The Nigerian nation at the moment is highly terrorized. Insecurity is at its peak. There is no part of the country that is not challenged security wise.
The primary responsibility of any government is to protect lives and properties. But it appears that the governments at all levels have been overwhelmed by insecurity and unable to discharge this basic duty.
Prophecies and indeed issues on ground strongly point to an outbreak of war any moment soon as the entire space is charged with serial killings occurring in every part of the country. Sadly, there appears no solution in sight.
The governments also have failed in discharging another great economic responsibility which has exacerbated the security challenges.
There is growing unemployment situation among the youths who are in the age bracket that is providing personnel for the terror groups causing mayhem in the country.
An idle hand they say is the devils workshop and many unemployed youth fall easy prey to the evil machinations of those perpetrating violence in the society.
On close scrutiny it would be seen that the governments have failed woefully in managing our economic affairs.
Rather than create values through economic activities that would generate employment to absorb the teeming youths graduating from school the leaders instead are neck deep in corrupt practices siphoning the commonwealth of the people.
On annual basis our higher institutions churn out graduates who have no skills for self-employment. The combined graduates from our Universities, Polytechnics, Monotechnics, Colleges of Education, and other higher institutions number close to two million annually.
There is no planning ahead while they study to absorb them on graduation into gainful employment.
In order to survive and cease being a burden on parents who may have other children to train, our teeming graduates seek any means possible to keep head above water.
This is the reason many who lack the discipline opt for prostitution in the case of women and the men take to crimes of varying dimensions including scam.
The unemployment rate is further accentuated by the inability of the government to sustain existing industries leading to their collapse and sending scores of thousands to the unemployment queue.
This is cruel and detestable. From many parts of the country existing industries which were built by previous administrations that absorbed many workers have all gone into extinction.
The consequences of checking insecurity are colossal.
The huge sums expended in fighting off Boko Haram, bandits, herders, kidnappers etc especially in deploying military hardware was good enough to create industries to absorb the army of unemployed youths.
It is painful paying stupid fines of ignorance and recklessness.
News Echo bemoans the ugly situation that we are experiencing which are clearly avoidable. Government is only relevant if it has meaning for the people.
It is a sad commentary that succeeding governments have never fared better than the one they succeeded on many indices. People would not have time to indulge in violent activities if they are meaningfully engaged.
We call on the government to create employment opportunities beyond rhetoric and politics. They should go beyond skills acquisition programs which is more or less a political tool to win votes or reward for their loyalists to creating industries.
The likes of Sam Mbakwe, M. I. Okpara, Awolowo, Jakande industrialized their states in their era at a time technology was not prevalent.
The present crops of leaders are challenged to rival such records and excel. The tine to do so is now.
