It is an understatement to say that there are no jobs in the land. More devastating is that it has affected the well-being of the nation’s youth that accounts for over 45 per cent of Nigeria’s population. More worrisome is the fact that this is the category of the population that has the natural mandate to drive the nation’s development indices. As it is, it is very far from that.
For a long time we have been grappling with the dangerous trend of producing half-baked graduates, just as the level of drop-outs from schools at secondary level of education is not only alarming but equally worrisome, is the downward trend of lack of enrolment in secondary schools at the grassroots, where the greater percentage of Nigeria’s population are reportedly found.
The effect of these monsters – the absence of functional education and the huge army of unemployed youth – is the widespread criminal activities ranging from armed robberies, cultism and other anti-social misdemeanor in the society.
Since joining the current Senate, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abubakar seems interested in issues that tend to undermine the nation, like job creation. I’m sure he would agree with me that such things as armed robberies and cultism were alien to Ankpa, but very recently, there have been reported cases of daredevil robberies and cultism. Worried by the sudden emergence of cultism there, I remember last year shortly after the Eid-il-Kabir, Imam of Ankpa Shiekh Bello Salman delivered a special sermon on the menace.
From the little information on the profiles of these cultists, most of the young men are drop-outs without gainful employment. They operate in broad daylight and sometimes hold communities to ransom. So, it is a huge societal burden for our leaders and representatives at various tiers of government. I am glad that our Senator has continuously hammered on the issue of employment generation for our teeming youth during the Senate screening of ministerial nominees. At any point, Senator Abubakar stands to ask the nominees questions, he would always raise the issue of employment generation. Resolving employment crisis goes a long way to cut down the twin monster of economic deprivation and insecurity.
Charity, they say, begins at home. So, we want something concrete on ground, on what you are harping on. It does not have to be gargantuan, after all the journey of a thousand miles, they said begins with one step. However, there is a starter for the good Senator, with the constituency allowance.
In the last dispensation, former President Goodluck Jonathan allocated N100 billion as Constituency Allowance to National Assembly members to mitigate unemployment and other social service challenges in their respective constituencies. For our locality, in which poverty is pervasive, those funds could be handy. In the last dispensation, we did not see results in our own clime. We pray there would be a radical departure from that, given your standing on unemployment. Something must be done also, on the issues of agriculture – our mainstay – and education. We want change, and we want the good Senator to lead that change.
Baba-Eakpa writes from Odagbo-Ojoku, Ankpa LGA, Kogi State.
