The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi says the vast number of unemployed youths in the North-East region is the biggest contributing factor to insecurity in the region, as thousands of youths wake up every morning without food or shelter.
Obi stated this on Monday when he met with some North-East stakeholders in Abuja. According to him, 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 will bring that to reality if he wins the presidential elections next year.
He said insecurity will be a thing of the past when idle youths become engaged in legal activities, ranging from agriculture to commerce which will ensure the country moves from consumption to production.
Obi said, “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 are: 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.”