Dino Melaye, a disgrace to the Senate - Tinubu

Vanguard, THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2016
16—23
Mr. Segun Oshinowo, NECA DG
Why employment crisis
persists — NECA DG
By Victor Ahiuma-Young &
Elizabeth Uwandu
D IRECTOR-GENERAL
of Nigeria Employers'
Consultative Association, NECA,
Mr. Segun Oshinowo, in a chat
with Vanguard, speaks on the
employment crisis in Nigeria and
ways to address same.
Employment crisis: Nigeria is
looking for a microwave solution
to unemployment. That is why we
are all disappointed, that in spite
of what may seem to be
government seriousness and
sensitivity in handling the issue
of unemployment, we are not
getting result.
Fundamental
approach
The question we should be
asking ourselves is, why are we
not getting it right? We are not
getting results because we are not
doing the right things.
Let me repeat myself again, we
are looking for a microwave
solution to a problem that requires
a far more robust and
fundamental approach. The first
thing we must realise as a country
is that employment comes from
meaningful inclusive and
consistent growth. Now when
you look at the state of our
economy particularly, in the last
three to four years, we have not
really posted meaningful growth.
Even in time past, when Nigeria
was posting an average of 6
percent and 7.5 percent Gross
Domestic Product, GDP growth
rate, it did not result into
meaningful employment. That
was why I said earlier that what
we require is sustainable and
inclusive growth.
Now, when we talk about
sustainable inclusive growth, we
bear in mind critically four
components. In the four key
components that drive growth,
take consumer expenditure.
What is the level of our
disposable income in this
economy? When you look at the
US economy as an example, you
discover that the GDP growth, it
is principally propelled by the
consumer expenditure. So, the
level of the income of your people
is a key factor in determining
whether you going to have a
meaningful growth.
The second factor is investment.
How well have we done in
attracting foreign investment into
Nigerian economy? The third
component is government
expenditure. When we are talk
of expenditure in this regard, I
will qualify the expenditure on
critical infrastructure that your
economy requires for growth.
How consistence has our
government been investing in
infrastructure? If you check the
profile of government budgets in
the past six to seven years, you
will discover that the chunk of
your budgets, has been going into
recurrent expenditure rather than
capital expenditure. When you
now look at the balance of trade
in terms of our export access. You
discover that we are far more
income dependent and less
export economy.
So, all on those variables that
drive growth, consumer
expenditure, flow of foreign
investment, government
expenditure, particularly on
capital expenditure, and then on
our balance of trade, we have
not fared well.
Those are the key fundamentals
we really need to look at if we are
to solve this huge unemployment.
We will not solve this by
government rhetorics, we will not
It is possible for
somebody to have
acquired functional
skill, but if the state
of the economy is
unhealthy, the
person will not
have a place to
utilise the
functional skill
acquired
solve unemployment by creating
agencies, we will not solve this
unemployment by imparting skill
on our youth, though it is part of
it. We will not solve by
addressing the quality of our
education.
Now, don’t get me wrong,
quality of education is important,
technical and vocational skills are
important. But, at the end of the
day, we are going to focus on the
market. It is possible for you to
give youths the best quality
education and impart on them
with the most contemporary
technical and vocational skills,
yet they remain unemployed if
your economy is not doing well.
So, those are key inputs. But you
need to address the demand
needs for it, has to do with posting
a sustainable inclusive growth.
That is really the way forward.
Education, economy: There are
two issues here now. First one
has to do with functionality. As
to whether, the graduates we are
churning out are in the areas of
the needs of your economy .The
second issue whether the
number we are churning out are
far more than the numbers the
industries required. Because, It
is possible to address the issue of
functionality, but to produce
functional graduates far beyond
what the economy requires is
another issue.
So, we should not mix these two
issues together. Nevertheless,
these two issues are key to us.
Why are they key to us? Let us
even assume that we are
addressing the issue of
functionality.
Sustainable
enterprises
We are not producing these
graduates for their own use, we
are producing them for the use of
the economy. In which case, it is
possible for somebody to have
acquired functional skill, but if the
state of the economy is unhealthy,
the person will not have a place
to utilise the functional skill
acquired.
That is where the basis issue of
promoting sustainable enterprises
and creating enabling
enviroment is extremely important
in an attempt to solve
unemployment. We are
beginning to see large numbers
of Nigerian youths that attended
the best universities abroad
coming back to the country, only
to join the queue of the
unemployed.
In which case, if the argument
had been that universities were
churning out now qualitative
graduates, how would you now
explain that those who have had
the best education are unable to
get job? That is why I am quite
convinced that the issue of
unemployment goes beyond
having quality graduates.
Market dynamics: If you don’t
get the market dynamics right, if
you don’t create avenue where
wealth creation will be
encouraged and businesses will
thrive, you may have the best of
graduates in the world, you may
have the best functional workforce,
you will still end up being
unemployed. Because the market
which will provide for functional
or skilled graduates is in
comatose. That is the key issue
in Nigeria, and if you analyse it
further, it comes down to quality
choices over the years.
I would give you an example.
Why should a graduate of
Chemical Engineering be
unemployed in Nigeria, the
largest crude oil exporter in
Africa? Which industries should
provide jobs for graduates of
Chemical Engineering , the oil
and gas. But, what have we been
doing over the years? We built
four refineries that are nonfunctional,
we ended up
importing petroleum products
and other derivertives.
We instituted a policy that
discourages investment and
establishment of industries. So, if
you got it wrong in the area of
your policy choices, it will reflect
on the labour market in terms of
unemployment. That is one
example, we could go on and
on. You are a consumption
country, importing rice from Asia,
meanwhile, we have ariable
land.
Graduate of
agriculture
So, why should a graduate of
Agriculture be unemployed? It is
because of our policy choices. If
we have embraced policies that
would support diversification,
backwards integration, local
content, graduates of Agriculture
will have no business being
unemployed, graduates of
Industrial Chemical will also have
no business being unemployed.
So, the quality and
appropriateness of our policy is
a major cause of our
unemployment problems.
Apart from the keys that drive
growth, we need to look at our
quality choices. At any point in
time, we need to ask our
questions, these choices we are
about to articulate, and
implement, is it job rich or will it
promote employment? These
questions need to be answered,
else we continue creating jobs for
non Nigerians.
What do you make up of the
500 millions naira budget for
social security?
Those are unsustainable choices
of policy. While it is
commendable, at least, it will get
some youths off the streets. it is
certainly not sustainable. If you
spend such budget now, next
year, are you doing to get such
amount for the budget? At what
point in time are you going to step
up and see that education is just
one sector of the entire economy
. Let’s assume that all the
unemployed youths want to be
teachers. Yes, some of them
would embrace for survival. We
might not be getting the best from
them, because that might not be
their aspiration in life. They will
receive it and embrace it, but if
that is not their aspiration, it is a
question of time , we start having
problems with them I terms of
motivation. But, it is
commendable, but we need to
look beyond that.