Over 20m Nigerians are unemployed, says Peter Obi
Titus Akhigbe, Benin-City
The Vice Presidential Candidate, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi has raised concern over 20 million unemployed Nigerians. He said this during an interactive session with PDP members, professional groups, Academia, Civil society, and religious organisations on Thursday in Benin City, Edo State. Obi said the multiplier effects have contributed largely to the unabated security challenges in Nigeria. The Vice Presidential candidate, noted with sadness that Nigeria lost her 7th position in the global terrorism index and currently rank third behind Iraq and Afghanistan. He however assured that the PDP Presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku would put the right policy in place and address other issues of concern if elected President in the February 19, 2019 election. “You cannot have millions of youths and millions of youths in their productive age doing nothing and not have insecurity as a problem. “We have responsibility to provide jobs for these young people and 3.2 million children that are out of School”, instead of seeking salvation on a wider stage with “N10, 000 traders money” being used as a campaign tool by All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government. He accused the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch of being wasteful for borrowing N7.5 trillion between 2015 and 2017, higher than N7.4 trillion which PDP borrowed in 16 years. Obi reinstated commitment to restructuring the Country and pledged good governance, said the party would address problems bedevilling the power sector by ensuring that “our intervention funds are prudently utilized”. According to him, “our government will uphold the rule of law and ensure that the Local Government Areas which is the government at the grass roots level has autonomy”. In his welcome address, Edo State PDP Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, challenged the APC government to show Nigerians her scorecard to warrant a re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
