By Michael Adesanya/ Abeokuta
A former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, said if the country fails to address the high unemployment rate it might lead to Civil war.
He disclosed that over 30 million Nigerian youths are jobless, saying the situation was not in the best interest of the country.
Moghalu spoke on Tuesday at the Nigeria Union Journalists, Ogun Council secretariat, Oke Ilewo, Abeokuta, during a town hall meeting organised by Progressives Group of Nigeria (PGN) for youth and market women in Ogun state on his presidential ambition.
His words: “With over 30 million youths unemployed in the country and the population increasing every day, we need to create employment for the youths to avert Civil war”.
He assured that he would recruit two million policemen if he is voted in as Nigeria’s president in 2019.
Moghalu added that currently with about 300,000 policemen policing a country with 200 million population, this was grossly inadequate, saying with this recruitment exercise a lot of unemployed Nigerians would be gainfully employed.
He also hinted that he would equally introduced massive venture capital from which unemployed Nigerians with business proposals could draw funds to actualise their proposals.
The presidential hopeful explained that this was far better than the current social investment fund, in which the current administration dole out N5,000 each to unemployed graduates.
“From day one, if I become president of Nigeria, I will tackle unemployment. I will create a massive venture capital to which unemployed Nigerians could submit their business proposals. This will be an equity capital and not a loan. As I said earlier, I am going to recruit two million policemen. The current scenario where about 300,000 are policing a population of 200 million people is a joke.
“With this recruitment, two million people would have been taking off the unemployment market. The social investment fund by the current administration does not solve unemployment. How will giving N5,000 every month to a graduate solve unemployment?”
For those saying there was no alternative to President Muhammadu Buhari, Moghalu noted that this was a wrong assumption, as there was insecurity all over the country.
He said, “All those saying there is no alternative to the current administration are saying there is no alternative to killings by herdsmen, there is no alternative to poverty, there is no alternative to the general insecurity in the country. Do you wait till herdsmen come and kill you in your house?”
Speaking earlier to the youth and market women across the state who had gathered at the meeting, Moghalu said if elected his administration would deploy electronic security system across the country, in which security threats and breaches could be tracked over a distance and nipped in the bud.
He assured that if elected, he would give equal rights to the men and women, disclosing that women would have 50 percent appointment.