YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE AKWA IBOM YOUTH DEVELOPMENT FUND BILL #AKYDF BILL (A.K.A #10PERCENT4YOUTHS)

According to findings, the genesis of unemployment was in the beginning discountenancing population demographics and not applying statistics in Planning. We could predict with negligible Variance the number of skilled labor turnout, and available vacancies, food production and consumption, urban migration and town and city planning and so on. This noble culture and value system slipped through the years of civil and military rules. There were moments in our lifetime when under graduates were tied to jobs, cars, and homes before graduation – as a result of planning. There were moments when middle manpower shortage opened doors for ordinary and higher diplomas from USA, England, Bulgaria, Italy, France, Rome and other foreign countries. There were moments corporate entities like Mobil producing decided to train such requirements locally by equipping all the engineering disciplines of The College of Technology, Calabar and took from there its field engineers. This however was lost over the years as leadership suffered great malnourishment of prerequisites into public administration as planning became private, individual, personalized interest, criminal exhibition of corruption in the name of politics instead of collective data collection analyzed for the benefit of all – this was the loss of vision, focus and none existence of precise policy engagements driving government goals. It affected the private sector equally as most private initiatives thought excellent could not imbibe the true moral ethics of entrepreneurship, their concerns perished as they took more to selves than the business.

In recent years, there has been no economic bearing on the masses or communities other than fancy government implementations with little or no amount of clear accountability. The gloomy picture of the labor market was so worse and was described as fearsome by

Ex-President Obasanjo while others sees it as an emergency deserving urgent solutions. The senile exposure of our knowledge about the political economics of unemployment by over bloating a state with 1000s of personal assistance, aides and special advisers does not answer to production. Duplicating security functions by engaging youths in uniforms as crowd control when the police and SSS are available shows compromise. Dedicating multiple backups of vehicles to public office holders does not justify the much we have sunk into security of life and properties. Overloading the ministries and snoozing through employment list of multinationals for favorite names has nothing but corruption in place of production. Kiting of inter-ministerial jobs amongst political associates does not equate employment.

A harvest of reasons has been offered as reasons for unemployment and this challenges any leadership of its insensitivity as all of it are statutorily, mandatorily and obligatory that it provides power supply, good quality and skilled education, sustainable agriculture, effective distribution of natural resources to other viable sectors or diversification, and abstinence from corruption. Most governments strive to meet its target and achieve goals, but whether such endeavors underscores the need to discharge its functions in line with the population in relation to labor market, literacy and numerical rates, low investments despite significant investment opportunities, information failures and a lack of targeted investments in key labor intensive areas. Technically we failed to address Reduction in the Output - the unemployed workforce could be utilized for the production of goods and services. Since they are not doing so, the economy is losing out on its output. Reduction in Tax Revenue - since income tax is an important part of the revenue for the government. The unemployed are unable to earn - the government loses out on the income tax revenue. Rise in the Government Expenditure - the government has to give unemployment insurance benefits to the claimants. Hence, the government will lose from both sides in terms of unemployment benefits and loss of tax revenue. Where this is not in practice, then we are just a donor state for no economic sense and value. Nigeria’s spiraling youth unemployment has been a significant contributor to the dramatic rise in social unrest and crime e.g. Niger Delta militancy, Boko Haram, Jos Crisis etc. If young people are provided with employment opportunities they can become productive assets and take their part in mainstream society offering the best of their skills and talents.

On 18th February 2009 in Addis Ababa, African Heads of State declared 2009-2019 as the decade of youth development in Africa. They made commitments to take proactive steps in youth development and guarantee increased investments in youth development programmes at national levels. Many people may not remember this to engage our Heads of State or hold them accountable to the degree or scale of impact or level of fulfillment to this commitment.

Two years later the declaration was reviewed. On 1st July 2011, the Heads of State and Government met in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea to discuss the need to ‘accelerate youth empowerment for sustainable development’. They reinforced the Addis Ababa 2009 declaration and promised ‘creation of safe, decent and competitive employment opportunities’. Some African counties have created interventions and programs accordingly.

