A former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, has declared that the Nigerian economy has failed. READ ALSO: Federal Government Suspends $22.7 Billion External Borrowing Plan
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 70th birthday celebration of poet and author, Odia Ofeimun, themed “Taking Nigeria Seriously: A Conference in Honour of Odia Ofeimun.”
According to the former governor, the unemployment situation in the country speaks volume of the poor state of Nigeria’s economy.
Mimiko said: “Again, you don’t need to tell anybody that the economy in Nigeria has failed.
“The level of failure of our economy is on the streets.”
Stressing on the negativity of unemployment, Mimiko, while dismissing the reports of the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics on Nigeria’s unemployment rate, said if everything is factored into the mix, graduate unemployment should be above eighty per cent.
The former governor posited: “That’s why there is cultism, there is violence.
“The young ones have no Biodun Jeyifos, no G.G Daras, there is no Osofisan to look up to. They only look up to Marley… Marley Naira or whatever.”
On the issue of restructuring, Mimiko contended that various developments across different parts of the country speak of an urgent need to restructure the nation.
He noted that the establishment of the Amotekun security outfit in the South-west spurred the South-south regional security initiative and other regions have since joined the fray.
He said: “Restructuring, whether we like it or not, is an idea whose time has come. And the signs are absolutely clear. The level of insecurity in Nigeria today is self-evident. You don’t really need any “Fulanisation” mystification to see it. Nigeria is insecure. The dialectics of insecurity in Nigeria is pointing in only one direction: a centralised police system cannot police Nigeria.
“And it is so evident; it is so compelling, that even the high priests of unitary government could not stop the Amotekun phenomenon. There was no way they could stop it. As a matter of fact, the day the Attorney General made a pronouncement against Amotekun that was the catalyst the South-west needed to actually endorse the Amotekun phenomenon.”
The event, held at the Julius Berger Hall of the University of Lagos campus, was chaired by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola.
