Elder statesman and leader of Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) Youths Association and Assistant Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai OFR, has blamed agitations across the country on the failure of the Buhari administration to engage Nigerians in productive activities.
Yakasai who made the statement in an Interview with Daily Sun, said an "idle mind is the devil’s workshop", and since millions of Nigerians are unemployed, there's plenty of room to 'talk rubbish.'
He also disagreed with the claims that the country is divided, pitching his argument on the fact that the country has "over 500 ethnic groups" who are unique in their own ways.
Asked why the country is so charged up with agitations, mutual suspicion, animosity, hatred, he replied, "Unemployment; when people have nothing to do they begin to talk rubbish. Most of these people are unemployed."
On claims that the country is divided, he responded, "It is not true that we are divided. We are so many. Have you forgotten that this country has over 500 ethnic groups and God created them different from one another? Let us not close our eyes to this reality.
"There is no nation with this kind of number of people coming together in a small area territory like Nigeria, and then we are operating democracy and there is freedom of expression and association and so on.
On which region should produce the next president, he said, "It is not time yet. We have three more years from now.
"They say, idle mind is the devil’s workshop. If people are not doing anything, they are not engaged in any good vocation, they begin to think of all sorts of things. This is why I want the government of Nigeria, federal, state and local to initiate policies that will keep Nigerians busy; give employment to everybody and if they are busy, they will not talk rubbish."