Pay attention to youth devt to curb insecurity, violence, activist tells Tinubu
A rights activist in Delta State, Comrade Derrick Oritsematosan Agberen, has pleaded with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to “pay more attention to issues of unemployment and genuine skills/development programmes to engage Nigerian youths, saying that if these are done, issues of insecurity and other social menace will drop drastically. Agberen, who is the National Coordinator of ‘No Justice, No Peace Initiative,’ made the call in a signed statement, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri on Wednesday. He noted with concern that “since inception of democratic governance in the country in 1999, the Federal Government has done little or nothing to improve human rights protections and the welfare of the Nigerian citizens.” He said, “It is no news that most of the empowerment schemes initiated by both the Federal and state governments in time past were not really meant to develop the youths, as it has 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. “Unemployment has become a major problem bedeviling the lives of Nigerian youths, causing increased militancy, violent crimes, kidnappings, restiveness and socially delinquent behaviour. “Unemployment has become devastating to both the individual and the society as a whole, both psychologically and economically.” Agberen maintained that “it is a sacred obligation for the governments in Nigeria to take proper care of the citizens it governs otherwise, they will device dubious means for survival, which threatens the very existence of the society.”
