term 3 paper final raji

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UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR NATIONAL SECURITY

INTRODUCTION

1. Worldwide, the concern for security has become the preoccupation

of every individual, community and nation. This is because security

affects not only the satisfaction of human aspirations, but the fundamental

issue of national survival. It is only under a secure environment that

individuals can engage in productive activities to meet their needs.

Similarly, it is under a secure atmosphere that the state can mobilize its

human and material resources for meaningful development. However,

certain factors affect national security like conflicts, crimes, HIV/AIDS,

poverty, unemployment among others. 1 Threats like these cannot be

completely eliminated; however, the manner they are handled determines

how they can singly or collectively affect a nation.

2. One of the good indicators of national development is ability of a

nation to generate through policies and actions adequate, decent and

gainful employment for the citizenry. 2 Thus the availability on a

sustainable basis of employment opportunities remains one of the

recurring human development challenges for every government.

Employment provides the individual with the means of livelihood and the

opportunity to contribute to the economy of the nation. 3

Employment

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also reduces the number of dependants on the working class and increases

the savings and the investment capacity of the society.

3. Unemployment, on the contrary, cancels out overtime the

impressive contributions gainful employment makes to individuals and

society. 4 In the last 5 years, the robust economic growth worldwide has

failed to translate into significant reductions in unemployment or poverty.

While world productivity increased by 26 per cent, the number of those in

employment rose by only 16.6 per cent. 5 The worlds unemployed today

is over 195 million; much higher than it has ever been. 6 What this

challenge represents is the need to link economic growth to jobs creation.

4. In sub Saharan Africa, most countries have experienced

improvements in macroeconomic indicators in the last 3 years with Gross

Domestic Product (GDP) expanding by an estimated 4.8 per cent in 2006;

however, these improvements have not translated into more employments

in the labour market. 7 Today, there are more unemployed young people

who are new entrants to the labour market chasing after the few available

jobs. It is therefore necessary to explore what current unemployment

trends pose the most concerns, and what their implications on national

security are if not addressed.

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5. In Nigeria today, there is a common tendency to view sectarian

clashes, ethnic disagreements, ethnic militancy or advocacy, political

intimidation, social inequalities, corruption, abysmal poverty, and violent

crimes as the main threats to her security. These are indeed so and they

deserve attention. However, what deserve much more attention are the

young Nigerians who are the instrumentalities of many of these threats.

They are drawn to them mainly because they have no jobs or hope for a

decent one. This paper therefore is an attempt to connect unemployment

to national security generally. It aims specifically to discuss the national

security implications of unemployment in Nigeria with a view to

proffering strategies to reduce it.

SCOPE

6. The paper will cover the following:

a. Conceptual clarifications.

b. Overview of unemployment in Nigeria.

c. Implications of unemployment for Nigerias national

security.

e. Efforts at reducing unemployment in Nigeria.

f. Challenges of reducing unemployment in Nigeria.

g. Strategies of reducing unemployment in Nigeria.

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CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATIONS

7. It is important to make some conceptual clarifications of the two

key variables in the paper. The concept of unemployment and national

security appears seemingly simple, but each attempt to arrive at mutually

acceptable definitions has led to more complications due to differing

perspectives. It is therefore common to see countries and scholars differ

on what constitute unemployment and what national security shouldmean.

UNEMPLOYMENT

8. According to Fritz, unemployment is the unbalance between

demand and supply of working hours. He asserted that there is historic

trend to utilize less time to produce more thus requiring less working

hours and by extension fewer employees. 8 Fritz concept of

unemployment is restrictive as it concentrates only on the relationship

between the demand and supply of available working hours ignoring

human element that provide it. Pedro on his part conceives

unemployment as the result of balance between two continuous flows; the

flow of potential workers into unemployment i.e. those seeking work but

not finding one; and the outflow of workers from unemployment i.e.

those finding and getting jobs or withdrawing willingly from paid

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employment. 9 Pedros definition would inevitably include

apprentices/interns, volunteers, seasonal workers. This concept may not

give a reliable basis to determine the level of unemployment.

9. ILO views unemployment from three criteria that have to be met

simultaneously; one, categorization as economically active persons above

15 years and older, who are without jobs in a reference period; two,

currently available for work; three, taking active steps to seek paidemployment or self-employment preceding one hour of the survey. 10 The

failure of ILO definition to have an upper age limit for unemployment

presupposes there is no retirement age; a point in time when it is not

feasible to do any work due to old age.

