₦airaland Forum

UNEMPLOYMENT – TAMING THE TUMOR
Since inception of mankind we have strived to be better and this evolution has created a gap between the 3rd world nations and advanced nations.
Unemployment is the pain that won’t just go away due to the porous foundation laid by our heroes past, dwindling economic fortunes and the worst of the bunch being “corruption”. Recent report show that unemployment has never been at its apex ; the problem has cropped into a tumor too devastating to thinker. According to the international labor organization (ILO)- unemployment is the biggest threat to the social stability of a nation and with a 12.6% global unemployment rate (2012), its paramount that the authority takes an innovative path to tame the tumor that is eating the core and leaving scars with reckless abandon.
In comparison to the scourge of unemployment lingering in other nations in Africa(Ghana – 14% and soUth Africa – 22%) Nigeria’s unemployment index stands at an alarming 24% and climbing(ILO – 2010); the last population census indicates that 60% of the populace are youth’s translating to 80 million plus Nigerians. Considering the purge that over 50% of youths (64 million able bodied human beings) are unemployed is a cause for a declaration of a state of emergency in the labor and productivity sector despite the efforts made by the present administration with the effortful - transformation agenda.
To think that these unemployed youths have no social welfare benefits or a vibrant nationwide skill acquisition program that is devoid of bureaucratic bottlenecks is all the more reason why the entity called Nigeria is sitting on a time bomb. The immigration incident that was agog on the social media was an evidence of the negative transcendence that has come to stay in the system.
We live in a world where change is a product of will power and it’s belwildering that we are yet to learn from the elements portrayed by nations such as neighbors; Ghana, china, United arab emirates and india. To sit on streams of wealth without accountability or research in exploitation of other areas of the economy is taking things with levity. Nigeria remains a key player in the oil generation circle but it cannot account for the returns on barrels of petroleum products.
The recent job statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics, (NBS), showed that the economy created 500,224 jobs across the country in the first six months of 2014 which was largely greeted with kids gloves. Despite the obvious fact that the government at one level have come up with programs by creating the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) which has sprung up skills acquisition programs such as NAPEP, PAP, SURE-P and YOUWIN doesn’t give the present administration the thumbs up yet.
Furthermore, the statistics released by the bureau is commendable but it’s the sustainability and growth of those figures that will trigger a chain reaction leading to the actualization of whatever vision the government has in place. Talking about visions they can only be achieved if the citizenry plays an equal role in defining the course of action to be adopted. The youths should engage in self-development and make proper use of idle time to engage in reading or expanding the horizons of their knowledge by learning new things. The government cannot do it all alone that is why development is a collaborative effort interwoven from all strata’s of society.
If unemployment is to be tamed in the scope of these contemporary times, there has to be a populace eager to evade all forms of vices, crime, bigotry, sentimentalism, and most of all corruption and adopt measures use by developed countries of the world. The treasures of technology have yet to be tapped in Nigeria due to poor foresights and illiteracy.

We lack a reading culture and a will to do things differently in other to achieve desired result thus we curse the government at our own demise. Its key that we adopt accountability both to ourselves and to the people we put in charge over us when we use the power given to us in the electoral process.