The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Vice Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, says Nigeria will be faced with a crisis if the nation does not create jobs.
Obi made this known while addressing issues on economic policies at the NEDG/BON Vice-Presidential debate on Friday.
The former governor lamented the increasing rate of unemployment in the country and economic losses incurred by Nigeria.
Obi stressed the need for more investment in education and the creation of jobs adding that “as long as we don’t create jobs and have the number of unemployed youths that we have today, we are going to have a crisis.”
According to him, addressing economic issues should be given great priority as revamping Nigeria’s economy is hinged on education and employment not corruption.
He said, “In 2015 unemployment rate was 24 percent but today it is 40.
“In 2015, we were attracting 21billion dollars in foreign direct investment; we attracted only 12 last year.
“Our GDP was five hundred and twenty in 2015 and per-capital was two thousand five hundred, today it is under 1900.
“Our stock market has lost over two trillion in one year
“We now live in a country where we have the highest number of poor people in any nation 87 million and growing six percent every minute.
“Our country today has the highest number of out of school children in the world
“In terrorism, we have moved from number 7 to number 3 just behind Iran and Afghanistan
“Our inequality has worsened, our misery index has worsened, our stress index we are now 148 over 149.
“If you look at all these, it hinges on two things from studies, and that is education and unemployment.
“Fighting corruption is not an economic policy, it is not that you can’t fight corruption, but you can fight it more aggressively while addressing economic issues.”
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