Unemployment, one of the causes of insecurity in Nigeria –Alatoye, Ahmadiyya Amir

BISIRIYU OLAOYE

The Head (Amir) Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Nigeria, Barrister Alatoye Folrunso AbdulAzeez, has identified unemployment as one of the factors responsible for insecurity in the country.

Barrister Alatoye stated this while speaking on the state of the nation during a chat with newsmen at Ojokoro Lagos headquarters of Ahmadiyya.

The Ahmadiyya Head stated that if the youths were fully and meaningfully engaged, the rate of insecurity would be greatly reduced.

Pointing out that an idle hand is the devil’s workshop, the Islamic cleric said: “Unemployment is one of the reasons for the escalation of insecurity in the country. Our people, especially the youths, must be engaged. Government must pay attention to employment. Youths need to be engaged meaningfully and government should try to mop up where to recruit people for employment opportunity”.

The Amir, who called for the plugging of the source of the equipment the insurgents or terrorists are using to perpetuate their dastardly acts, said the insurgents were not fighting for Islam but for their pecuniary motives.

”We must understand that those people (insurgents or terrorists) are not fighting for Islam but for power, resources and to declare caliphates. Their agitation has nothing to do with religion but to carve out territory and acquire the mineral resources in that territory for their selfish ends.

“The Federal Government should intensify efforts at totally decimating the activities of the insurgents and bandits, kidnappers or whatever name they call them in order to ensure the security of lives and property in the country”, Barrister Alatoye said.

According to him, the Federal Government must be seen to have been serious with this “because one of the Khalifats said ‘Deceptive diplomacy is totally incompatible with the principles of Islam’”.

The legal practitioner, who is also a tax consultant, decried the incessant foreign loans being obtained by Nigeria, advised the Federal Government to avoid ‘excessive loans’ in the interest of the country’s economy.

He said: “Government should avoid the issue of excessive loans because the cost of servicing the loans is killing and humongous. We don’t need a loan for anything. Government should adopt private participation (PPP) or BOT (Build Operate and Transfer) policy as alternative and we must be trustworthy to make this alternative work”.

“We don’t need a loan.  A  situation where we use the proceeds from oil and non-oil to service the loans is unthinkable. If we are trustworthy, we should spend money on education and health”, Ahmadiyya Amir stated.

Amir said it was unfortunate that the Jama’at could not hold its annual programme (Jalsa Salana) last year because of the COVID-19 ravaging the world. ”This is because we have to abide by the laid-down COVID-19 protocols as a law-abiding Islamic organization”, he added.

However, he said if the event had taken place, his message to the occasion would have been the need for Nigerians to pray for the Federal Government to let it take reasonable steps that would take Nigeria out of the woods “and to demonstrate to people this is how to do things as a change agent”.

“I would have told the authorities to follow the footsteps of Prophet Mohammed who liberated the oppressed and the weak and it would have been my message to the youths to come up if actually, they want to be President in the next political dispensation instead of embarking on the unnecessary protest.

“I’m opposed to reactionary life; be together as a team and come up to structure how to run the country. It is not when an old school becomes President that you start protests. Don’t be reactionary, be proactive. Youths should come together”, the Amir further said.

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