10. In Nigeria unemployment is defined as the proportion of the labour

force aged between 15 70 years that were available and seeking for

work but did not find one in the week preceding a survey period for at

least 39 hours. 11 The Nigerian concept is similar in some respects to that

of the ILO except for the difference in age limit and the time frame

preceding the survey. The Nigerian concept is accordingly adopted

because of its contextual relevance to the paper.

11. The nature of unemployment in most economies can be classified

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into three broad categories; structural, frictional and cyclical. The last two

are transient in character and are more common in sectors of the economy

where labour mobility is relatively high. Structural unemployment on the

other hand is usually long run in nature and originates on the demand side

of labour. Structural unemployment results from economic changes that

cause the demand for specific kinds of labour to be low relative to supply

available. 12 Most unemployed young Nigerians fall into this

classification.

NATIONAL SECURITY

12. Perception of national security is wide and varied. McNamara

posited that national security can only be truly obtained by development,

arguing that:

Security is not military hardware, though it may include it; security isnot miltary force though it may involve it; security is not traditionalmilitary activity though it may encompass it. Security is development,and without development there can be no security .13

He subsequently explained that development in the truest sense means

human, economic, social and political progress. Security, he concluded,

advances human development and well-being. 14 He added further that a

developing nation that does not in fact develop simply cannot remain

"secure". It cannot remain secure for the intractable reason that its own

citizenry cannot shed its human nature. 15

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13. In Obasanjos view, national security is the aggregate of the

security interests of all individuals, communities, ethnic groups, political

entities in affirmation of the importance attached to safety, security and

prosperity of individuals and institutions within and outside Nigeria. 16 He

further asserted that:

National Security is intrinsically linked with the state of the economy.The greatestdanger to national security outside external aggression is individual or communityinsecurity brought about by preventable or avoidable social condition of poverty,unemploymentThese conditions easily lead to indiscipline, loss of trust in authority,

frustration, apathy, desperation, agitation, anarchy, lawlessness and violent conflicts.Every effort must be made to deal effectively with the issue of poverty eradication andunemployment. 17

14. The locus of Obasanjos position is the individual and it aligns in

some ways with that of McNamara. Though separately endowed, it is the

individual that make up groups and communities. It is the ability of the

state to synthesize the interests of the individuals that can promote group

development, well-being and security. Obasanjos definition is therefore

adopted because of his recognition that individual insecurity occasioned

by factors such as unemployment among others takes a big bite out of

national security.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNEMPLOYMENT ANDNATIONAL SECURITY

15. Unemployment in a generic sense is a negative human

development index that connects naturally to individual and collective

security. Unemployment diminishes the contribution the affected

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individuals could make to the economy and by inference the

prosperity and general well-being of the state. Rice posited that:

Unemployment leads to poverty and poverty dramatically increases therisk of civil conflict, and war zones provide ideal operating environmentsfor outlaws. Unemployment and poverty erodes weak states capacityto control their people, territory and resources, creating vacuums easilyexploited by criminals, brigands and terrorists. Unemployment and

poverty impedes poor countries ability to detect or contain deadlydisease, and it undermines their ability to grow and develop in security .18

16. Unemployment is a drag on human development and denies the

unemployed especially the youths from bringing their potential energy,

innovative insights and enthusiasm to bear on national march to progress.

Since youth constitute the future of every society and they have the most

to lose if unemployment persists, their prosperity and indeed security may

be put at grave risk if unemployment is not tackled. Herein lays the

connection between unemployment and national security.

OVERVIEW OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA

17. Nigerias labour force is currently estimated at 64 million with a

projected annual growth rate of 2.5%. 19 The composite unemployment

rate in Nigeria peaked at 14.8% in 2003 and declined to 11.8% in 2004

only to rise again to 11.9% in 2005. 20 In real terms, the number of the

unemployed in Nigeria is about 6.9 million. However, the composite

picture belies the increasing unemployment rate among Nigerian youths

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aged between 15-24 years. The rate of unemployment for this age

category stood at 28.9% in 2004 and rose to 34.2% in 2005 translating to

about 2.4 million unemployed youths.21

18. The rapid population growth rate of Nigeria averaging 2.9%

annually in the last decade has hugely altered her labour market because

of influx of young and fresh job aspirants into it. 22 Unemployment level

by educational qualification is 14.4% and 9.8% of Nigerias labour forcein 2005 for secondary school leavers and tertiary institutions graduates

respectively. 23 In 2005, the number of Nigerians in secondary and tertiary

institution is in excess of 1.3 million out of which 20% of them is

projected to join the labour market in 2006. 24 Meanwhile the economic

growth rate for 2006 is 7% with much of it derived from the oil sector

that employs 0.14% of the labour force. 25

19. The last two decades witnessed several deliberate measures taken

particularly by the Federal Government in concert with State and Local

authorities to tackle unemployment and poverty. The thrust of the efforts

were in two broad categories; those designed as intervention mechanism

due to institutional inadequacies and those meant to generate jobs

indirectly through promotion of small and medium businesses. They are:

