As part of the Confederation of African Football’s Football for Change initiative, the Nigeria Football Federation and the Ministry of Interior are working together to use football as a tool for education, skill development, and leadership development among young women incarcerated throughout the nation.
President Ibrahim Gusau led a delegation of the NFF that presented the plan to Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior, on Tuesday.
NFF Executive Committee Member and Chairman of the Women’s Football Sub-Committee, Aisha Falode, presented the NFF’s initiative titled ‘Football Good-Naija; EmpowerHer’, highlighting rising figures of ladies in correctional centres across the country, as well as those awaiting trial and those already convicted.
NFF president Gusau told the minister that the federation believes it has services to render to the community at large, apart from the organisation of football matches.
“We are primed to use the instrumentality of football to collaborate with relevant agencies and ministries to activate processes for the reform and rehabilitation of these young ladies so that they can be reintegrated into society and be useful to themselves and society.
“The NFF is ready and willing to go the whole distance on this project. We will work with relevant agencies and ministries and network with organisations and foundations to arrange vocational training for these girls so that they will have a future.”
The Minister of Interior, Tunji-Ojo, was enthusiastic about the project and applauded the NFF’s initiative.
“I am hugely impressed by this presentation, which shows clearly that the NFF is aware of its responsibilities to the community, aside from preparing our national teams for matches and tournaments. The reason why there is always an increase in the number of people in correctional centres is that when they are released, they have nowhere to go other than the place from which they ended up in the centre. I see this project as filling that gap for them, giving them hope, and showing them how to bring that hope to reality.”
It was pegged on the gender empowerment initiative of CAF, in which pilot programmes have taken place in Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Liberia.
In Sierra Leone, 25 women incarcerated at the Freetown Correctional Centre benefitted from the CAF D License Coaching Course as part of the programme.
