Former speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has expressed dismay that the North bears nearly 90 per cent of the insecurity brunt of the country, with an estimated 100,000 northerners killed and over 3 million displaced in the North East alone in the past decade.
In addition, he said, no one has a record of northern lives lost to rural banditry, the farmer-harder clashes and ethno-religious conflicts, with the number growing exponentially, occasioned by urban violence unleashed by an increasing army of mostly jobless youths suffering from substance use disorder.
A statement by his media aide Turaki Hassan, made available to journalists in Bauchi yesterday, said Dogara stated this in a keynote address titled, "The Role Of Youth Leaderships In Warehousing The Youth Burge In The North For Development And Progress" organised by Zaar Youths Development Association (ZAYODA), Abuja branch.
Dogara said these were also in addition to the threat posed by school dropouts and out of School children, with a survey in 2015 putting the number of out of school children in the country at 13.2 million.
"The latest MlCS data tells us that 69 percent (9.1m) of out of school children in Nigeria are in the northern states. The problem is further compounded by the fact that the north, like other parts of Nigeria, is in a demographic transition."
According to him, the consequence of the "youth bulge" is that so many young people compete for a limited number of career opportunities, with those who lose out and fail to secure a place in society becoming frustrated, angry and violent as predicted.
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The former lawmaker observed that this set of young people easily surrender themselves to radicalisation. As the timeless adage goes, "an idle mind is the devil's workshop", saying that instead of the "youth bulge" being a blessing, it is fast leading to the swapping of roles of the youths from productive labourers to disaffected rebels.
"What is left for us is to work out how to channel this restive energy productively. By 2050, the population of the north is projected to hit 240 million people, out of which 156 million is projected to be young people of less than 29 years".
He queried, "How do we warehouse this demographic now and in the future? This is not the only question; it is every question.
"If we cannot find a place for them in society, how will they view us and the society they will live in? The situation is such that even the most incurable Northern optimist cannot sleep despite these grim statistics".
Dogara said, "When it comes to prosperity, the North has not fared well either. Even when the North was not under siege by terrorists, bandits and sundry criminals, we accounted for not less than 87% of the poverty burden in Nigeria."
The former speaker quoted a German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who once said, "The surest way to corrupt the youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
"Youth leaders across ethnic and religious lines must learn to build networks if they must be of any help in our efforts to combat insecurity in the north," he added.