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Peoples Bank, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Better Life

for Rural Women, Directorate of Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure

(DFRRI). Others are Family Economic Enhancement Programme

(FEAP), Technical Aid Corps (TAC), National Economic Reconstruction

Fund, Poverty Alleviation Programme, National Poverty Eradication

Programme (NAPEP), Small Medium Enterprises Equity Investment

Scheme (SMEEIS) and National Economic Empowerment Development

Strategy (NEEDS).

20. All these efforts were conceived singly or in interaction by four

successive governments from 1985 to combat poverty and

unemployment. The Peoples Bank, now a defunct micro credit finance

scheme was designed to ease access to credit for the poor and

unemployed. It was followed by others like DFFRI targeted at the rural

areas to boost agriculture and improve rural infrastructure and

consequently generate jobs. These programmes succeeded in varying

degrees to reduce unemployment but the impact was not long lasting and

was also not precisely measurable due to dearth of records.

21. In 1992, Nigeria Agriculture Land Development Agency

(NALDA) was established to open up more arable areas, generate jobs

and raise the Nigerias productive capacity to guarantee food security. 26

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NALDA started well and indeed opened up some new areas for

cultivation but the effort waned. This programme was discontinued in

1999 due to alleged abuses and mismanagement.27

22. Other efforts such as the TAC for young graduates is still ongoing

but has very limited capacity to absorb the teeming graduates from

Nigerias tertiary institutions. FEAP, SMEEIS were set up by different

regimes to ease access to credit for young entrepreneurs. At the end of 2006, only N38.2 billion had accrued to SMEEIS with N17.03 billion

disbursed to various sectors. Agriculture and solid minerals with the

highest potential to generate jobs got the least attention. Other factors

also exacerbated the unemployment situation in Nigeria and they are

discussed in succeeding paragraphs.

CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA

23. Nigeria has had chequered economic, political and social fortunes

between the early 80s and the close of 20 th Century. 28 The massive

reduction and unstable flow of oil revenue in the late 80s through to the

late 90s created economic and political uncertainties which in turn led to

economic policy inconsistency by successive governments. Public

spending declined in real terms, businesses closed or collapsed due to

operating difficulties and reduced patronage, Naira was severally

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devalued, resulting in inflation and declining purchasing power of

Nigerians. 29 The consequence of these is the growing unemployment in

Nigeria which is traceable to the factors below.

24. Privatization Policy of the Government . As part of economic

adjustment programme to reduce government direct involvement in

economic activities from 1990, state owned enterprises (SOE) were slated

through the Bureau of Public Enterprises for full or partial privatization

and commercialization. This policy was intended to curb waste,

corruption and mismanagement, improve efficiency, and engender

competition and quality service delivery. 30 Thus far, over 170 SOE have

been privatized, commercialized or concessioned. 31 One of the most

glaring consequence of the privatization policy is the massive lay offs of

workers in many of the companies involved like in NITEL, Nigeria Ports

Authority, Nigeria Airways among others.

25. Poor and Inadequate Infrastructure . Currently in Nigeria,

electricity generation and supply is inadequate, water supply is irregular,

heavy duty transportation like railway is almost non existent, inland water

transport do not function, Port services are chaotic, internet infrastructure

are inadequate and refineries are not working at full capacity. 32 This state

of affairs impacts negatively on big and medium businesses that employ

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labour and undermine employment opportunities for small businesses and

the self employed like artisans. The high cost of providing or augmenting

these infrastructure has forced many businesses to close, reduce or lay off

workers, and dimmed the prospects of new entrants to the labour market

to get employment.

26. Outmoded Educational Curriculum . It is increasingly obvious

that Nigerias educational system is not equipping the youth withadaptive skills relevant to todays labour market .33 The business

environment has changed and producers of goods and services have had

to adjust to survive. Today, Information Communication Technology

(ICT) has permeated all facets of commerce and industry; practical skills

matters more than theoretical knowledge and employers are less inclined

to train job seekers afresh because of the added cost. Thus many

graduates of Nigerian secondary and tertiary institutions have been found

inadequately equipped in the competitive labour market of today.

