YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA: TIME BOMB WAITING TO EXPLODE BY PRINCEWILL OJONG ODIDI Thousands of Nigerian youths write jamb yearly with the hope of gaining admission into Nigerian Universities and be referred to as university graduates, while thousands graduate from the Universities yearly with the hope of joining the work force only to discover theres another certificate they need to obtain to be gainfully employed called connection, while thousands of those employed within the civil service only discover that at the end of the month, their pay check is not enough to take them home. Reports show that Nigeria graduates thousands of students from her universities and polytechnics yearly, and less than twenty percent get absorbed into the economy workforce yearly. The rest are left roaming the streets, and as a last resort some resort to be local farmers, some university graduates end up as cleaners in hotels, others end up to fill tanks in petrol stations and others end up as Boys to the Politicians who arm them and use them as political thugs. The fabric of the Nigerian youth has been destroyed. Our biggest concern on this matter in Nigeria today is that the government has no definite plan on job creation. Either the government does not see it as a problem or the government has no idea on how to solve the problem. One of the only attempts in the past that the government showed interest at policy implementation on job creation was the setting up of the national directorate of employment act. This organization could not come up with a definite job creation policy; rather they ended up as a job advertising agency, in most cases for jobs that rarely existed. So over the years, the Nigerian youth has been relegated to the background, considered of no importance to the economy other than being used as “Boys” by Politicians. Do we really understand the history of the term “Boys”? It has a colonial origin. When the Whiteman came to Africa in the early 1900, they built the main house where the Master” lived facing the front, and they built a small house intentionally facing the back side of the building called “Boys quarters”. The Colonial masters had the audacity to humiliate our fathers who served them as cooks and housekeepers by calling them Boys. It is unimaginable, that our Politicians today almost sixty years later, use the same term to refer to unemployed youths who are barely looking for a means to sustain their families or have a loaf of bread for night meal. In advance democracies, the youth are the backbone that drives the economy. Members within this age range twenty to thirty years old are vibrant. This age range as a result of vibrancy and full of energy, are the ones involved in research and technological innovations, they have the strength to be astronauts and carry out experiments in space, They get married, and have the strength to raise children. Serving as pilots, they have the strength to fly long distances, serving in the police, they have the strength to fight crime, serving in the army, and they have the strength to go to war. Youthfulness is the age to expend energy, and the best place to expend such energy is in the workforce. However, this is not the case in Nigeria. Our youths within this age range, majority of them still walk around the streets with files in hand seeking for employment, and those who decide to engage in the political process are rather undermined by the process as they are merely referred to as “Boys”. United Nations and World Bank data consider youths to be people between the ages of twenty to thirty years of age. In the United States, most Americans graduate out of Universities at age twenty one. At age thirty, those of them that join the civil service are already Directors. Most Americans join the Military at age 19 to 21. At the age of Thirty to thirty two, they are retired and are considered veterans. This explains why anyone above the age of 30 cannot join the American military on active service, because the system considers you weak at that age. In Iran, over 60% of the population is youths under the age of 30. Iranian youths are among the most politically active in the 57 nations of the Islamic world. Iran is one of the most tech-savvy societies in the developing world with estimated 28 million internet users. Irans youth boast 60,000 to 110,000 active blogs one of the highest number in middle east, Iranian youths are the strongest determinants of political direction and representation in their country. The government of Iran has accorded top priority to creating job opportunities for nationals by providing additional allocation for both training and education in their current budget for 2014. Iran’s job creation policy ensures that no Iranian remains unemployed more than 36 months from graduation. The youth population has remained the driving force of economies all around the world. Several Countries in the world had a similar youth surge in national populations which led to mass unemployment, how did they absorb their youth into the workforce? Former Soviet Union witnessing a surge in youth unemployment, created the Military industrial complex, absorbed hundreds of thousands of young men and women into the Military industrial complex. These youths were trained in various disciplines and were involved in production related activities for export market. The Soviet Military industrial complex embarked and invested in large scale agricultural production, technological software and military hardware production. Finished products were sold to Countries around the world within the Soviet Union Sphere of Influence. During Brezhnev era, the Soviet government turned to its defense plants for production of needed civilian products. During Gorbachev era, the defense sector was directed to focus on commercial sectors including medicines, sail boats, microwave and even operated cotton factories. The Military industrial complex produced so much commercial goods that saturated the local economy and proceeded to export markets. This same approach to absorbing youths into the economy to boost national security and reduce unemployment is also being applied in North and South Korea What remains an unanswered question is that can Nigeria consider the establishment of a Military Industrial Complex as an option to absorb