Mallam Abubakar Mohammed has been the director-general of the Nigeria Directorate of Employemnt (NDE) since December 1, 2007. In less than four years, the organisation has transformed from an agency with no skills acquisition centre to one with 40 in strategic locations in the country. He shares with CHINYERE FRED-ADEGBULUGBE his strategies, dreams and experiences.
You have been in the saddle for the past four years now, how has been the fight against unemployment?
The fight against unemployment is challenging and at the same time I will say it is rewarding; rewarding in the sense that the cumulative effects of the activities of the NDE in the areas of sensitisation and advocacy, coupled with the adverse effects of unemployment, have brought the issues of unemployment to the forefront of national attention and national discourse. It means that the business of generating mass employment have attracted national attention, and for the first time in the history of the NDE, we have witnessed a period when the National Assembly and the executive are unanimous in their support of the fight against unemployment. So, it is rewarding for us, the management and staff because we are experiencing the support of the government of the federation. You can imagine how frustrating it can be when you don’t have the support of the executive; you don’t have the support of the legislative, and you are just earning salary. Now, we get tangible support, particularly from the National Assembly in the budgeting process and then after, because they are politicians and representatives of the people suffering from unemployment, they have given us tremendous group and individual support for us to go and operate in their different constituencies.
When you say lawmakers, when they come to you, does it mean that there is any form of monetary support from them apart from that from the budget?
You are quite right. I said the first support they give us in the chambers concerns our budget but when they come to collaborate with us, they fund trainings and projects, they encourage us to come, fix small things that make things work properly. They ensure our security, they introduce us to local authorities and individuals and this makes our work smooth. They assist us in mobilisation and our operations become smooth.
The funding is predominantly done by them and that is why I sound so grateful to them. However, when I say that it has been challenging, it means that we have to react to the changing patterns of unemployment and you have react quickly. Look, the challenges facing the graduates of today are not the same as the challenges of graduates 10 to 20 years ago when we started. Today, you see the skills that we were accusing them of not having become more complicated, more sophisticated, because at the centre of virtually everything today is the ICT, and so, apart from every other vocational skill we want to introduce them, we have to incorporate ICT; that is only way it can be successful. Before I became the DG, we completely depended on the services of private operators – the ones we called the master craftsmen and women. But, gradually, NDE has realised that for us to take control of quality, for us to take control of standard, we have to have our own skills acquisition centres. As I speak to you now, we have skills acquisition centres in 40 locations in this country today, 21 of them are fully operational, about eight of them are at advanced stages of completion, and we are hoping that by this July they will be ready for completion, while the others are at various levels of completion.
What is the cost of skills acquisition centres?
Well, to give you an example, the first 18 centres were facilitated by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) office. The MDGs gave us a budget of N1billion. That was what we used to established the 18 skills acquisition centres. We were given the structures by both state and local governments which we renovated, equipped and started. That was in the year 2008. Again in the year 2009, the MDGs office gave us another N1billion but, of course, we never accessed all of it. That is why I told you that we are at various stages of completion; as the budget comes in, so we continue the work.
But you see, each skills acquisition centre costs us depending on the place. But the fact of the matter is that, in these centres, we have equipment or facilities to train people in autotronics, computers, and welding, etc.
For us the most important thing is that, within this period we are talking about, we have on ground 40 skills acquisition centres. Interestingly, there are NGOs and organisations coming to partner with us. They have something to offer and we have a place of our own. It affords us the opportunity to do much more than we were doing with the master craftsmen and women. And so, for me, I think this is one of the things that when I leave this place, I will be proud of. NDE now has its own centres. Now, like I told you, we keep monitoring unemployment and responding appropriately. This year we have focused a lot on ICT, and although I told you all our centres have provision for ICT, but we are collaborating with some specialist organisations for the provision of higher and more sophisticated ICT training. For instance, the New Horizons is a highly reputable ICT company that we are collaborating with, and we have recruited 100 trainees in Lagos. We are recruiting 100 in Abuja next month, but the interesting thing about the training is that New Horizons will identify institutions like banks and the oil and gas companies that need these services so that, as soon as they finish training, we have somewhere to fix them – that is the interesting thing about collaboration.
What criteria do you use in recruiting trainees?
