The disclosure in a recent report by the National Directorate of
Employment (NDE) which puts the number of Nigerian graduates who
completed the compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) within the
last five years but have remained unemployed at over 200,000 is
appalling. Considering that this figure does not include those who did
not enjoy tertiary education during the period but are equally
unemployed, the situation demands immediate action by governments at all
levels.
This is because unemployment retards human development and
breeds poverty, which in turn leads to low levels of consumption and
income. The unrelenting social upheavals in the forms of increasing
crime wave and insecurity in the country are the unfortunate
consequences of high unemployment rate. A recent report by the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) equally identified unemployment
as the root causes of the growing rate of anti-social activities by
youths. Inability to find work by young people usually creates a sense
of vulnerability, uselessness and idleness which in turn heightens the
attraction to illegal activities.
Conversely, a reduced unemployment
rate will bring about improved human development and reduce poverty. It
will also reduce crime and insecurity and enthrone an enabling and
conducive environment that will attract foreign investment into the
country. It is worrying that despite vast human and material resources
naturally bestowed on the country, gross mismanagement, profligate
spending, poor leadership and corruption by public officials have not
allowed optimal utilisation of these resources in such a way that they
would bring maximum economic benefits and employment generation to the
citizenry.
The figure which was obtained through a national registration
of the unemployed in designated centres throughout the country is
certainly not definitive because unemployed persons who failed to
respond to the call for registration cannot be ascertained. Some may
have travelled to neighbouring countries or Europe and America in search
of greener pastures. Others may be bedridden at the time while some may
simply have ignored the call to come forward and register. Besides,
some of those that registered may be engaged in employments that they
considered unsatisfactory.
According to the NDE, some of these
considerations means that the total figure of the unemployed is still
pending. Similarly, the World Bank and the Nigerian Institute for Social
Research (Niser) in separate reports revealed that over 55 per cent of
Nigerians of working age are unemployed while more than 60 per cent are
under-employed. If these estimates are anything to go by, then the
actual figure of unemployment in Nigeria may be much higher than the
projection of the NDE. The government must see the threats posed by
unemployment as serious enough to declare an emergency on the situation.
Unemployment poses serious challenges to the country.
The challenge of
unemployment has given rise to youth restiveness and other social vices
in the country and discouraged foreign investment. Therefore any hope of
making the country safe for foreign investors must start with combating
unemployment. As the unemployment rate in the country drops, the human
development index and living conditions of the citizenry will improve
and social vices and increasing crime wave which discourage foreign
investment will equally reduce.
The high unemployment rate in the
country regrettably poses great challenge to actualising the country's
targeted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For instance, part of
Nigeria's MDGs require governments "to develop and implement strategies
that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and
productive work." Without real jobs, youths easily fall prey to people
who want to use them to foment trouble. This is why there will be need
for government to embark on fundamental changes that would reduce the
high rate of unemployment in the country. For as long as the
unemployment rate remains high and the people live in abject poverty and
deprivation, Nigeria cannot attain real development.
The government
must adopt credible programmes that would address the rising
unemployment in the country. For instance, government must provide the
enabling environment for the industrial sector to thrive through the
provision of basic infrastructure like electricity, good roads and
security. The biggest challenge to reducing unemployment in Nigeria is
the undeveloped private sector which has left government as the biggest
employer of labour.
The government must create the necessary environment
that would encourage the development of the private sector because in
other virile economies, the private sector drives the economy. It could
also review the curriculum of the nation's higher institutions and
universities to inculcate functional entrepreneurship skills in the
graduates so that they could become employers rather than employees will
also go a long way in reducing the high unemployment rate in the
country.
There will be need for government to establish more programmes
like the NDE to help unemployed youths acquire skills that would help
them become self employed rather than wait for jobs that are not there.
Government should also make loans available on friendly terms to those
who want to establish genuine businesses of their own.
The NDE which was
established to empower the unskilled youths and other members of the
public to acquire marketable skills that would help them set up their
own businesses has only recorded limited success because the
infrastructure that will aid successful business are not yet there. That
is why government at all should work together to make necessary changes
in policy formulation and implementation that will reduce unemployment.
All tiers of government must see unemployment as a serious danger to
the overall well-being of the country and work hard to reduce the high
unemployment rate. Unless there is employment, there is no way Nigeria
can effectively tackle the problems of poverty and crime which are
obstacles to attaining the MDGs.
Reference:
Financial Standard,
Thursday, 11 June 2009
