Unemployed Nigerian
youths are an easy prey for the government to exploit nowadays. They are mostly
hopeless and desperate; but who can blame them when the government that is
supposed to look after their welfare is busy enslaving them? On Saturday, 15
March, the extent of suffering for unemployed Nigerian youths hit a new high.
The shoddy national recruitment organised by the Nigerian Immigration Services, NIS, left 18
Nigerian youths, including three pregnant women, dead during a stampede in
Abuja, Minna and other centres while 100 got injured.
The recruitment exercise which took place at football stadia in Abuja and 33 states, excluding Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, summed up the level of insensitivity by the Nigerian Immigration Services and the government to the plight of the youths. The applicants were about six million; these included applicants with Masters’ degree, Bachelor’s degree, Higher National Diploma, Ordinary National Diploma, National Certificate in Education and Senior Secondary School Certificate.
They had paid N1000 processing fee each, which translates to about N 6 billion, and they were all jostling for only 3,000 jobs. At least 17 applicants died in 2008 during a similar exercise by the Nigeria Prisons Service and NIS. Yet nobody learnt any lesson from that tragedy and it has repeated itself again. Why did the NIS outsource the recruitment to Drexel which apparently does not have the capacity to handle such a task?
All across the world, governments employ citizens into its parastals using decent, more technical and advanced human resources technique without charging applicants processing fee but not our government. Recruitment exercise across the country has shown the staggering rate of unemployment. In Akwa Ibom State, the government was going to employ 1,000 workers recently and 75,000 people applied. In Kwara State the government wanted to recruit 425 teachers in junior and senior secondary schools across the state but 4568 applied.
Unemployment figures have soared in recent years at a frightening pace. According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, 54 per cent of Nigerian youths were unemployed in 2012. A figure analysts claim has increased remarkably in 2013. According to the report, more than half, about 54 per cent of youth population, were unemployed. Of this female stood at 51.9 per cent and male at 48.1 per cent.
The high unemployment percentage invariably lead many youths to crime. The NBS report stated that out of 46,836 youths recorded against different types of crimes 42,071 were male while 4765 were female. And of the crimes committed by these frustrated youths, smoking marijuana (Indian hemp) had the highest figure.
Similarly, the National Planning Commission’s Performance Monitoring Report on Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies was catastrophic as well as disheartening. The report revealed that the unemployment rate in Nigeria in 2010 was 21.1 per cent but the figure increased to 23.9 per cent in 2011. This means that government ministries, departments and agencies are doing very little to reduce unemployment although the government has been making all kinds of empty promises.
The recruitment exercise which took place at football stadia in Abuja and 33 states, excluding Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, summed up the level of insensitivity by the Nigerian Immigration Services and the government to the plight of the youths. The applicants were about six million; these included applicants with Masters’ degree, Bachelor’s degree, Higher National Diploma, Ordinary National Diploma, National Certificate in Education and Senior Secondary School Certificate.
They had paid N1000 processing fee each, which translates to about N 6 billion, and they were all jostling for only 3,000 jobs. At least 17 applicants died in 2008 during a similar exercise by the Nigeria Prisons Service and NIS. Yet nobody learnt any lesson from that tragedy and it has repeated itself again. Why did the NIS outsource the recruitment to Drexel which apparently does not have the capacity to handle such a task?
All across the world, governments employ citizens into its parastals using decent, more technical and advanced human resources technique without charging applicants processing fee but not our government. Recruitment exercise across the country has shown the staggering rate of unemployment. In Akwa Ibom State, the government was going to employ 1,000 workers recently and 75,000 people applied. In Kwara State the government wanted to recruit 425 teachers in junior and senior secondary schools across the state but 4568 applied.
Unemployment figures have soared in recent years at a frightening pace. According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, 54 per cent of Nigerian youths were unemployed in 2012. A figure analysts claim has increased remarkably in 2013. According to the report, more than half, about 54 per cent of youth population, were unemployed. Of this female stood at 51.9 per cent and male at 48.1 per cent.
The high unemployment percentage invariably lead many youths to crime. The NBS report stated that out of 46,836 youths recorded against different types of crimes 42,071 were male while 4765 were female. And of the crimes committed by these frustrated youths, smoking marijuana (Indian hemp) had the highest figure.
Similarly, the National Planning Commission’s Performance Monitoring Report on Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies was catastrophic as well as disheartening. The report revealed that the unemployment rate in Nigeria in 2010 was 21.1 per cent but the figure increased to 23.9 per cent in 2011. This means that government ministries, departments and agencies are doing very little to reduce unemployment although the government has been making all kinds of empty promises.
Nigerian youths continue to live in abject poverty and unemployment while billions of dollars is carted away by the leaders who are supposed to care for them. Unemployment is a huge time bomb that could blow up in the face of the nation if not diffused now.
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