31st January, 2024
A non-governmental organization has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to pay attention to issues of unemployment and genuine skills development for Nigerian youths.
The group, No Justice, No Peace Initiative, through its National Coordinator, Derrick Oritsematosan Agberen made the call in a statement sent to newsmen.
He said that unemployment has become a major problem bedevilling the lives of Nigerian youths, causing increased militancy, violent crimes, kidnappings, restiveness and socially delinquent behaviour.
Comrade Agberen stressed that unemployment has also become devastating to both the individual and society, both psychologically and economically, noting that the issue of insecurity and other social menace will drop drastically if attention is given to unemployment and others.
The statement said, “It is a sacred obligation for the Nigerian government to take proper care of the citizens it governs, otherwise, they will devise dubious means for survival, which threatens the very existence of the society.
“Since the inception of democratic governance in 1999, the Federal Government of Nigeria has done little or nothing to improve human rights protections and the welfare of the Nigerian citizens.
“It’s so sad that we’ve had good numbers of graduates in time past and even till date, Nigeria universities are populated with undergraduates but with no future plans after many years of study, therefore, defeating one from the key purposes of going to school.
“It is no news, that most of the empowerment schemes initiated by both the Federal and State Governments in times past, were not really meant to develop the youths, as they have had no sustainable values but created avenues for persons in office to loot public funds, just like the recent NPOWER scheme, that was recently cancelled by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”