We must help this govt address our current challenges - Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Sunday said the Nigerian government lacks the capacity to address issues facing the country, calling on stakeholders and elder statesmen to help in rescuing the West African nation which he noted is on the precipice. 

Atiku’s statement was in reaction to a recent report that tagged Nigeria as the nation with the highest unemployment rate in the world.

“We are at a precipice as a nation and the truth is that all stakeholders and elder statesmen have to speak up on time, while there is still a Nigeria to save,” the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 election said in a series of tweets on his official handle.

“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.”

While linking the “unprecedented” level of insecurity in Nigeria to youth unemployment, Atiku said education is the key to addressing the menace.

“I say this because the fastest way to bring down a world record unemployment rate is via incentivized education. An educated citizenry are more employable and more self employable,” Atiku, Nigeria’s Vice President between 1999-2007, said.

“Increased education has been scientifically linked with lower rates of crime and insecurity, along with lower infant and maternal mortality, and a higher lifetime income.”

The number of out-of-school children (aged 5-14 years) in Nigeria is pegged at 10.5m, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a development which Atiku warned that if not addressed will further plunge the nation into chaos.

“If we do not do this, then the floodgates of unemployment will be further opened next year, and in the years to come,” he warned.