The Nation Newspaper

Tag: unemployment

  • Graduate unemployment and the rest

    With due respect and heartfelt empathy to the families of all the graduates that lost their lives, and those that were injured in the recently aborted, Abba Moro’s profiteer-wired Nigeria Immigration Service recruitment exercise, I beg to bring to the notice of all caring Nigerians, the unpalatable and one-sided statistical and biased presentation of the unemployment crisis in Nigeria. Whenever unemployment is mentioned in today’s Nigeria, what comes to the mind of majority of the people, is the Nigerian graduate!

    Hear the indefatigable Minister for Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: “I am happy to tell you that last year we were able to create 1.6 million jobs. So, we are getting close to 1.8 million that enter the job market.”

    She would add: “We also have a pool of 5.3 million unemployed graduates that have been accumulating over the years.”

    It appears that out of the conflicting statistics of the jobless and the under-employed, which are put at 51.18 million and 41 million, by the National Population Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics respectively, the Nigerian graduates, are the major focus of Nigeria’s policy makers, and the employers’ of labour. It shows that the unemployment rate in Nigeria has become so high that if you do not belong to the elite club of “Nigeria’s unemployed graduates union”, you had better forget it! And to stretch it further, there are also more classifications, as the so-called sanctified graduate job seekers search for the highly competitive and elusive white and even blue collars’ jobs in the labour market. The Polytechnics’ and Colleges of Education graduates are not as venerated as the “special ones”, called the Nigerian university graduates! The discriminations go on, as “certificates and grades” considerations come into play in determining who gets a job or not; without minding whether the holders of the so much sought-after top-grade certificates are worth the pieces of papers on which the scores are written on.

    When few vacancies are advertised in the media, that is, after the greater number of the jobs had been given to some persons whose names are “favour”, through the backdoor, there are always “caveats”  on the method of application, which most times favour those with upper decrees, higher grades of First Class Division, Second Class Upper Division, years of experience etc. Does anyone spare some thoughts for the non-graduates unemployed, who make-up the greater battalions of the army of the unemployed in Nigeria?

    The case of Nigeria’s artisans and petty traders, who if we dispassionately and objectively assess the Nigerian economy – even with the rebasing of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, which Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, has just informed Nigerians that we are now the largest economy in Africa, and the 26th in the world – we would benevolently agree that they are the ones who are basically shouldering the economy, even as the dregs of the Nigerian-world. And most of these artisans and petty traders are into these existential struggles mainly because of exigencies, rather than by preferences. And no matter how you recalculate the GDP, they would still see Nigeria’s economy, as “foundationally artisanal and petty”, unless those who have rebased the GDP would be sensitive enough to make policies that would be favourable to all Nigerians, who are fit to work.

    The non-graduate unemployed are mainly school leavers, those who have ingenious minds, creative, inventive, and innovative geniuses, without tertiary education, or the type of ‘certificates”, that would qualify them to earn a living, by the standard of Nigeria’s policy makers and labour market Czars. If one may ask, are they not entitled to job opportunities, with or without requisite “paper” qualifications?

    Do graduates have higher stakes in Nigeria than all other Nigerians? Are the good things of life not meant for everybody? Considering all the absurdities romancing Nigeria, does it follow that all Nigerians, who must be relevant in the Nigerian unemployment statistics must be graduates of tertiary institutions? Now, we know the reason there is a mad rush for tertiary education, especially university education in Nigeria, whether the seekers of this type of education are academically equipped, intellectually sound and mentally fit, to pursue and endure the rigours of learning, is out of the question. Nigeria being a “certificate” worshipping country, as a norm, one must get a degree or diploma, either by hook or crook, to belong to the elite club of the respected, even as an unemployed citizen.

    If only Nigeria’s policy makers and employers’ of labour know what they are doing to the psyche of non-graduate unemployed citizens, they would become more sensitive to the rights of the citizenry. We know there are programmes like, YouWin, and Sure-P which are geared towards creating jobs for the teeming Nigerian youths, by President Jonathan’s administration. According to Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, “Sure-P is for those youths who may not have gone through school or did not complete their education.”

    Really!

