NIFERIA-Wednesday, 21 April 2021: Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has said that Nigeria must address the issue of unemployment before the challenges of insecurity in the country can be solved.

The Governor disclosed this on Tuesday at a programme tagged “Financing Safe Schools”, in Abuja.

Fayemi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), said there is a need for a coordinated response to unemployment and addressing the socio-economic effects on citizens.

 “Even when we do all that is required of us, that is, stemming the tide of the problem of insecurity, brigandage, I think we need to look at the broader socio-economic response.

“It is good to be tough on crime. We must be tougher on the causes of crime. You cannot have a 33 per cent unemployment rate in any country and not expect to deal with the sociological implication of that.

“And that is an area that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum believes we must also work collaboratively with our partners, also work with our financial institutions and private sector in order to find the best mechanism to bring our youth to work.

 “If we do that, we would have fundamentally played our role in addressing the causes of this untoward crisis that the country is dealing with,” he stated.

In her remark on how insecurity has affected schoolchildren, Mrs. Pauline Tallen, Minister for Women Affairs, urged Nigerians to speak out against the “disturbing trend”.

She said “Since 2014, it has been one incident after the other. We’ve been battling with out-of-school children, ensuring that we reach out and increase advocacy for our children to be in school.

“But with the insecurity, what has happened in Zamfara, Kagara, Kaduna has created so much fear in the minds of parents. And if parents are scared of sending children to schools, where do we run to?

“Education is the greatest hope, life, wealth, and power. I call on all of us to be ambassadors, vanguards of speaking out, of giving the right information to our security chiefs.

“Government alone cannot do all. It is an emergency on our hands.”