Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
The National Executive Council (NEC) has set up a committee charged with the mandate of addressing unemployment and national security in the country.
This was part of the council’s resolutions at its meeting on Monday, vice-president Yemi Osinbajo’s spokesperson, Laolu Akande, said in a mail sent to newsmen, Tuesday.
The decision was taken on the backdrop of issues triggered by the weeks-long #EndSARS protests where young Nigerians sought an end to police brutality, before it was hijacked by hoodlums who have caused chaos across the country in the past week.
Headed by the vice-president, the committee has the governors of Sokoto, Borno State, Niger, Ondo, Ebonyi, Delta States as members.
The committee, Akande said, is expected to engage “relevant stakeholders” to chart a way forward on “employment, social safety net programmes, and national unity among other key issues of concern” for the country.
This, he said will be done alongside engaging with security agencies, including at state level, “to provide compensation for those who have incurred losses in the last few weeks and a framework for social security to deal with the problem of unemployment and poverty in the country.”
Four in 10 Nigerians are poor and the country’s unemployment rate rose to 27.1% in the second quarter of 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Since the protests for police reforms turned violent last week, the country has experienced a series of destruction, large-scale looting of public and private warehouses, and loss of lives, including those of security officials.
To this end, Akande said NEC urged the CACOVID leadership, a private initiative committed to given palliatives to Nigerians to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, “to come out with an independent statement on the status of the distribution of palliatives donated to States which should clearly explain the circumstances behind the delay in the distribution of food items domiciled in warehouses across the country.”