Unemployment: “If I don’t get a job soon, there will be war”

Editor’s note: While Nigeria is going through an economically challenging period and also struggling to keep its citizens united, a greater menace is creeping in. Unemployment is threatening to turn the youths to vicious men and Nigeria needs to act fast.

Ademuyiwa Odutola who is a research analyst looks into the growing scale of unemployment and the danger lurking. He recognizes unemployment as a problem capable of turning the country into a war zone.

Unemployment as a silent menace

A drive through inner corners of Nigerian cities will reveal what decision makers in Abuja have over the years pretended to admit as a reality steering us right in the face and a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and may ultimately shake the nation right into its foundation.

While as a nation, we struggle daily to hold together the very societal fabric that binds us together as a nation, we forget to critically understand that keeping us united as a country is not essentially the primary duty of government but the provision of the fundamental needs of the populace and ensuring a space where commerce and productivity strive and improving the quality of life for every citizen irrespective of age, tongue, tribe and social standing. The fault lines are so conspicuously glaring for discerning minds to see and proffering the needed solutions should be the immediate duty of the various levels of government in the country. It’s however very unfortunate that we as a nation and people have developed a culture of infusing palliative measures on societal challenges without actually addressing the root causes of these fundamental flaws that are shaking the very essence of our societies.

READ ALSO: National Bureau of Statistics: Over 22mn Nigerians jobless

Incessant clashes across the nation brings to the fore issues that are germane and need urgent attention and critical and analytical solutions, not just white paper committees and conferences where the meagre resources of the state are expended on fruitless search and motionless activities. The constant Fulani herdsmen clashes with the farmers across the North-Central, South-East and South-West and the city clashes of emergent cult groups point to a bigger picture and rudimental problem that we as a nation are in denial about and have failed to properly and collectively address: Unemployment.

Nigeria, with an estimated 170 million population, has a very large youth population that is presently unengaged, unemployed, untrained and unskilled to positively contribute meaningfully to the prosperity and growth of the nation. This sad situation is not only a huge concern to be worried about but a challenge that every right-thinking institution should feel very apprehensive about due to the colossal damage this mass force can unleash on the very essence of our collective commonwealth if engineered and influenced by negative force of repressive change as witnessed during the Arab Spring. I have listened to a lot of policymakers and individuals dismiss this threat as untenable due to the heterogeneity of our nation and the role religion has played in giving a sense of divine expectation and utopian hope of a better tomorrow while in reality the situation is actually on a downward slope. I believe we don’t have to wait for the genie to be let of the bottle as was the case in Tunisia, which actually started the Arab Spring when Mohammed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in response to incessant police brutalisation and his inability to secure gainful employment changed the face of the Middle East forever.

The danger

I believe Nigeria is presently at a tipping point and urgent measures need to be taken to keep this genie from escaping out of the bottle. The unemployment situation has created a breeding ground for largely unengaged youths to serve as willing hands for perpetrators of political and economic violence which is presently spreading all across the nation. Emerging from the destructive Boko Haram insurgence to the economic sabotage of Niger Delta militants to the movement of secessionists in the South-East, the under-reported ever increasing – criminal violence ravaging the inner slums of Lagos, Ibadan and other highly populated towns of the South-West, this leaves discerning minds with a sense of urgency on the need for a comprehensive approach in tackling this huge problem the nation currently faces.

READ ALSO: Danger looms ahead for Nigeria’s economy

A large population is actually a gift and a blessing to a nation and international commerce but it can only be a positive addition if its productivity is harnessed and utilised for its intended benefits. Nations such as Germany, China, the United States and Japan have in recent history harnessed the positive energy and contribution a large population adds to a nation through its massive industrialisation and wealth creation. This has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, want and degradation. Ethiopia with a population of almost 100 million has made concerted efforts over the last decade to utilise its large youthful population in industrialising its economy and modernising it.

A lesson from Ethiopia

Ethiopia, Africa’s third most populous country, has posted a continuous blistering economic growth in the past decade through its well laid-out industrialisation programme. This has turned the landlocked nation into Africa’s own factory in the mode of emerging manufacturing nations such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh which are recording an average of nine per cent economic growth over the last decade.  This essentially is driven by the manufacturing sector and its related real sectors. It is instructive to note that the Ethiopian government has in the last decade and half made concerted efforts in utilising and maximising its youthful and employable population through well thought-out industrialisation plan modelled after the Chinese’s modernisation plan and also constantly fine-tuned this policy to suit the peculiarities of its demography, while implementing a localised industrialisation drive that’s germane to the Ethiopian society.

Furthermore, the country’s success lies in the rigorous and efficient discipline in ensuring continuity in policy implementation and strict adherence to the comprehensive vision of the growth and infrastructure plan that has changed the dynamics and landscape of the landlocked nation. Its massive investment in infrastructure is done with the intention of creating a stream of skilled and unskilled workforce hence its engagement of its youthful population in its infrastructural development master plan that has seen a flurry of road, railway and power projects.

The country’s efficient bureaucracy and stable political regime  ensures a reduction in waste and corruption thereby cutting the cost of projects and saving needed resources for other pressing needs.

Nigeria has a lot to learn from Ethiopia with its similarities in terms of large youthful population and the effective way it has efficiently utilised the youths, considering that the latter was even facing more challenges as a landlocked nation since the secession of Eritrea and without the fortune of being blessed with natural resources.

This opinion first appeared in The Punch

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