By Linus Aleke
The founder of Africado Foundation, Mr. Richardson Ojeka has said that unemployment is fueling terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, cyber crime and other sundry security threats across the federation.
Mr. Ojeka said this over the weekend at a symposium organized by Africado Foundation, in collaboration with Plan International, Christian Aid, Actionaid, Youthhub Africa and others, to commemorate 2022 International Youth Day, in Abuja.
He called on government at all levels to address the twin scourge of unemployment and poverty as a prelude to addressing the security challenges confronting the country.
He also disclosed that his organization will use technology to pull million of youths out of poverty, and unemployment in Nigeria.
According to him, “Our vision is to end unemployment in Nigeria, unemployment is a serious problem. The major problem we are having today is security threats, banditry, terrorism, cyber crime, and kidnapping. All these crimes are unemployment related. So, we are trying to solve unemployment problem in Nigeria and to solve that problem we need to use technology. Give technology to the underserved people, give technology to the less privileged and it can be a tool for national transformation. To be a billionaire in the oil and gas industry, you need to have tankers, and other infrastructures, but to be a billionaire in the tech industry, you just need a phone or a laptop and data. Cheap entry, and this is the way we believe that we can solve the problem of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria, using technology and even giving it to those that deserve it, the less privileged and the underserved. This is what we do in Africado”.
He charge youths in the country to imbibe culture of delayed gratification to enable them succeed in whatever they are doing.
According to him, “Those who are in a haste will end up as waste. Young people need to understand the importance of delayed gratification. We started the foundation in 2014, just after my secondary school, my plan is not to be a billionaire tomorrow, I just wanted to help out and support others and today by the grace of God, we have 24 staff in the organization and I believe that we can do more. Any one who wants to make money through short cut are not ready for the future”.
He concluded that the youth have a very vital role to play, in deciding who Nigeria’s next president will be, in 2023.