    If we investigate or probe further, are we sure we will not discover that Sure-P has been hi-jacked by those who need jobs most, in the Nigerian policy makers’ conjecture? Be that as it may, it is an incontrovertible fact that every citizen has a right to work or earn a living etc, through indiscriminate opportunities provided by policy makers, but when those in authority lay more emphasis on one group of people, at the expense of the others, they end up insulting the sensibilities and abuse the rights of the rest, who deserve to live as much as those who might have higher opportunities, because of their training. With high unemployment rate ravaging Nigeria, the graduate and non-graduate unemployed are both time bombs that must be vigilantly handled.

     

    • Ohaegbulam writes from Port-Harcourt.

  • A vote for made-in-Nigeria

    A vote for made-in-Nigeria

    It is a known fact that unemployment is one of the problems bedeviling Nigeria. And there is no gainsaying the fact that importation of goods from foreign lands adds to the causes of unemployment. A country that exports goods tends to remain independent and provide jobs for its citizens. This is because companies producing goods for export employ people for their production.

    However, countries such as Nigeria that produces little or nothing for export is affected by youth unemployment because there are no industries to gainfully engage them.

    Though the nation’s manufacturing sector is booming with production of goods, but the industries are not enough to adequately explore the resources of the youth. For instance, there are many manufacturing companies in Lagos, Aba, Nnewi, Onitsha and other commercial cities in Nigeria, which can produce most of the products we import from other nations. In Aba, one can get a good pair of shoes that can stand any exhibition with Italian shoes. Also, there are tailors who sew beautiful clothes that one wonders if the clothes were imported from France.

    The problem in Nigeria is not what to produce, or how to produce as we were taught in O’Level Economics. But for which market to produce is the problem. It is appalling that Nigerians prefer travelling abroad to shop for bags, shoes and so on, that are being produced in Nigeria. In doing so, they enrich other countries while their citizens languish in abject poverty.

    Celebrities are another group of people who do not wish this country well. There is hardly a day that one does not hear of a celebrity who travels out of the country to shop for things that can be got in Aba or Lagos.

    The elite spend huge resources travelling to Dubai and other places they feel are the best tourist areas, but we have Obudu Cattle Ranch, Tinapa Resort and Yankee Games Reserve. Brazilian, Peruvian and Chinese hairs are imported at a very high cost, yet our women buy to enhance their beauty. There are raw materials here that can be used to produce such products.

    Recently, President Goodluck Jonathan hinted on the plan to make Nigeria a vehicle manufacturer. I welcomed the idea with mixed feelings because of two reasons. First, I am quite sure that government is not likely to purchase any of the cars manufactured in Nigeria. Secondly, a country that can import matches, toothpick, grass cutters and other funny things should not have such tall dream.

    I think we should start producing toothpick first. This is keeping with the adage which says: “A journey of a thousand miles start with a single step.”

    The president kicked off YOUWIN, a scheme that provides capital for self-reliant youth to create employment. The scheme would eventually become useless if the beneficiaries do not have customers in local market to patronise them. Most of the imported products carry label such as “Made in Italy”, “Made in China’, because Nigerians will not buy any good without foreign label. Credit is given to the country, which owns the label but at the expense of the home-made goods. This is disheartening.

    Government is also not helping matters. For instance, government gives scholarship to students for them to go and study abroad. Offering of scholarship to worthy candidates is not a bad idea, but sending them abroad to study may be considered abnormal. What has happened to Nigerian schools?

    Given our desire for medical tourism, one wonders if there are no medical doctors in Nigeria or that the equipment being used for surgery cannot be brought to the Nigeria hospitals?. I am sure the former is not the reason for traveling out of the country for health check up, the later I believe could be the reason. How much will it cost to buy those equipment and install in our hospitals?

    Nigeria as a sovereign nation must depend on itself. This is not to say we should not associate or transact with other countries, but our dependence on foreign goods has subjected us to ridicule by countries whose products we depend on.

    When President Jonathan signed the anti-gay law, the Britain and United States reacted with threats to stop all aids given to the country because we cannot do without them. We have created a commensalism relationship with these countries; a situation where we gain from them while they have nothing to lose or gain from us. It is high time we created a symbiotic relationship with countries of the world. This can only be attained or achieved by encouraging and patronising home-made products to generate employment for the jobless and make the country a truly independent nation.

