A Trust for the Future Gboyega Akinsanmi
Writes that the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, recently unveiled a N25 billion employment trust fund to curb unemployment in Lagos
Her story is fairly interesting, but quite pathetic. To be sure, her story might sound incredible to many out there. Like thousands of graduates still searching for jobs after years of leaving the four walls of classrooms, Favour Michael had been at home for at least six years. She said she never prepared for such a harrowing experience in life.
With a background in computer science and several skills acquisition trainings Ms. Michael believed it was not going to be difficult to get a job, but six years after her passing out parade at the National Youth Service Corps orientation camp in Bayelsa State, she’s yet to find a job.
She blamed the country’s leadership for the unemployment in the country.
She said: “Nigerian leaders have failed this generation. The country’s leadership at different levels continues to make life hard for the young people. We hear a lot of promises every election year, but they are hardly fulfilled by the politicians. Jobs are hard to come by.”
Despite her prevailing challenges, this 28-year-old graduate last week exuded much confidence and hope, believing the table would soon turn in her favour. Her confidence apparently belied the horrible data on the country’s socio-economic sectors the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released in the last five years. Favour said if she could not find a job, she would definitely create one. But what could have explained her confidence?
Like Favour, Siji Akintewe, a graduate of Lagos State Polytechnic, shared his own ugly experience about the job market.
Akintewe who completed her programme a few years back said he has not been gainfully employed, though he has remained attached to a government agency where he did his internship between 2008 and 2009.” Akintewe too hoped that things would soon change for the better.
But his concern was informed by Nigeria’s unemployment statistics that “still stands at 23.9 per cent in 2013,” according to the NBS. By 2014, the rate grew by 2 percent, and this keeps sending panic message to the world over. Aside, by estimate, Nigerian population stood at 173.6 million in the same year.
Of this estimated population, about 41.5 million are currently unemployed, which the World Bank statistics ranked as one of the highest in Africa.
As evident in the NBS figures, the prevailing socio-economic condition has shown that 60 per cent of the population is living in abject poverty. It has, also, shown that more than 112 million Nigerians are extremely poor.
With soaring unemployment statistics for Nigeria, metropolitan cities like Lagos receive the shocks more than any other part of the country. This reality might have informed the N25billion job creation initiative of Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the APC governorship candidate in Lagos State.
Expectedly, Ambode’s initiative has dominated public discourse since he unveiled the N25billion employment fund.
Of course, the incumbent governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has been able to create jobs through infrastructure development for Lagos State. And though it looks truly innovative and promising, Ambode’s initiative appeared ambitious for different reasons, which some sceptics said, might be one of the political gimmicks to win the race.
But Ambode’s employment policy content offers a lot of hope for the youth population and not political gimmicks. In a recent encounter with journalists, Ambode said the idea was “to mop up a minimum of one million unemployed youths off the state streets annually.”
Apparently, this sounds unbelievable, according to the President of Forward Nigeria Initiative (FGI), Mr. Lai Omotola. He was concerned about what it would cost to successfully implement the idea.