Against the backdrop of the recent declaration by the Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, that unemployment had become a security issue in the country, Abiodun Awolaja locates the factors which might bail the country out of its current socio-economically-induced security threats.WHILE being honoured withan Achiever's Award at the10th anniversary of the Premier FM Radio Station in Ibadan recently, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State declared that unemployment had become a security issue in the country. Commenting on the prevalent climate of general insecurity in the country, the Ondo governor said :'The greatest enemy in Nigeria is mass poverty. Unemployment has become a security issue. Tackling unemployment is, therefore, the greatest challenge of our generation.''Especially in the past few weeks, the tense security situation in the country, which is manifested essentially in the Boko Haram menace thought to have been hijacked by highly placed northern extremists who desire to truncate the democratically elected presidency of the incumbent president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, has put the country's foremost security agencies, particularly the top echelon of the armed forces; the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the State Security Service (SSS), on the hot seat. The two offices recently came under intense fire following their dismissal of a security report by the US embassy that members of the Boko Haram sect were planning to bomb some hotels at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the Sallah celebration.Indeed, the Ondo governor may have laid the foundation for a more realistic look at the unemployment situation in the country, as politicians, particularly members of the National Assembly, still revel in distributing motorbikes, clippers, generators and grinding machines as unemployment solution mechanisms.In a paper entitled 'Reducing Unemployment Through the Informal Sector: A Case Study of Nigeria,' Ishola Akintoye, a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, gave a historical outlook on the unemployment situation in the country. He cited the Central Bank of Nigeria as saying that , in 2003, the national unemployment rate, rose from 4.3 per cent in 1970 to 6.4 per cent in 1980. The high rate of unemployment observed in 1980 was attributed largely to depression in the Nigerian economy during the late 1970s.Specifically, he noted that the economic downturn led to the implementation of stabilisation measures which included restriction on exports and which caused import dependency of most Nigerian-manufacturing enterprises which, in turn, resulted in many companies operating below their installed capacity. This development was said to have led to the shut down of many industries, while the few survived were forced to retrench a large proportion of their workforce. Furthermore, the Nigerian government also placed an embargo on employment.'Specifically, total disengagement from the Federal Civil Service rose from 2, 724 in 1980 to 6,294 in 1984. Owing to this, the national unemployment rate fluctuated around 6.0 per cent until 1987 when it rose to 7.1 percent. It is important to state here, that the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) adopted in 1986, had serious implications on employment in Nigeria, as the unemployment rate declined from 7.1 per cent in 1987, to as low as 1.8 percent in 1995, after which it rose to 3.4 percent in 1996, and hovered between 3.4 and 4.7 per cent between 1996 and 2000,'' he said.Indeed, the satistics of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on unemployment in Nigeria for 2010 released recently showed that out of the over 60 million Nigerians within the age bracket 16-64 , only 48 million have jobs. This is, of course, ignoring those who are unable to work because they are engaged in full time education, or the theoretical few who do not wish to work. As demonstrated by the results, the South-West has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, with Lagos boasting the lowest figure of 7.6 per cent. However, the northern states are generally worse off, with Yobe (39 per cent), Zamfara (33.4 per cent) and Sokoto (32.4 per cent), presenting worst figures in the country.Interestingly, as revealed by the NBS statistics, although the oil and gas sector generates 80 per cent of the country's revenue, agriculture and trading are the highest employers of labour in the country, with the implication that the drivers of the economy are in the informal sector. The largely non-mechanised and non-formalised nature of the agricultural sector in the country, a sharp contrast to the elitist political farmers in the country comprising mainly of leaders who have serious questions to answer concerning the depletion of the nation's treasury over the years; questions relating to the payment of taxes and development planning face serious challenges.Since the informal sector is the largest employer of labour in the country, it follows then that the Federal Government needs to evolve policies geared at maximising the potentials of this sector, while also making efforts to bring aspects of the sector into the mainstream, formal sector. According to Akintoye, 'employment generation has been seen as a means of alleviating poverty, (and) increasing the level of economic activities which translate into economic growth. Although the Nigerian government, in previous times, had put in place policies and programmes which are meant to combat this menace, few of which are considered in this study, but, up till now, these programmes have not made much impact.'Unemployment can be reduced by expanding the activities of the informal sector. Although the informal sector has its challenges, which revolves round the inaccessibility of credit to finance its activities, but there is a glimmer of hope, considering the ongoing