Declaring the training closed yesterday, Zulum said 16 prominent leaders of the repentant political thugs will each receive N2m, amounting to N32m, while the remaining 136 persons will each receive N500,000 amounting to N68m. The combination made up N100 million.
The Governor said the State government’s support is under the condition that none of them ever returns to political thuggery, while also, they are required to repay half of what they receive, as the State government is waiving 50%.
Zulum charged the youths that it was in their best interest to accord dignity to themselves by being self-reliant rather than return to thuggery; he reminded them to never allow themselves to be used, because, according to him, those who use them do not allow their children to become thugs.
The Governor promised that the State government will continue to support the youths and train more of them, so long as they remain out of thuggery.
Leaders of the youths, speaking in Hausa and Kanuri, said Zulum had proved his genuine love for them by not only setting them up for businesses, but also promising to educate their children.
