Former Defence Minister Danjuma Donates N500m To Youth Training Centre

T.Y. Danjuma
T.Y. Danjuma

General T.Y. Danjuma, has announced a donation of N500m for the completion of the Abeokuta Youth Centre for Industrial Training, an outreach of the Peter Akinola Foundation.

The generous donation of the former minister of defence doubles the total amount requested by the Founder, Rev. Jasper Peter Akinola, who had earlier indicated in his address that about N250m was required to complete the centre.

Akinola
Akinola

Lamenting the spate of youth unemployment in the country while speaking at the second graduation ceremony of the centre, Danjuma said the first installment of N200m would be made available on 1 October,2013 to commemorate the Nation’s 53rd independence anniversary, an announcement greeted with a thunderous ovation.

He said N100m each would be paid annually.

“Next to insecurity today in Nigeria, is youth unemployment. We have to do everything possible to reduce the situation. Last year, when I came here, Rev. Akinola brought me from the old centre to this new site, and he told me that the next graduation will hold here. So, when he reminded me of this programme yesterday, I was wondering how
this place will look.

“But, I am very happy about what I have seen here. I should not be surprised anyway, because when Rev. Akinola was the Anglican Primate, the movement of the Anglican Church headquarters was done with passion and commitment. And that is what I have found here,” Danjuma said.

“We have to give him the support. And I am going to make this donation. Listen carefully, I am donating for this Centre N500m. The first installment will be made on October 1st, to celebrate our independence and it is going to be N200m”.

Represented at the event by the Secretary to the State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State in his remark said, the government would do everything possible to support the centre, describing the gesture of the former Chief of Defence Staff as a “big challenge”.

He said Akinola’s project “keys into the mission of the present administration to rebuild the state”.

In his keynote address, the Bishop of Anglican church, Asaba, Rev. Justus Emeka Mogekwu said the unemployment situation among the young men and women is poisoning their minds against the society.

Mogekwu said the centre had five aims, which include, “to enable the huge population of out-of-school adolescents and teenagers to acquire effective skill and to spread evangelism among others.