Nigerian youth from different ethnic backgrounds have traced insecurity in the country to high unemployment among the youth.
They called on government to address the problem by creating jobs for the large unemployed youth through building of ranches for them across the country, irrespective of ethnic backgrounds.
Rising from a meeting in Lagos on Sunday, the group under the auspices of Kings Pact International Forum with membership across the country’s six geo-political regions, said that various ethnic groups could be employed through cattle breeding provided by the ranches to be built by state governors in different regions since Federal Government had identified employment potentials in ranching.
It said that it was unfortunate that the Fulani ethnic group had been labelled murderers and given all kinds of negative tags because the various governments had failed in their responsibilities to secure the people, provide enabling environment for the youth to be engaged.
The group pointed out that the Fulani people had lived peacefully with their host communities for many years, stressing that it was the responsibility of governments to fish out the bad eggs, prosecute them and bring them to justice.
Speaking through its National Public Relations Officer (PRO), Princess Olubuloka Fasuyi, the group stated that the State governments should build ranches in their various States, employ their youth, while the Fulani youth stationed in other regions could go back to their various States and be employed by their State governments in the ranches that they would build to accommodate them.
She said: “In this meeting, we had representatives of youth from various regions and we identified unemployment as the major cause of insecurity in the country. We have traced this unemployment and neglect of the youth by the various governments.
“The youth need to be empowered. We know that Fulani people have lived peacefully with their various host communities without serious clashes at least not the type that is being experienced now where people are killed, maimed, women are raped in the name of farmers/herders clashes. These are criminalities and we want government as a matter of urgency to bring these criminals to justice,” she said.
Fasuyi said the various state governors should build ranches in their states and create jobs for their youth, maintaining that the Fulani youth could also return to their states and be employed by their governors who should also build ranches to accommodate them, find jobs for women and by so doing the insecurity situation in the country would be abated.