Recently, we held a job fair which was organised by New Horizons and thousands of graduates attended, and they were told that the NDE would sponsor 100 of them. In the Lagos zone, they were asked to put their applications state by state. Now, out this 100, we shared it equitably among the southern states. It was like a raffle. From state by state, we now picked from there because they are all Nigerians, they are all our children, so we just decide to pick hoping that this thing will continue and one day all the others will benefit. We are going to do the same in Abuja here.
A 100 is just like a drop among countless jobless graduates in the country today
Yes, you are absolutely right; but let me remind you that job generation is not in the exclusive list of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Therefore, state governments, local governments, NGOs, Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) should all be involved, because job generation is the business of all us. If NDE is able to do this on behalf of government, others should also take it up. NDE spearheaded the promotion of ‘okada’ (commercial motorcycle) riding in the 90’s. We were giving motorcycles and, by the time Okada-riding became the business of everybody, we left and moved forward. We showed the direction, showed that it was viable, and others took over. Do you know that virtually all the wives of state governors and first ladies of local governments are trying to do what NDE is doing. So, we just show the way and you will see the replication.
I agree that 100 is small, but that is not the issue. The issue is that we have demonstrated that it is doable. And we do know that there are several other stakeholders who are willing and prepared to do a successful scheme. All that is needed is for a specialist agency, like the NDE, to design the scheme, launch it and you will see how it is replicated; that is the idea.
Secondly, to show you how intense the shift is to ICT, we have invited a company, HYPERTECH Nigeria Ltd, for the development of Contact Call Centres (CCCs). We realised recently that the MTN was saying that it had a subscriber base of 50 million in Nigeria. If at any one time just one per cent will call MTN to complain, you are talking of about half a million people and they don’t the capacity to answer 500,000 people at the same time; therefore, there is need for outsourcing, and outsourcing is the practice that is there all over the world now. You concentrate on your core activities and outsource the other to other people, and that is what we are preparing our graduates to do.
Our relationship with HYPERTECH is to prepare graduates to start CCCs that will perform services for telecom operators, fire service, police, hospitals and other sectors.
Similarly, there is another one we are currently working on which we call NDE quick-quick business ownership scheme. This one is a scheme where we put a suit of service – banking, insurance, communication and then smaller things like vending of airtime and others – in one place for a graduate.
Now the attempt here is keyed into the nation’s aspiration of developing a cashless society economy by 2012, which we are doing here.
Do you think our society is mature for such services?
If you say you will wait until the society is mature, you will never start. But once you start these services, you can imagine the banking statistics which says about 80 per cent of rural people don’t have accounts, it shows the country is under-banked. So these services are needed.
When we are creating employment, we try to key into the aspirations of Federal Government. If by 2012, somebody, like the CBN governor says, the country wants to start developing a cashless society, we in NDE would have prepared a crop of young graduates who are ready to participate in this process.
These are the kinds of things that I think this year has been characterised with. Really, like I said, it is an era because it is a complete departure from 2007 and below. We are really going into new areas, we moving into new ideas, and we going into new infrastructure, etc.
These are very lofty programmes and schemes and I believe they are cost-intensive. Do you have the funding?
Well, I have told you that I am going into collaborations, okay. I won’t bear all the cost but because I would want to go into the 774 LGAs of Nigeria, I need more funding. Now when I told you about recruiting 100 in Lagos, 100 in Abuja, you said it was a drop in the ocean. I don’t complain about budget. What I do is when government gives me certain amount, I want to ensure I give back government value for money.
When government realises I need to work more, they give me more money to work. But the idea I want you to get is that we have made a radical break from the past. We have completely identified the new forms of unemployment and we have adjusted appropriately to suit the demands of this new pattern.
Why don’t you like talking about money; I mean the budget?
Well, what I said was that I do not like to complain. The usual thing is to complain. Look, I have always said that I have this absolute confidence in the sincerity of Mr. President about fighting unemployment. And I said that N50billion lifeline for employment generation is a serious business; and NDE is a principal actor in this project. So government understands that this is a re-born NDE, a new NDE and government has confidence in us. In fact, it is during my time that government invited the NDE to participate in MDGs for the first time; we were never part of MDGs before. But in 2008, 2010 we were invited to come and participate and I have a very strong feelings that the MDGs office was highly satisfied with what the NDE did.
