Former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, yesterday urged governments to place unemployed graduates on monthly stipends.
He
said: “Graduate unemployment has reached an emergency situation.
Something has to be done fast to save our nation. For starters, I do not
think paying them allowances, no matter how little, will cripple the
economy.”
Kalu
drew attention to the increasing number of graduates involved in
criminal activities and attributed this to their inability to fend for
themselves.
“Hard
times have forced many young men and women to carry weapons. The
society sees them as kidnappers and armed robbers. Ironically, theirs is
a different opinion. These graduates feel they are militants,
liberators and even revolutionaries, “the ex-governor said.
According
to him, “we should not allow the situation to ruin us all. Most
revolutionaries in the past were graduates. Vladimir Lenin, who led the
Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917, was a lawyer. Mao Zedung of China attended
university. Cuba’s Fidel Castro is also a lawyer. His friend, Ernesto
Che Guevara, who was executed in Bolivia in 1967, was an Argentine
medical doctor.”
As
a way out, Kalu said: “Something close to the post-World War marshal
plan has to be adopted. George Marshall was US Army Chief during World
War II, yet as the Secretary of State, after the crisis, he felt the
best way to guarantee global peace was to reconstruct Europe, especially
the war-ravaged countries. Governments should learn from that. The best
way to keep young graduates away from crime is to offer them an
alternative.”
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