Former Senior Special Assistant to the President on Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF)
Dr Haroun Adamu, has decried the preponderance of lethal arms in the hands of
Nigerian youths.
Adamu was speaking as Chairman at the 2019 Discovery Lecture and
Presentation of Book which was organized by the Centre for General Nigerian
Studies, Lagos State University in Ojo on Wednesday. He said that a situation
where lethal arms are in the hands of frustrated youths is a threat to security,
and called on government to take urgent steps to curtail the anomaly.
“The preponderance of lethal arms in the hands of frustrated youths is
alarming. Government must initiate programmes that would deny or curtail the
proliferation of such lethal arms and their use to ensure the security of lives
and properties of Nigerians. It has to be noted that all the problems are
poverty driven. Government at all levels must endeavour to address these
endemic crises through commercialised agriculture, to ensure food security for
the nation,” Adamu stated.
Speaking further Adamu proffers vocational training as solution for drop-outs,
which must be popularised. He also stressed
that the government must address the perennial rural-urban migration by
unskilled youths who are unprepared for living in urban environment.
He said issue of youth unemployment has become a critical issue
“I appeal to government at all levels to take issues of youth
unemployment very seriously. The problem is just too serious to be treated with
levity or play politics with. What is happening around especially in Lybia,
Syria, and other parts of the world are good examples for us to learn from. The
universities also have a role to play in this area. They cannot continue to
produce graduates for the labour market; rather they must begin to produce job
creators and entrepreneurs. Our universities must also relate effectively with
industries in order to ensure that students are trained for the jobs that are
available,” Adamu appealed.
Speaking on the title of the book ‘Can
Nigeria Survive another Century as a Corporate Entity?’ Adamu said “I think
Nigeria will survive. The nation survived 30 months of fratricidal civil war in
the 60s. We survived several politically induced crises that threatened our
collective survival as a nation, and even recently, predictions that the
country Nigeria shall cease to exist by 2015 has come and pass uneventfully.
The testimony to this is that here we are still as a nation.”
Adamu not minding sounding optimistic still has words of advice for the
Nigerian politicians “However we must avoid another civil war at all cost. Our
politicians must do the right things. They must be patriotic, putting the
nation’s collective interest above personal gains. They must also deliberately
take steps towards national healing, integration, inclusiveness and meaningful
development instead of actions that are capable of dividing us. We as a nation
must ensure the full participation of women in all facets of our national
lives.”
Adamu also proposed the dredging of River Niger and River Benue which
physically unites Nigeria. “It is hereby proposed that our waterways: River
Niger and River Benue which physically unite this country should be
dredged sufficiently to allow the transportation of goods from south to the
north and vice versa, stopping in River Ports, giving employment opportunities
to our teaming youths and reducing the cost of transportation.”
He said the new technology today has become a veritable means of job
creation all over the world. “Governments must therefore intensify efforts to
set up factories in partnership with the private sector to manufacture or
assemble what the nation truly needs in the computing and communication sector.”
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