Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that President Muhammadu Buhari needs help in the face of the challenges the country is battling with.
Atiku, who made this claim, Sunday, said the task of rescuing Nigeria from the precipice demands collective efforts regardless of political affiliations.
He, therefore, called on all stakeholders and elder statesmen in the country to speak up on time “while there is still a Nigeria to save.”
The former vice-president noted that the opposition must heed the call not because of the government, but because of “our people”.
However, Atiku stressed that the government at the centre has shown that it lacks the capacity to address current challenges and needs help.
Identifying the reasons the country is in a bind, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 election said the insecurity plaguing the country is the result of youth unemployment.
Atiku said this in reaction to a report by Bloomberg which predicts that Nigeria will emerge as the nation with the highest unemployment rate on Earth.
He said this in a statement titled ‘World’s Highest Unemployment Rate: Time To Help This Government Help Nigeria.’
Atiku said, “I have never felt so bad at being proven right, as I am by the report from Bloomberg Business on Saturday, March 27, 2021, that Nigeria is to emerge as the nation with the highest unemployment rate on Earth, at just over 33%.
“We warned about this, but repeated warnings by myself and other patriots were scorned. And now this.
“How did Nigeria get here? We got here by abandoning the people-centred leadership and free trade and deregulatory policies of the Obasanjo years (which saw us maintain an almost single-digit unemployment rate) and implementing discredit command and control policies that have led to massive capital flight from Nigeria.
“And with the paucity of funds, we continue to ramp up government involvement in sectors that ought to be left to the private sector, with the latest being the ill-advised $1.5 billion so-called rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery that has failed to turn a profit for years.
“What this government must realise is that the unprecedented insecurity Nigeria is facing is the result of youth unemployment.
“Idleness is the worst feature of unemployment because it channels the energy of our youth away from production, and towards destruction, and that is why Nigeria is now the third most terrorised nation on Earth.
“Now, how do we address this challenge?
“In 2020, I recommended that to immediately and drastically bring down youth unemployment, every family in Nigeria with at least one school-age child, and earning less than $800 per annum should receive a monthly stipend of 5000 Naira from the government via their BVN and NIN on the condition that they verifiably keep their children in school.
“My recommendation still stands and stands even stronger now that we have crossed the rubicon in youth unemployment.
Atiku said if 13.5 million out of school children could be enrolled in schools, Nigeria could turn the corner in one generation.
“If we do not do this, then the floodgates of unemployment will be further opened next year, and in the years to come,” he said.
“We can no longer say we cannot afford this. We can.
“This government obviously lacks the capacity to address our current challenges, and we must help them, not because of the government, but because of our people.
“In a situation where we are simultaneously the world headquarters for extreme poverty, the world capital for out of school children, and the nation with the highest unemployment rate on Earth, there is a very real and present danger that we might slip into the failed states index – God forbid!”
