Oyo State government has been commended for providing welfare programmes for the less privileged in the State and its resuscitation of correctional centers for juvenile and neglected children.
The State government has recently doubled the feeding allowance of each child in government-controlled juvenile homes as well as those at homes for children for special needs after it evacuated many of the children in these categories across the State and took them to these centers and registered those in school-going age in public schools.
The founder of Boyz Quarters Africa, an organization that catered juveniles in correctional homes and those behind bar, Mr Solomon Ayodele said the State was leading in the care for the category of citizens, an effort which he noted was good for addressing youths restlessness and crime in the society.
Ayodele said this this while speaking during a programme titled “Rising Beyond the Odds of Life,” organized by Boyz Quarters Africa, which held at Juvenile Correctional Institution and Child Care Unit, Ijokodo, Ibadan at the weekend.
“It is noteworthy that Oyo State is taking a leading position in the care for juvenile and neglected children in Nigeria. We have visited most correctional homes in the State and seen the difference, though there is need for improvement, but I should say the State has done much.
“If all societies can create time and space to take back these categories of citizens and give them enough care, we will not hear anything like insurgency again in Nigeria, we cannot throw away the baby with the bath water, we must learn to accommodate the juvenile and those children that have made mistakes in their lives back into the society, if you go to the western world, that is what sets them apart from us, they provide welfare packages for the less privileged and allow those that have gone against the social laws back into the society.”
The State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, Alhaja Faosat Sanni in her address said drastic but necessary steps have been taken within the time the new administration arrived to address the economy and social empowerment of families, eradicate poverty, provide free and compulsory quality education as well as access to good health for children in the State.
Alhaja Sanni affirmed that human needs should be free to access at no cost especially for children, youths and womenfolk who were more vulnerable in the struggle of life.
“During the course of world pursuits, individuals involved knowingly or unknowingly neglect the care and protection of family and the aftermath of it is neglect of the young and youth in our society, with the absence of appropriate and necessary welfare packages, social orders are dysfunctional and children are neglected.
“This more often produces juvenile delinquent acts, the State therefore has to provide a control system to address these issues such as provision of social amenities and other social services such as correctional institutions to minimize effects on the groups.”
She commended Boyz Quaters Africa for supporting the State towards providing the needed attention and care for those categories of the society and called on parents to always give due attention to their children to avoid situations they might regret later in future.
