Benin Community Abuja said it empowered 65 people with relevant start-up materials worth more than N15 million to be self-employed and eventually become employers of labour.

The empowerment is to mark the 2023 Edo Day in Abuja.

The materials are for skills in cake baking, pastries, tailoring, shoe making, professional make-up, hair making, bead making, aluminium roofing, electrical works, satellite installation, graphic design and Edo language class, among others.

President of BCA, Lucky Odigie, a legal practitioner, disclosed this at the community’s celebration (Iselogbe) with the theme “Making BCA greater for the good of the people.”

Mr Odigie said the event was a time to unite, thank God for the year, strengthen each other, celebrate, pray and to fellowship with friends.

“The unique thing about this year’s celebration is that we have decided to do it differently from the way it has been happening because this association has existed for about 27 years now.

“We decided to present tools of empowerment to members and non-members that we have trained in various areas of skill acquisition to make them entrepreneurs, self-reliant, so they can fend for themselves.

“When I was campaigning to be the president, I came up with a seven-point agenda and the key one is the empowerment of our people which I am very passionate about.

“We tried to get jobs for our people but it was not forthcoming so we decided to improvise in our own little way to train people in various skills,” he said.

Mr Odigie said the foundation bought equipment for the trainees for them to start their lives.

He called on the senators and House of Representatives members representing Edo State to assist the people to get them employed because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

He urged them not to hesitate to help Edo people to secure jobs, to keep youths busy away from social vices.

He also encouraged the NASS members to tailor their constituency projects to address the yearnings of the people, to meet their concrete needs.

He stressed the need for the constituency projects to be infrastructure-based, to develop the state.

A guest of honour, AVM Akugbe Iyamu (retd) commended BCA for the initiative of gathering Edo people together for a progressive course and to rekindle Edo language.

Mr Iyamu said this was necessary because most languages in Nigeria were almost going into extinction, hence a deliberate effort had to be put in place to intentionally pull out the language to be able to bring it to the forefront.

“Imagine speaking your language to your children and after the greeting that’s all; so this gathering is to reborn the Benin language in consciousness and awareness among all the Benin children living here.

“Edo has always been at the forefront from when we were young and we have to bring it to that pride of place, so anybody that is ready to deliver that in the 2024 governorship election is welcomed. This is not the time to look at faces; we have to look at credentials and performance.”

Chief Host of the event, Festus Osaigbovodg, Edo Liaison Office Abuja, stressed the need for Edo people to unite for the progress of the state.

Mr Osaigbovodg said the essence of government was to bring development to its people and Governor Godwin Obaseki had succeeded in doing that.

Mr Osaigbovodg commended BCA for the empowerment, adding that it was a gesture in the right direction and it would complement efforts of the Edo Government in the development of people.

Another special guest of honour and ex-Chairman, House Committee on Nigeria and U.S. Parliamentary Relations, Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, urged Edo people to continue to be their brothers’ keepers and love themselves.

Mr Agbonayinma said Edo people seemed to love themselves more when they were outside the country but did not really love themselves back home in Nigeria.

“I think we should emulate all that we are doing while we live here. We call ourselves brothers and sisters, let’s do that also when we are back home in Edo or in Nigeria, being our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers,’’ he stated.

(NAN)