     

    Uchechukwu, 200-Level Food Science and Technology, ABSU

     

  • FAO urges action on youth unemployment

    The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), an agency of the United Nations Organisation (UNO), has expressed concern over increasing number of youths roaming the streets in search of jobs, urging the Federal Government to make investment in agricultural transformation a high priority to create more employment.

    Addressing the 17th annual lecture of the Agriculture and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), in Ilorin, FAO Representative in Nigeria, Dr Louise Setshwaelo, said Nigeria and other countries in the sub-Sahara Africa are facing soaring youth unemployment and high level of poverty against the background of generally impressive economic growth.

    In line with the reality of the situation, Dr Setshwaelo said there was immense need to put in place policies, strategies and programmes to support agricultural development and the agricultural transformation agenda (ATA).

    She said: “This will assist the country to concretely address the challenges of creating more decent jobs for scores of unemployed young men and women as well as generate inclusive economic growth with a level playing field, to move rural women out of poverty.”

    She highlighted also that the sector is confronting the issue of aging farmers, but that said get youths to respond to opportunities in agriculture has becoming challenging.

    She said those attempting to take agriculture’s reins, find starting agric business difficult as rising production costs have increased financial outlay ,acting as a barrier to new entrants.

  • The rise of the unemployment industry

    The rise of the unemployment industry

    Haba, Comrade Abba Moro! It seems the struggle to turn the world into one vast workers’ paradise can make one to forget how it works with a huge crowd of actually unemployed people seeking only three square meals a day. There is nowhere else in the world where the masses are packed into a constricted space like that without some massive consequences. And it is not likely that we are ever going to see a more worker unfriendly act from a comrade to prospective workers.

    Like every other tragedy in Nigeria, the current one also comes with its own paradox. One thing that must be of curiosity to the sociologists and political scientists of this diseased and dysfunctional nation is the rise of the unemployment industry in the country. Please permit the amazing oxymoron. Unemployment is industry. In Nigeria, catering for the jobless and fleecing them in the process is big business.

    This historic heist is manned by a capillary network of crooks, conmen , confidence tricksters and assorted confederates who find lucrative employment in unemployment. The higher the level of unemployment, the bigger the growth and expansion of the unemployment industry and its capacity-building for joblessness. The greater the number of our unemployed youths roaming the streets or crowding the stadia, the better the prospects of the unemployment industry. This is one unique industry that thrives on de-industrialisation and the massive flight of capital. Better still, it is the industrialization of poverty and misery.

    Snooper has lived in many countries in the world, but has never seen where a person becomes a multi-millionaire or even a billionaire from generating and managing unemployment. But this is what is happening. At a cool one thousand naira per head, the individuals behind this heinous scam would have raked in a billion naira if there were a million job seekers. If Nigeria were to double its current unemployment production capacity, the revenues accruing can be humongous indeed.

    Why collect money from over seven hundred thousand applicants when the actual vacancy is just below six thousand? Most of the vacancies, in any case, would have been filled even before the multitude commit pen to paper. In this particular case, the contracted consultancy was discovered to have last filed its annual returns with the Corporate Affairs Commission in 1998. This is nothing but social cannibalism at its most hair-raising. To seek to work in the Nigerian Immigration Service has become the surest route to terminal emigration to the land of the unreturnable.

    While we recoil in disbelief at the recently discovered forest of horror in Ibadan where human parts are openly stockpiled, we must also not forget stadia where the unemployed are packed like sardines before being sent summarily packing. As the Jurassic Age stares us in the face all over again, the entire country resembles one vast forest of horror.

    Franz Kafka would have been clucking away in his grave . There are times when actual reality in contemporary Nigeria trumps the most ghoulish and improbable of fictional creations. It was Kafka, the master craftsman of vicious and fatally entrapping bureaucracies, who once penned a short story titled, The Hunger Artist. It was about a man who turned professional teaching people how to endure hunger and manage the pangs of compulsory fasting.

    But let us be clear about this. There are certain professions which disgrace and dishonour humanity. Profiting from poverty, hunger, misery, want and joblessness is one of these. It is a scandalous indictment of humanity and the mental health of our society. It is even more scandalous when the offending agency is a government parastatal under the ministry that is in charge of the internal security of the nation. It calls to question the internal security architecture of the entire country.

