The presidential candidate of the Sustainable National Party (SNP), Ahmed Buhari, yesterday expressed his view on the trend of youths engaging in sports betting to make a living.
He said it was a shame for Nigeria that sports betting has become the source of livelihood for millions of youths owing to the level of unemployment in the country.
Speaking when he featured as a guest on Channel TV’s Politics Today in Abuja, Buhari said: “The only thing that is keeping millions of young people on the streets going is that they turn to God, they forget that there is a government and they hold onto sports betting. Thanks to Akin Alabi for what he is doing.”
According to him, the government needed to make more electric power available for the private sector to thrive and create job opportunities for the teeming youths as a way of reversing the trend.
He said: “We need to understand that government has no business doing business. The primary goal of government is to put regulations on how the private sector runs itself, and make sure there are checks and balances to ensure that the private sector is sustainable.
“Why we cannot generate the internally generated revenue we ought to is because most of the companies are paying more for fuel (power) than they are paying for anything else. Power is actually the missing element to jumpstart this economy and create jobs.(for the youths).”
He also said that opening up the oil sector and allowing private individuals invest in and run the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, would move the economy forward in terms of revenue generation and efficiency.
His words: “I think we should open-up the NNPC, put it on the stock market and see how individuals can actually buy shares into the NNPC.
“As we are running it right now, I don’t see why the government should be at the helm of affairs when it comes to the NNPC. It is holding us back and putting too much pressure on how things are supposed to be done. The most scary part is that there is no accountability and transparency. This has killed efficiency from this sector.”
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