27. Unfriendly Policy Environment . Nigerias business environment

is not rated as particularly friendly to investors. Multiple taxations by

Federal, State and Local authorities are still common place, tariffs on

imported machinery and raw materials are relatively high, and regulatory

and legal framework and institutions for commerce are lax and prone to

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corrupt manipulation. 34 These constraints impedes regular in-flow of

foreign investment without which the economy is unlikely to grow to

make more jobs available and keep pace with expanding labour force.

28. Difficult Access to Credit . Small businesses have not been

particularly favoured in Nigerias formal financial sector. Interest rates

are high and long term loan facility is hard to get. 35 Stringent

requirements to access credit are difficult to fulfil by small businesses.

The development banks that charge relatively low interest rates are too

bureaucratic. The medium and large businesses that employ relatively

large labour do not also readily access this credit. The few who get the

credit have not faithfully met their repayment obligations. The

consequence is a slow growing economy not at pace with an exploding

labour force.

29. Failure of Employment Generation Schemes . Old micro credit

finance schemes like Peoples Bank, Better Life, FEAP, and PAP did not

impact in the ways they were envisioned. The upscale ones like SMEEIS

became overtime enmeshed in bureaucracy. NEEDS target of

employment generation was also not reached. 36 A combination of the

above affected young entrepreneurs or those who chose to be self

employed. The result is the growing tribe of the unemployed in Nigeria.

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30. High Population Growth Rate . Nigerias population grew from

88.9 million in 1991 to 140 million in 2006. 37 The size of Nigeria's labor

force was difficult to calculate because of the controversy that surrounds

every census data since independence. The labor force increased from

29.4 million in 1983 to over 64 million in 2006. 38 With a population

growth rate close to 3%, the size of the labour force would

correspondingly increase with more people entering the labour market

and competing for fewer jobs. Direct and indirect job creation has not

kept pace with Nigerias population growth rate.

31. Non Diversification of the Economy . Oil is still the main stay of

Nigerias economy contributing over 80% of national revenue with a

0.14% of employed labour force participation. 39 The monoculture

character of the economy has unintentionally stifled growth in other

sectors like agriculture and solid mineral that would have absorbed more

of the labour force. Nigerias agriculture sector currently employs

60.88% of the working population and grew at a lowly pace of 6.5%. 40

Increased attention in non oil sectors is more likely to generate jobs to

make a difference.

32. Rural Urban Migration. The neglect of agriculture due to falling

prices of cash crops, increased enrolment in schools at all levels and

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declining living conditions in rural areas drove young Nigerians from the

rural to urban centres. 41 In 2005, the rural areas had higher unemployment

rate at 12.6% against 10.1% for the urban labour force. The secondary

school leavers in the rural areas without jobs stand at 15.8% against 11%

for the urban areas. 42 This is expected to continue to magnify

unemployment in urban areas.

IMPLICATIONS OF UNEMPLOYMENT FOR NIGERIASNATIONAL SECURITY

33. In the past several years, unemployment has remained a constant

feature of Nigerias national security concern. Unemployment has

national security implications for the factors discussed below.

34. Social Equilibrium And Harmony. In the last 8 years or so,

there have been much sectarian and ethnic turmoil in Nigeria. 43 These

have led to heavy toll in human casualties. Many of these were caused by

seemingly minor incidents that eventually took ethnic or religious

colourations. These incidences have resulted in the breakdown of law and

order, threatened social order, negatively affected international image of

Nigeria, and heightened mutual suspicion amongst Nigerians. 44 Poverty

and youth unemployment had been found to be the instrumentalities of

these threats to Nigerias national security.

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35. Psychological Effects . A lack of decent work, if experienced at

an early age, often permanently compromises a persons future

employment prospects and frequently leads to unsuitable behaviour

patterns that last a lifetime. 45 The inability to find employment over a

long period of time creates a psychological sense of vulnerability,

uselessness and idleness among young people. They become indifferent

and prone to extreme conduct like violence which in turns lead to

crimes. 46 Unemployment and poverty impede the ability of those affected

to pay for basic needs like healthcare to treat preventable diseases. This

increases their vulnerability to other deadly ones that could spread and

undermine the nations human security. 47

36. Economic Growth And Development. According to the ILO,

capturing productive potential of the labour force especially the youth is

an economic imperative. It is also important to focus on youth because

they are the drivers of economic development. The youth that is

unemployed is a costly undertaking to the nation and its economy. 48 They

would not be contributing to the economic well-being of the society

through productivity, savings and taxes. It would also mean that their

aggregate demand for goods and services would be less than when they

are gainfully employed.