    This is not a scandal that can be treated with kids’ gloves, hoping that it will go away of its own accord, like so many other scandals that have plagued this administration. This is about our youths and the flowers of the nation. In sane and civilized climes, there would have been by now, a flurry of resignations over the tragedy that led to the death of so many of our unemployed youths. But that would be the day in Nigeria.

    But there is a limit to which even an anarchic society can thrive on disorder as its organizing principle. Once again, it is being rumoured that the supervising minister of the offending ministry and his accomplices are being shielded because they are protégés of a powerful functionary of the state. The official is said to have boasted that nothing on earth can touch his minions.

    The Jonathan administration is remarkable for its serial breach of the trust and confidence of the populace. Hence, its low esteem and the dramatic decline of its authority and legitimacy. Once again, Goodluck Jonathan is letting the opportunity slip by to lay the foundation of institutional order as the bulwark of any civilized and sane society.

    We have a word of honorable advice for the president. Having succeeded in pacifying and placating a substantial fraction of the elite with rustling tea leaves in Abuja, he should not add open discontent and rebellion from the margins and from the down under to his shopping list of political palavers. This is the surest and fastest route to an apocalyptic meltdown whose outcome will make Somalia a child’s play. Given the government’s celebrated incontinence, the omens in that direction are very dire indeed.

    The Fourth Republic has become the graveyard of institutional order in Nigeria. Before they come into their own as neutral arbiters acting with impersonal rigour, institutions require leaders of strong ethical persuasion and formidable moral stamina to guide and guard them through teething tutelage. Institutions are repeated gestures eventually routinised and burnt into human consciousness through accumulated practice. To nurture and grow this requires leaders of deep integrity, honour and principle.

    Let us take an example from our next door neighbour and rival. In the era of post-military democracy, Ghana appears to have left us at the starting block. Through accumulated practice, Ghana has virtually institutionalized periodic elections as the acceptable democratic mechanism for electoral change. It has always been a close run thing, featuring all the potential fault lines of regionalism, religion and ethnicity, but sanity always prevails. On the other hand, post-military democracy in Nigeria has witnessed much rancor, violence, disregard for rules and conventions and much presidential delinquency. The institutional mechanism for lawful and peaceful change is deliberately famished, stymied and stultified.

    With an eye to his electoral fortunes, Dr Jonathan is obviously wary of moving against political appointees who give his administration such a bad name and an unsavoury reputation. In a country where ethnic heroism is better respected than ethical heroism, he can hardly be blamed. But in the end, his presidency is going to be judged by its quality rather than the length of tenure. In the long run, somebody will have to pay for the horror and stench coming from the moral collapse of the Nigerian presidency.

    The stampede of the unemployed youth of the country resulting in needless death requires some immediate restitution even if it is at the purely symbolic level. The circumstances of this national tragedy are so glaring and questionable that a criminal investigation for corporate manslaughter ought to have commenced. If unemployment is going to be a business, it does not require culpable homicide. And neither can the fallout be contained by business as usual panel-beating. That is known as government by default and dereliction.

  • Unemployment a time bomb, says ASSBIFI

    The Senior Staff Association of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) has warned about the dangers of rising youth unemployment.

    Its President, Comrade Sunday Olusoji Salako, described the situation as worrisome, just as he urged the Federal Government to tackle the menace.

    “We are worried that the teeming population of our youths in the country are unemployed and we, therefore, urge the government to redefine the current economic policy to create job opportunities. The scary reality of the high rate of unemployment is a ticking time bomb, which, if we fail to defuse as quickly as possible, may erode whatever semblance of social harmony and stability that is left of our polity.”

    Salako called on indigenous investors in the manufacturing sector to make room for investment potentials in agriculture that would expand their businesses beyond the continent to the BRICS countries.

    He said: “It is high time our investors look beyond oil and look deep into agriculture as a sector that could be utilised  to  expand their businesses beyond the continent to the BRICS countries.”

    BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The grouping was originally known as “BRIC” before the inclusion of South Africa in 2010. The BRICS members are all developing or newly industrialised countries, but they are distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies.

    According to Salako, Nigerian investors need partnerships with investors from other African countries to go beyond the continent to the BRICS nations

    “This is because a new crop of Nigerian entrepreneurs are emerging who have ambitions to go beyond the continent. They should be investing in the BRICS countries in the same way that BRICS are investing in Africa. This relationship needs to go both ways,” he said.

