Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has identified the vast army of unemployed youths in the North-East region as the single biggest cause of insecurity in the region, saying it wss a place where thousands of youths wake up every morning without food or shelter.
Speaking in Abuja on Monday when he met with some North-East stakeholders in Abuja, Obi said with the enormous amount of arable land in the North-East, the region has the potential not only to feed the country but also produce enough cash crops for export. He pledged that his administration would bring that to reality if he wins the presidential elections next year.
He argued that insecurity would be a thing of the past when idle youths become engaged in lawful activities, ranging from agriculture to commerce which will ensure the country moves from consumption to production.
“Youth unemployment is nearing 50 per cent, so you have millions of youth in their productive age doing nothing, not knowing where the next meal will come from. With that situation, you are going to have crises; crisis of insecurity, crisis of banditry, crisis of kidnapping.
“What I and Datti (Baba-Ahmed) are promising you is number one; that we have the best combination, the best experience to start tackling issue of security and I will say this, hold us responsible. Let nobody tell you we cannot solve issue of insecurity in Nigeria, it can be stopped and done very quickly.
“We want to unite Nigeria, we want to see Nigerians being proud of their country again. We want to remove Nigeria from where it is today, from consumption to production and when you do that, you start pulling people out of poverty.”
