A member of House of Representatives, representing Langtang North and South federal constituency of Plateau State, Hon. Beni Lar, has stated that the federal government needs to grow the economy and encourage private sector participation to curb unemployment which is one of the causes of insecurity in Nigeria.
Speaking with newsmen in Jos, Lar who attributed the insecurity in the country to the increasing unemployment rate enjoined the government to pay more attention to the economy and encourage private sector participation, adding that social welfare schemes alone cannot address the problem of unemployment.
“The root cause of insecurity as we see today is unemployment. If you ask the victims of kidnapping they would tell you that kidnappers said they are into the act because they have nothing to do. Since there’s no hope for them they take into these crimes as a fast means of making money.
“Kidnapping has become money making venture for those who are unemployed. The government has to grow the private sector. I strongly believe that social welfare schemes cannot do much, it cannot keep our youths going rather the government needs to boost the private sector.
“When you look at the economy of western countries, the government involvement is less than 5 percent, the government is not the major employer of labour, it is the private sector that grows the economy and employs the population and Nigeria has a huge potential, we have the industrial potentials, we have the best science and research centres that could propel the growth.
“What we need to do is to go back and do the right thing and grow our own economy. If we grow the economy at the rate of our population the better for us because our population is growing very fast and there is nothing to hold this population,” she said.
She enjoined parents to inculcate good moral values in their children as a way of raising future generations that would be responsive and give them sound moral and religious background to shape their lives.
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