    Salako emphasised that specific measures and initiatives must be embarked upon to increase business, trade, manufacturing, and investment ties between Nigeria, other African countries and the BRICS countries. He highlighted the need to improve infrastructure on the continent.

    He said businesses could only grow if the infrastructure gap was addressed.

    “There is urgent need for investment in soft infrastructure starting with broadband technology that would have a transformative effect similar to mobile technology in Africa,” he said.

    He, however, noted that the critical things any investor looks for, regardless of where the investment is located, are the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, security of property and transparency of markets.

    Salako called on the Federal Government to review the multiple regulatory agencies in the country. He  said: “There is an urgent need for the  government to consider strengthening all government regulatory agencies with a view to stemming the tide of smuggling in Nigeria because smuggling has been a burden to its members nationwide.”

  • Unemployment as a time bomb

    The recent botched recruitment exercise of the Nigeria Immigration Service, (NIS) has once again brought to fore how terrible the unemployment situation in the country has become. With thousands of candidates turning out at various locations across the country for an exercise that was meant to employ just a tiny fraction of the applicants, it is obvious that the joblessness condition in the country is no longer a child’s play. For the first time in the history of the country, candidates vying for employment in a government institution were so desperate and disorderly that some were actually trampled to death with countless injured in the ensuing pandemonium that exemplified a shabbily organised recruitment exercise. It was, indeed, the shame of a nation and a reflection of how bad things have gone in the country. Many analysts and commentators have already written to condemn the primitive approach of the NIS to its employment exercise, and rightly so, hence that would not form the basis of this piece.

    However, in Nigeria today, growing unemployment has become a major concern. Official figures from the Bureau of Statistics puts it 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. Viewed from the perspective of the recent events in the Middle East where unemployment and poverty, among others, played a key role in the uprising, one can only conclude that Nigeria’s unemployment poses a threat to its development, security and peaceful coexistence.

    Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, recently revealed that while the Nigerian economy grew at the rate of seven percent for the past five years, unemployment has actually doubled at same period. He stated that the present security crisis and internal uprising across the country are products of chronic poverty and mounting joblessness. In times past, things as choice jobs were selected by graduates and consequently unemployment was low or at best non – existent. Then, 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 unskilled) earned a living from these factories. The industrialisation 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. That time, a certificate guaranteed a job, and hence a better life. Even artisans had jobs to do.

    Unfortunately, the reverse is the case now. Everywhere, it is an army of unemployed youths that define our communities while many graduates have turned to Okada riders, labourers at construction sites, etc to make ends meet. This is why there is so much youth restiveness and insecurity in the land. The trend and level of public insecurity in our country now portend a serious threat to our nationhood. Already, some foreign countries have begun to issue travel warnings to their nationals. This is strange as nobody wants to live or do business in an environment where there is much crime, violence, strife and political instability as the country is gradually turning into. Public security and safety is a necessary foundation for economic growth and social development of any society. It is therefore necessary for us to give more attention to security for the world to take us serious. A situation where violent killing of innocent souls by or in the name of Boko Haram is now a daily occurrence is not in our best interest, especially since they have now mastered how to unleash terror on our military barracks with impunity. It will not attract investors (local or foreign).

    As a nation, we need to urgently fix the 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. 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 Nigerian 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. The agriculture sector is one area where governments across the country could creatively provide employment opportunities. Interestingly, the Lagos State government is already leading in this direction with its Marine Agriculture Development Programme for Accelerated Fish Production. Till date, the programme has created over 6000 direct jobs and over 35,000 jobs indirectly to cage manufacturers, fingerlings producers, feed millers and sellers, fish marketers, processors and storage personnel amongst others with the possibility of specialization.

    The Ikorodu Fish Farm Estate, which has been fully subscribed, is currently producing at 70% of its capacity. An average of 3,000 tonnes of fresh fish is produced annually from the estate with over 400 jobs created directly and over 100,000 others indirectly. The Rice for Job initiative has equally successfully offered employment opportunities for over 5000 youths that are currently engaged in rice cultivation and sales across the state. In the same vein, the AGRIC-YES initiative, designed to produce first class entrepreneurial elite farmers, is a three-phased intervention programme that has so far produced over 3,000 elite farmers in the state. Equally, through the state’s greening programme, a total of 12,000 people are directly employed while the cleaning exercise has generated over 6000 jobs.

