ON ASIWAJU’S SUGGESTION OF JOB CREATION

By Gbenga Olawepo Hashim

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s suggestion on immediate job creation has generated controversies online. I agree with the highly respected political leader, that we need immediate recruitment in the police and armed forces.

However, to be efficient, this recruitment must be targeted where needed to avoid lopsidedness, and for the best result to be achieved, policing must be immediately decentralized to state and local levels.
The Federal Government can keep the present number of about 400,000 police men, while additional 1 million police men should be recruited and trained at state and local government levels on needs basis.

Also, graduates should be given the jobs they can do and want to do, not jobs they don’t want to do. But beyond employment associated with security agencies, we need to catalyze sustainable employment by enabling the private sector as part of our immediate economic recovery programme, especially in the following sectors:

1. Creative Sector, Innovation and IT by strengthening copyright protection and provision of concessionary loans at not more than 2% interest rate, apart from the funding of equity scheme for start-ups.

2. Decentralization of electricity generation, transmission and distribution: this particular policy is estimated to be capable of attracting a hundred billion dollars of investment in the power sector, tied to “power at the point of need”, apart from creating hundreds of thousands of technically based jobs which most young graduates from our universities and polytechnics are qualified for .
It was heart wrenching when I interviewed a graduate with a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering ,fighting for a driver's job.

3. Provision of concessionary loans/guarantees for gas development projects at not more than 3% interest rate, and the financing of equity scheme in this sector. This would create thousands of jobs in Engineering, Business Development, Human Resource (HR), Investment Financing, Law, etc..These are the jobs that most unemployed graduates are seeking for.

The above are some of the few immediate tips on sustainable employment in Nigeria.

I have avoided comment on the usual ‘song’ of creating agriculture and manufacturing base jobs as this has become basic and ridiculous that everyone is encouraged to go to the farm. It is obvious to every sensible modern policy maker that any nation where more than 10% of the population are involved in agriculture must be living in a stone age

I’ve also deliberately left out some details reserved for the right time, because no one respect copyrights protection for ideas in this part of the world; even slogans are easily pirated without accurate attribution. I’m sure Nigerian youths are eager to hear and see serious debate about job creation; especially now that Nigeria is ranked the second country in the world with the highest rate of unemployment.

#BetterTogetherWithGOH

The only economic policy that Tinubu a.k.a Bobo Chicago knows best is empowering Agberos and street touts by placing them ahead and In charge of educated Lagosians.

Hum