Business Day
13 December 2011
Sunny C. Nwachukwu . .
The present social problem that poses as a ‘time bomb’ (God forbid) before the nation is the disturbing, increasing level of unemployment among the Nigerian youths; who have been abandoned to their fate in the labour market. This growing unemployment rate is worsening by the day (considering the rate at which the Nigerian higher institutions churn out these young school leavers in numbers every year). We are quick to always be reminded of the elders’ caution that, “An idle hand is the devil’s workshop” whenever there is youth restiveness in our society.
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Good enough, Mr. President has placed this particular issue on the front burner of his administration and transformation agenda for the economy (if I am right); judging by his recent utterance in Lokoja at the PDP governorship campaign rally when he talked about an imminent youth revolution in 2015 if something positive is not quickly done to arrest the growing unemployment rate among the Nigerian youths. That is a very sincere observation/remark from somebody highly placed. Shortly after, our former President Obasanjo also talked about the likes of “Arab spring” lurking around the nation by our unemployed school leavers, advising that a speedy solution be provided.
The development observed among the youths from the Niger Delta region last week along Lokoja – Abuja highway, when about 1600 youths identified as the Niger-Delta ex-militants blocked the road for well over 10 solid hours (save for the intervention of the Kogi State police commissioner), on a protest match to Aso-rock for their unpaid upkeep allowances after being demilitarised (dropping their arms and coming out from the creeks) is a clear sample of the ills of unemployment as a social malaise. This breeds insecurity to an unimaginable dimension in the society....
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