    To forestall a looming disaster in the country, governments at all levels need to ingeniously devise programmes that would incorporate the youths into the centre stage of the nation-building process in the country rather than debasing human value through a primitive and selfish programme like the shameful NIS recruitment. For this to be effectual, the course of action must commence with a fundamental revamping of the education sector. We need to alter the curriculum of our tertiary institutions to do away with courses that no longer fit into the present day’s socio-economic reality. Indeed, we need to lay more emphasis on technical education as well as courses that de-emphasise the craze for non-existing white collar jobs. Similarly, we should make efforts to promote social entrepreneurship among the youths. This could be done through the establishment of internship programmes aimed at giving youths the opportunity to learn valuable skills in contemporary fields such as Information Communication Technology, (ICT), fund development, public relations, programme development, project management and such other courses that are in high demand for now. Equally, corporate organisations, NGO’s, individuals and government institutions should be committed to mentoring of the youths to choose rightly in line with the contemporary needs of our society. God bless Nigeria.

     

    •Ibirogba is Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Lagos State

  • Corruption and unemployment

    SIR: When will Nigerians learn that the people governing this country do not care or love the citizens? In this time and age where recruitment can be done via the internet, an agency of government instead, decides to conduct a paper based test for thousands of suffering unemployed graduates. The sad menace of unemployment manifested during the Nigeria Immigration Service recruitment, resulting in many deaths and becoming a national embarrassment.

    The unfortunate deaths of many of our youths during the exercise demonstrated corruption at its best. The desperation of more than 693,000 youths to secure a job meant for 4,000 people represents the catastrophic nature of the country today.

    For crying out loud, Nigeria is said to be the sixth largest oil producer in the world but ironically, has more unemployed people than employed. This is sad. Recently, the suspended governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said NNPC had not accounted for $20 billion. This money could have been used to build factories in different states and create job opportunities for youths. The question is how can the nation move forward when our leaders are conniving to steal and loot our commonwealth?

    The time has come for Nigerians to join forces with anti-graft agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and others to flush out these termites that have eaten deep into the root of the nation. With what the EFCC has achieved since its establishment, if it is fully supported by the government and the people, corruption can be reduced to the barest minimum, which will be better for us all.

    It is time for the masses to stop celebrating these thieves who gives them peanuts when we can all enjoy much more. Nigeria needs a moral revolution because we are sick and tired of our future leaders dying every day due to the negligence of our leaders. We must all attack this monster which is designed to rob the youths of Nigeria a better future.

     

    • Ngozi Alexander

    Mararaba, Nasarawa State

  • Unemployment and our shame

    I couldn’t stop tears from dropping down my eyes last Saturday when I saw our youths, unemployed graduates, who ended their lives untimely in the quest for the Nigeria Immigration Service job. This, no doubt, was an avoidable tragedy but for the state of the nation.

    Every leader, both past and present, has his share of blame in what our country has turned to. In those days, as I was told, a secondary school leaver was a ‘gold’ while a university graduate was seen as a ‘god’ who had surmounted all hurdles to gain knowledge. As such, the tradition was that the graduate should choose and pick the most preferred job out of the many juicy ones that came begging for his attention.

    Today, the opposite is the case as a graduate could even lose his life in the process of looking for a manageable job that may help ‘put body and soul together.’ This is the picture of the experience of over five hundred thousand youths who applied for less than five thousand Immigration job slots.

    Should I even say, ‘this generation is at the suffering end of the omissions of our leaders and fathers’ generation.’ Because, to me, it seems there is no solution in sight yet.

    This is the same generation that Boko Haram is unleashing its dastardly acts on with bombings of university campuses, secondary schools, maiming and killing of corps members, thereby reducing our number in spite of being tagged, ‘ leaders of tomorrow.’ Those who escaped the horror of terrorists are made to die of hunger, joblessness or stampede during a recruitment exercise.

    Unfortunately, the children of the high and mighty who are more instrumental to what Nigeria has become either have an enviable job awaiting them on graduation from the university or have to travel abroad to continue life ‘in a greener pasture.’