policy of the Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria, on microfinance which has brought microfinance banking into the limelight, making it a more realistic programme.'It is hoped that if the microfinance programme continues to enjoy the support and regulatory framework it presently enjoys from the government and stakeholders, it will no longer be crippled by lack of fund, while the employment generation and job creation goals of the millennium also become a reality.''Instructively, the North-East, which is worst hit by the unemployment situation in the country, is also the bedrock of the Boko Haram insurgency which is gradually eroding the confidence of members of the National Assembly in the presidency.Indeed, at a meeting with members of the National Assembly on Wednesday, the president was said to have been advised to concentrate efforts on tackling the mammoth security challenges facing the country, rather than dissipating energy on persuading the National Assembly to buy into his '2012-2015 Medium Term Fiscal Framework and Medium Term Expenditure Framework'' which contained the controversial fuel subsidy removal policy of his government.In the South-West states, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)-led governments are often accused of merely mouthing youth employment programmes as a cardinal policy, while failing to evolve concrete employment generation programmes. But it may be too early to undertake a realistic assessment of their commitment to the policy. Still, Governor Abiola Ajimobi was recently carpeted by members of the vanquished Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for failing to fulfil his electoral promise of creating 20,000 jobs within his first 100 days in office, in line with the policy initiated by his Osun State counterpart, Rauf Aregbesola.However, although Aregbesola himself had been widely criticised for turning university graduates into cutters of grass and market sweepers in the name of Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O-YES), feelers from the state indicate that the employed young graduates are gradually being absorbed into the state's civil service, with the school leavers and non-lettered youth among members of the O-YES co-opted into the state Ministry of Works. In the same vein, the Ibikunle Amosun-led administration in Ogun State recently said that it was absorbing a large number of the state's unemployed youth into the civil service.However, while state governments across the country have been mouthing youth empowerment programmes, particularly through micro-credit schemes, Mimiko's position that unemployment has become a security threat in the country means that the governors' position are under threat unless they take urgent steps to redress the situation. In the face of the recent Arab uprising, the Wall Street protests in the US and even Thursday's security report that the Boko Haram sect has started to recruit university undergraduates and minors for its dastardly operations, Mimiko's colleagues can only ignore his position at their own peril.WHILE being honoured with an Achiever's Award at the 10th anniversary of the Premier FM Radio Station in Ibadan recently, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State declared that unemployment had become a security issue in the country. Commenting on the prevalent climate of general insecurity in the country, the Ondo governor said :'The greatest enemy in Nigeria is mass poverty. Unemployment has become a security issue. Tackling unemployment is, therefore, the greatest challenge of our generation.''Especially in the past few weeks, the tense security situation in the country, which is manifested essentially in the Boko Haram menace thought to have been hijacked by highly placed northern extremists who desire to truncate the democratically elected presidency of the incumbent president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, has put the country's foremost security agencies, particularly the top echelon of the armed forces; the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the State Security Service (SSS), on the hot seat. The two offices recently came under intense fire following their dismissal of a security report by the US embassy that members of the Boko Haram sect were planning to bomb some hotels at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the Sallah celebration.Indeed, the Ondo governor may have laid the foundation for a more realistic look at the unemployment situation in the country, as politicians, particularly members of the National Assembly, still revel in distributing motorbikes, clippers, generators and grinding machines as unemployment solution mechanisms.In a paper entitled 'Reducing Unemployment Through the Informal Sector: A Case Study of Nigeria,' Ishola Akintoye, a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, gave a historical outlook on the unemployment situation in the country. He cited the Central Bank of Nigeria as saying that , in 2003, the national unemployment rate, rose from 4.3 per cent in 1970 to 6.4 per cent in 1980. The high rate of unemployment observed in 1980 was attributed largely to depression in the Nigerian economy during the late 1970s.Specifically, he noted that the economic downturn led to the implementation of stabilisation measures which included restriction on exports and which caused import dependency of most Nigerian-manufacturing enterprises which, in turn, resulted in many companies operating below their installed capacity. This development was said to have led to the shut down of many industries, while the few survived were forced to retrench a large proportion of their workforce. Furthermore, the Nigerian government also placed an embargo on employment.'Specifically, total disengagement from the Federal Civil Service rose from 2, 724 in 1980 to 6,294 in 1984. Owing to this, the national unemployment rate