BEATING UNEMPLOYMENT, By Caeser Keluro

We are in the age of turbulence. Every giant leap in history comes with nightmarish challenges like we are experiencing today. In the agrarian age, man was troubled as he made the hard changes into the industrial age. While the current process of globalization has underlined the need for us to brand themselves on four different dimensions (public diplomacy, tourism, exports, foreign direct investment) and in an integrated manner (Jorge de Vicente, May 2004), it is glaring we have fall short in all ramifications. What is our foreign policy without regard to growing our domestic economy and building a skilled workforce in tandem with 21st century needs? In this global chaos, Nigeria is not left out. We have discussed the problems and holler out of our fears. The time comes for us youth to create that solution that reaches deep to the crevices of our challenges; unemployment is just one of them.

Precious Ogbomo in her article, Nigeria Young Population - the scary facts on iqnews.com pointed out the grave statistics which across borders have sent nations to war and tumbled undemocratic governments. The orgy of violence as a result of this still continues to date. Urban unemployment hovering around 30-32 percent makes the reality of a systemic crisis possible. Even with recently pursuit of infrastructural development, it is critical to state here that they are less labour intensive-based which makes it impossible to employ a large chunk of our youths. Promoting new technologies and ignoring the grave need for mass engagement of our youth is just foul play.

More so, insight garnered from Otaviano Canuto article, “Navigating the road to riches” in last weekend BusinessDay papers pointed out that Asian developing countries have relied extensively on international trade to accelerate their labour transfer by inserting themselves in the labour-intensive segment of global value chain. Finding a holistic approach to addressing our large pool of unskilled labour and the recent snatching of our jobs from our artisans by neighbouring state citizens who have showed skill and fine delivery will not stretch our imagination. It calls for retooling and a national reorientation in attitude and value creation. Responding to rapid urbanization also demands we critically put soft and hard infrastructure in place as well as gradually move our subsistence-level workers to more modern manufacturing or service activities that do not require much upgrading of these workers’ skills. A technology that works for us with less capital demand will make our triumph possible.

Growing up on the street of Lagos was an amazing experience. There were middle income class people engaging in what I will call carnal farming. This is farming along dredged carnals meant to relieve resident the pains of flooding. Families were busy growing crops and so were their sons and daughters. Not far from my house, you could walk a little distance into Kirikiri Industrial town where young people find meaning in working. Everything has melted into dense urbanization with the industrial estate a shadow of itself. There were large crowd of kids playing games along the street and in the open fields. We rode in our makeshift cars, bicycles, and played football and scrabble games. The days of summer were filled with crowd of friends and lots of micro-competitions going on. We were engaged and that was just a few years ago. Times changed but not any better here, as a poorly managed economy which has remained in perpetual recession kept parents and the kids out of job.

Then James Adore experience living in a rural setting will make your heart churn in anger. This is after the father lost his business to bank fraud and sudden consolidation. He watched young people work in shops where garri (a staple food in Nigeria) are processed, mixed and hauled in Lorries heading for the big cities like Lagos. In curiosity and the excitement of seeing neighbourhood kids making money he joined them. That will not last. After saving money by that means to get to a university, he would come back to meet an empty store. The owner had gone to Lagos and the reason for the close of the store was the collapsing infrastructure and the fact that everything was in a flux-growing foreign demand for gari has made it more expensive to find it in a supper meal. Now joblessness walked the street in anger and he had James. No jobs, no garri store to work in.

As young people, should we will look at these times ‘dazed and angry’ or put on our thinking cap? I think we have a fair chance to put our brains together to address the challenges before us. We can make input with profound impact. We would not be holding anyone responsible for our future because youth is short and melts like vapour at sunrise. How do we address youth unemployment? It is like saying how do we save ourselves from the creeping dangers around not even ahead. No blame game but real solutions can only address real problems. Report provides us with damning statistics that while graduate employment persists, school leavers wander the streets without any hope of jobs. In our capacity, we can bring the best of ourselves by creating micro-competitions in any field of our knowing and ensuring that with this we are engaged constructively, taking on local charity works, sporting activities, and finding that thing that enlivens our being which is for the common good matters now.

On the policy front, political leaders play essential roles in any state-building process. The simple fact is that states are founded by leaders, and the relationship between these founding leaders and their supporters can determine the nature of the state (Roger B. Myerson in ‘Rethinking the Fundamentals of State building’). State building for us now resides in putting the right processes and systems in place to lead to our competitiveness in the global marketplace and encourage job-led growth and higher wages with interest rates kept low.

In this age of uncertainty, it is critical we begin to shortening strategic planning times and ensure execution is swift and factors in sensitivity to external events. This is because addressing unemployment here would not just mean long term but short too. A more localization approach cannot be ignored. One of the ways we can address youth unemployment is by increasing in local competitions with the goal to engage youth energy. The OPS has been doing a lot to tap into this huge market. Although borne out more of the need to win their affinity for their brands and capture the market and grow their bottom-line.

It is important for us to recognize, street enterprise across the federation. Littering across the landscape are street entrepreneurs. For example, there are lots of video game shops across the nation. It has served as one immeasurable ways youths have engaged themselves. A policy thrust in that direction can lead to more micro-enterprises by these street entrepreneurs. This should be replicated in areas across the nation where it is lacking.

Of importance too, is the need to equip unemployed graduates with new skillset. While we have not yet gotten to the enterprise design/idea generation phase of great societies like the Western nations, we can do a lot with this new skillset in ensuring mass customization and mass production like the likes of China, India and others and export same to the world. From here it is possible for us to get into the middle income country class. Mass training and skill transfer from our trading partners should form the plank of our diplomacy and any form of relationship. It is also important to move into intensive manufacturing away from our crisis-ridden resource-based manufacturing. It is now we should start creating industrial hubs and business synergy centers.

More so, subsidizing the cost of I.T training across the country is a fine way to creating a competitive workforce. We should design an industry plan that will enable us to provide products or services to neighbouring states as trade between African countries remains extremely low. This is a big opportunity. It is crucial for us now to have a harmonized database. A well design program to grow the domestic economy cannot be possible without harmonizing our databases with credit rating agencies a fulcrum of this. By this we can have a critical of amount of people we can provide soft credit to. With this we are poised to building a consumer society and a robust economy.

Finally, this contribution serves to ticker with our thought pattern. It calls for all stakeholders to look inward so we can start that journey to a great economy. The pride here is the possibility that I feel within and how much we can accomplish if we can dare. Every problem has a seed of solution and opportunity within-the opportunity could be this fresh start to unleash our workforce into 21stcentury competitiveness and send unemployment into a quick retreat. It is hard to see dawn when it is all dark. But dawn comes-A youthful generation rides the crest of her challenge to global prominence.