    Besides, many of them do not even have to school here. They see our higher institutions as glorified secondary schools with little or no facilities to run it as a plague within while incessant lecturers and other unions’ strike is the plague without.

    According to the National Bureau of Statistics, General Household Survey((1999-2011), Nigeria’s unemployment rate jumped from 8% in 1999 to an average of 13.3% in 2000 to 2008, and then jumped again after the global crisis to an annual average of 21.66% in 2009 to 2011, to peak at 23.9%.

    Meanwhile, Nigeria’s economy has grown very fast in the last thirteen years in response to global oil and non-oil commodity prices. In particular, as stated by National Bureau of Statistics (1999-2009), Nigeria’s nominal Gross Domestic Product doubled from N20 trillion in 2007 to N40trillion in 2012.

    In spite of this paradoxical growth, we keep hearing, ‘Nigeria is broke today, Nigeria is bankrupt tomorrow.’ I pray we will not wake up someday to hear that our country has been sold due to lack of resources to run it in the face of plenty endowments of natural resources.

    One of the responsibilities of government in a sane environment is job creation. However, this should not be based on ‘who knows who’ but on merit. Also, good jobs should not be the destiny of the few privileged while the poor are asked to make do with the crumbs that fall from the table and even die in the process of scavenging for it.

    Government should be committed to creating an enabling environment where business can thrive; where investors can freely operate. Then, the scourge of unemployment can be reduced. We are tired of the activities of insurgents today, militants tomorrow, and kidnappers the day after. There should be a renewed commitment on the part of our leaders to ensure security of lives and property.

    The leadership class should see the Saturday’s Immigration recruitment stampede which resulted in the loss of nineteen promising youths as their failure and shame. They should take deliberate steps in the name of posterity to salvage this nation from collapse and put an end to avoidable loss of human lives.

    Unemployment should be tacked head long and be made a thing of the past. In addition, recruitment exercise should not be a death trap for our teeming youths. We should seek improved ways of conducting interviews without having to put the lives of our people in jeopardy. The Saturday’s deed had been done. May God console the families of the departed souls.

    By Femi Onasanya via femlandcommunication

    @yahoo.com

  • Cutler Communications moves to tackle unemployment

    CCutler Communications, an integrated marketing communications agency, has unveiled an initiative, Promoting Entrepreneurial Education (PEE), to address the country’s unemployment.

    It was unveiled at a public discourse tagged “Job creation: Pathway to sustainable economic growth,” in Victoria Island, Lagos.

    The Chief Operating Officer of Cutler Communications, Laura Oloyede, explained that “focusing on promoting entrepreneurial education, especially because the Coordinating Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, called for the involvement of the private sector in entrepreneurship education as a means of tackling the current trend in Nigeria where creative entrepreneurs are job seekers rather than being job providers.”

    She added: “We believe that tackling the unemployment situation in Nigeria is not about pushing for government to create more jobs; rather we should look for innovative ways to tackle unemployment collectively.”

    Oloyede said her firm was working at becoming a bridge between the private sector and the potential entrepreneurs in promoting entrepreneurship through the initiative. “We believe that the pathway to a sustainable economy is everyone’s responsibility. Our duty call therefore, is for people, to embrace entrepreneurship.”

    At the event, which was moderated by Soni Irabor,a broadcaster and marketing communications expert, discussants addressed the need for Nigerians to have a new mindset that the government cannot create jobs alone.

    The discussants, who comprised Lere Baale, Director of Business School Netherlands, Nigeria; Lolu Akinwunmi, Chief Executive Officer of Prima Garnet Africa; and Ituah Ighodalo, an accountant and managing partner, SIAO, agreed that, though it is government’s responsibility to create an enabling environment for job creation, Nigerians must realise that to tackle unemployment, individuals need to embrace entrepreneurship.

     

  • How to tackle unemployment, by graduate barber

    How to tackle unemployment, by graduate barber

    •Political Science graduate makes N360,000 monthly as barber/ beautician

    He went to the university to study Political Science and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Nigeria’s premier university in Ibadan, but Dahunsi Akinola Michael earns his living as a barber. OSEHEYE OKWUOFU writes on the success story of a young man who has defied the growing unemployment in the country to become an employer of labour.

