Top Stories
Ejekaseyi Jobs: Exploring An Unusual Employment Creation Model That Works | By Sayo Aluko
In just six (6) months, a dossier of data detailing the progress of beneficiaries from the “Ejekaseyi” empowerment programme shows that over 50 percent among them now run thriving businesses, making up to ₦60,000 every month. But the most striking part is the fact that these beneficiaries are set to re-empower other unemployed youths in their respective communities.
In the month of December, 2018, 100 unemployed youths across the eight (8) communities of AFIJIO local government in Oyo State were enrolled into this empowerment program that was ran by the 7Eleven Foundation, and the singular aim was to not only give them a source of income, but to start a chain-reaction of job creation in the zone.
The impactful outcome of this empowerment programme as stated above, has caused statewide buzz, such that it is being widely touted as a readied template to be deployed by other facilitators in other zones in the state and across the country.
Buoyed by the need to do things differently and achieve an unusual result, the facilitator of the empowerment programme, one-named Seyi Adisa, a politician who at the time was the All Progressives Congress House of Assembly candidate for Afijio, was quoted saying that the idea of the Ejekaseyi Jobs was birthed from his team’s mantra of running a campaign of substance as against a campaign of merely-mouthed political promises.
He explained, “When you look round Afijio at that time we started, what you’d observe, just like you will in some other parts of the country, is a pool of youths not getting productive with their time and energy mostly because of the lack of opportunities to thrive. We saw a situation of youth unemployment tethered to the lack of opportunities.
“But then, we also noticed that this situation has been persistent despite supposed empowerment programmes that have been brought to these youths. At that point, we were tasked with the question – What could be missing? Why are these pools of youths unproductive and unemployed despite a handful of opportunities they’ve been exposed to by successive empowerment programmes in the past?”
“Well, we discovered three major gaps which were – a lack of financial and business management skills, a lack of mentoring and also a lack of supervision. And, these are the components we decided to add to our style of empowerment, much more like wholesome human capital development”.
“Our team accepted the fact that it will take more than arming these youths with vocational skills to make them gainfully empowered first, and also so well enough to re-empower others. Tasking as it looked, still, it wasn’t rocket science”.
Seyi Adisa’s team partnered with the 7eleven Foundation, a non-profit known for empowering entrepreneurs with life skills right from incubation to activation, to train these 100 selected youths in 5 different crafts namely catering, tie and dye, paint making and painting, shoe-making, and fish and snail farming.
A week-long intensive training of this lot involved masterclass from different professionals who took the beneficiaries through practical layers of financial and business management. Together with the tools given to each of them after this training in form of their take-off support, they have been undergoing continued mentoring and supervision in these 6 months, a process which will go on for another 6 months.
These successes recorded so far with the EJEKASEYI JOBS isn’t unconnected to this unusual process of empowerment detailed above. It is clearly a story of pure desire to get youths off the streets, which then gave birth to a thorough and exemplary solution that seems to last.
In Afijio today, the graduands from that programme are not only gainfully employed, but are indeed creating employment themselves. They are the success stories of this unusual incubation-to-activation style of empowerment.
There is the story of Olabiyi Tolulope and Akano Mary, who are beneficiaries from Ilora town of Afijio Local Government Area, have grown productively with the skill they learnt during the one week intensive vocational training. They both learnt catering and had in the last six months made several moves among which are: supplying snacks to private schools, doing home and office deliveries, as well as rendering catering customized services to grow their business.
The story of Oladejo Veronica is a single mother from Fiditi town is particularly more intriguing. She also learnt the craft of catering and in the last six months, she hasn’t only established a living, she has also been able to scale up the business with the purchase of an additional 6kg Gas cylinder. That’s how successful the knowledge they were impacted with, works. According to her books, she makes an average of N2100 daily profit from the business, from which she’s been able to enroll her child into school, as well as greatly improve her standard of living.
If this data coming from the Afijio 100 is to be believed, beneficiaries who trained in the tie and dye craft are now “busy merchants”, as they are now the go-to people for both day-to-day and ceremonial clothes in the entire Oyo area, at the famous central Iware market, and as far as Ibadan, the state capital.
For Oguntokun Samson, Ojediran Remi and Salisu Ali, they have successfully given “birth”. These trio benefited from the vocational training, learning shoe making, tie and dye, and paint production respectively. In the last six months, Oguntokun, Ojediran and Salisu have been able to court one (1) apprentice each under their wings, channeling the training into them and setting another three (3) erstwhile unemployed individuals on their way to become gainfully empowered too.
Exploring the rave behind these testimonies of Ejekaseyi jobs is just very timely, as it will not be untrue to now admit that, if it works in Afijio and for Afijio youths, it will definitely work anywhere else where there is a lingering situation of unemployment amongst our energetic youths.
Furthermore, it is quite clear that this veritable and mentor-friendly empowerment idea behind Ejekaseyi jobs is steadily proving to be a potent antibiotic against the infection of unemployment, as far as the youth is concerned, and you wouldn’t be wrong if you’re unable to resist the temptation to give deserved kudos to Seyi Adisa and his team.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned popular social media influencer and relationship therapist, Okoro Blessing Nkiruka, widely known as Blessing CEO, before the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, over an alleged N36m fraud linked to a property transaction.
Blessing CEO was docked before Justice Deinde Dipeolu on a two-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence and stealing.
At the resumed proceedings on Thursday, defence counsel, P. I. Nwafor, told the court that the defendant had refunded part of the money allegedly obtained from the complainant.
