The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has blamed insecurity in the North-East region on unemployment.
Speaking on Monday when he met with some North-East stakeholders in Abuja, Obi said if elected in 2023, his administration will focus on the region because of the large arable land it has.
He said this would ensure that youths employe=ment because agriculture is part of his effort at moving Nigeria from consumption to production.
Obi said, “Youth unemployment is nearing 50 per cent, so you have millions of youth in their productive age doing nothing, not knowing where the next meal will come from. With that situation, you are going to have crises; crisis of insecurity, crisis of banditry, crisis of kidnapping.
“What I and Datti (Baba-Ahmed) are promising you is number one; that we have the best combination, the best experience to start tackling issue of security and I will say this, hold us responsible. Let nobody tell you we cannot solve issue of insecurity in Nigeria, it can be stopped and done very quickly.
“We want to unite Nigeria, we want to see Nigerians being proud of their country again. We want to remove Nigeria from where it is today, from consumption to production and when you do that, you start pulling people out of poverty.”
