A year and seven months, Mr. Solomon Dalong, Minister of Youth and Sports in the Federal Government of Nigeria, assured that the All Progressives Congress (APC) would begin the payment of 5,000 Naira pledged to unemployed Nigerian youth during the election campaign , Starting in 2016. If one can only welcome the good intentions of the Minister of Youth, it is more important to question the meaning and value of N 5,000 for adult citizens for a month rather than raving about fulfilling a campaign promise from the ruling party. Will the payment of N 5000 to Nigerian youth create jobs and solve the problems of poverty? The APC and the Minister of Youth and Sports do not tell Nigerians how an adult citizen will survive with N 5,000 per month until next general election and voting for their party in 2019.

The Minister of Youth and Sports and the APC should consider the challenges of unemployment and think about an appropriate approach to create jobs and stop mocking Nigerian youths. We were expecting elites in the power to bring development through the transformation of the economy. The democratic space in which the APC operates should not be hostile. They should create consensus around the development priorities that can transform our economy.

The ability of the APC to lead our affairs, build strong institutions, create space for civil society organizations and strengthen the capacity of our citizens to participate in governance will be determining factors in measuring its capacity to generate the development it preaches and not the distribution of N 5000.

Jobs can not be created and our economy transformed unless enormous investments are made in education and health, that inclusive growth be promoted, that rural infrastructure be developed to limit desertification in the nation, that massive investments are made in the industry, that human skills are abundant, and that credit is available at low interest rates. The question, then, is not so much to pay 5000 N per month to young people, but what policies and development models should be put in place to create jobs, stimulate development and transform young unemployed into employees.

Do the authorities know that one way to keep their N 5000 and start redefining a new path for development is to place industrialization at the heart of the development process? Without industrialization, we can not build an economy capable of providing employment opportunities and ending poverty. Apparently, all countries that have succeeded in creating jobs and reducing poverty have done so through concrete industrial strategies that have created sustainable and decent jobs.

We expected the APC to reshape our political system and create democratic structures in which we will have debates about the issues we face and the choices that need to be made. The APC has shown that it is not geared to the concerns of citizens; Their ability to understand what is happening in our society is weak. Membership in the party is mainly motivated by cronyism.

I am particularly concerned about our rate of poverty, unemployment and insecurity. The APC does not seem to have understood that if the youth did not go down the street, it is because she still believes that her sufferings will be handled by Buhari. We can expect a crisis of legitimacy that will further degenerate into insecurity. The APC has no choice but to act and make the right choices to restore public confidence in the state. The eventual failure of the APC will be a threat to our democracy, especially since many Nigerians placed a high esteem in them.

It is not a taboo to give unemployed Nigerians N 5000 per month, but the youth minister and the CPA must understand that there is a lot of work to be done to fight unemployment. The aspiration to create jobs is not enough; what matters most is how to create jobs. What the APC does not know is that Rwanda and Mauritius have worked hard for their people; That Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara and Amilcar Cabral have shown that you can only improve the lives of citizens through a determined leadership that the APC needs to acquire.

Creating jobs and fighting unemployment goes beyond the N 5000 model. Certainly, it is a campaign promise, but you can substitute for this raw model a better model of job creation with citizen participation. It is morally reprehensible and unacceptable for a youth minister who allegedly works for the well-being of Nigerian youth to promote a monthly "alms" of N 5000 as a means of combating youth unemployment.

Source: http://www.up9ja.com/2017/07/apc-and-5000-naira-payment-to.html