Gen. Obasanjo Says on Youth Unemployment - The Danger Ahead Is Real And Potent

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed fears that Nigeria will witness a revolution soon unless government takes urgent steps to check growing youth unemployment and poverty. Speaking at the West African regional conference on youth employment in Dakar, Senegal at the weekend, Obasanjo said the danger posed by an army of unemployed youth in Nigeria can only be imagined.

“I’m afraid, and you know I am a General. When a General says he is afraid, that means the danger ahead is real and potent,” he said.

Obasanjo added that despite what he called the imminent threat to Nigeria’s nationhood “there is absence of serious, concrete, realistic, short and long term solution” to youth unemployment. He made reference to the doctorate degree holders who applied for jobs as drivers at the Dangote Group, saying Nigerian youths have been patient enough and that this patience will soon reach its elastic limit.

According to the former president, youth unemployment rate which was 72 per cent in 1999 when he took over power had been reduced to 52 per cent by 2004 but that the rate rocketed to 71 per cent by 2011.

The former president lamented that the unemployment situation had given rise to the prevalence of social crimes being perpetrated by three categories of youth whom he identified as area boys, Yahoo boys and, recently, Blackberry boys.

He told the diverse audience that in Nigeria people talk of growth without corresponding development, and that what is visible is increased poverty.Read More