Tackle insecurity to boost foreign investment, create jobs, group tells FG

The Committee on Youth Mobilisation and Sensitisation has called on the Federal Government to tackle issues of insecurity in the country in order to boost direct foreign investment.
Obinna Nwaka, Director General, CYMS, made the call when the group appeared on a Personality Interview Programme of News Agency of Nigeria Forum, on Sunday in Abuja.
Nwaka said foreign investors would not come to invest their money in an environment that is not secured, because of uncertainty of getting returns from their investments.
According to him, every good business person prefers a predictable and serene environment to invest their money.
He said the government must do all it could to ensure that the country was seen to be peaceful by the international community to boost the confidence of those willing to invest in the country.
Nwaka while speaking on issues affecting youths in the country, said that unemployment was critical and must also be tackled by the government.
He advised that the government should ensure that all its agencies undergoing recruitment should provide a level playing ground for all citizens, so that the people who are qualified could be given employment.
He said: “They should not hijack it from above and they should allow the Federal Character Commission, the Senate, the Ministry of Employment, Labour and Productivity to also be part of the recruitment processes.
“With this, people who deserve to be employed will be employed, people who have the passion to serve in the military or para-military will be given opportunity to serve in the military.
“Not people who don’t have the passion but because they have a godfather in the government, after giving them the employment they stay back at home they don’t go to the war front.”
He said the issue of ‘godfatherism’ should be eradicated from recruitment and every citizen should be given the same opportunity to show their capability in any job.
Nwaka said that President Muhammadu Buhari should endeavour to put someone with detail knowledge of agriculture to serve as the minister.
He said this was because agriculture seems to be the only sector for now that could ensure adequate employment for young people.
The group leader added that the young people are now willing to make themselves relevant in the agricultural sector.
He said: “So, these fundamental issues, security, and ensuring a level playing ground in recruitment processes and agriculture are very crucial.
“If the Federal Government can look into these three key issues, I believe the level of unemployment and crimes will reduce in this country.
“Major problem confronting the youths is lack of proper engagement, once they are engaged restiveness and crimes will reduce.”
He urged the Federal Government to also monitor its Social Investment Scheme to ensure its sustainability.
He said the social investment programme was commendable but appealed to the government not to politicise it but ensure that the poor people that it was meant for benefited from it.
According to him, the programme is good but the only way youths will benefit from it is when the programme is not politicised.
He said: “The people who are supposed to benefit from the programme if they are not given adequate attention that means the programme will not be sustainable.
“And again on empowerment, three months ago government approved some billions of naira, which the Ministry of Budget for now has not started working on, to integrate more unemployed youths into the social investment programme.
“The scheme is okay but the scheme needs to be monitored, why we say so is because there are so many people who are beneficiaries of that scheme who are also with government agencies.
“There are so many people who are serving youth corps members, which is not supposed to be, so many people who are beneficiaries of that scheme who are not even contributing to the scheme itself.”
The youth leader stressed that the empowerment scheme should be centred on the youths, especially those who have just graduated and anyone above 40 years of age should not be part of the scheme.
He, therefore, called on the government to take steps to monitor and ensure that the scheme serves only those it was meant to serve in the first place.
The Committee of Youth on Mobilisation and Sensitisation is a youth advocacy group set up to promote youth awareness on government policies and programmes with the aim of supporting good governance and youth empowerment.
The group include Civil Society Organisations who came together to champion youth development course to ensure that they give the youths a huge sense of belonging through advocacy at the grassroots level and facilitate empowerment programmes for youths.