Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar says Nigerians must help President Muhammadu Buhari in order to save the country.
Atiku stated this on Sunday in a series of posts via his official Twitter account.
He said since government lacked the ability to tackle the challenges, citizens must take it upon themselves to help the government so as to save themselves, too.
He frowned on the recent report by Bloomberg indicating that Nigeria will soon emerge as the nation with the highest rate of unemployment at over 33%.
He said the high rate of unemployment is due to abandonment of the people-centred leadership, free trade and deregulatory policies of the past administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Atiku also blamed the worsening insecurity in the country on the high rate of unemployment.
He tweeted, “What this government must realise is that the unprecedented insecurity Nigeria is facing is the result of youth unemployment.
“Idleness is the worst feature of unemployment because it channels the energy of our youth away from production, and towards destruction, and that is why Nigeria is now the third most terrorised nation on Earth.”
The former vice president advised the Buhari government to make efforts to enrol the 13.5 million out-of-school children in school and engage youths in work programmes as part of the measures to tackle unemployment.
Atiku further suggested three ways to encourage capital inflow and foreign direct investment.
“First, Nigeria must move towards a single exchange rate to be determined by market forces. Secondly, the federal and state governments must reduce taxes, to make Nigeria more business friendly. And finally, financial and monetary institutions, like the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, must be free from the type of political influence that resulted in the prohibition of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” he said.
According to him, since government lacks the ability to address the challenges, Nigerians must come to the aid of the government in order to save themselves.
Atiku said, “We are at a precipice as a nation and the truth is that all stakeholders and elder statesmen have to speak up on time, while there is still a Nigeria to save.
“This government obviously lacks the capacity to address our current challenges, and we must help them, not because of the government, but because of our people.
“In a situation where we are simultaneously the world headquarters for extreme poverty, the world capital for out of school children, and the nation with the highest unemployment rate on Earth, there is a very real and present danger that we might slip into the failed states index – God forbid!”