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37. Dependence Syndrome . The dependence of the unemployed

those employed reduces the aggregate accumulation of capital for future

investment. Unemployment leads to lower contributions to national

pensions scheme and government is forced to spend more on remedial

services, including crime or drug use prevention efforts. All the above

cumulatively threatens the development potential of the economy and by

extension the nation itself. Reducing unemployment, therefore, makes

sense to a country from a costs-benefits point of view because of the

economic implications.

38. Political Stability. Domestically, the inability of government

to successfully tackle unemployment may lead to loss of confidence in

state institutions. 49 This may in turn make national mobilization difficult

in times of emergencies or crisis. It could also lead to severe set backs

during elections as those unemployed are likely to become political thugs

and ready tools in the hands of unscrupulous politicians. The social and

economic implications earlier mentioned could together if not well

managed cause political instability which is a threat to national security.

39. Rural Urban Migrations . Unemployment in Nigeria has led

like elsewhere to poverty and poverty dramatically increases the risk of

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civil conflict as witnessed in many ethnic disturbances. 50 Rural urban

migrations of educated unemployed youths provide fertile environments

for their recruitment by politicians and criminal gangs as thugs, ethnic

militants and hired assassins respectively. 51 Rural urban migrations due to

unemployment in rural Nigeria erodes the capacity of the Nigerian Police

to control rapidly expanding cities, satellite settlements and slums thus

creating vacuums easily exploited by criminals.

40. Nature of Future Conflict . The increasing concentration of

unemployed in ethnic and sectarian enclaves in urban centres may

gradually change the nature and outcome of future conflict. 52 More often

than not, migrants tend to stay with their kith and kin. In Nigeria it has

given rise to the menace of ethnic militants like Oduduwa Peoples

Congress, MASSOB, and others. In the last 8 years, more than 90% of

ethnic or sectarian violence in Nigeria had taken place in urban areas. 53

After the 2001 ethno-sectarian turmoil in Jos, the city settlement pattern

changed. 54

CURRENT EFFORTS AT REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT INNIGERIA

41. As at today, only the NDE had verifiably recorded 542,854 as

beneficiaries of its programme from 2002 to 2006. 55 The others like TAC,

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SMEEIS, NAPEP and NEEDS have survived. The cumulative impact of

these programmes and policies on employment generation with the

exception of TAC and SMEEIS is difficult to objectively determine

because no reliable data of the beneficiaries of the schemes are readily

available.

42. Nigerias NEEDS in 2004 sought amongst other objectives to

reduce poverty and generate 7 million employments for Nigerians by2007. 56 This was to be achieved by creating the environment in which

businesses can thrive and new livelihood opportunities can be exploited

by all. 57 Given the 2006 unemployment level of 11.8% for a slightly

larger labour force and the projection for the first quarter of 2007 is about

the same level, it would appear that the cardinal objective of creating

substantial jobs in 2007 has not been met.

CHALLENGES OF REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA

43. The challenges of reducing unemployment in Nigeria are derived

from some of the causes and implications of unemployment in Nigeria

previously explained. The key challenges are:

a. Diversifying Nigerias economy from dependence on oil as

its mainstay to a labour intensive non oil one.

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b. Insufficient investment to modernize and expand Nigerias

deteriorating infrastructure like power, water, transportation

networks, and so on.

c. Inadequacies of Nigerias educational system in equipping

its products suitably for the 21 st Century labour market.

d. Nigerias high population growth rate and increasing number

of new entrants to the labour market without commensurate

employment opportunities.

e. Shrinking employment opportunities in the rural areas

especially for young school leavers.

f. Absence of reliable and enduring database for the

unemployed at all levels and in all locations around Nigeria.

g. Relatively high cost of borrowing and inadequate access to

micro credits by small and medium businesses in Nigerias formal

financial sector.

STRATEGIES TO REDUCE UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA

44. Past attempts to generate employment and fight poverty

concurrently, have not succeeded as intended for many reasons. This is

why the proposed strategies seek to move from isolated approach to more

broad based and integrated ones that emphasize coordination.

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45. Accurate Data Collection. One of the reasons for the failure

of past and current employment generation efforts is the absence of

accurate statistics of the unemployed. There is no evidence of coordinated

data collection effort on the part of various government agencies such as

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Federal and States Ministry of

Labour, and so on. There is a need now to decentralize data collection

effort down to Ward level to register the unemployed. All tiers of government should create employment bureau where the unemployed

would be registered as a routine. The data generated could on a regular

basis be channeled to central agency.

