‘Most job intervention agencies are mere distractions’

What is you assessment of the job situation in Nigeria especially for women and young people?Over the years, there were so many things that happened to the economy and if you look at it, it is not peculiar to Nigeria. Globally, there are so many issues concerning unemployment. We are catching up in terms of […]

What is you assessment of the job situation in Nigeria especially for women and young people?
Over the years, there were so many things that happened to the economy and if you look at it, it is not peculiar to Nigeria. Globally, there are so many issues concerning unemployment. We are catching up in terms of individual strides but I think we have to do more. We must create more job opportunities for both women and youth. If you look at the US and Europe today, women and youth constitute almost 74 per cent of the work force both in blue and white collar jobs but in Nigeria the story is different. We find ourselves in this quagmire because of the decay in infrastructure which we always talk about. You look at every sector of our economy and you find out that there are a lot of things that need to be done.
There is no sufficient power, we have been talking about electricity here and there; you cannot create or establish industries without sufficient power in all parts of the country.  If you look at the issue of gender, there is so much disparity in the spread of jobs. Not much jobs are created for women.
What is your advice for the new government?
We are going to experience a new government coming in and I would advise as a citizen of this country and as a mother that the incoming administration should focus more on infrastructural development; roads, electricity, availability of land and even the provision of funds to sustain the economy which in turn create a lot of job opportunities for both women and youths.
Why do you think unemployment is high even with the many intervention agencies we have?
We should really move above these little distractions we create from time to time calling them employment opportunities for women and youth. We should grow above that because the world has developed; the global economy is a very challenging one. Anything that you must take out of this country as a produce or product must be of high standard or else you don’t get anywhere; nobody will buy it. We have to work on standardization of what we produce. To do that, we must solve the problems of infrastructure and corruption. A lot of people go to China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Dubai and others but more especially China and ask the industrialists and producers to produce substandard products for import into this country. On our own soil, we also engage their own labour force here while there is no job for you and I. Nobody is employing because the industries do not exist; something must be done to solve that problem. We should recognise what we are producing here and lay a lot of emphasis on quality and standards so that our goods will be accepted here and outside. Whatever the youths and women produce, at least they have the local market and local content would be satisfied. You then take it to the international level.
The new government has said one of its key areas of focus would be education, how can the right kind of education create employment?
When we were growing up in the early 1960s, I remember we were taught arts and crafts in the primary school we had school gardens also and even competed on amount of yields which even our teachers used. Therefore, you had to work very hard; we learnt how to work very hard within the school system itself. It was brought into the system because they wanted children to grow with the attitude of productivity; to value both education and hard labour. The incoming government if I may advice, I know quite okay that they are doing this entrepreneurship education in secondary school but it must restructure the way it is done in order to further institutionalise it. Today, education without entrepreneurship is meaningless because the problem we have in this country is that we produce a lot of graduates who cannot even handle the practical aspects of their own discipline well, let alone something outside their curriculum. You see today a graduate will come out with degree of whatever class but ask the person to start a business even if it is to transport broom from one part of the country to the other, decorate it to be beautiful and earn from it, the person cannot. They don’t even think that there is work outside whatever it is they study. If entrepreneurship is introduced into our system right from primary, secondary and to the tertiary levels, we will achieve a lot because graduates will come out with skills and may not even look for jobs because they have their own jobs already. Every skilled graduate can directly employ two people to work for them. If you can encourage entrepreneurship in our educational system, I don’t think unemployment will pose a severe challenge to our economy. I think the president would do well to add value to education through entrepreneurship. I bet you we will not find ourselves in this problem of unemployment both in blue and white collar jobs. I think the graduates of today, to be fair, have taken up the challenge but government has to go many steps further to internalise it in the individuals so that they come out with certificates and skills that will contribute to the economy.
Everybody knows that over dependence on oil contributes to neglect of other sectors. What is the way out?
The manufacturing sector is a big field in itself and like I always say, we are not coordinated, the knowledge of trying to create something out of nothing is not in us; we see all the waste that comes either from agriculture, from mineral resources, from the crude oil itself as if it is not important while you see foreigners trooping into this country carrying out all these things to their country, manufacturing them and bringing them back in. The right attitudinal framework is not built in us to create something out of our environment, so you cannot do anything. Look at the textile industry; they were working very fine in the 1960s. We didn’t even have to buy clothes like the Hollandaise and others from abroad.  We manufactured them here in Kaduna, Ibadan, Kano and Lagos and people bought them. Within a short while everything is dead, nothing standing. The textile sector is just a shadow of itself, there is nothing there. The only thing remaining there is the wall and maybe obsolete equipment, likewise the refineries, mineral extracting companies, none is working. Looking at the transportation sector, take the railway for instance, the destruction there is beyond comprehension. People used to trade from Lagos to Maiduguri and paid little amount of money to transport goods and a lot of young men were also employed at the terminals because there were lots of jobs for them and crime rate was very low.  I suggest that the incoming government should look inward, study the situation and bring experts that will sincerely work to remedy the situation for the women and youths of this country because we are the ones that are suffering.
You have a very rich experience in job creation especially for women and youth, if duty calls, would you be willing to participate in rebuilding the fallen system?
Absolutely; I am a patriot and I want to see immediate sustainable change. Like I always say, those people that are in the field are knowledgeable and know what is happening in the areas of their expertise. Therefore, if it happens that I am to be involved in assisting solving the problem of women and youth unemployment, surely, I will give my time and energy and above all my expertise because I know I am contributing to improving the quality of life of youths and women of this country. I give you an example, If America can produce food for itself I don’t see why Nigeria cannot do that because among African countries, we call ourselves the richest, why should we suffer the problem of unemployment and hunger. We must work hard and make sure we sustain self-sufficiency. There are job opportunities everywhere but one has to open their minds and start small in most cases. If I am to be called, I will be willing to actively participate and contribute my own quota and I can assure you that I will work tirelessly like I always do in the battle against unemployment. I am very passionate about job creation.