Poverty, Poor Leadership Turning Young Nigerians Into Criminals – Gwadabe
By Abdul Hassan
Colonel Lawal Gwadabe (rtd)
The former Military administrator of Niger state, Colonel Lawal Gwadabe (rtd) has called for sustained investment in education and human capital development to arrest the security challenges in the country.
He said that poverty and poor leadership is turning young Nigerians into criminals and creating a hopeless future for the teeming youth population.
Colonel Gwadabe stated this at the graduation of 50 students of Hajiya Habibatu Gwadabe Madarasatu Littahfiz Waddiratuil Islamiya, on Sunday in Kaduna.
The retired Colonel also said that the prevailing socio-economic challenges in the country are posing greater threats to the future of the young generation of Nigerians.
“It is sad that today we have an army of out-of-school children roaming the streets turning into criminals. The situation is created by poverty and poor leadership in our society. We must find a lasting solution to this, otherwise the future of our youth will continue to be bleak,”” he said
According to him, moral and technical education are essential ingredients for behaviour molding and making young people more productive to the nation.
He said the task of salvaging the current hopeless situation lies on the shoulders of government and wealthy individuals particularly in the north, where the education and welfare of the less privileged has been neglected.
“Our wealthy people prefer to invest in partisan politics than human development. There is the need for change,” he said.
On the graduating students, Colonel Gwadabe described their performance as commendable and pledged to continue rendering all support to the school.
“”I am planning to source for funding to expand the physical structure of the school next year, God willing,” he added.
Earlier, the Director of the school, Sheikh Muhammad AbdulKadir said the school, established by Col. Gwadabe to provide Islamic education, has achieved a lot in its 25 years history.