46. Encourage Innovative Financial Solutions. The key to

wealth creation beyond employment lies with how financial institutions

play in the market. These institutions together control a big chunk of the

nations financial assets. They can be encouraged through tax relief to

leverage these assets to provide capital goods like machineries, office

equipment for new businesses involving young Nigerians through hire

purchase or leasing schemes. This would improve access to credit for

new businesses and in turn generate employments.

47. Increased Investment In Non Oil Sector. In Nigeria, agriculture

and manufacturing sectors put together employs almost 63% of her

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working population. 58 Current multi-sector employment generation

programmes like NDE, NAPEP and NEEDS have proved to be expensive

and cumbersome to manage. Resources are difficult to concentrate and

the expertise needed to cover many sectors simultaneously creates

avoidable bureaucracy. If employment generation efforts are focused on

specific sectors and locations, money can be saved and the probability of

success increased than if inadequate resources are spread thinly across

many sectors.

48. Improvement Of Infrastructure. Many businesses in Nigeria

lay off workers or produce at relatively high cost because power outages

are frequent, public water supply is irregular, transportation facilities are

ill maintained, and telecommunications services are inadequate and

chaotic. There is an urgent need for massive investment by the

government and private sector to improve and expand Nigerias

infrastructure. This would lead to lower cost of production for businesses,

more locally made goods and services would be produced and more

workers would remain in employment.

49. Reform Education Curricula In Schools. The inadequacies of

Nigerias educational system as currently organized and run puts close to

1.2 million young people without employable skill to Nigerias labour

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market yearly. There is a need to reform the education curricula so that

vocational and practical technical skills are given priority.

50. Development Of Employment Programmes . The several

employment generation programmes have not achieved the intended

goals. There is a need to review them and develop a new one that would

integrate the existing ones. This will eliminate duplications of functions

and save cost. Integration of all the programmes particularly at the

Federal level would keep effort focused and make management and

monitoring easier.

CONCLUSION

51. The paper sought to establish the link between unemployment and

national security with a view to how this affects Nigeria. The paper

specifically assessed unemployment in Nigeria drawing on contemporary

data within and outside Nigeria to establish an empirical foundation. The

paper subsequently brought three key issues out; the causes of

unemployment in Nigeria, the efforts made to reduce unemployment and

the national security implications of unemployment as it were on Nigeria.

Unemployment in Nigeria was discovered to have been complicated

partly by the policies and actions of government at all levels and partly by

factors like high population growth rate outside its control.

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52. The major causes of unemployment in Nigeria were traced to the

government privatization policy that led to massive layoffd; failure and

inadequacies of many intervention programmes such as Peoples Bank,

Better Life for Rural Women, DFRRI, FEAP, SMEEIS, NALDA, TAC,

NDE, NAPEP and NEEDS. Other causes were the unfriendly policy

environment for businesses to thrive, outmoded educational system that

turned out people largely without employable skills, inadequate and poor

infrastructure like power to support economic growth.

53. The implications of unemployment to Nigerias national security

are many and they were grouped accordingly into social, economic,

political and security considerations. The challenges of unemployment in

Nigeria were identified as recurring inability to diversify her economic

foundations from dependence on oil, failure to attract investment in

infrastructure, the inadequacies of her educational system, high

population growth, difficulty in reversing rural urban drift and high cost

of borrowing for businesses.

54. The strategies proffered to overcome the challenges of

unemployment in Nigeria include sustainable generation of accurate

unemployment data to assist in planning and execution of employment

programmes and policies, increased attention and investment in non oil

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sectors like agriculture and manufacturing. Other strategies are the urgent

improvement and expansion of infrastructure, reform of educational

curricula in favour of practical skills acquisition in secondary and tertiary

institutions and the integration of all employment generation programmes

to direct efforts to the most needed areas.

RECOMMENDATIONS

55. It is recommended that:

a. A dedicated unemployment data collection agency should be

established by Federal, State and Local governments.

b. All tiers of government should directly and indirectly

increase investment in sectors with the highest potential for labour

demand like agriculture and the solid mineral.

c. The Federal government in cooperation with other tiers

should create the friendly policy environment to attract investment

for resuscitation and expansion of infrastructure like power.

d. All tiers of government should undertake the reform of

curricula in secondary and tertiary schools to promote employable

skill acquisition.

e. Existing employment generation programmes should be

integrated to achieve better results.

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available at www.oldcolo.com/Mcnamara/mcnamara.txt accessed on22 Jun 2007.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Olusegun Obasanjo, Grand Strategy for National Security ,(Abuja: State House, 2001), p.1.

17. Ibid., pp. 6-9.

18. Susan E Rice, The National Security Implications of Global

Poverty , a speech at the University of Michigan Law School on 30January 2006 available at www.brookings.edu/scholars/srice.htm accessed on 27 Jun 2007.

