Baraje chides APC over insecurity

A former National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, at the weekend, frowned at the way the APC-led government is handling the issue of security in the country.

Baraje said he had been keeping quiet because he was not proud of what had been happening.

He said this in Ilorin on the sideline of the graduation ceremony of students of Baraje Centre for Arabic and Islamic Studies at Gerewu area in Ilorin, the state capital.

He decried the rate at which insecurity was allegedly spreading to every part of the country, saying it had gone worse due to high level of unemployment in Nigeria.

He, therefore, advised that the issue needed holistic approach from all relevant authorities in government to bring it under control.

He linked insecurity to the rate of unemployment and poverty in the country, adding that “records of arrested suspects have shown that 30 to 50 per cent of those perpetrating criminality in Nigeria are foreigners who are simply capitalising on joblessness of teeming Nigerian youths and enticed them with tokens to get necessary information and be partners.

“The situation now is unlike in the past when PDP was in power and getting Nigerian youths busy with different activities through YES, Sure-P and other empowerment programmes.”

Baraje, therefore, charged the APC-led Federal Government to look more inwardly and come up with different initiatives that would get youths engaged mentally and physically, saying that was the only way to solve the problem of insecurity.

“The APC-led Federal Government should recruit youths across the country, give them quasi military training and upon completion of their training deploy them to man Nigerian borders. The nation’s porous borders should be manned by patriotic youths to check the illegal entry into the country by aliens,” he said.