Addressing the unemployment menace

In a survey conducted by the Federal Ministry of Education sometimes in 2006, a very alarming rate of youth unemployment emerged in the country of over 60%, in which, although the figures might be higher now after three years, it is an indicator to the crisis in which this country finds itself. With a population of over 140 million and a youth population of 80 million, with 64 million unemployed, also with an estimated graduate turnover of over 600,000 graduates yearly, the Nigerian labour market is in crisis. We have every reason to sound an alarm bell especially in a situation where over 70% of working people are either unemployed or underemployed. For instance, in the same report by the Ministry of Education, it is estimated that only 4 million people were on paid employment, while over 60% of youth ages 15-29 are unemployed.
For the nation to get out of the current unemployment crisis according to Dr. Magnus Kpakol, the National Coordinator, Poverty Eradication Programme, 3 million jobs are needed annually. Dr. Kpakol said the nation has suffered a prolonged unemployment problem due to the disequilibrium in the demand and supply at the labour market. Unemployment in Nigeria has persisted for too long or even more than that. Since the economic crisis of the early 80s and late 80s, when the nation's economy took a turn for the worse as world petroleum prices tumbled, the Nigerian currency became devalued, corruption became rampant, and the population of Nigeria ballooned at a breathtaking pace which was compounded by the Structural Adjustment Programme. Large number of graduates from our educational institutions, most of who are without any adequate skill joined the labour market annually. This led to what we are seeing today of large number of people roaming the streets of major cities in search of jobs.
Our country is lucky to be endowed with diverse and scores of resources - both human and material. However, due to gross mismanagement, profligate spending, graft and adverse policies - sometimes misplaced priorities of various governments in Nigeria, these resources have not been optimally utilized on one hand and on the other they have not been adequately channelled to profitable investments to bring about maximum economic benefits. As a result of these, accumulated problems compounded the already existing problem. Today our country is faced with the problem of unemployment, poverty and energy crisis, which experts believe are the major causes of the ethnic and religious crises we see in the North on one hand and Niger-Delta unrest.
Unemployment is a societal problem in any nation. That is why in advanced countries of the world, employment is made part of the government agenda, which candidates for political office have to make an issue for them to be taken serious by the electorate. Short-term or frictional unemployment can be tolerated but prolonged unemployment promotes and aggravates societal income and expenditure inequality, poverty, hunger, disease, anarchy, hooliganism, armed robbery and other vices. Yours sincerely believes that even the boko haram crises that ravaged the Northern part of the country was caused by unemployment and lost of hope from our youth.
Economic growth, which is supposed to be a solution to the problems of unemployment and poverty, appears not to be so in Nigeria. Nigeria’s official statistics show that economic growth has not always been accompanied by decline in unemployment and poverty. In fact, economic growth has even contributed to what we are seeing today of massive unemployment and poverty which led some people to take arms and risk loosing their lives as we have witnessed recently.
We have to point out that the situation we found ourselves today is as a result of I-don’t-care-attitude and recklessness exhibited by our political leaders in the last ten years. This is evident in the way and manner they handle issues of national importance especially the non-implementation of budgets or diverting state resources for personal use. Since the inception of our democracy ten years ago, no single budget was implemented; in fact, it is even right to say that the country in the last few years was running a disorganised economy, where money was spent arbitrarily by an individual or group of individuals.
This attitude has to stop. We need to have a budget that can be fully implemented and at the same time address our social and economic problems. Our vision of 20: 2020 is only feasible when our politicians show real commitment to addressing our collapsed infrastructures, revive polytechnics and vocational centres, and encourage small scale industries. There is need also for governments at various levels to initiate a labour policy that can link education with the demand of the market. The government have to reinvent system that can empower our youth to meet the changing needs of the economy, market and the expectation of the society.
It is the opinion of this writer that if government is serious about addressing unemployment problem then serious measures needs to be taken. We keep emphasizing anytime that unemployment and poverty can never be solved by distributing motorcycles to party loyalists or dashing them money, which are all short term strategies. The government has to strengthen agencies like the National Directorate of Employment, which has the capacity to offer millions of Nigerians the skills and knowledge to be self employed and self-reliant. The NDE offer people vocational and skills acquisition courses after which they will be offered soft loans to go and start their own businesses. Only God knows how many people these set of people will train in turn. If carefully supervised and monitored it will go a long way in reducing the rate of unemployment in the country and also address the issue of boko haram and other crises that are trying to consume the nation. But to do that, our leaders have to focus on substance, not spin.