Diaspora Nigerians blame banditry, prostitution, others on unemployment
Nigerians in the Diaspora have raised fears over the increasing rate of youth unemployment in the country, describing it as a time bomb that could undermine democracy.
According to them, the problem has brought banditry, cyber crime, child trafficking, prostitution, political thuggery, drug abuse and other forms of insecurity and social vices among youths.
Participants stated this at a zoom meeting organized by the Nigerians in diaspora Network (United Kingdom Chapter).
The NDN is a group of Nigerian professionals advocating for good governance.
One of the speakers, a political analyst, Ahmadu Bello, said the increasing rate of unemployment in the country was alarming.
He warned that if the trend was not checked, the army of unemployed youths had the tendency of undermining democracy in Nigeria.
Bello said, “The National Bureau of Statistics recently revealed that over 50% of Nigerian youths do no have jobs.
“That goes a long way to tell us that we are sitting on a time bomb that could explode anytime if holistic measures are not taken.
“The problem has brought us to the era of banditry, cybercrime, child trafficking, prostitution, political thuggery, drug abuse and the likes, among the youths.
“The army of unemployed youths have the tendency of undermining our democracy, so, all hands must be on deck to make sure we bring down the youth unemployment rate as low as possible”.
He stressed that unemployment had asserted a negative effect on the social, economic and political values of Nigerian citizens as thousands of graduates were being churned out every year from various universities without commensurate jobs to work with.
“Out of 100 students graduating , only one of them can say he or she will secure a job in Nigeria. This is very disturbing”, he added.
Bello listed some of the cause of youth unemployment to include high population growth, corruption, wrong school curriculum, inconsistent youth programmes, electricity problems, among others.
