In the quest to get teenagers off the streets and empower them, Nigeria’s female talking drummer, Aralola Olamuyiwa, recently took her ‘Eko Inspire Me’ initiative to Oshodi, Lagos where she spoke with over 100 street kids.
The initiative, is in conjunction with the Lagos State government.
Ara, as she is popularly called, said empowering the kids will help reduce crime and substance abuse use.
“Government alone cannot do this. Parents also have a lot to do in how they raise their children. We continue to ask, why did these kids choose to run away from home. Look at Lagos, you will see so many homeless children and you begin to ask, how did we get to this level. The situation is getting out of hand. When you talk with some of them, you discover they are not even from Lagos State. We will continue to do our best to ensure these kids get a future.
“When we started this work 11 years ago, we knew it is not something that we can solve within a twinkle of an eye because everyday, every hour, these youths troop into Lagos. It is not a Nigerian issue alone, it is a global issue. Homelessness is a global issue and for every social problem, there is an economic solution.
“What we are trying to do at ‘Eko Inspire Me’ is to support government in eradicating or eliminating if possible or
reducing, the number of homeless youths or street urchins or area boys and girls, as we like to call them. It is heartbreaking for me, a mother, because I see as young as 12 years old among them who came in from outside of the state. It will also shock you to know that approximately 95 per cent of them are not from Lagos.
“They are from Osun, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Anambra, Imo. And they all came into Lagos searching for greener pasture. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu who we are always thankful to for his support has mentioned he does not have the capacity as governor to stop anybody from coming into the state, but I am hoping in the nearest future there might be a policy or constitution that can, at least, address this issue.
“I am also advocating for parents to take care of their kids, wards. Stop having children you cannot take care of. We need to put a system in place that can curb this. We are doing our best but for me, I would be more fulfilled when at the end of the day, I have the ‘Inspire Me Academy’ with a minimum of a 100 bed space. An academy where we would pick these youths off the street; rehabilitate, re-orientate and reintegrate them.”
“Today at Oshodi, we are delving into sports and talents, discovering those who have some level of talents in sports, in music and in dance. From here, they are going to have a tournament for the table tennis. From here, we are moving to the next phase for the table tennis tournament. We will now have a grand finale where the winner is going to take it all,” she said.
The Oshodi event saw Lekan Akeju, Diamond Oluwaseun, Azeez Akinade, Fawaz Tijani, Qudus Quazim and Kehinde Wahab winning the table tennis competition.
The Rap contest winners are Seun Diamond, a 19 years old from Delta State, trained as a cobbler but became homeless due to circumstances beyond his control.
The kids were treated to food, drinks and souvenirs.
