Covenant University’s Corporate Social Responsibility acts of alleviating the plight of others came to the fore again as she extended her hands of love to the inmates of the Kirikiri Prisons, Lagos, by donating a large volume Soap-Making Equipment, for the training of the prison inmates in the art of soap making.

The 1,500-litre capacity equipment can deliver liquid soaps of high quality as long as the required ingredients are well mixed and poured inside the machinery, and it was a great delight to watch as the inmates happily participated in the process of preparing the soap-making ingredients during the commissioning of the programme.

While receiving the representatives of Covenant University, comprising of Professor Abiodun Gesinde, a senior faculty of the Department of Psychology and Professor Olaleke Ogunaike, the Director, Centre for Entrepreneurial Development Studies, accompanied by some members of the Prison Fellowship of Nigeria, which included the Executive Secretary, Barrister Benson Iwuagwu and other members the Onesimus group, led by Mr N.C Anukwa, the Director of the Correctional Centre, who spoke in glowing terms of Covenant University and her ever timely interventions of support for the correctional centre.  

Speaking further, Mr. Anukwa enthused that Covenant University’s humane gesture is in sync with his own belief that the work of prison is primarily not for the punishment of prisoners, but rather, a place that is meant to be a rehabilitation centre, aimed at transforming the lives of the inmates so that by the time they depart from the prison yard, they would have been renewed into worthier citizens of the country instead of going back to their former lives of crimes

He also stated that through his intervention whilst he was heading the Onitsha prisons, he was able to get a primary and secondary school established on the premises as well as a full-fledged vocation centre, with state-of-the-art equipment. He, therefore, assured that with Covenant’s intervention, he was sure of a higher dimension of positivity arising from this gesture.

He thanked Covenant University much more for all the University had been doing aside from the big donation of the soap-making equipment and he also solicited for the continuation of the articles of the Memorandum of Understanding that included the starting of an ‘E-learning Centre, which would help many of the inmates get a more formal education.

Speaking earlier, Professor Abiodun Gesinde, who represented the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abiodun H. Adebayo, highlighted that the University had always been at the forefront of providing solutions to the plight of the less privileged in the society, and would stop at nothing to be of assistance to anyone, or organisation, as long as it is within the reach of the University.

He continued that the partnership with the Onesimus Project and the Prison Fellowship of Nigeria is also very important to the University, as it acts as one of the reasons for the setting up of the University which is that of Community Development, and as a university, we must be involved in the growth and develop of our environment as part of our social responsibility.

The Executive Secretary of the Prison Fellowship of Nigeria, Barrister Benson Iwuagwu, also added his voice concerning the project, as he reiterated the impact of what the partnership with the Correctional Centre has gained for the inmates, who are the better for all these humanitarian gestures from the outside sources other than the government.

He also spoke glowingly of the assistance of the Small and Medium Business Development Association of Nigeria (SMEDAN), who have also been giving their helping hand to the efforts of Covenant University and the Prison Fellowship of Nigeria, in seeing to the training of the inmates of the Correctional Centre, and promised to make sure the scale of the assistance is increased in the nearest future.

He concluded that the idea of the programme is to see that the inmates are trained on how to make the liquid soaps and market them, but they are also to earn a little stipend from the sale of the products which would be saved for them as take home after the expiration of their tenure in the prison

The programme concluded with the training of some inmates, and the dignitaries were helped to scoop the finished liquid soap with a jar that was displayed in a group photograph after the commissioning.