Presidency links vocational training to security drive against crime
- Two presidential aides met in Abuja to plan closer work between skills training and homeland security.
- The plan aims to give poor, jobless youths alternatives to recruitment by criminal groups.
- No budget, start date or number of beneficiaries was announced at the meeting.
The Presidency is pushing vocational training and small-business support as part of its answer to insecurity, arguing that jobless young people are easier for criminal groups to recruit.
The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education, Dr Abiola Arogundade, met the Special Adviser to the President on Homeland Security, Maj.-Gen. Adeyinka Famadewa (retd), to discuss how their offices can work together.
The two offices are looking at pairing practical skills and business training with the government's security work, so that young people with few options have a way to earn a living.
According to a statement issued after the meeting, Arogundade said the partnership is meant to help Nigerians gain skills and find lasting ways to support themselves. She said the aim is to draw vulnerable people away from crime and build a safer society.
Famadewa, for his part, stressed the need for a holistic approach that tackles the poverty and exclusion behind insecurity, and for non-kinetic measures to sit alongside conventional security operations. His office also focuses on intelligence and surveillance, border security, identifying threats and crisis-reporting protocols.
Why it matters to young Nigerians
The proposal speaks directly to a problem many families know: young people with no job and no capital are easy targets for bandits and other criminal networks.
Punch, citing a 2024 analysis by the IPI Global Observatory, reported that five of Nigeria's 10 poorest states are in the North-West, and that bandits have offered some unemployed youths ₦5,000 to join them.
The government already has a programme in this area. The Safe Nigeria Initiative was launched on February 3 at the National Counter Terrorism Centre in the Office of the National Security Adviser. It is meant to reach at least 11,000 vulnerable youths across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory with vocational skills, livelihood support and civic education.
Famadewa was appointed to his role on May 11, 2026. He was previously Principal General Staff Officer to the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, from 2015 to 2021, where he led the setting up of the Intelligence Fusion Centre.
What happens next
The aides agreed to work together, but Wednesday's meeting did not produce a budget, a start date or a figure for how many people the expanded training will cover.
For now, the plan is a promise of cooperation between two offices. Nigerians will be watching to see whether it turns into actual training places, tools and start-up support in communities where joblessness is highest.
