That unemployment has become a time bomb for our beloved country sufficiently came to the fore in the wake of the chaos and perplexity that trailed the botched recruitment exercise of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, in 2014. With thousands of job seekers turning out for an exercise that was meant to employ just a tiny fraction of the applicants, it became obvious that the unemployment situation in the country is no longer a child’s play.
A 2015 World Bank statistics indicates that 100 million Nigerians live in destitution while a recent data from the same body confirms Nigeria as one of the five poorest nations in the world. The nation’s high unemployment rate is partly responsible for this frightening statistics and heart breaking rating. That our country is in deep rooted unemployment web is further confirmed by the highlights of the Unemployment and Underemployment Watch for first quarter of 2015. According to the report, a total of 17.7 million people between ages 15 and 65 either unemployed or underemployed in the labour force in Q1 2015. The report further asserts that the number of unemployed people (861,110 people) in the first quarter 2015 was more than the number of employed people within the same period (504,596 persons).
The sad unemployment trend in the country has been on for long. Official figures from the Bureau of Statistics puts unemployment figure at about 20% (about 30million), but this number still did not include about 40million other Nigerian youths captured in World Bank statistics in 2009. By implication, it means that if Nigeria’s population is 140 million, then 50% of Nigerians are unemployed, or worse still, at least 71% of Nigerian youths are unemployed. This is particularly disturbing and counterproductive because at least 70% of the population of this country are youths.
Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and now Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, once revealed that while the Nigerian economy grew at the rate of seven percent for the past six years, unemployment has actually doubled at same period. He submitted that security crisis and internal uprising across the country were products of chronic poverty and mounting joblessness. So, unemployment has grown to become a monster with many faces. Many have become victims of drug addiction, rape cases, kidnapping and other such criminal vices, no thanks to unbearable unemployment situation.
In time past, things were different; choice jobs were selected by graduates and consequently unemployment rate was low or at best none existed. In Ibadan, Lagos, Onitsha, Kaduna, Enugu, Port Harcourt, there were industrial complexes where factories produced goods for both local and export purposes while an army of workers- skilled and non-skilled- daily earn a living from these factories. The industrialization wave of the 70s in Nigeria was so phenomenal that government had to introduce a number of measures including the Land Use Act in order to remove obstacles in the path of industries. Companies rushed to the universities every year and later to the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, camps to recruit skilled workers. Then, a certificate guaranteed a job, and a better life. This was the period when education was seen as a tool of social advancement. Even artisans had jobs to do.
Those were the good old days. If only we could re-strategize and re-order our priorities as a nation, we could reignite the good old days. To do this will, no doubt, involves lots of hard work. It is, therefore, imperative that enough is done to fix the national economy, most especially the power sector. A survey of recently apprehended criminals in the country will reveal that most of them are unemployed artisans whose businesses have been crippled by the energy crises in the country.
The best systematic approach to reducing crime in any society is through the provision of an enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive and catalyze employment generation. We must begin to make things work. It is therefore not out of place to consider massive employment generation as an issue of major focus on national development and economic growth plan of the federal government. All levels of governments in the country must redouble their efforts in taking off our teeming youth off the streets. Proactive steps must be taken to induce job creation initiatives that are capable of providing employment opportunities to our restless youths. Governments across the country could creatively provide employment opportunities.
Interestingly, the Lagos State government is already leaning towards this path. It is in an attempt to creatively tackle the unemployment situation in the society that the Ambode administration recently established a N25bn Employment Trust Fund, ETF, to address unemployment and promote wealth creation through entrepreneurial development. The scheme is hinged on a strategic plan by the state government to make an annual contribution of N6.25billion for four years by which time the Fund would have reached the projected N25billion mark. In order to make the management of the Fund transparent and professional, the state government has equally appointed a Board of Trustees to administer its affairs. Former Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru heads the Board.
Hopefully, the Lagos ETF would go a long way in empowering the growing army of the unemployed in the society. It is a step in the right direction. To banish poverty in our society, we must do all it takes to empower the less privileged. Equally, we must help people with proven skills and talents, especially the youths, to productively make use of same. It is only in doing this that we can continually be creating wealth. On the long run, wealth creation will help in tackling the twin issues of poverty and unemployment. This is the foundation upon which developed economies of the world anchor their prosperity. This is the rationale for the Lagos ETF.
To avert imminent disaster in the country, governments at all levels need to creatively fashion out programmes that would ensure that the youths are able to contribute positively to nation building. For this to be effective, governments at all levels and other stakeholders need to promote social entrepreneurship among all groups in the society. This could be done through the establishment of internship programmes aimed at giving interested people the opportunity to learn valuable skills in contemporary fields such as information communication technology, fund development, public relations, program development, management and much more. With a comatose national economy and a frightening unemployment statistics, we cannot afford to take the issue of wealth creation lightly. Therefore, all hands need to be on deck if we are to urgently rescue our nation from the deadly grip of socio-economic destitution.
Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.
