A motivational speaker, Mr Elisha Mamman, has tasked Nigerian youth to embrace education and entrepreneurship if they are to avoid raging poverty and unemployment in the country.
Mamman who made the call on Saturday in Kaduna said the youth needed to reposition themselves and prepare for the challenges ahead, noting that unemployment, poverty and corruption were vicious cycle threatening the country’s existence.
Elisha told the 2nd anniversary of The Winning Mindset Platform, a platform for empowering young minds in the society, to embrace education as the right weapon to fight poverty, which he described as a common enemy to all.
Addressing the platform, which coincided with a symposium organised for members of the National Youths Service Corps Kaduna South zone titled: Poverty, Corruption and Insecurity in Nigeria – A Fight For Today, he urged the youth to rise up and see education as their vehicle to survival and tool to fight poverty.
“According to the United Nations SDGs, eradicating poverty is the number one goal. It is simply because every other thing stems from this single epidemic. Poverty is an enemy worth fighting against. We must take a firm stand against poverty because, if we don’t, the poor will eventually make life uncomfortable for the rich.
“Nigeria in 2018 overtook India as the world’s poverty capital. India with a population of 1.3 billion has 71.5 million people living in extreme poverty while Nigeria, with a population of about 200 million people has 86.9 million of her population living in extreme poverty below $1.90 (N684),” he said.
Elisha noted that eradicating poverty is no longer an option for anybody as individuals, communities or nation, as poverty has consistently, unleashed its danger on the citizenry and has left in its wake, devastating effects on humanity and the environment.
