Welding is one of the most dependable methods of joining materials together, whereas fabrication is the process of planning, laying out, cutting and preparing materials for assembling.

Engaging the services of a welder/fabricator has been on the increase as a result of the favourable outlook for metalwork industries and the wider use of the welding process.
Welders/fabricators are needed for maintenance and repair work in metalwork factories and construction companies that use welded steel structures such as storage tanks and metal beds.
But for Mufu Ganiu and three other colleagues, meeting the welding/fabrication needs of a rapidly expanding city like Abuja has been a difficult task, given the inability of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to provide a big general workshop to accommodate welders/fabricators, as has been done for vehicle mechanics at the Apo village. Where Ganiu and his friends have improvised a workshop in the Gwarimpa area, it has been raids no end by the FCT Task Force on Demolition.
Ganiu acquired skills in welding/fabrication from a Lebanese in Lagos before he moved into Abuja in 2000, on the advice of a friend, a fellow welder in Abuja he called Ade, who had since relocated to Oshogbo, Osun State on account of alleged constant harassment by the demolition task force.
After Ade left, Ganiu was left to team up with Omosidi Abdulazeez from Offa, Kwara State; Emmanuel Eze from Umuahia, Abia State and Kabiru Sufiyanu Usman from Auchi, Edo State. Together, they work and live under constant fear of a raid by the task force.
As it were, their fear has become a psychological bond, as well as a good study of how Nigerian youths form worthy friendships and business partnerships untroubled by ethnic bias. The four men have forged a strong business partnership, working as one force and sharing the proceeds equally. "We have the same emotional attitude now, driven by our situation. We stay and work closely together. We construct car flower pots, metal beds, staircase rail, toilet mirror frame, suit hangers, overhead tanks and many other things," Ganiu said.
Apart from Eze, all the other welders/fabricators are married and have children. They, however, live as many kilometres apart as Ushafa, Karimu and Kuje from where they daily commute to their improvised workshop. 
Ganiu and his friends had once felt the wrath of the task force who swooped on them and seized their tools and a generating set. Eze was an object of pity while narrating how the task force deprived them of the generating set, "We had a power generating set but when the task
force came here the last time they seized our tools and the generator. When we went to ‘bail' our properties, we could not find our generator. So we helplessly took what we saw and came back to continue hustling."
The four friends have devised a way to handle their jobs. While a group of two stay at the workshop, the other two scout construction sites all over federal capital seeking jobs to do. The size of the outdoor job determines the number of them that will go to the site to do it. All four, however, share the profit equally at the end of the day. Not all the profit is shared, though, as a sum is reserved to buy materials like metal sheet to design samples for display in front of their workshop.
They do earn occasional sales from the displayed products. Sunday Trust observed a fancy bed with a displayed price of N60,000-N70,000, a mirror hanger for between N10,000 and N12,000 and a suitcase hanger for N5000.
A customer, Mr. Simon Balal, this publication encountered at the workshop was nearly moved to tears as Ganiu and Eze narrated their sorry plight. "While the task force may not be out of place in discharging their duties, so much is left to be desired about the way they treat these hardworking youths. What have they done to provide alternatives? Let us not forget
that these are the under-privileged whose only crime is that they have chosen to be productive," Balal said.
Another customer, Alhaji Samiu contributed, "It is an irony that the government can afford to pay former militants N75,000 monthly and are gracious to offer amnesty to restive youth in the northern part with possibly financial incentives to follow. But what are the rewards and incentives for youth who don't have criminal tendencies, but rather are engaged in hardwork and enterprise? Instead, we set up task force teams to chase them around the city like hardened criminals, I find such government action very irresponsible."
Usman appealed to the government, "Please, help us tell government that we need to be encouraged, not hounded. We are not thieves. We don't smoke Indian hemp nor take any drugs, but they arrest us every now and then. We plead for a peaceful environment to enable us do our job and contribute to productivity in the economy."