By Muhammad Umar Faruk
Nigeria is a country with over 200 million citizens, with an inflation rate of over of 31.7% which is the highest level recorded in 28 years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Despite this economic hardship caused by poor government policies, it has increased insecurity and extreme food security crisis. Nigerians move and live in fear of been attacked by either bandits, armed robbers and kidnappers. They have been series of continued killings of innocent citizens day and night, most especially in the north western part of the country (SOKAZA) as the analogy implies “Sokoto, Kastina, and Zamfara Axis.
This has made ordinary citizens to flee from their beloved homes and seek refuge in IDP camps as internally displaced people in their home country, without proper food, clean water, sanitation or hygiene products, not to talk about shelter in this raining season. Life is becoming very unbearable for the ordinary citizen, as most of the people in IDP camps cannot afford to buy bread. This has plunged the ordinary citizens into an unimaginable vulnerability status which have made young teenagers and women and girls to be very prone to serious exploitation by those who control the country’s resources.
It is recorded that the unemployment rate is on a slow and steady increase from
4.2%, to an increase of 0.1% from the figure recorded in Q1 2023 (4.1%) according to statista.
This is the time for the youths to unite in one single voice, irrespective of tribe and religion, to call on our leaders to do the needful in tackling these serious demonic challenges that have been eating our people from within.
They have been calls for peaceful demonstrations across the nation which have been fueled by the lack of concerns and serious attention by the government to tackle the predominant issues bedeviling the nation, citizens lament the poor increase in minimum wage, high cost of governance and the continues lavish and luxurious lifestyle that the powerful and elite engage in while flaunting their expensive toys and gadgets bought by the tax payers money in the eyes of the poor.
One major cause of unemplent is the disparity between job opportunities and the growing number of young people entering the labor market each year. Additionally, limited access to quality education and skill development programmes further exacerbates this issue.
This is a clarion call to the entire nigerian youth to come out in mass and express our democratic rights through a display of a peaceful demonstration, this is the time to show active patriotism, courage and vigour.
"A rise o compatriot", This call is way bigger than us, it is for the people in the IDP camps who can’t afford to sleep under the rain. It is for our grandparents, uncles and aunties in the villages who can‘t afford transport fare to the city due to high cost of transport caused by the removal of fuel subsidy, which happens to be the only collective dividend we all enjoy as Nigerians.
Muhammad Umar Faruk is an OAP, a development journalist, a disaster manager from Gombe State Nigeria.
