Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus and former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki Thursday agreed that the insecurity bedevilling the Nation can only be arrested through massive investment in youth education.
They made the submission in Abuja at the launching of an educational foundation established by a former acting national chairman of PDP, Abubakar Baraje.
The PDP chieftains used the opportunity to review the increasing insecurity scourge and poverty in the country and affirmed that the way to reverse the negative trends is more attention to the education of the youths.
While commending the Baraje for setting up the educational foundation, Atiku noted that is not only timely but also symbolizes the urgency to salvage “our frail nation from the resultant negative impact of poor public investment in Human Capital Development.”
This, he noted, is evident in “our abysmal ranking in the global Human Capital Development index.”
The former Vice President blamed the country’s “large army of out of school children, legion of the unemployed, rampaging insecurity, rising poverty rate and persistent underdevelopment” on Nigeria’s poor investment in education.
He said: “This calls for all hands to be on deck to break the vicious circle of illiteracy, unemployment, poverty and insecurity that has imprisoned our youth and nation as a whole.”
“This can be achieved if we continue to advocate for increased public and private investment in youth development and empowerment. It is a step that should be taken with all sense of urgency,” he added.
The former Vice President pointed out: “As of the second quarter of 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, 13.9 million Nigerian youths are currently unemployed. It further shows that the highest unemployment rate was recorded for youths between 15 — 24 years 40.8%, and followed by ages 25 — 34 years at 30.7%.”
Also in his remark, Saraki concurred that the security challenges arose from poor attention to education of youths particularly in the area of moral and spiritual upliftment.
He charged government at all levels and traditional rulers to invest more in moral and spiritual education of the youths.
On his part, Secondus also lamented that the country’s distress situation at the moment is because leaders rarely invest in education.
He added, “The Country is in distress and we need to be putting down something that can reverse the trends
“This is a foundation that will groom new leadership for Nigeria and the World. Our leaders lack mentorship and that is the problem. And that is why they get into office and the next thing they do is stealing of public funds.”
Baraje explained that is aimed at providing quality education at no cost to children of the less privileged in the society.
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