An industrialist, Dr. Chike Obidigbo has advocated the need for industrialization and massive employment to fight insecurity.
Obidigbo, the founder and managing director of Hardis and Dromedas Nigeria Limited, speaking on the massive unemployment in Anambra said, industrialisation and the rest of the productive sectors of the Anambra economy must be made to function in order to curb the massive unemployment rate in the state which he described as the worst in the entire country.
“We need jobs to fight insecurity. Someone without a job goes to steal and if he is not caught, he repeats it and if he is caught and jailed and he still has nothing else to do, he returns to the game. It is the only profession he knows.”
He advised the Anambra State governor, Dr. Charles Soludo to pay attention to the productive sector of the economy. “We are very low in agriculture; manufacturing and we are zero in tourism. All these sectors that can generate income for the government we have neglected but we have encouraged touts all over the place. If you went to the market to buy something, some people would ask you to pay for one thing or the other. This depresses the economy in grave ways. It causes massive movement of capital to the neighbouring Delta and Edo states.”
He commended the Anambra State governor for taking a step in making the state attractive to investors through some of its policies.
“The Igbo man has proven that he has mastered the art of trading but the government only needs to assist him in backward integration. Selling goods means that you are creating more jobs for manufacturing countries. When you manufacture you engage many people. Government should know that what you are importing you can produce. We need the environment to produce seamlessly,” he said.
He observed that the biggest problem industrialists have in this part of the world is that the government does not recognise the fact that it is its responsibility and duty to provide 100% employment for the employable members of the society, adding that the people in government tend to overlook a lot of things.
“If everyone has a job, it improves revenue as workers pay tax. The employed would have no time to rob and commit crimes.”