Secondly, I told you that the National Asssembly, together with the executive, has been finding us much better than before. Look, whatever government money you get, there is always room for one more naira on top. Telling of a situation when I came into this office, December 1, 2007, NDE had not even a single skills acquisition centre; today we are talking of 40, and it is not from my pocket: it is from government funding. So, much as I will want funding that will take me to the 774 LGAs, I think slow and steady does it.
Furthermore, we have finished designing a new scheme which we call Enterprises and Finance Counselling Clinic (EFCC) and we are starting in Abuja.
Now, in this scheme we are inviting graduates and resource persons to come and discuss various business ideas to trigger in the minds of graduates the interest to go into business. We will also bring another set of resource persons who will discuss the sources of funding. So, the young graduate who is blank is now given a business idea, is told where and how to access finance. The rest is a small initiative from his part, and NDE will be there to fill the gaps. It is a scheme of facilitation. On Friday we are beginning with Abuja at the resource centre of the NDE.
How many?
Thirty per week, every Friday and I am hoping that even if 50 per cent of them end up taking these ideas, accessing this finance, it will be a major breakthrough. Apart from that, I intend to go all over the states. It is a new scheme that I hope will have a tremendous impact on graduates.
What values have shaped your life so far?
The values instilled in me by my parents who took their roots from Islam. I think the greatest value I cherish is patience. If you look at it from all ramifications, you will find out that patience allows you to live in peace with yourself: you are more organised, you are understanding, you are willing to see the points of others and you don’t become egocentric. I think the key thing that has shaped my life is patience.
I have gone through tough life and work experiences. Can you imagine that I spent 13 years as a deputy director? So, honestly, patience is the key thing in my life.
When you were starting out as a civil servant, did you ever dream you will get to where you are today?
When I graduated from the university, I was immediately called up as graduate assistant. So, I was in the university system for quite sometime. I was an assistant lecturer both in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and Bayero University (BUK), Kano and a small incident made me leave that system and join journalism. I worked with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and Radio Nigeria before I came into the NDE. But when I was coming to the NDE, I was not coming because I was hoping to rise to the top. No, I had just finished a Masters Degree in Politics and Development Strategies.
I remembered that in my thesis in Holand, I was working on institutions like Mass Mobilisation for Self Reliance and Economic Recovery (MAMSER), NDE, the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrasture (DFRRI) and other development agencies. So, I came into NDE to offer constructive contribution to what the agency had been doing before, because, as far as I am concerned, this is a development and intervention agency. You see, when I came back, I was bubbling with ideas about mobilisation and how we can generate development through the mobilisation of the people.
What are the major lessons you have learnt in life?
I have always been an optimist – I always try to see the positive sides. If you need something, you wish it and it comes true. If you are perpetually thinking negative and evil, I tell you, that you that is what you are going to see.
So, I have no regrets. I have lived a fulfilled life. I come from a very happy family and I am the only son of my father and my mother. Can you imagine the kind of attention I got? But they didn’t spoil me.
Finally, when you are not thinking of how to generate jobs for the teeming jobless Nigerians. What do you do?
?
I am a complete family man. When I am free I stay with my family. On weekends, I travel to my village to see my small farm and animals, and tend to them.
How did you meet your wife?
By accident. I had a friend whom I visited one evening. He was married and he and the wife had gone out. So I reversed my car to go out and there was this young girl with one small boy who came to see the wife, and I wound down my glass and said “sorry they are not in.” So, I offered to give them a ride. When my friend and his wife came back, I told them about the visitor. Then about six to eight months later, somebody annoyed me because I was a bachelor and I went back to my friend and asked: “Do you remember that girl….?”
He said she had been betrothed. I asked if she was married. He said no. I told him to take me to her.
I went to the school. She refused to come out. I went second time; she refused to come out. The third time, she still refused to come out, because she was betrothed to somebody. I found somebody who knew her family house, and we went to her village. You see, that young girl that was giving me “wahala” has four grandchildren now.
That means you snatched her from someone?
That is perseverance. In my place, if you are married my hands are tied, but she was in the market.