Igarra Skills Acquisition Centre Sensitization Campaign

In 2015, the Edo State Government established the Edo State Skills Acquisition Centre in Igarra, the capital of Akoko-Edo LGA to, among other things, train and develop interested citizens of the area in all kinds of vocation, for free. Even though the Centre has since then trained over 3000 students, the management insist the lack of interest of most of the people of the area should call for concern. Akoko Edo community newspaper editor, Albert Afeso Akanbi, who represented the paper today 2 of July, 2022, when he took the invite to join in a sensitization campaign organized as one of the remedies to this challenge, shares his experience.

He who wishes to secure the good of others, they say, has already secured his own. Today, I had another cause to reflect deeply on these words when, as its editor, I represented Akoko Edo Community newspaper, and joined Mrs. Eunice Obajaja, the director of the Edo State Skills Acquisition Centre, Igarra, and Mr. Philip Kamshere Moses (the interview with Mr. Moses soon after the campaign ended will be published next Sunday), a retired engineer, on a sensitization campaign across Igarra town.

The campaign took the team from the market to Ugbogbo quarters and then to Uffa, and the mission was simple; to call the attention of the indigenes of the town to what is going on at the Centre and advise them to take advantage of its benefits.

Armed with his microphones, a fully ready Sienna bus with megaphones attached atop the roof and some drinking water, we set out.

Mr. Moses is a deeply religious man who, as he himself told me, had turned down many opportunities to relocate to the USA or Canada soon after his retirement from Exxon Mobil in 2016, because he wanted to return home and contribute his quota to the development of his LGA and improve the lives of his people. He told me his motivation is strictly Jesus Christ who he follows.

The Igarra Skill Acquisition Centre was established by the Edo State Government in 2015 with Mrs. Eunice Obajaja serving at its pioneer director. Having been deployed to the run the Centre from the Local Government Secretariat where she is still employed, Mrs. Obajaja has since remained in charge and has since then trained over 3000 students and empowered over 300 of them.

Among some of the graduates of the Centre who have gone on to create a niche for themselves in various fields, I was told, is one Miss Divine from Dagbala community, who studied Catering and another lady from Igarra, who studied Fashion Design, both of whom are doing very well today.

The Centre runs free training in over 6 subjects.

As the bus traversed the town, Mr. Moses and Mrs. Obajaja continued to call on the people of the town to take advantage of the opportunity, stating that there are only two of such Centre in Edo state, one in Benin City and the other in Igarra. I was informed of some elements who wanted the Centre removed from Igarra, but for the dogged fight of people like Mr. Moses who insisted the Centre must remain.

Those who wanted it relocated, cited the disinterest of the people of Igarra as one of the reasons they want it closed.

The departments in the Centre includes;

Hairdressing, Cosmetology and Bead making

Computer and Secretarial Studies

Tile Fixing

Fashion Designing

Catering & Hospitality Management

Traditional Cloth Weaving and more…

If a Centre like this had been established in any town in the west, considering that training was totally free, Mr. Moses said, he was sure the indigenes of that town would flock the place to register. He warned that it was not enough to get only academic education. He said in his own time as a student, the slogan in those days was that “an education without a commensurate skill was not good enough”.

Parents should take advantage of the forthcoming holiday that would last the whole month of August, to register their kids and wards for the upcoming training starting soon at the Centre, Mrs. Obajaja called, her voicing ringing loud over the megaphones.

One of the things I noticed during the campaign across the town however, was that, though a lot of people showed interest as they flocked around the campaign van to make enquires and asked to be given directions and the Centre fliers, there were those who simply showed no interest, with some even shouting the word “scam” as the van drove pass. There were those who thought it was a political campaign, and one fellow who was even rude to us. For such people, Mr. Moses insisted we must show understanding. He said for a people who knew nothing else except many years of failed government ventures, he was not surprised, but advised that the people will do well not to close their eyes to an opportunity like this.

Mrs. Obajaja decried the unwillingness of today’s youth to learn, be it education, trade or skill, preferring rather to swim along with the tide of the various vices that plague many of today’s youths.

When I asked about challenges, she told me that one of the critical challenges was the absence of empowerment for graduates of the Centre. She said that this state of affairs was causing a significant number of people not to show interest.

Lack of funding is another problem and it is hampering our work, she stated. Poor funding will lead to poor performance, and poor performance will lead to disinterest on the part of locals. She appealed to government to show greater concern for post training opportunities especially in the area of helping graduates to get starter kits. This sort of empowerment, she recommended, would go a long way in arousing public interest in the programme.

She specifically called on relevant government functionaries in the Ministry of Women affairs, under which the Centre was created, to give the programme greater attention, citing an example when ministry officials in charge failed to promptly sign the certificate of graduates.

On a final note, Engr. Moses added that even though sponsorship was needed, well-meaning indigenes of the Local Government Area do not necessarily have to wait on government before offering their support, like a generous Igarra son who insisted on remaining anonymous, when he single-handedly fixed solar energy in the Centre building complex.

We rounded off the campaign with prayers and a philosophical poser; in the end, we will all be remembered by what we have done!