According to him, the influencer had refunded N24m out of the N36m involved in the matter and was making moves to settle the outstanding balance.
“We have an application to make. The defendant approached the nominal complainant and refunded N24m out of the N36m,” Nwafor said.
“We are asking for a short adjournment to resolve the outstanding balance. The nominal complainant agreed that if the balance is paid, they can prevail on the EFCC to drop the case.”
But prosecuting counsel, Suleiman I. Suleiman, opposed the request, insisting that the anti-graft agency was not part of any settlement discussion between the parties.
“The complainant here is the Federal Government of Nigeria, and we are here for the arraignment. We urge that the defendant take her plea, as that is the business of the day,” he said.
Ruling on the submission, Justice Dipeolu held that any discussion between the defendant and the nominal complainant would not stop the criminal proceedings.
“The defence and the nominal complainant can have discussions even during the pendency of the charge. It does not affect the proceedings before the court. The defendant will take her plea,” the judge ruled.
According to one of the charges, Blessing CEO allegedly obtained N36m from one Mrs Ifeyinwa Nonye Okoye between July 14 and 17, 2024, under the guise of securing for her a six-bedroom detached duplex located at No. 1B, Tunbosun Osobu Street, off Kuboye Road, Lekki, Lagos.
The EFCC alleged that the representation was false and violated Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
The second charge accused the defendant of fraudulently converting the said N36m, property of the complainant, to personal use, contrary to Sections 383 and 390 of the Criminal Code Act.
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Following her plea, the prosecution urged the court to remand her in a correctional facility and fix a date for trial.
However, the defence counsel informed the court that the defendant had only been served with the charges on May 14, 2026, adding that efforts were ongoing to file her bail application.
He thereafter appealed to the court to allow the defendant remain in EFCC custody pending the perfection of her bail conditions.
Justice Dipeolu granted the request and ordered that Blessing CEO be remanded in EFCC custody.
The case was subsequently adjourned till June 5, 2026, for commencement of trial.
Crime & Court
Nursing Mother Bags 20 Years For Terrorism Support, Illegal Possession of 302 Rounds Of AK-47 Ammunition
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday sentenced a woman, Halima Haliru Umar, to 20 years’ imprisonment for unlawful possession of 302 rounds of AK-47 live ammunition and attempting to support acts of terrorism.
Justice Hauwa Yilwa handed down the sentence after the defendant pleaded guilty to two counts in a four-count charge filed against her by the Department of State Services.
The DSS had arrested the convict in Plateau State and subsequently arraigned her before the court on March 11.
The prosecution reviewed the facts relating to counts three and four, to which the defendant pleaded guilty, prompting the court to adjourn for judgment.
Delivering judgment, Justice Yilwa held that the defendant, by pleading guilty, admitted to the facts presented by the prosecution and failed to provide any defence against the allegations.
The defence counsel, Hamza Dantani, had urged the court to temper justice with mercy, describing the convict as a first-time offender who was remorseful.
He further told the court that the defendant is a nursing mother of a one-year-old child who was arrested alongside her.
According to him, the defendant did not waste the time of the court as she admitted to the offences during arraignment.
Counsel for the prosecution, Caliistus Eze, also informed the court that there was no record of previous conviction against the defendant.
Justice Yilwa thereafter sentenced Umar to 20 years’ imprisonment on count three and one year on count four.
The judge adjourned the matter till July 9 for the commencement of trial on counts one and two, to which the defendant pleaded not guilty.
Gunmen on Friday invaded Community High School, Ahoro-Esinele, in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, abducting the school principal and an unspecified number of students during a brazen attack that has thrown the community into panic.
The incident reportedly occurred between 8am and 9am when the attackers stormed the school premises and began shooting sporadically, forcing students and teachers to flee for safety.
Residents told our correspondent that the assailants whisked away the school principal, Mrs Rachael Alamu, alongside several students whose exact number had yet to be confirmed as of the time of filing this report.
A teacher was also reportedly shot during the invasion, although the severity of the injury could not be immediately ascertained.
One of the residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the attackers operated for several minutes without resistance before escaping into a nearby forest reserve.
“The gunmen came heavily armed and invaded the school while activities were ongoing. They abducted the principal and some students. One teacher was shot during the attack.
The entire community is in fear right now,” the source said.
Another resident disclosed that the gunmen fled the scene in the principal’s vehicle and escaped through a forest route linking neighbouring communities.
Parents and residents were said to have stormed the school shortly after the incident amid fears over the safety of the abducted victims.
Some residents blamed the delayed response of security operatives on the absence of a nearby police formation in the area.
“The nearest police station is far from this community. Before security operatives could arrive, the attackers had already escaped into the forest,” another source added.
Confirming the incident, the spokesperson for the Oyo State Police Command, CSP Olayinka Ayanlade, said the command had launched an operation in the area.
Ayanlade, however, noted that the exact number of abducted students had yet to be verified.
“Yes, there was an attack in the area. The Commissioner of Police and tactical teams have moved to the community for on-the-spot assessment and necessary action.
We are still verifying the number of victims involved,” he said.
The latest attack has heightened concerns over insecurity in rural communities across the state, particularly attacks targeting schools and vulnerable residents.
-
Politics3 days ago2027: APC Perfects Consensus Strategy for Oyo
-
Opinion3 days agoWhy Ibadan North youths are rooting for Repete
-
Politics4 days ago2027: Oyo APC Set for Credible Direct Primaries, Says Alake Adeyemo
-
Crime & Court2 days agoUNIBEN killing: Edo security squad arrests 12 suspected cultists, seals initiation centres