Kakuri Bortal Training Institute is one of the Nigerian Prisons Service’s young offenders’ training institutes in Kaduna. BODE OLAGOKE who visited the institute recently, writes on the need for all and sundry to give a supporting hand to the near collapse institution for effective delivery of its constitutional mandate.
Not many Nigerians are aware of a place where teenagers between the age of 16 and 21 years old, who are consider to be juvenile offenders are remand and given both educational and vocational training to make them a better citizens instead of being potential threat to the country.
One of such institutions is Kakuri Borstal Training Institution, located in Kaduna state. Other two of such are in Ilorin in the North-central and Abeokuta in the South.
For Borstal Training Institute Kaduna, it was established by Borstal institutions and remand center Act of 1960 but came into existence in 1962 for delinquents (males) who are beyond parental control or in conflict with the law but mentally stable.
These juvenile offenders are admitted into Borstal institution for period of three years training by presentation by their parent or guardians, or be brought into the institution directly by the court.
The main purpose of the three years training for the juvenile offenders is modification of social behaviour through guardian and counseling, assessment of circumstances leading to delinquent behaviour, vocational training, academic training, medical services, chaplaincy services, preventive health services among others.
During the reformation period the inmates are not allowed to receive sensitive information such as death of family member, riot in their towns as so on.
For 54 years now, the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) have been carrying out this service to the nation and the agency has successively turned around thousands of inmates who would have criminally terrorised the society.
To continue effective services to Nigeria and Nigerians, Borstal Training Institution is in dear need of attention like never before.
When Blueprint visited the school recently, not only that physical infrastructures are not in place, all the ten training departments are also crying for learning materials.
The academic programmes consist of science and social science courses, and the institution also participates in the JSSCE, SSCE, JAMB and NECO examinations.
Under the vocational programmes the school has tailoring/dress making, brick-laying/masonry, construction, electrical installation, welding and fabrication, carpentry and joinery, photography/video coverage, plumbing/ pipe-fitting, painting/sign writing and air-conditioning/refrigeration.
However, some of these programmes are not meeting up to expectation because of inadequate equipment, facilities and dilapidated infrastructure.
Speaking on the challenges confronting the institution, the Controller of Prison and Principal of the institution, Dr. Dora Ofobrukweta, said: “the major challenge is to have adequate and modern equipment to bring up the children.
She believed that this group of people when well brought up will reduce the risk of national security challenge in Nigeria.
When asked on the responses from private individuals and organisations, Dr. Ofobrukweta, appealed to both international and local organisations to come and partner with the institution, “whether in term of training, infrastructures or finance, we will appreciate.
“Another challenge is that we don’t have professional teachers, some of our teachers now are staff of the Nigerian Prisons converted into teaching and they are not being paid specially apart from their normal salaries.”
The principal called on the government, private corporations- local and foreign-as well as well- meaning Nigerians to partner with the service in achieving its objectives.
‘’If we do not correct them and at the same time providing them with alternative means of earning comfortable and viable living after their formal education, we run the risk of having them fall back to criminality.
‘’Therefore, for the NPS to meet its objectives, all hands must be on deck as government cannot do it alone”, she said.
Also speaking, spokesman of the NPS, Enoboro Francis, who took Blueprint round the institution said “the focus is to give the students the necessary skills that will enable them to contributes their quotas to the development of the nation at large, and make them a better Nigerians.”
For the well to do individual Nigerians and corporate entities based in the country and oversea will not, however, be doing bad if they all contribute immensely to the materials and capacity building of Borstal institution because the everyone can only do business successfully in an environment where peace is the order of the day.
