Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has voiced concerns over the escalating rates of banditry and kidnappings in Nigeria, attributing the surge to rampant unemployment.
Speaking at the 9th International Trade Exhibition & Conference on Agrofood, Plastics, Printing, and Packaging in Lagos, Obasanjo stated the urgent need for employment opportunities to mitigate the involvement of unemployed individuals in criminal activities.
He said, “Of course, if we are able to achieve this, it will improve our security. Part of our insecurity are men and women that are not properly engaged.
“If we are able to give them employment, there will be less of them getting involved in banditry, in kidnapping and in doing various other criminal activities that they get involved in,” he added.
He stressed the importance of providing meaningful employment to dissuade individuals from engaging in illicit behaviors, stating the potential of agriculture as a viable avenue for job creation.
“Food security starts with availability. We must be able to produce enough. Then there is affordability. We must be able to get everybody who needs food to be able to get the food that they need. Then there is accessibility. We must get food to where it is needed.
“Almost 40 per cent of our food go to waste after cultivation. So, food security and nutrition security makes agribusiness important.”
Obasanjo also advocated for a concerted effort to make the agricultural sector more attractive to Nigerian youths, as he noted the preference of many young people for careers in the entertainment industry.
He said, “First is employment, with our teeming population and the problem we have with our youths going over the desert and risking their lives at the Mediterranean will stop. What can we do to give them enough employment at home?
“The area that is sure to provide employment for our teeming youth population is agriculture. When you talk about agriculture, not many of them will want to come to the farm, they will rather go into the music that they do now.
“We have to make agriculture glamorous because these youths, they make money that way (through music), and then you are asking them to come to the farm. They won’t want to,” he said.
Furthermore, Obasanjo called for policy consistency and the provision of single-digit loans to farmers to facilitate sustainable agricultural practices and enhance profitability.
He urged policymakers to create an enabling environment for farmers to thrive, stressing the importance of long-term planning without the fear of abrupt policy changes.
