Nigeria- Monday 29, March 2021: The Federal Government has lambasted former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar over his comment on the rate of unemployment in the country.

The former Vice-President, in a statement in Abuja on Sunday had expressed fear about some economic indices suggesting that the country is slipping into a failed state.

The statement signed by him is titled, ‘World’s Highest Unemployment Rate: Time To Help This Government, Help Nigeria.”

He said “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!”

He attributed the cause of the nation’s current predicament to the decision by the All Progressives Congress-led regime to abandon “the people-centred leadership and free trade and deregulatory policies” of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

Atiku said the country at that time was maintaining an almost single digit unemployment rate.

He said the Buhari regime was now implementing discredit command and control policies that had led to “massive capital flight” from Nigeria.

Atiku said, “Even with the paucity of funds, we continue to ramp up government involvement in sectors that ought to be left to the private sector, with the latest being the ill-advised $1.5bn so called rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery that has failed to turn a profit for years.

“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 PDP chieftain urged the Buhari regime to ensure that all children of school age were encouraged to be in school by paying parents earning less than $800 per annum a, monthly stipend of N5,000.

He said, “If we can get the 13.5 million out-of-school Nigerian children into school, we will turn the corner in one generation.

“If we do not do this, then the floodgates of unemployment will be further opened next year, and in the years to come.

“As a nation, we are better off privatising our refineries and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation through the time-tested Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas model in which the Federal Government owns 49 per cent equity and the private sector 51 per cent.

“Recall that in 20 years ending 2020, the NLNG had delivered $18.3bn dividends to government irrespective of taxes and other benefit accruals to the country. ”

However, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’ on Sunday, said Atiku’s comment shouldn’t be taken seriously, adding that he former Vice President had nothing to show when he was in power with the fromer President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“The former Vice-President was in power for eight years. Now, he is in the opposition. You can’t take whatever he says as the gospel. The question is when former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was in government with President Olusegun Obasanjo, where did they take the country?

“Where did they leave the country? I have seen clips on social media where he said some things they promised to do, particularly on power; some people collected some trillions and didn’t deliver… Former Vice-President is part of the rot this country became.

“He cannot exculpate himself; he cannot sit in judgment over anybody. He played his part for eight years and they left the country where they left it. He cannot like Pontius Pilate, begin to wash himself clean of what Nigeria has become,” he stated.

Adesina, while responding on the unemployment rate in the country, noted that about 30 million Nigerians were unemployed before Buhari took over office.

Adesina said the recent report released by the National Bureau of Statistics that 23.2 million Nigerians are unemployed was not new.

He added that “You will recall that in the build-up to the 2015 elections, when the APC was campaigning, the figure that was used by then candidate Buhari was that a minimum of 30 million Nigerians were unemployed, particularly youths and that his government was going to do something about it.

“That was in 2014/2015. So, don’t make it appear like a genie that just came out of the bottle. No, it had always been there. It had always been there.”