In Ghana, the government created the National Youth Service for its graduates and also the National Youth Employment Program (NYEP) to secure jobs for the unemployed. Mauritius has a National Human resource plan that provides framework for technical and vocational education. Zambia introduced the National Youth policy and Youth Enterprise fund to reduce poverty and create jobs

In Nigeria, the Government introduced Skill Acquisition and Enterprise Development into the National Youth service programme, and a business plan competition for young people tagged ‘YOUWIN’ program. The present government not too long ago created the N-power programme which promises to be a job creation and empowerment initiative of the Social Investment Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria. We are expecting to see the results and impacts from this programme and the resultant effect on youth unemployment

A baseline survey on the Niger Delta with Akwa Ibom as a case study showed that a comprehensive model that caters for reorientation, skills training, entrepreneurship, and investment in agriculture, legalized policy frameworks, quality apprenticeship and rural development is needed. Findings also show that youths constitute about 37% of the total population of Akwa Ibom State, of the working age population in Akwa Ibom State which consists of 1,773,449 men and women, youths constitute about 80 percent. Paradoxically, the sizeable youth strength in the labour force is yet to translate into actual employment.  The sizeable population of youths in Akwa Ibom mirrors the situation in the entire Niger Delta region where over 60 percent of the populations are young persons. Information obtained from secondary sources also depict that youth unemployment in Akwa Ibom State is pervasive and has been increasing over the years. Between 2002 and 2006 for instance, youth unemployment in urban areas in Akwa Ibom State grew from 10.7% to 11.8%, while rural youth unemployment grew from 7.5percent to 9.8percent.

Why are the youth of Akwa Ibom State unemployed in such high numbers considering that between 2006 and 2013, we have had much income and tax in revenue above most states in Nigeria? It is natural that we can only wish that people see the fine arts achieved but disown the consequences like militancy and insurgency as the outcome of the fine arts. The emergency therefore lies in the forecast that saw the trend continued at 16% into 2015. Going forward the next government must digress totally from the present culture of tying 80% of its budget to capital development of projects that are not people oriented and generating employment or dare to sink our fortunes to conduits but must as a matter of urgency return to objectivity in disbursing public funds towards production and not in being in the Guinness book of records – as good as that may sound.

As a youth community that advocates for increased systematic investment for youth unemployment (#10percent4youths community), it is our belief that as a country we need to reach the level where our different state constituents address youth unemployment from a policy framework standpoint such that is feasible, workable, accountable, scalable and sustainable deploying integrated and holistic approaches to genuinely change the game and increase the opportunity to ‘create safe, decent and competitive employment opportunities’ for youths and indeed for all. However, of particular interest is the Niger Delta Region which has suffered from a whole lot of national and regional setbacks from both foreign and indigenous operators and government in the region. Thus, we are promoting and supporting a bill sponsored by Hon. Emmanuel Ekpenyong, to implement a sustainable youth policy framework through the establishment of Akwa Ibom Youth Development Fund, AKYDF that just has passed 1^st reading in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and garnering momentum for 2^nd reading.

The #AKYDFBill campaign is tangible and realistic. The prospects are non-conventional in that when the bill becomes law it will:

·         Facilitate enterprise and entrepreneurship development

·         Promote labour market research/impact evaluation

·         Facilitate transition to work programs

·         Improve quality outcomes of technical and vocational education training

·         Strengthen attitudinal and social reorientation programs

·         Promote economic diversification of non-oil sector (technical innovation and agriculture)

·         Fund youth cooperatives and ensure quality outcomes

This would ensure that youth unemployment is addressed using a holistic framework that is sustainable and innovative.

Why Laws? Laws are enforceable through different government transitions. There is hope for youth development in Africa as these legal frameworks will attract additional funding from international development agencies and national intervention agencies.  It’s time to take the opportunities provided by the demographic transition as an opportunity for Africa to compete internationally.

Greater Tomorrow Initiative therefore calls on all youth related institutions, networks and individuals to support the motion for increased investment in youth unemployment. We stand with #AKYDFBill, let’s make it work, JOIN US. www.yafnet.org; fb.com/YouthAliveFoundation;