Not only will such a situation bring in penury and destitution, but will also lure the jobless into breach of law to make quick money. In the process, criminality will increase and peace will be threatened. They say an idle mind is a workshop for the devil.
Almost 40 per cent of the population, and by postulation, the jobless, reside in the Urban West Region. Can anyone imagine what might happen if that army of jobless youths got incited and raided shops at Darajani Street in Zanzibar Stone Town?
One way of dealing with this problem is to facilitate farmers by ensuring that their produce fetches good prices. Unfortunately, many youths shun agriculture and the government has failed to check that trend.
Pemba is the largest producer of cloves, the main agricultural export.