A graduate, Kolade Ijiwunmi, completed
his first degree in 2008. He did his one year national youth service in a
private company in Yaba, Lagos. But Ijiwunmi is not as lucky as a few
of his colleagues. He was not retained after the service. Thus, his
search for an employment began.
After almost two years search for
employment without any headway, both in public and private sectors, he
began to think of other ways to get engaged. Ijiwunmi is now a popular
face at building construction sites.
He works as a site labourer, joining
others to carry moulded blocks, sand and granites for construction. He
has done this for almost two years and he says his earnings still cannot
afford him enough to get married or get a decent accommodation.
“It is not everyday people build houses,”
the young man who earns an average of N1,500 daily says in impeccable
English. “So, even after two years of doing this job, I still cannot
afford to get married. I am only able to get a room for myself at
Ikotun. I have no decent furniture, and other comfort of life.”
Ijiwunmi is not alone in this destitute net. He is one of those 100 million Nigerians the World Bank says live in destitution.
The World Bank Country Director for
Nigeria, Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly, said this at the bank’s Country
Programme Portfolio Review in Enugu on Tuesday, November 12, 2013.
She says, “1.2 billion people live in
destitution out of which 100 million are Nigerians. Inequality is rising
in many developing nations. For this reason, the World Bank’s corporate
perspective has shifted more strategically in the past year. The bank
wants to galvanise international and national support around two goals:
to end extreme poverty in a generation and to push for greater
equality.”
Over 40 million people are jobless
Unemployment level in the country has
reached an all-time high. Every year, tertiary institutions churn out
about 300,000 graduates.
In 2011, the National Bureau of
Statistics indicated that 23.9 per cent of Nigerians are unemployed,
meaning that about 40 million Nigerians needed employment. But the
figure at present, informal sources say, is well over that, with youths
forming the largest percentage.
Although the Federal Government, which
consistently says the economy is improving, did not swiftly react to the
World Bank’s claim, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister
for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had in July noted that the
spate of unemployment in the country is giving her sleepless nights.
Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics, the minister declares, “Each
year, about 1.8m young Nigerians enter our labour market, we need to
ensure that the economy provides jobs for them.”
But many may describe this as lip
service, since there is no evidence that new jobs are being radically
created. That is why whenever there are any openings, the employers are
bombarded by a multitude of job seekers. Last year, the Independent
National Electoral Commission had placed advertisements in the
newspapers for vacancies for various positions. Only 1,500 job slots
were available. But 800,000 people applied for the jobs. Among them
were some Ph.D holders struggling to fill positions meant for first
degree holders. Indeed, the vacancy advertisements placed in the
newspapers on November 19, 2012 had invited applications for the
positions of legal officers, system analysts, architects, engineers,
estate officers and registration area officers on grade levels 07, 08
and 09.
To show the ‘destitution’ that now seldom
romances the revered degree called Ph.D, earlier that month, Dangote
Transport Company, which specialises in training and employing drivers
after graduation, initiated a project called ‘The Drivers Academy”. It
aims at recruiting and training 2,000 Nigerian graduates to become
professional heavy vehicle drivers for the newly established super fleet
of the group.
Surprisingly, of the 13,000 applications
received, six have Ph.D, 704 were master’s holders, while 8,460 were
bachelor degree holders. The Chairman of the company, Aliko Dangote,
revealed this while speaking during the mentorship meeting of the World
Bank Youth Forum.
However, many Nigerians keep wondering why agencies such as the National Directorate of Employment are still existing.
Despite Nigeria’s agricultural resources and oil wealth, poverty is widespread in the land.
According to the National Bureau of
Statistics, about 61 per cent of Nigerians live on less than $1 a day
(N160). And some state governments have yet to comply with the N18,000
minimum wage, which further compounds poverty in the land.
Schooling with tears
The rot in all levels of education sector has continued to baffle many stakeholders.
Subsequent regimes and administrations
have not given education due attention. It has been a Herculean task to
devote 26 per cent of the annual budget to education, as recommended by
the United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
From Kano, Abeokuta, Calabar, Lagos to
Kaura Namoda, the situation is the same. Many public schools are reeling
under dilapidated infrastructure, lack of equipment, and unqualified
teachers, among other challenges.
In Unity Schools, which are supposed to
be models for standards, things are so bad nowadays that parents are
prevented from gaining access to their children’s hostels in many cases.
This, of course, is for obvious reasons – they harbour old and worn
out mattresses, dismembered cupboards, and other facilities that are
eyesore.
Many state and local government-owned
schools are even worse off. They lack sufficient chairs and desks, they
use archaic blackboards, just as they are saddled with unmotivated
teachers.
Of the 102 secondary schools recently
selected for evaluation, using the Quality Assurance Instrument for
Basic and Secondary Education in Nigeria, only six are rated good, 28
fair; 65 poor; while three are rated very poor.