our teaming unemployed youths and engage them in production related activities to feed our domestic and export markets? The billions of Naira being siphoned to private Swiss accounts, excessive crude oil theft, mass looting of treasuries, can all these funds be better managed to give hope to our growing youth populations? Cuba had a similar surge in youth unemployment in the 70s. They adopted the Cuban medical internationalism where young Cubans were trained as medical doctors in their thousands and shipped overseas to work in other countries. Today, this account for over 38% of Cubas foreign exchange. It should be noted here that African countries are in dire need of doctors. In Cameroon, one doctor to over 5000 people. Can Nigeria re train her teaming youth population as medical personnels and send them all over Africa as a means of addressing unemployment and job creation? In Bangladesh, with a population of over 170 million people similar to Nigeria, they experienced unprecedented youth unemployment in the 80s. The government invested in the garment industry. Young people were trained as tailors and garment makers. Today over 15% of American garment is sown in Bangladesh this is raking an annual income and export value of about 30 billion dollars annually into the economy of Bangladesh. With the hundreds of billions of naira spent recently in constructing skill development centers in Nigeria, Can the government consider converting these centers to a similar industry and help reduce unemployment? Consider the fact that the Nigerian Army, navy, police, Youth Service and most other uniform services have their uniforms sewn overseas. The rising surge of unemployment in Nigeria today is no more news. I have argued in a previous article that the central cause of unemployment in Nigeria has to do with the nature of transition from public ownership of production related services to the private sector. These premature transitions brought forth a private sector that believes more in primitive accumulation of wealth rather than reinvestment opportunities, expansion and job creation. It is obvious that the federal government has not initiated any meaningful job creation policy since 1984. State governments have not help matters too. Most state governments sign out multibillion dollar contracts to foreign firms with the promise to create tens of thousands of jobs which never come to pass. Whenever multi Billion dollar foreign firms want to enter Nigeria to devour our natural resources, they come with the pretext of creating tens of thousands of jobs, our governments proceed to give them all type of tax breaks, free land, and our governments even proceed to contribute to their projects in the name of Public Private Partnerships (PPP), at the end of day, this companies, at most they would hire is 20 to 30 youths connected to politicians, and the rest is history. How long can we continue destroying our future leaders? Take a look at the early leaders that shaped Nigeria. Gowon was still a young man when he was head of state. When Ojukwu declared the statehood of Biafra he was barely a youth. MT Mbu was barely a youth when he served as a federal minister. Today, serving Senators and members of the House of Representatives are requesting for automatic tickets to run fourth and fifth terms. Even in the political space, our youths have been forgotten. However, Nigeria of today, young men within this same age ranges are either still in school, purchasing handouts, Kept in school longer than expected because of strikes, some within this same age ranges are writing Jamb or out of school seeking employment. Marriage is not even in their agenda because they cannot afford it. To be candid, as a nation, what have we done to our youths? Simply put, we have failed our youths. An Average American kid at 22 is married; at 25 is a settled family man. In Nigeria, our young men at age 35 most of them cannot afford to live independently; they either live with family or with parents. What do we call development if it is not human development? Development transcends the construction of roads, bridges, and airports, development becomes meaningful only if the people can buy vehicles to use on the roads being constructed, or if they can afford plane tickets to fly on planes in the airports being built. if the people cannot interact meaningfully with the so called development projects, or if the projects can only be accessed by a select privileged few, then what we call development is a mere expression of glorified poverty. The Nigerian youth yawns for a leadership that will understand that time is not on their side. If we must compete favorably in the international scene, then like Soviet Union, let us reconsider a Military Industrial Complex to absorb our teeming unemployed youths, Let us think of a Medical Internationalism to dominate the African medical market, let us think of more creative programs when we talk about youth entrepreneurship and job creation. Its time we stop deceiving ourselves by organizing workshops, seminars, computer training programs, building employment centers that all end in futility. In a dormant economy, no amount of workshops or seminars can turn around unemployment; it will only end up enriching certain individuals at the detriment of the unemployed youths. What we need is a well thought out, definite job creation policy to be executed to the letter. Not some job creation policy designed to enrich some contractors or politicians, but a policy designed to change the testimony of the common man. We need a policy framework that will be connected to the type of courses offered in our universities, a policy that will drive all facets our economy towards achieving the end goal of the adopted national policy. If we must serve, let us rise up in Brotherhood and serve our fatherland. Not lip or eye service, but service based on patriotism. If Cuba, Russia, North Korea, Bangladesh and India could do it for their youths, with the right leadership in place and our abundant natural resources, yes we can! PRINCEWILL OJONG ODIDI IS A UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND FINANCIAL ADVISORY CONSULTANT: FACEBOOK: PRINCEWILL ODIDI. EMAIL: [email protected]
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 04:42:46 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015