23rd May, 2017
The Federal Government says it will train the Civilian JTF in various vocational skills and empower them to become self-reliant.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, made this known while speaking after a tour of the North East Zone Skills Upgrading Training Centre in Bauchi on Tuesday.
Ngige stated that the empowerment of the JTF members is with a view to compensating them for the role they played in fighting insurgency in the North East.
“The ministry of Defence and Chief of Defence Staff are all worried about how we can rehabilitate and equip those guys in the Civilian JTF that has helped the government to fight the Boko Haram insurgency.
“Most of them are going to be sent to the skills centre, and after their training they will be empowered to make and practice whatever trade they have learnt.
“We have captured this in the 2017 budget.
“The National Social Investment Programme of the Federal Government has identified N-skills, N-Build as part of the N-Power involvement of the government.’’
He said discussions “on what we are going to do with the civilian JTF members’’ were ongoing at a high level.
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He said, “these are people who have fought to keep Boko Haram at bay.
“So government wants to compensate them, and that is why this centre has been designated to train them to acquire skills.’’
The minister added that the centre would serve as a “bridge’’ for JTF members pending the establishment of a centre for them in Maiduguri by the ministry.
“Government recognises this place as a very strategic centre – a part of our defence apparatus for the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air force,’’ Ngige said.
According to him, Gov Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi has promised to make the centre more functional when the JTF members begin the training programme.