Battling Unemployment @ 51

Emeka Worgu, Minister of Labour

Unemployment in Nigeria is seen as a major underlying factor for violence and insecurity
By Marcel Okoro
Since the early fifties when oil was first discovered in Nigeria, the country has potentially remained one of the richest countries in Africa. But the most dominant features of the polity are unemployment and poverty. Unemployment has been a time bomb in the richly endowed nation especially since 1980s when the economy took a turn for the worst. As world petroleum prices tumbled, Nigeria’s currency was devalued, corruption became rampant and population ballooned at a breathtaking pace.
Nigeria’s growing unemployment has become a major concern to many economists and analysts as the figures increasingly suggest a dwindling potential. Official figures from the Bureau of Statistics put unemployment at about 20 per cent (30 million), but this figure still did not include about 40 million other Nigerian youths captured in the World Bank statistics in 2009.
By this, it means that if Nigeria’s population is 140 million, then 50 per cent of Nigerians are unemployed. This is particularly disturbing and counter productive because at least 70 per cent of the population of this great West Africa country are youths. By implication, considering recent events in the Middle East where unemployment and poverty, among other factors, played a key role in the uprising which swept some governments out of power, one can only say that Nigeria’s unemployment problem poses a threat to her development, security and peaceful coexistence.
Sources informed the magazine that it is not out of place to consider massive employment generation as an issue of major focus of national development and economic growth plan of the Federal Government.
Several Nigerian economists argues that employment can only be generated from increased economic activity. But taking a closer look at how developed countries like the United States and Canada started Europe, it is obvious, according to analysts that this argument is flawed. This is because economic activities can also be generated from massive employment.
Olusegun Aganga, former Minister of Finance and current Minister of Trade and Investment, during his screening at the Senate admitted that deficiency, the fact that Nigeria is yet to adequately utilise the potentials from her active youth population.
In 1984, the Federal Government set up the Fapohunda Committee on job creation, to study the causes, effects, manifestations and structure of unemployment and under-employment and recommend solutions. About 27 years after the report was submitted , the various governments do not still know what to do with it. The report has been neglected and dumped in the trash can of history.
Ladipo Adamolekun, Professor of Administration, University of Ife, explained that the problem of graduate unemployment is mainly structural; meaning that there is a mismatch between the products of the nation’s educational system and the demands of the job market.
Experts at the recently concluded Job Creation Summit hosted by President Jonathan in Abuja on April 12, 2011 attributed the high rate of unemployment in the country to the dearth of employable manpower. And to reverse the trend, it has become inevitable to build capacity through vocational training in order to impart the much-needed skills.
At the Summit, President, CES Industries Incorporated, based in New York, United States of America, Mitchell Nesenoff, and a Director, Dove-Ces Industries Nigeria Limited, Ngozi Anyogu, said the high unemployment rate in Nigeria had been exacerbated by unemployable job seekers. “The unemployment situation in Nigeria is not demand-induced, it is supply induced. The quality of employable manpower is not there. The solution should come from building capacity and skills from the artisan areas,” Anyogu said.
To address the problem as the country marches into the last half of the century, experts have proffered effective land tenure reform and provision of training in development of agriculture related industries suitable for unskilled Nigerians as capable of making agriculture a more viable source of employment opportunities and building wealth for the citizens. Also, governmental organisations and landowners could be encouraged to make land available to poor Nigerians on a more equitable basis for agriculture related industries such as farming. Until such occurs, agriculture will continue to be an unviable source of employment opportunity and poverty alleviation for most Nigerians.
Experts opine that the development of varied industries in Nigeria would diversify the country’s sources of revenue and effectively utilise the abundant labour supply of unemployed Nigerians, and thereby reduce the reliance of the majority of Nigerians on oil revenue handouts. In summary, effectively decreasing the number of Nigerians especially rural residents living in poverty and by building these industries, -would revitalise the economy and provide viable options to combat unemployment.
Investigation by the magazine reveals that government and businesses in Nigeria are yet to invest in significant amounts in development of the non-petroleum sector as a strategy for economic development. In addition, many poverty-stricken Nigerians lack skills, knowledge, tools, beliefs and values to seek employment opportunities in non-petroleum industries. This results in lack of employment opportunities, as employers tend to locate their businesses where appropriate human resources are available. The vicious cycle of poverty and unemployment therefore continues unabated.
Provision of employment opportunities to the masses is a means of ensuring participation of all citizens in national development process while the lack of employment opportunities for many Nigerians has resulted in large number of citizens living in poverty. In turn, poverty leads to alienation of poor people from political-economic functioning of their society. This cycle is complete when alienation further decreases the citizens interest in developing the skills, knowledge, tools, beliefs, and values to perform financially rewarding activities.
In order to eradicate unemployment in Nigeria, as the country pursues a vigorous transformation programme, innovative methods need to be used to successfully tackle unemployment. Tackling unemployment in Nigeria requires development and implementation of programmes that will directly benefit the poor, by restructuring sources of Nigeria’s gross domestic product to significantly include variety of industries that are labour intensive, such as cottage industries.
But there are several other ways in which Nigerians can also generate self employment for themselves. Though, to a large extent, these depend on the availability of electricity, affordability and accessibility of the internet and communication, and availability of start-up funds for Information Technology, IT, development. The IT industry in Nigeria, for instance, has so much been neglected and overlooked with little support from the government needed for its rapid development.
Huge revenue running into billions is lost annually to outsource IT abroad by Nigerian companies while the country has a lot of IT professionals. This is due to absence of public awareness campaigns like talent exhibitions, state organised or sponsored competitions among IT professionals, aimed at showcasing Nigerian talents and encouraging partnerships and investments from corporate organisations. If the country is to make critical impact at the end of this century, the interests and talents of Nigerians in the fast developing Information Technology industry should be encouraged and supported through government / private partnership sponsored programmes.
For now, the nation is in a dilemma. Creating jobs to stem the vast of human resources is a major challenge facing President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. It will however take more than rhetorics to meet this challenge.