Yoruba Professionals Foundation (YPF) on Friday warned South-West Governors to prioritize jobs or watch insecurity get out of control.

Their position was contained in a statement by the President, Maxwell Adeleye and Director of Research and Strategy, Olawale Kadri.

YPF lamented the rate of unemployment, which it called “a major problem in Yoruba land”.

“A trillion naira budgetary allocation to Amotekun, Police and Army cannot quench insecurity where youth unemployment reigns supreme”, they noted.

The group said security challenges in the region posed a great threat to development and foreign direct investments.

“According to the United Nations data, over 69% of our population are below age 35 and unfortunately, the majority of crimes are perpetrated by people who fall between ages 20-35. This is the most active age in human life,” it said.

YPF also cited National Bureau of Statistics’ Q2 2020 data which puts the unemployment rate among young people (15-34years) at 34.9%, and the rate of underemployment for the same age group at 28.2%.

“This means we have over 63% of our active population not having any tangible employment and over 34% of them completely idle. This data is a telling indictment on the failure of leadership and lack of an adequate plan for citizenry and succession generation.

“To understand how bad this is, the unemployment rate in Venezuela is currently at 9.38%, in Papua New Guinea 4.50, South Africa 28.48%, Afghanistan 11.16, Honduras 5.23, Trinidad and Tobago 2.8%, Brazil 11.97%, Guyana 11.81%, El Salvador 4.2% and Syria 8.45%,” it added.

Comparing the statistics with Nigeria’s situation, YPF alerted that the country was sitting on gunpowder.

The statement called for entrepreneurial development policies and programmes for the youth to open new doors of opportunities, ventures and alliances.

YPF further urged the governments in South-West to provide a conducive environment and adequate support to help youths become self-reliant and employers of labour.