The excuse about unemployment being responsible for an increase in crime has long lost its currency not just in Nigeria but also internationally. At best, there is correlation between crime and unemployment but this correlation is not strong enough to establish causation at a general level.
There may be cases in which persons have been pushed into crime because of their economic circumstances, including their failure to hold down a job but there are by far too many cases in which persons are unemployed and not taken to crime. As such unemployment cannot be treated as a causative factor for crime, and it should not be made into an excuse for criminal activity.
This excuse acts as a justification for elements that opt out of honest work and instead seek employment in criminal enterprises. As long as these persons are able to avoid being caught and prosecuted for criminal activity, there will be the incentive to continue to commit crimes. The greatest disincentive to crime is not jobs but it is the likelihood of being caught and subject to lawful punishment.
A stronger argument therefore would be that the increase in crime rate in Nigeria is a reflection of a downgrading of security within the society or the failure of the security services to increase the likelihood of persons engaged in crime being caught.
Excuses about unemployment will not aid in that process. On the contrary such excuses can serve as a justification for those who intend to make their living from robbing, cheating and fleecing hardworking and innocent people.

Nonsense article, the major cause of crime is desperation resulting mainly from lack of employment opportunities.


A man/woman who is gainfully employed and living comfortably won't take to crime, most of those who took to crimes did because because the country, government failed them.