I really do hope that President Tinubu sends a team of ministers to Germany soon to study how they completed the most successful public works programme ever. Their Reich Autobahn initiative ended unemployment overnight

Ayo Akinfe

[1] As the deteriorating economic conditions continue to bite, a lot of our youths are looking for a way out. Many are opting to Japa and many are resorting to crimes like kidnapping

[2] No matter how you cut it, we desperately need a public works programme to soak up youth unemployment. By my calculations, the government needs to create about 20m jobs overnight

[3] As things stand, Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder as we have a chronic youth disenfranchisement crisis on our hands. I found stark evidence of this recently when I read a report about that kidnapping taking place on the Abuja-Kaduna highway. According to an account provided by one of the freed hostages, the kidnappers who abducted her numbered several hundred. They were mainly teenagers and their leader was only about 26 years old

[4] She said the kidnappers communicated with their victims in Hausa and with each other in Fulfude. Basically, they could not speak English. With no formal education, job prospects, training, visible skills set or future, these youths have no other way of surviving other than crime. It is thus no surprise that they have resorted to kidnapping

[5] Apparently, these heavily armed youths who all have AK47s have created a whole village in the bush that serves as their base. No doubt, with time, their ranks will continue to swell as more hapless youths who see no future for themselves join them

[6] This is how Boko Haram began and how the Fulani herdsmen saga started. Youths with no future are offered the power of an AK47, money and authority, so grab it with both hands. It actually gives them some dignity

[7] It should fall to the federal minister for labour and employment to address this crisis. I simply do not see any other way of it than a public works plan. There is no way the private sector can create that number of jobs in such a short time

[8] What Nigeria desperately needs right now is a Reichsautobahn programme. This was a scheme introduced in Germany in the 1930s when unemployment was about 50%. People were mobilised to work on major infrastructural programmes up and down the country, building roads, railway lines, dams, power plants, water treatment works, drainage systems, etc

[9] Although not ideal as the working conditions did not match those of skilled craftsmen, the Reichsautobahn project served the purpose of getting Germany’s youths off the streets, reducing crime and building up the nation’s infrastructure. Many of the autobahns (highways) they built back in the 1930s are still standing today

[10] Given that Nigeria has 16m officially unemployed people and an annual infrastructural deficit of $100bn, I do not see us having any alternative than an Reichsautobahn programme. It will get our youths to lay down their arms in exchange for work, as well as build roads, power plants, housing estates, railway networks, etc and address our insecurity crisis. We need to come up with a catchy name to give the programme, one that will galvanise and motivate our youth!