Where’s the Deal?

American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in 1933, responded to the calamity of the Great Depression, by launching the New Deal.

It was a series of new programs designed to respond to a wide range of problems facing the country: stabilizing the banks and stimulating the economy, creating jobs and raising wages, investing in public works and modernizing lagging regions, and giving ordinary Americans a new sense of security and hope.

The New Deal lasted until American entry into the Second World War at the end of 1942.

In a sense the state that Nigeria is in today is as bad if not worse than America was during the Great Depression of 1929 – 1942.

The stock market is now trading at two year lows.

The latest Labour Force report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), released in December 2018, shows the number of unemployed Nigerians rose from 17.6 million to 20.9 million.

According to the report, the unemployment rate accordingly, increased to 23.1 percent in the third quarter of 2018, from 18.8 percent a year earlier and 5.1 percent in 2010.

Worse still, youth unemployment and under- employment was 55.4 percent in the third quarter of 2018.

The economy expanded 1.9 percent in 2018, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects growth will be 2.3 percent in 2019.

However because the population is growing much faster at around 2.8 percent per annum, the tepid GDP