Further evaluation of the schools in
leadership and management indicates that none of the schools is
outstanding. While 13 are rated good, 51 are adjudged fair and 37 others
very poor.
The tertiary institutions are not better
either. The neglect of the sector has resulted in the ongoing strike by
the Academic Staff Union of Universities. The action has entered its
fifth month. The situation has become so worrisome that foreign
institutions, including those in Ghana and Republic of Benin are now
havens for Nigerian students seeking better education.
A report says Nigerians annually pay close to N100bn to access education in Ghana.
ASUU National Treasurer, Dr. Ademola Aremu, assessing the rot in the system, said,
“We cannot continue to churn out poorly
educated graduates. We cannot condone the lip service being paid to
education by the Nigerian government, the majority of who train their
children in foreign universities. We are calling on Nigerians to rise up
and challenge the Federal Government to prioritise education and
develop the country. The Asian Tigers developed because of education.
Students, parents, and well meaning Nigerians must rise up and tell the
government that enough is enough.”
Health and lacklustre performance
The health of many Nigerians has suffered
greatly, and quality of life of many is quite abysmal. While primary
health facilities have practically collapsed, patients have had to wait
for more than four years to access major surgeries in public hospitals
due to lack of facilities and shortage of doctors.
Only a few – top government officials
especially – can afford to fly themselves or their loved ones out for
treatment in Europe, America, Asia – or even some neighbouring African
countries.
It is also quite sad that only 5.5
million out of 160 million Nigerians are covered under the National
Health Insurance Scheme of the country.
Stakeholders opine that this lacklustre
attitude of government towards the sector is a major factor why Nigeria
records one of the worst health indices in Africa and indeed the world .
According to the 2012 United Nations Aids
report released in June, Nigeria has the highest population of babies
born with HIV/AIDS and is among the top four countries with the highest
rate of infections.
The country has also retained the
shameful position as the only country in Africa that has yet to
eradicate polio. Even war- torn countries like Liberia, Somalia and Mali
have successfully banished polio infections from their population.
Nigeria is the second country in the
world, after India, where pregnant women and children under the age of
five die most. In a recent survey by the World Health Organisation,
which involved over 178 countries, Nigeria ranked almost at the bottom
of the last five countries with the worst health care systems.
While other countries are doing all they
can to retain and satisfy their medical professionals, Nigeria keeps
frustrating hers out of the country to India, Israel and even Sudan,
where good packages await them.
Hospitals are repeatedly shut down and
critically-ill patients are turned back even in cases of emergencies due
to frequent strike embarked upon by health workers. More than 90 per
cent of Nigerians still pay out of pocket for their health care, that
means that good care is only available for the rich.
The welfare of Nigerians seems to be the last thing on government’s agenda.
Roads of agony
According to statistics by the Rural Road
Access and Mobility Project, 85 per cent of Nigerian roads are in a
state of disrepair. The statistics shows that only slightly above 16,000
sq.km of secondary and tertiary roads in the country are motorable .
While the Trunk A roads like the
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Benin-Ore Expressway, Lagos-Abeokuta
Expressway, Okene-Abuja Road, among others, are largely in a state of
disrepair, the intra-roads are not faring better.
Though contracts for the
rehabilitation/reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway have been
awarded to two contractors, Julius Berger Plc and RCC Nigeria Limited,
no substantial progress has been made. They are mainly carrying out
palliative works.
Motorists are routinely held up in
gridlock on that road, due to its bad condition. Lagos-Abeokuta
Expressway is fast competing with the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the
number of potholes and craters it harbours.
Travellers spend hours on Benin-Ore
Expressway, due to its failed portions. Between 1999 and 2007, over
N300bn is said to have been spent on road repair across the country, but
there is not much to show for it.
For intra-roads, many states score below
average in this regard. Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Anambra, Imo, Kogi, Kwara,
Ebonyi, and Kano, among others, are in deficient in care for their
intra-roads. For instance, in Lambe, Ibafo and Mowe communities,
residents still travel through muddy roads and uncharted forests to
reach their homes. The same thing for residents of Itele, Lafenwa,
Ikogbe, Ijagba, Iju, Lusada and Atan among others.
In Lagos, too, residents of Alimosho
Local Government, which comprises Ipaja, Ayobo, Meiran, Ijegun, Egbeda,
Idimu, and Ikotun, among others, still wade through some unpaved roads
to their homes. When it rains, the roads become almost impassable. They
become muddy and slippery. But this is what people wade through, often
trudging in the mud or dust like pigs.
Suspended hope for electricity
The power sector remains one of the most
frustrating areas in the country. It has attracted much interest due to
its strategic nature. It is one sector that has gulped billions of
dollars, without commensurate electricity supply for the citizenry. As a
result, it is a norm in Nigeria to live in the dark.
Perhaps, it is only in Nigeria where up
to six families will be living in a house and all of them have
generators which they engage at the same time, with all attendant
pollutant effects.