    There is a popular saying that “an idle hand is the devil’s workshop”. Sadly, many young graduates in the country, due to lack of employment, have turned into a workshop where the devil thrives.

    But there are some out there who have taken their destiny in their hands by not waiting for the seemingly elusive white collar jobs, but instead creating jobs for themselves and also employing others. One of such is Mr. Dahunsi Akinola Michael, an Ilesa, Osun State born graduate of Political Science, who is a beautician and barber.

    As a young enterprising graduate, Mr. Dahunsi Akinola Michael preferred using his God-given talents to create job for himself and to help others gain employment.

    Unlike many of his peers, immediately after completing the mandatory one year National Youth Service for graduates, he went into barbing, which many may have considered demeaning for graduates.

    His dream was to be one of the top policy makers in the country, where his lofty desires in life could be met. But at the same time, young Dahunsi was not desperate in his quest, rather, he was determined not to wait for any government job.

    Long before he left the University of Ibadan, Dahunsi cleverly had opted for vocational training in Barbing where he learnt the basic rudiments of not just the trade but also the running of a beauty salon, whereas his peers were busy flaunting certificates yet to be obtained.

    Apparently not self-assuming, the young Dahunsi’s little knowledge of the country’s saturated job market prepared him ahead to shape his plans for the future.

    Not many young graduates want to accept the stark reality of Nigeria’s grim unemployment situation. Instead, before the completion of the compulsory one year service, thousands of applications have flooded government offices, oil companies and other corporate organisations seeking for white collar jobs that are not there.

    According to the Chief Executive Officer, A-One International Barbing Saloon, ”I cannot remember ever writing application for employment. I was set out to do what I am doing from the outset by using the little stipend I received as allowance from my NYSC to establish a small barbing saloon then at Ondo where I started from a very small place.”

    For the father of two and the first son of the family of six, it might be time wasting and sheer laziness for a graduate to begin writing job applications, spending years doing nothing at home, except roaming the streets and constituting oneself into a nuisance.

    He called on fresh graduates not to wait until government provides jobs, adding that nowadays government alone cannot do it, “but instead of turning themselves to social burden they should use their God-given talents to start something on their own by creating a viable employment for themselves. They can learn trades like tailoring, barbing and others and use their knowledge as graduates to make such more appealing and lucrative.”

    With little amount of money, he said anyone can start a barbing saloon from between N50,000 to N100,000.

    “To set up one barbing shop, you will need between N50,000 and N100,000 depending on how you want the shop to be. Of course, many graduates will want to practice what they studied in the university, but what do you do when there is no such job?

    “As a professional in the field of barbing, I have learnt to be self-sustaining and not being a burden to others in the family and the society. I have not only empowered myself financially, I have workers that I pay salary every month. I have my family to take care of, my children’s school fees as well as others relatives and dependants to cater for from my income.

    “And I hope this will teach young university graduates roaming the streets in search of white collar jobs to be creative and self-reliant. They need not wait for the government to provide jobs for them rather they should strive hard to look for a vocation, something they can use their hands to do.

    “Our youths should be industrious, creative and self-reliant by taking seriously vocational education that will equip them to be responsible and reliable persons. An idle hand is the devil’s workshop. No matter the position you find yourself, engage yourself in good vocation, because government cannot cater for everybody.

    “In advanced countries, people cherish this kind of vocational training. Ours should not be different. So, I call on young graduates to find useful trade to earn a good living and should desist from looking for jobs that are not there,” he said.

    The amiable and fair looking young man who graduated with Bachelor of Science, Political Science, second class lower in 2008, has through dint of hard work and good management grown his business over the years from one small shop at Akure to three barbing saloons in Ibadan and Osogbo.

    In the next few years, he hope to expand the business to Lagos and other four cities in the country.

    “Today, to the glory of God, I have three thriving barbing saloons in Akure, Osogbo and Ibadan where I have been privileged to train many apprentices, and in a day I realise an average of N4,000 profit each from the three shops. That is to say in a month I do realise an average of N360,000,” he recalled.

    Dahunsi attended Orisunm-ibare Community Primary School, Ipetu-Ijesa, Osun State, after which he proceeded to Apoti Grammar School also in Ipetu-Ijesa for his secondary education. From there, he gained admission to the University of Ibadan, to study Political Science.