Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has identified the cause of banditry and insecurity in Nigeria.
Oshiomhole Said the closure of factories and retrenchment of workers in Nigeria were the major reasons for banditry and general insecurity in the country.
He said this at the 2nd Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, National Peace and Security Summit in Abuja, yesterday.
The former Edo Governor also noted that non-payment of the N30, 000 new minimum wage President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law was also responsible for lack of peace in the country.
He said: ‘’Who are the bandits? I suspect that those 35,000 workers whose factories have been closed in Kaduna city, those whose livelihood have been taken away, what are they doing?
“What will their children and grandchildren be doing now? It’s common sense to know that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
“I suspect that those Nigerians that we abandoned and not providing for them, as you can call them almajiris or beggars have all grown up.
“When you talk about unemployment, the biggest problem is having the biggest population of unemployable.
“When they deny workers such payment, can there be peace? I submit with the International Labour Organisation, ILO, that the condition for national peace and security does not necessarily need much bullet but decent jobs.
‘’But when you are at an environment where jobs are being killed, jobs that do not exist cannot even be decent.”
Banditry, kidnapping and general insecurity is currently on the rise across Nigeria.
While bandits are abducting and killing students in the North, unknown gunmen are attacking security personnel and government institutions in the Southeast.
Killer herdsmen are creating havoc in some states like Benue, Taraba and some parts of the Southeast.
