Recently, over 54,000 Batch ‘B’ corps members bowed out from the scheme after their compulsory one year service to their fatherland. But with the rising unemployment in Nigeria, there are fears that such overwhelming population may remain unemployed for years to come. CHIKA OKEKE writes.
The atmosphere was vibrating with shouts and sounds of victory even as the young men and women were exuding excitement.
This was the situation at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camp, Kubwa during the passing out parade of the 2011 Batch B Corps members.
Master Kingsley Ugot (not real name), a Youth Corps member that served at Federal Civil Service Secretariat did not hide his feelings that God sustained him all through the service year despite the series of security challenges in the country when he spoke with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY before he left Abuja.
Though he was excited but one could read between the lines that it was not yet uhuru for the promising chap who had been working round the clock to secure a permanent employment immediately after his service.
However, fate dealt an ugly blow on him because he was not retained in the Commission where he served, neither was he able to secure employment elsewhere in the city. With this development, Ugot had no alternative than to relocate to his home-state, AkwaIbom.
He tells his story, “I submitted my curriculum vitae to many places with the hope that I may secure an employment after my passing out, but my efforts were futile. Within the next few days, I will relocate to my state in search of greener pasture, but despite the challenges, I still thank the federal government for giving me the opportunity to serve my fatherland and I will remain indebted to Nigeria”.
Recounting his experiences, he said, “When I discovered that I was posted to Abuja, I was excited because I believed that Abuja residents always had money to spend, but I got it wrong. I had little savings in my account because I must eat, transport myself to work and even attend to some financial issues.
But I still give glory to God. My major problem now is how long will it take me to get the government white collar job because I have watched people testify that after three to five years of their passing out, they were unable to secure employment but I hope that my story will be different”, he concluded.
Others react to threatening unemployment
Madam Elizabeth Thomas shares similar pain with Ugot. She passed out from the NYSC over ten years but was yet to secure the government white collar job which she believed was more secured than the private venture. With the frustration, she was forced to engage herself in a petty business just to sustain her family.
According to her: “Few weeks ago, I collected employment form from the Civil Service Commission with the intention of securing a job someday but I’m a bit worried because our system is shaky.
Government have announced that more people should be employed in the Civil service but will they actually meet up with that target without necessarily requesting for bribe from job seekers like me@, she asked.
“There is so much corruption in the system and one cannot predict their next line of action. This is not my first time of picking up such forms but at the end, those that their relatives are in the civil service will get employed while others will miss out.
Another ex-corps member, Amina Abubakar said: “Apart from seeking for employment in the public service, I will advise people to learn skills. It? will help them generate money without being under the payroll of some private institutions who use their workers as sacrificial lamb”.
Ms. Abubakar who currently owns a fashion and designing outfit in Abuja said that she vowed never to depend on either the government or private institutions for employment after her graduation but rather choose to engage in skills acquisition as her source of livelihood.
She said, “I fill fulfilled today that I neither depended on the government nor the private institution for a job and that helped me because as I am talking to you, I have about six apprentices who are under my tutelage.
I have not regretted taking that step because, I would have still been moving from one place to another in search of greener pasture. My advice to job seekers is that they should learn basic skills even if they still insist on white collar jobs because Nigeria is a country where the best brains never get a befitting employment”.
FG commitment to addressing unemployment
Earlier this year, President Goodluck Jonathan launched the Public Works and Women/Youth Employment (PW/WYE)) project aimed at creating employment for 370,000 women and youths in labour intensive public works before the end of the year.
The project, a component of the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE -P) is expected to generate 50,000 skilled jobs and 320,000 unskilled job opportunities. It would be implemented in partnership with the states, local governments and the private sector.
He said: “This administration views the prevailing high rate of unemployment among our youths with great concern especially with the rising state of youth militancy, violent crimes and other social vices inimical to the political and economic stability of the nation.
“The burden of frontally addressing and reversing the trend should involve every segment of our society.’’
NDE ready to offer self employment
The Director-General of National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mallam Abubakar Mohammed said that the agency is ready to assist people with marketable skills to get self employment because they are fully equipped to handle such tasks.
“NDE is ready year round to recruit and employ persons who are desirous of getting employed with marketable skills and in quite a number of cases, even the wherewithal to start self employment.
“In terms of strategies, personnel, equipment and more importantly the know-how and know-what, the directorate is ready.
However, if you look at the number of graduates that are coming out from the 36 states of the federation including FCT, our resources, particularly financial resources, cannot exactly service all of them.
This is not to say that all youth corps members are desirous of self employment but those that are very keen and interested on getting self employment will come to us. There are those of them that can get directly accepted by us, get training and empowerment but only need counseling.
“So we are fully prepared to handle a lot of them. I believe that there are other stakeholders at the National, local government and State levels who are also prepared to absorb them.
They are Nigerians, they are our children and we are all stakeholders and we are all prepared to receive them.
“Sometimes may be we forget that the cost of tertiary education is a national investment and all the stakeholders are interested in celebrating, defending, protecting our national investment and that is why this directorate is continuously seeking ways of expanding the scope of our activities.
Few days ago, I visited the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) seeking for collaboration to enable us reach out into the tourism sector.
NDE and feature of economy
Mohammed however disclosed that the federal government set up the directorate as an intervention agency to address the problems of unemployment saying that it’s not a permanent feature of the economy.
He stressed, “NDE is only an intervention because in the mid 80’s, the problem of unemployment began to rear its head; then the federal government responded by setting up this agency as an intervention.?
But even as an intervention, is not supposed to be a permanent feature of the economy. We are all hopeful that our economy will pick up and on the spot, it will absorb the national labour force so employing civil servant is a different thing.
“It is serving as an intervention for those people unable to get white collar jobs due to the challenges the economy is facing, so we are an intervention. We cannot regulate the civil service commission. The CSC is there to employ civil servants at all levels of government and that is structured employment by the government for the public service.