19. The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2006 ,(Washington DC: The World Bank Group, 2006), p.51

20. National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria, Op. Cit. , p.35.

21. Ibid.,

22. National Population Commission, Nigeria, Report of 2006 NationalCensus, (Abuja: 2007).

23. National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria, Op. Cit. p.36.

24. Ibid., p.33.

25. Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Annual Report for the Year 2006 ,(Abuja: 2007), available atwww.cenbank.org/documents/annualreports.asp accessed on 29 Jun2007.

26. Federal Government of Nigeria, National Agricultural LandDevelopment Agency Decree No12, 1992, (Abuja: 1992).

27. NALDA, Final Report August 1999 cited in RA OseneUnemployment and National Security: Implications for

28
http://www.brookings.edu/scholars/srice.htmhttp://www.cenbank.org/documents/annualreports.asphttp://www.brookings.edu/scholars/srice.htmhttp://www.cenbank.org/documents/annualreports.asp


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Nigeria(Unpublished, 2005), National War College, Course 13, Abuja, p.39.28. TM Yesufu, Op. Cit., p.32.

29. Ibid.,

30. Bureau of Public Enterprises, Nigeria, Rationale forPrivatization , (Abuja: 2006),

31. Ibid .,

32. The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2006 ,( Washington: Development Data Center, The World Bank, 2006),

pp.150-162.33. United Nations Development Programme, Human DevelopmentReport 2006 , (New York: UNDP, 2006), p.56.

34. The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2006 , p.275.

35. National Planning Commission, Nigeria, National EconomicEmpowerment and Development Strategy , (Abuja, 2004), p.xv.

36. National Planning Commission, Nigeria, Op. Cit. , pp.xxiv-xxv.

37. Federal Government Official Gazette No. 24 Vol. 94 dated 15 May2007 titled Legal Notice and Publication of Details of the breakdown of the National and State Provisional Totals of 2006 Census.

38. National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria, Op. Cit., p. 47.

39. Ibid., p.48.

40. Ibid., p.47.

41. TM Yesufu, Op. Cit.,

42. Ibid., p.35.

43. Shehu Sani, The Killing Fields: Religious Violence in NorthernNigeria , (Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited, 2007), p. 61-192.

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44. Ibid., p.193 .

45. International Labour Office, Global Employment Trends forYouths 2007, (Geneva: ILO,2007), p.7.

46. R Omotosho, The Psychological Effects of Unemployment in Nigeria , (Lagos: Malthouse, 2002) cited in RA Osene, Unemploymentand National Security: Implications for Nigeria , (Unpublished, 2005)

being a project submitted at the National War College, Course 13, Abuja.

47. Susan Rice, Op. Cit.

48. Ibid.

49. Olusegun Obasanjo, Op. Cit ., p.6.

50. Shehu Sani, Op. Cit. p.51.

51. Adedayo A Adeoye, Unemployment and Rising Crime Rate:Causes and the Way Out being a lecture presented to Senior ExecutiveCourse No. 29 of The National Institute, Kuru on 17 May, 2007, p. 8.

52. Brian Nichiporuk, The Security Dynamics of DemographicFactors , (Washington: Rand Publications, 2000),p.19.

53. Shehu Sani, Op. Cit ., p. 110.

54. Ibid., p.48.

55. Adedayo A Adeoye, Op. Cit ., p. 3.

56. National Planning Commission, Nigeria, Op. Cit. , p.ix.

57. Ibid., p.xv.

58. Ibid., p.48.

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1 Pierre-Richard Agnor, Unemployment and Poverty Trade Off, (Washington: The World Bank, 2004), p.3.

2 TM Yesufu, The Human Factor in National Development: Nigeria , (Ibadan: Spectrum Books limited, 2000), p.63.3

James D Wolfensohn, A New Global Balance: The Challenge of Leadership , an address to the Board of Governors of the World Bank Group at the Joint Annual discussion in Dubai, UAE on 23 Sep 2003 available athttp://econ.worldbank.org4 Pierre-Richard Agnor, Op. Cit .5 Juan Somavia, Director General of International Labour Office (ILO) in Global Employment Trends 2007,(Geneva: 2007),6 Ibid.7 Ibid.8 Walter Fritz, Unemployment: Causes and Solutions , (New York: New Horizon Press, 2006), p.1. available athttp://www.intelligent-systems.com.ar/intsyst/unemploy.htm accessed 10 June 2007.9 I Pedro, MBA Module 721 Macroeconomics (Unemployment) , (Lagos: National Open University of Nigeria,2004), p.1.10 International Labour Office, International Training Compendium on Labour Statistics , (Geneva: Bureau of Statistics, 2006), p.41.11 National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria, The Nigeria Statistical Fact Sheets on Economic and SocialDevelopment, (Abuja: 2006), p.3512 Ansel M Sharp et al, Economics of Social Issues , (Illinois: Business Incorporations Inc, 1998), pp. 313-314.

