Francis Eniterai Ogbimi Phd

Solution to mass unemployment in Nigeria Francis Eniterai Ogbimi Phd

Beginning in the 1950s some nations of the world including all African nations, were referred to as developing nations or Third World Nations (TWNs), whereasmost Western and some Eastern nations were referred to as developed nationsor Technologically Advanced Nations (TANs). The most distinguishing featuresfor this classification were probably industrialization and related econo-socialpoliticalstatus. While the TWNs were not industrialised poor societies, theTANs were industrialised and rich societies. The TANs had been enjoying economic boom as from the eighteenth century. The 1950s and 1960s were specifically called the 'Golden Age' of capitalism(Marglin, 1991). The Golden Age was characterized by full employment, high productivity and low inflation. The TWNs have never enjoyed anyeconomic boom characterized by full employment, high productivity and lowinflation. Nigeria, like many other African nations, has been facing the co-existentproblems of mass unemployment, low productivity and high inflation for morethan twenty years. Nigeria has also been facing the problems of high crimerate, mass poverty, high indebtedness and high debt accumulation tendency, brain drain, decaying infrastructure, others. During the past thirty years, Nigeria has largely been pretending to educateher youths. This is because Nigeria's efforts in this regard may be likened tothat of a water-pump lifting water from a bore-hole into an over-head watertank that is leaking profusely. The pump merely wastes the fuel utilized in theprocess, and suffers wear and tear in doing the work of lifting water up into thetank. Nigeria like our model water-pump, reluctantly educates her youths insecondary and tertiary institutions and leaves the young graduates to face thefrustration of joblessness and careeless life. In a few years after graduating, the youths forget all they had learnt in their institutions and become too confusedto have any drive and initiative. Why are Nigeria and other African nations facing a myriad of economicproblems after planning and executing many plans over a period of aboutfive decades? Are Nigeria's economic problems unsolvable?The Nigerian situation may be likened to the tourist's error at a T-junction. When a tourist makes a left-turn instead of a right-turn at this special point, the more the effort he puts up, the farther away he becomes from his desireddestination (Ogbimi, 1992). We recall the injunction, 'think before you act!'It is a good one to heed always but it is doubtful whether it has ever guidedNigeria's planning since 1960 when she gained flag-independence. This mayexplain why although many Nigerian planning documents since 1960 havemany laudable objectives, there is little or nothing to show for themMany Nigerians believe that unemployment is the most important problemconfronting Nigeria today. The incidence of high crime rate in Nigeria, cultismin tertiary institutions, pervasive corruption, prevalent poverty in the nationand other undesirable developments, are believed to be consequences of themass unemployment problem and the attendant hopelessness. Mass unemployment has indeed become a global menace today. The Groupof seven most industrial nations, the G7, and Russia met in London in February,1998 and devoted a lot of time to tackling the problem of unemployment intheir nations. Britain, host of the meeting said in a background paper to thesession that, 'The purpose of this session is to have a frank assessment of thechallenges facing G8 econo