A new report on the alarming rate of unemployment in Nigeria by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that more than half of Nigerian youths were unemployed in 2012.
This startling finding was contained in the “2012 National Baseline Youth Survey Report’’ issued on Tuesday in Abuja by the NBS in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of YouthsDevelopment.
“More than half, about 54 per cent of youth population were unemployed.
“Of this, females stood at 51.9 per cent compared to their male counterpart with 48.1 per cent wereunemployed,’’ the report said.
It said out of 46,836 youths recorded against different types of crimes, 42,071, representing 75.5 per cent were males, while the remaining 24.5 per cent were females.
“Among the 32 different crimes committed, Marijuana (Indian hemp) smoking has the highest figure, representing 15.7 per cent.
“This was followed by theft and murder with 8.1 and 7.4 per cent, respectively. The least committed crime was Immigration/Emigration representing 0.04 per cent.’’
The report said more than five million youths indicated they were involved in conflict resolution at one level of governance or the other.
“But the response of the youths shows that most of them are involved in conflict prevention at the community level representing 64.9 per cent, while 30.9 per cent are involved at the ward level.