Until government at all levels step up efforts to tackle rising unemployment in Nigeria, the escalating social vices will not end soon, experts have warned.
Professor Solomon Ogbu and Peter Adejobi while speaking at a roundtable organised by the Department of Political Science and International Relations Wednesday, University of Abuja, posited that Nigeria may continue to witness security challenges if something urgent is not done.
The duo added that the situation become worse because about 33.1 per cent of Nigerians are unemployed with over 70 per cent of the population living below $1 a day, as poverty continues to rise.
Comrade Adejobi, a trade unionist said: “With the current unemployment rate as at the third quarter of 2017 at 33.1 per cent and with over 70 per cent of the population living below $ 1 (One dollar) a day, and below the poverty line, there can be no real security in such a country where money is preferably voted for the purchase of arms for defence and security agents, without any meaningful job creation efforts, without the payment of workers’ salaries as at when due, without the payment of living wages, without the payment of pensioners and without micro credit facilities all this put together makes the role of police and other security agencies an herculean task in the light of ever increasing conflicts in Nigeria.”
The roundtable, which was supported by Rosa Luxemburg Foundation West Africa, seeks to expand debate on political, economic, social and cultural issues with select higher institutions and non-governmental organisations and trade unions.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Herdsmen and Farmers Conflict and the Call for State Police in Nigeria’, Adejobi said Buhari’s approach in tackling poverty is not radically different from previous administrations since the introduction of neoliberal policy of austerity measure by the Shehu Shagari administration.
He said the introduction of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) by the Babangida administration further compounded the hardship faced by Nigerians.
On his part, Prof Ogbu a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, University of Abuja, noted that despite efforts being made by security agencies as well as well-meaning Nigerians to put an end to the herdsmen and farmers conflict, the orgy of violence has continued unabated as thousands of farmers and pastoralists are still being killed mostly in the Middle Belt, especially in the states of Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau, Kaduna and Zamfara.
He observed that the response of government has so far been only ad hoc, half-hearted and ineffective, thereby allowing the violent attacks to continue unabated.
