Interrogating Damachi’s Theory of wealth distribution, creation
THIS book is the result of years of experience gained by the author as a senior civil servant in some ministries and agencies in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In particular, the author’s experiences that catalyse writing of this book are those gained through his assignments and deployments at the National Directorate of Employment and also at the Office of the Head of Civil Service.
The National Directorate of Employment, an agency established in 1986, aimed to address massive unemployment and underemployment in Nigeria at that time. It was during his tenure at the Office of the Head of Civil Service as Director of Training and subsequently as the Permanent Secretary at the Manpower Development Office that he came to see more clearly the relationship between capacity building for public service and training and skill acquisition to equipping the unemployed, many lacking in marketable skills, with the skills they need to enter the workforce, and thus leading to a reduction in the national pool of the unemployed.
In the book, the author describes the high unemployment problem in Nigeria starting in the 1980s. The problem is that while a large number of youths are graduating from high schools and universities yearly, the economy is not able to provide them opportunities for employment owing to lack of expansion of the economy at a commensurate pace.
Equally important is the realisation by government that unemployment and underemployment can lead to other social vices such as crime, a feeling of loss of self- worth, a lack of actualisation of personal goals, and the inability to find meaning in life.
The author does an excellent job in linking unemployment and underemployment to the growth of national economy, and improvement in the quality and standard of living of the citizens.
The book next presents a review of all the various programmes instituted by the Nigerian government over the last 25 years with the goal of alleviating unemployment and poverty. It is the review of these programmes that led to the conceptualisation and development of the Splash theory of wealth distribution and creation.
In a nutshell, the theory embraces the idea that part of the national wealth should be allocated each year to the training, counseling, and micro financing of the youth to empower them and lift them out of poverty.
In essence, the government should make yearly investments targeting the empowerment of the youth to reposition and enhance their employment potential. In return, the previously unemployed who become employed will start to contribute to the economy to expand the nation’s wealth.
The application of the concept advocated by the theory can form the basis and the driver for employment planning on a continuing basis to consequently convert the unemployed to employment status to reduce unemployment.
This will not only reposition the youth financially but will also make them contributing members of the population to the national wealth.
The author uses data from the National Directorate for Employment ( NDE) over a 25- year p eriod to develop a regression model to support and demonstrate the power of the ‘ Splash Theory’.
The independent variable in the model is the yearly government financial allocation to NDE while the depende nt variable was the number of jobs created yearly . The model provides a basis to estimate or project the number of new jobs that can be created given a level of government resource investment. A special characteristic of the ‘ Splash Theor y’ is that national resources should be allocated directly to the agency responsible for youth empowerment for training, counseling, and microfinancing to promote the creation of new jobs.
The analytical model developed recognises that the efficiency of resources allocated by the government may not be at 100 per cent. The recognition of a possible lower efficiency is necessar y especially in the Nigerian context where the resource leakage problem is paralysing. This efficiency coefficient forms a basis to perform sensitivity analysis on the predicted number of jobs created based on the level of government investment.
Although both the ‘ Splash Theory’ and its associated model are easy to understand, their range of applications is wide. While the model may need to be customised or adapted for each application or scenario, it can be used for employment planning at all levels of government, including states, region s, local governments, and even city governments.
It is a quantitative tool to project employment yields at any level of o government investment towards the reduction of unemployment. m The usability of an analytical model is dependent on the quality q of data used. Poor data quality will undoubtedly produce unreliable u predictions.
The T ‘ Splash Theor y’ advocates for the use of an analytical model as a an integral component of emplo yment planning at any level of o government, especially the federal level.
The ‘ Splash Theor y’ recognises that sustainable growth in emplo e yment and the economy should be accompanied by appropriate a complementary structural changes in other sectors of o the economy.
There may have to be changes made in the educational system
to ensure that students are graduated with marketable skills. Students S should be also be g raduated with the mindset that they could c become entrepreneurs and job creators themselves instead in of seeing themselves solely as possible future emplo yees of o some organisation.
O Other factors discussed t o support the ‘ Splash Theory’ are ( i) the need n to increase national prod uctivity using industrial engineering ne techniques since productivity growth is essential for creating cr jobs and growing the national wealth, ( ii) improvement m in leadership, ( iii) integration of technolog y in production, tio and ( iv) espousing land reform policies that offer ever y Nigerian the right to own property.
The roles of technology, application of productivity improvement techniques, reform of the educational system to produce market- ready graduates, and thoughtful land reform policies are essential ingredients to boosting the economy and expanding job and wealth creation.
As someone who has observed from afar what appears to be the mismanagement of resources by African countries, the reason for the underperformance can only be attributed to the gross mismanagement and massive leakage of resources by individuals in leadership and management positions.
In most African economies, it is one thing producing ver y fine, articulate, and thoughtful plans and planning documents but is another thing implementing the plans. African countries are not lacking in skills of producing quality plans and planning documents. Egbelu, PHD, FNAE, FNAS, FIIE Distinguished Professor of Management New Jersey Institute of T echnology Newark, New Jersey, USA.
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