fluctuated around 6.0 per cent until 1987 when it rose to 7.1 percent. It is important to state here, that the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) adopted in 1986, had serious implications on employment in Nigeria, as the unemployment rate declined from 7.1 per cent in 1987, to as low as 1.8 percent in 1995, after which it rose to 3.4 percent in 1996, and hovered between 3.4 and 4.7 per cent between 1996 and 2000,'' he said.Indeed, the satistics of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on unemployment in Nigeria for 2010 released recently showed that out of the over 60 million Nigerians within the age bracket 16-64 , only 48 million have jobs. This is, of course, ignoring those who are unable to work because they are engaged in full time education, or the theoretical few who do not wish to work. As demonstrated by the results, the South-West has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, with Lagos boasting the lowest figure of 7.6 per cent. However, the northern states are generally worse off, with Yobe (39 per cent), Zamfara (33.4 per cent) and Sokoto (32.4 per cent), presenting worst figures in the country.Interestingly, as revealed by the NBS statistics, although the oil and gas sector generates 80 per cent of the country's revenue, agriculture and trading are the highest employers of labour in the country, with the implication that the drivers of the economy are in the informal sector. The largely non-mechanised and non-formalised nature of the agricultural sector in the country, a sharp contrast to the elitist political farmers in the country comprising mainly of leaders who have serious questions to answer concerning the depletion of the nation's treasury over the years; questions relating to the payment of taxes and development planning face serious challenges.Since the informal sector is the largest employer of labour in the country, it follows then that the Federal Government needs to evolve policies geared at maximising the potentials of this sector, while also making efforts to bring aspects of the sector into the mainstream, formal sector. According to Akintoye, 'employment generation has been seen as a means of alleviating poverty, (and) increasing the level of economic activities which translate into economic growth. Although the Nigerian government, in previous times, had put in place policies and programmes which are meant to combat this menace, few of which are considered in this study, but, up till now, these programmes have not made much impact.'Unemployment can be reduced by expanding the activities of the informal sector. Although the informal sector has its challenges, which revolves round the inaccessibility of credit to finance its activities, but there is a glimmer of hope, considering the ongoing policy of the Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria, on microfinance which has brought microfinance banking into the limelight, making it a more realistic programme.'It is hoped that if the microfinance programme continues to enjoy the support and regulatory framework it presently enjoys from the government and stakeholders, it will no longer be crippled by lack of fund, while the employment generation and job creation goals of the millennium also become a reality.''Instructively, the North-East, which is worst hit by the unemployment situation in the country, is also the bedrock of the Boko Haram insurgency which is gradually eroding the confidence of members of the National Assembly in the presidency.Indeed, at a meeting with members of the National Assembly on Wednesday, the president was said to have been advised to concentrate efforts on tackling the mammoth security challenges facing the country, rather than dissipating energy on persuading the National Assembly to buy into his '2012-2015 Medium Term Fiscal Framework and Medium Term Expenditure Framework'' which contained the controversial fuel subsidy removal policy of his government.In the South-West states, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)-led governments are often accused of merely mouthing youth employment programmes as a cardinal policy, while failing to evolve concrete employment generation programmes. But it may be too early to undertake a realistic assessment of their commitment to the policy. Still, Governor Abiola Ajimobi was recently carpeted by members of the vanquished Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for failing to fulfil his electoral promise of creating 20,000 jobs within his first 100 days in office, in line with the policy initiated by his Osun State counterpart, Rauf Aregbesola.However, although Aregbesola himself had been widely criticised for turning university graduates into cutters of grass and market sweepers in the name of Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O-YES), feelers from the state indicate that the employed young graduates are gradually being absorbed into the state's civil service, with the school leavers and non-lettered youth among members of the O-YES co-opted into the state Ministry of Works. In the same vein, the Ibikunle Amosun-led administration in Ogun State recently said that it was absorbing a large number of the state's unemployed youth into the civil service.However, while state governments across the country have been mouthing youth empowerment programmes, particularly through micro-credit schemes, Mimiko's position that unemployment has become a security threat in the country means that the governors' position are under threat unless they take urgent steps to redress the situation. In the face of the recent Arab uprising, the Wall Street protests in the US and even Thursday's security report that the Boko Haram sect has started to recruit university undergraduates and minors for its dastardly operations, Mimiko's colleagues can only ignore his position at their own peril.
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