Labour blames high crime rate on youth unemployment

From Femi Oyelola Kaduna

The General Secretary of National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, Comrade Isa Aremu has blamed the high crime rate in the country on massive youth unemployment.
He said this in a statement made available to the media in Kaduna yesterday.
According to him, tragic proportions in forms of various mass crimes as restless youths swell the ranks of kidnappers and insurgent are related to unemployment.
Aremu said all tiers of government must rise to promote development through re-Industrialization, uninterrupted electricity supply and war against smuggling which had made the products of local industries uncompetitive.
“It is worrisome that the few employed are in subsistence farming and informal sector.
He said that, there is an urgent need for a bipartisan employment drive in the country, noting that sustainable jobs can only come from industry and massive public infrastructural development such as railways, roads construction, reinvention of public schools and hospitals.
“Mass unemployment means value-subtraction for Nigeria at a time when there is much work to be done and the nation is begging for growth and development.
“All the issues in unemployment crisis are governance issues which task the responsibilities and sensitivities of the Federal as well as State Governments of the Federation.
“The latest figure by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which says 7.53 million out of Nigeria’s labor force of 85.08 million are unemployed.”