Jude Abaga a.k.a M.I, A Nigerian singer and rapper, has explained why some Nigerian youths engage in internet fraud, ritual killings, and other crimes.
Abaga, also known as M.I, believes that Nigerian youths are not lazy.
The musician spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the Ogun TechSummit, which was organized by an IT expert, Olaniyi Ayoola, in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State.
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In response to the question of why some Nigerian youths have chosen to engage in Yahoo-yahoo, ritual killings, and other heinous crimes rather than engage in legal businesses, Abaga retorted that the situation was caused by the youths’ inability to secure jobs.
“Nigeria’s youth have been looking for work.” Anyone who claims to be lazy must be able to look at the statistics. “You can’t just make that kind of conjecture without having the economic framework to back it up.”
When unemployment is high, you can’t say that young people are lazy and don’t want to work. The unemployment rate indicates that there are no jobs available. Looking at the job market, you will notice that there has been significant gross unemployment for a long time. “Whenever there is a high crime rate, there is a tendency for there to be a high unemployment rate, which is what we are experiencing.”
“However, the high crime rate does not reflect young people’s attitudes.” It indicates that there is an ecosystem in which they have no opportunity to work.
“And because they can’t work and have to eat, they have to find a way to survive.” That’s what we’re seeing in Nigeria right now,” he said.
Abaga, on the other hand, advised the youth to take advantage of the opportunities provided by information technology.
He advocated for more collaboration between “creatives and the tech space,” saying, “I think the creatives are sort of left as the unserious people of society.” What we want to demonstrate today is that creatives improve everything. They are in charge of the technology sector.”
