By Onyedika Agbedo
Until Nigeria finds a way of gainfully employing its teeming youth population, it may not truly wriggle of the restiveness that is currently bedeviling the country.
This was the submission of elder statesman and the Eze Ndigbo, Isolo Local Government Area of Lagos State, Eze Ikem W. Agbasi, who noted that secessionist agitation in the South-east and the quit notice issued to the Igbo living in the North by a coalition of Arewa youth groups were caused by the fact that Nigerian youths were idle.
Agbasi, who spoke during the inauguration of his cabinet, recently, urged the Federal Government to create job opportunities for the youth, stressing that “as long as youths of this country are idle and hungry, we will never have peace in Nigeria.”
He said: “I had been expecting this type of situation for a long time because according to former U.S. president, George Bush Snr., if you wait for a peaceful revolution and it does not come, then the radical revolution is inevitable. Whenever you see the youth idle, this is the outcome because the youth is our future. They ought to be employed. For those of us that are aged, our children are supposed to take over our positions. When you have a wife and raise children, then you have to pave way for your children to occupy your place and continue because life is like a relay race. You must handover your stick to somebody and what you expect is that the person that you are handing over to will run faster than you. But that is not happening in Nigeria. So, we the old people in this country are the cause of the youth restiveness we are experiencing across the country.”
And if care is not taken, we are going to experience the worst as a country because the younger ones are idle.”
Agbasi added: “I am impressed with the steps the Federal Government has taken so far to bring the situation under control but as long as the youths of this country are idle and hungry, we will never have peace in Nigeria. When we keep our youths busy, 90 per cent of the crimes we are contending with in this country will be reduced. We must always remember that a hungry man is like an animal.”