13 Robert McNamara, in a speech titled Security in the Contemporary World as US Secretary of Defence before theAmerican Society of Newspaper Editors in Montreal, Canada on 18 May 1966 available atwww.oldcolo.com/Mcnamara/mcnamara.txt accessed on 22 Jun 2007.14 Ibid.15 Ibid.16 Olusegun Obasanjo, Grand Strategy for National Security , (Abuja: State House, 2001), p.1.17 Ibid., pp. 6-9.18 Susan E Rice, The National Security Implications of Global Poverty , a speech at the University of MichiganLaw School on 30 January 2006 available at www.brookings.edu/scholars/srice.htm accessed on 27 Jun 2007.19 The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2006 , (Washington DC: The World Bank Group, 2006), p.5120 National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria, Op. Cit. , p.35.21

Ibid.,22 National Population Commission, Nigeria, Report of 2006 National Census, (Abuja: 2007).23 National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria, Op. Cit. p.36.24 Ibid., p.33.25 Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Annual Report for the Year 2006 , (Abuja: 2007), available atwww.cenbank.org/documents/annualreports.asp accessed on 29 Jun 2007.26 Federal Government of Nigeria, National Agricultural Land Development Agency Decree No12, 1992, (Abuja:1992).27 NALDA, Final Report August 1999 cited in RA Osene Unemployment and National Security: Implications for

Nigeria(Unpublished, 2005), National War College, Course 13, Abuja, p.39.28 TM Yesufu, Op. Cit., p.32.29 Ibid.,30 Bureau of Public Enterprises, Nigeria, Rationale for Privatization , (Abuja: 2006),31

Ibid .,32 The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2006 , ( Washington: Development Data Center, The WorldBank, 2006), pp.150-162.33 United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2006 , (New York: UNDP, 2006), p.56.34 The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2006 , p.275.35 National Planning Commission, Nigeria, National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy ,(Abuja, 2004), p.xv.36 National Planning Commission, Nigeria, Op. Cit. , pp.xxiv-xxv.37 Federal Government Official Gazette No. 24 Vol. 94 dated 15 May 2007 titled Legal Notice and Publication of Details of the breakdown of the National and State Provisional Totals of 2006 Census.38 National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria, Op. Cit., p. 47.
http://www.intelligent-systems.com.ar/intsyst/unemploy.htmhttp://www.brookings.edu/scholars/srice.htmhttp://www.cenbank.org/documents/annualreports.asphttp://www.cenbank.org/documents/annualreports.asphttp://www.intelligent-systems.com.ar/intsyst/unemploy.htmhttp://www.brookings.edu/scholars/srice.htmhttp://www.cenbank.org/documents/annualreports.asp


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39 Ibid., p.48.40 Ibid., p.47.41 42 Ibid., p.35.43 Shehu Sani, The Killing Fields: Religious Violence in Northern Nigeria , (Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited,2007), p. 61-192.44 Ibid., p.193 .45 International Labour Office, Global Employment Trends for Youths 2007, (Geneva: ILO,2007), p.7.46 R Omotosho, The Psychological Effects of Unemployment in Nigeria , (Lagos: Malthouse, 2002) cited in RAOsene, Unemployment and National Security: Implications for Nigeria , (Unpublished, 2005) being a project submittedat the National War College, Course 13, Abuja.47 Susan Rice, Op. Cit.48 Ibid.49 Olusegun Obasanjo, Op. Cit ., p.6.50 Shehu Sani, Op. Cit. p.51.51 Adedayo A Adeoye, Unemployment and Rising Crime Rate: Causes and the Way Out being a lecture presentedto Senior Executive Course No. 29 of The National Institute, Kuru on 17 May, 2007, p. 8.

52 Brian Nichiporuk, The Security Dynamics of Demographic Factors , (Washington: Rand Publications,2000),p.19.53 Shehu Sani, Op. Cit ., p. 110.54 Ibid., p.48.55 Adedayo A Adeoye, Op. Cit ., p. 3.56 National Planning Commission, Nigeria, Op. Cit. , p.ix.57 Ibid., p.xv.58 Ibid., p.48.

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