About 1.4 million out of the about two million youths in Borno state are unemployed, according to the state’s chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Comrade Yusuf Ibn Tom.
“These unemployed youths, who are both skilled and unskilled, constitute about 70 percent of the youth population in the state,” Ibn Tom told Kanem Trust.
He said among the unemployed is 60 percent of those employed before the Boko Haram insurgency, most of whom as labourers, but now thrown out of employment due to displacement.
The Chairman attributed the high rate of drug abuse and indulgence in crimes in the state to the prevailing situation.
He said the situation could get worse if immediate solutions are not taken .
“If these young people are legally and legitimately employed it would guard them against future indulgence in violent extremism and conflicts, drug and substance abuse and political thuggery.”
Ibn Tom urged the federal and state governments to give priority to the employment of youths.
Kanem Trust reports that the new administration in the state has identified youth employment as one if its cardinal programmes.
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