Jonathan’s Job Creation Agenda: Matters Arising

By

Shafiu Ibrahim Abdullahi

afgafaga@yahoo.com

A visit to the web portal created by the national committee on job creation of the national economic management team tells you that 12 million job opportunities are needed now, asking you to contribute your ideas on how jobs can be created. It goes further to tell you that together we can draw up a roadmap for gain full employment, and at no place did it tells you about the much the committee is doing and how many jobs it did created since it comes into being. The truth of the matter is that the committee did not create any job apart from the few that individual member companies’ (like Dangote) created. The history of Nigerian government noise making about creating jobs did not start with this administration and certainly will not finished with it. Since the returned to democracy in 1999, the government of Obasanjo (for example) has promised to create millions of jobs as well as pulled millions out of poverty, which it has failed to do and instead created millions of poverty stricken families. The number of unemployed in the country has been on the increase since then, not showing any sign of coming down despite the hullabaloos of the present administration and the one before it. The increasing crime rate and incidences of kidnappings are proves of government monumental failure to create jobs for the teaming youth roaming the streets, particularly unemployed graduates with nothing to do other than to revert to thieving alternatives. In an economy that is crippled by lack of electric power, bad roads, insecurity, high interest and exchange rates, and lack of foreign investment, it beat imagination to talk of creating jobs just out of the blue.

Nigeria is good at ‘copy-copy’, because the passion around the developed and emerging economies of the world now (after the devastating global economic Tsunami of 2008) is job creation, Jonathan too does not want to be left behind, hence, the current job creation stories, even though those behind it know that not any meaningful jobs will be created at the end. In a recent special report by the Economist magazine of London that comes out on unemployment around the world (The future of jobs, September 10, 2011), the author argued that due to the current nature of unemployment globally, the number of jobless people is going to remain high in rich countries and falls in poor countries, which is what is happening in places such as China, India and even Vietnam. The survey goes on to look at the job markets in the BRIC economies as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and Latin America. On how government could help create jobs the survey argues that it should help set policies right and help in creating entrepreneurs and start ups. In no place did it mention throwing money at such projects as National ID card (which eventually will not be produced in Nigeria) or creation of zombie ministries and parastatals that end up eating into the government budget. Some of the high job creating sectors like manufacturing, agriculture and mineral resources that help countries like Brazil and China to create millions of jobs are dead in Nigeria. While the survey is of the view that unemployment is going to fall in poor countries, here in Nigeria we are stuck in a situation of rising jobless rate created by poor government policies. The information technology industry that is credited with creating millions of jobs in India and the US is nowhere nearing becoming a reality in Nigeria; instead we are left with an arm load of Yahoo-Yahoo boys who continue to batter the image of this country around the world.

While our next door neighbor (Ghana) has created a million jobs in the last few years and has been poaching Nigerian talents and companies, we are left with a series of conferences and tea parties on how to create jobs. Of course Ghana has put most of the things needed to create jobs in place, hence the current result in their job market; their democracy is working not like our rigging type and they have electric power in abundance, their roads in better shapes, they are politically stable than we are and all their macroeconomic fundamentals are in better position than ours. Look at Kano, for instance, out of over one thousand industries established in the state only about hundred are working. But instead of coming to Kano’s Sharada, Bompai or Challawa to see for himself our president is busy holding conferences at his Aso rock villa on how to create. How to create what, something that did not exist? Mr. Jonathan and his economic management team should know the true that the jobs he promised since coming into power are not there and to an ordinary jobless Nigerian on the street all these talks about creating jobs are dreams that have continued to fail to transform into reality. And if you doubt this, ask some one who has been in the labour market for the past three years. But despite these grim statistics, there are still some hopes. If Jonathan will focus the more on generating power, building of good roads, provision of securities, creation of genuine democratic space and putting of enabling macroeconomic environment in place the better for his job creation agenda.