Scripture Union decries unemployment rate

Scripture Union Nigeria, an international, interdenominational and non-denominational faith-based Christian organisation, has urged the Federal Government to urgently address the rising unemployment rate in the country.

The group also called on government to engage in serious policy reforms that will set the nation on the path of growth.

In a communiqué issued recently, the group identified injustice, inequality, nepotism, kidnapping, corruption, poor funding and misappropriation as major challenges facing Nigeria, and expressed worry about the alarming rate of unemployed youths, warning that the country may be doomed if nothing is done urgently.

The National Chairman, Scripture Union Nigeria, Prof. Madu Iwe, and the General Director, Mr. Odelana Phillips Adewale, signed the communiqué, which was issued at the end of their 104th residential National Council meeting held recently in Ibadan, Oyo State.

The statement read in part: “The unemployment rate in Nigeria among our teeming youths is alarming, and this situation has provided a platform for all kinds of crime among our youths. The union therefore calls on the federal and state governments to provide professional avenues through which our youths will be meaningfully engaged and also employed. Specifically, this could be in agro-based industries and small-scale technically-skilled centres. This should be established in various communities across the country for the youths.

“They should also look into such activities that create bad blood among the Nigerian citizens and generate avoidable tension and crisis in the polity. Despite appeals and agitations from the citizenry, merciless killings of innocent Nigerians have continued unabated with the consequential effect of sacking agrarian communities hence, which results in deepening hunger owing to lack of cultivation of agricultural food materials.”
The group urged the Buhari administration to primarily see every citizen of Nigeria as a Nigerian, who must be treated with justice, fairness and equity.

“Nigeria is positioned to be the fastest growing economy on the African continent, and one of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world. Ironically, the country harbours some of the poorest people in the world. It was first revealed in June 2018, that Nigeria had overtaken India as the nation with the highest number of people living in extreme poverty across the world, with an estimated 86.9 million people measured to be living on less than $1.25 (N381.25) a day.

“Given the country’s enormous resources, it is puzzling that such a huge portion of the populace lives in poverty. This vast incidence of poverty in the midst of plenty has severally been linked to the endemic corruption in the country, as it involves the massive stealing of resources that would have otherwise been invested in providing wealth-creating infrastructure for the citizens,” the statement added.