Like primitive folks, people are still
experiencing darkness more than light, even while the FG has handed over
power generation and distribution in its privatisation scheme to
private investors. All the people can muster now is hope, despite the
fact that a lot has been expended on the exercise.
Between 1999 and 2007, under the former
President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, a whopping $16bn was
reportedly spent on the sector. The probe panel set up by the House of
Representatives to investigate the projects awarded under the National
Independent Power Projects was startled by earth-shaking revelations –
on how some contractors got mobilisation fees without doing the job.
While the Goodluck Jonathan
administration handed over the certificates of ownerships to power
generation and distribution companies on November 1, with over $1.957bn
reportedly paid into the FG’s coffers, its government is silent on the
completion dates of the NIPP projects scattered across the country.
These private investors have yet to
convince Nigerians that they can deliver. Nigerians have yet to witness
over 6,000 megawatts which was achieved under Obasanjo. The highest ever
achieved under Jonathan has been fluctuating between 2,628 and 3,000
megawatts. The power generation dropped to that level in August, and the
Minister of Power, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and
Communications, Ms. Knade Daniel, said the drop was as a result of
severe leaks in the supply of gas to some strategic power plants across
the country.
Apart from the challenge of insufficient
gas supply, the issue of payment of severance benefits to PHCN workers
affected by the privatisation deal has yet to be fully settled.
Obsolete railway
The rail system has, as the saying goes,
graduated into Mars in developed and sane countries. In the UK, US,
China and all, trains now come in inspiring and sophisticated shapes and
offer passengers a lot of convenience and fun. But Nigeria has yet to
graduate from the narrow-gauge rail system to standard gauge, which is
the modern mode, while some other countries have moved to the electronic
type.
At a point, the rail system of
transportation was almost dead in Nigeria. It took the administration of
Obasanjo to rejuvenate some of the wagons. Some of them now go as far
as Kano, Ilorin, Kaduna, Osogbo, among others on regular basis.
But visiting many of the railway stations
and seeing the trains on the move show faces of destitution. Those
wagons operating within Lagos metropolis – Ijoko- Agbado-Agege to Iddo –
have many passengers who do not want to pay for tickets, hanging on
tail boards and the roof.
Housing for all still a mirage
The nation’s housing policy seems not to
be well defined. For instance, the mortgage banks in the country,
analysts say, are only interested in satisfying the yearnings of a
privileged few. This has led a majority of Nigerians to either build
their houses in far-flung settlements lacking in planning and modern
facilities. And many cannot do that at all.
What experts say
Lecturer and a former head of Psychiatry
Department, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo
State, Dr. Adeoye Oyewole, notes that at present people are developing
psychiatric disorder and some are committing suicide due to
socio-economic reasons.
According to him, some are dislocated, some are living in overcrowded apartment while some others are homeless.
He says, “Some of these signs of poverty
and destitution are neither peculiar to Nigeria, nor Africa. There is
also meltdown in Europe. What is lacking here is that the country does
not have a structure to cushion this.
“In Europe, they have a very strong
social welfare system to support the citizenry. That is why our
government has failed, and this makes the economic depression more
devastating. Nigerian government should look more into social welfare
than infrastructure.”
The president, Campaign for Democracy,
Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, shares the view, stressing that there are indices
that support World Bank’s assertion of Nigeria.
She says it is a fact that about 90 per
cent of Nigerians live below $2 per day while 70 per cent live below $1
per day. According to her, a lot of old citizens have slumped and died
while waiting endlessly on queue to collect their pension, and many
youths are roaming the streets without employment.
She explains, “You can see scavengers
picking from dump sites to survive, some of them are graduates. Only a
few are stupendously rich while the majority wallow in abject poverty.
Our education system is in shambles. Youths are taking to robbery,
kidnapping and other social vices. All these indices point to the bank’s
assertion. It is no exaggeration; it is the reality of what is on
ground.”
A professor of Economics, Prof.
Sherifdeen Tella, notes that the bank’s revelation must have been made
out of research. He points out that indices of destitution are
widespread both in rural and urban centres.
Tella, who says many graduates are still
living with their parents because they cannot get jobs, notes that
nothing can be far for from destitution for parents to have spent so
much to send their children to school and at the end of the day, they
are still responsible for their upkeep.
Tella, who is a former Vice-Chancellor of
the Crescent University, Abeokuta, adds, “When youths are unemployed
they cannot really reach their full potential, because after graduating
many of them are still living with their parents.
“The number quoted by the World Bank’s
representative may not be far from the truth, indices of poverty are
seen in both rural and urban centres.”
To mitigate this, Tella advises the FG to
create jobs and also make the environment conducive for business to
thrive. He adds, “Power must work. And government must reduce the money
being lost to corruption.”
Government’s defence
The chief economic adviser to the
President, Dr. Nwanze Okidegbe has discredited the World Bank’s claim,
stressing that it is ‘spurious claim’ that is ‘easily disprovable.’
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