A cleric, Archbishop Emmanuel Chukwuma, has called on South-East leaders to use modern agriculture and agro-allied entrepreneurship to address youth unemployment in the zone.
Chukwuma, who is the Archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), made the call while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Wednesday.
The archbishop spoke against the backdrop of the growing unemployment among the youth in the South-East.
According to him, every people-oriented leader in the zone must be genuinely concerned on the living conditions and welfare of the youth.
He said that as leaders “we owe the youth conducive environment to eke out a sustainable daily livelihood, especially with modern agriculture and agro-allied practices.
“When we completely sort out the issue of engaging every idle hand in the zone, almost 80 per cent of the challenges and agitation of the zone is solved,” he said.
Chukwuma noted that there was a need to engage the youth in modern farming, agro-allied business to ensure “no youth is idle within our neighbourhoods’’.
“There is a need for us leaders to come together and find ways to sort out the unemployment challenge among our youths in the zone holistically through opportunities provided by modern agricultural practices.
“An idle hand is the devil’s workshop. So, as leaders, we must check idleness that leads to other challenges.
We have many entrepreneurship engagements but I think that agriculture and agro-allied businesses are very important.
“We cannot be self-reliant if as a zone iwe cannot produce enough food to feed ourselves,” he said.
The archbishop said that the Anglican Communion in Enugu had engaged hundreds of youths in modern agricultural and agro-allied businesses, as well as other entrepreneurship engagements. (NAN)