A MINISTER'S BIGOTED AGENDA By Emmanuel Onwubiko

There is little doubt that the current minister of education Malam Adamu Adamu has displayed overwhelming aversion/repulsion  for other faith-based affiliations in the determination of who to appoint into strategic national educational positions. 

He is reported to have so marginalised his better qualified  colleague- the minister of state for education Professor Anthony Onwuka to an extent that he made the man's daughter-in-law a member of a non-attractive board of one rural federal college of education in a remote part of Rivers State which even made the Parents of the girl the governor of Imo state Rochas Okorocha  and his wife to denounce this awkward appointment.   

Since coming into office, this Kaduna-based newspaper columnist with no knowledge or experience of the educational system of Nigeria is alleged to have embarked on the deliberate planting of hardcore Islamists into the key educational policy making bodies in Nigeria including but not limited to the National university commission, Nigerian educational Research and development council(NERDC);  Tertiary educational trust Fund (TETFUND)and the joint Admission and Matriculation examination board(JAMB) amongst several other strategic positions and board chairmanships.

Indeed the man manning the high office of the executive secretary of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board- a Professor of Islamic studies Mr Ishaq Oloyode is still the secretary General of the Islamic national council of Nigeria. 

You would then imagine why in the first place why the erstwhile executive Secretary with better qualification in the core educational field was subtituted with a professor of Islamic studies who still clings on to his religious job. 

Professor Dibu Ojerinde who was removed as JAMB executive Secretary by Adamu Adamu is a reputable professor of Test and measurement in the Education faculty. 

This one- sided appointments in the education ministry headed by a newspaper columnist are in clear breach of the Federal character principle enshrined in section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution(as amended).

For the purpose of direct emphasis, we may wish to recall that the aformentioned constitutional provision of 14(3) states thus: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of it’s agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies”.

These clear infractions and vexatious violations of the Federal character principle may have occurred unchallenged because it is even said that the Federal character commission which is as institution set up to safeguard this sacred provision is itself in clear breach of the law because both the Chairperson(Shettima Bukar-Abba) and the secretary(Mohammed Bello ) are from the Northern section of Nigeria.

Besides, this highly inexperienced education minister may have derived motivation to sideline other ethno-religious citizens of Nigeria because the appointing authority for now-the president is directly in breach of the Federal character provision by concentrating top flight appointments to the Moslem Hausa/Fulani section of Nigeria in both the strategic defence portfolios and many other juicy top level national offices. 

At first when President Muhammadu Buhari named this little known newspaper columnist as the substantive education minister and downgraded a former University Professor and erstwhile Vice Chancellor of the Imo state University to become the minister of state under a neophyte, controversy flared up.  

Questions were asked as to why the President elevated nepotism to the front burner and relegated merit and competence to the backyard. 

Malam Adamu Adamu assumed duty and displayed some crass incompetence by handpicking persons of his own religious backgrounds as the key office holders in the federal ministry of Education. 

The behavioural tendencies of the minister of education reminds me of what a Professor of Psychology in Havard University  Amy Cuddy wrote in her latest work that people judge you based on two criteria when they meet you.

 In her new work titled "PRESENCE", she says that people quickly answer two questions when they first meet you namely, can i trust this person? and secondly, can i respect this person?. 

Psychologists call these factors as warmth and competence, and ideally you will want to be perceived as having both. 

With the furore raised by a lot of the bigoted actions of the education minister, it does appear that he may score double negatives if those two questions are asked about him. 

Anyway, the above is not the Fulcrum of this piece because what we are set to speak about is even much more toxic to an extent that if no remedial steps are adopted immediately, there is the possibility of the religious war flaring all across Nigeria going by the fact that it is impossible for the education minister to successfully seek to impose the study of Arabic or Islamic studies on non-Moslems.

The controversial and criminal downgrading of the Christian Religious Knowledge to the less fancied position of a subtheme within the so-called civic education is unconstitutional and indeed a declaration of an unholy war against the Christian religion in Nigeria.

In section 38(2) of the constitution, it is as clear as the sunlight that the Nigerian government cannot remove the teaching of either Christian religious knowledge or Islamic religious knowledge because of the strategic constitutional importance. 

It is even much more dubious and vicious when C.R.K. is downgraded whereas IRK is smuggled in through the backdoor by making it a compulsory subject in place of French. 

Section 38 (2) states thus: "No person attending any place of education shall be required to receive religious instruction or to take part in or to attend any religious ceremony or observance if such instruction, ceremony or observance relates to a religion other than his own or a religion not approved by his parent or guardian”.

The clear and emphatic wordings of section 38(2) of the constitution which applies the word SHALL implies that it is a legal duty upon government to ensure compliance. 

So it is incumbent on the Federal government to ensure that the removal through subterfuge of the teaching of Christian Religious knowledge is reversed and the subject restored with immediate effect.

This writer, after extensively understudying the tepid response from the education minister on this needless crime of substituting C.R.K is hereby urging the Acting president Professor Yemi Osinbanjo to do everything within his constitutional power to save Nigeria from imminent religious war because the deliberate demotion of the Christian religion in the curriculum of public schools.  

This evil plot is a declaration of war. It goes against everything that public policy formulation and implementation represent. 

Moreover, the indirect attempt in a brazen format by the minister of education and his director general of the Nigerian educational development and Research council to indoctrinate and brainwash children born into the Christian community is a crime against humanity. 

Cyril Connolly rigtly stated that; "Only a man of faith who sincerely follows his religion becomes happy. In my religion, there would be no exclusive doctrine; all would be love, poetry, and doubt". 

What Adamu Adamu seeks to achieve by downgrading the teaching of Christian Religious Knowledge and making  it only a subset of the unrelated civic education is to deny the Children born to Christian homes their God given happiness and Love that can only come from a sound knowledge of their religious beliefs and system. 

To even superimpose the peganistic question which implicitly plants a doubt in the minds of students on the divinity of Jesus Christ as a segmment of the civic education is provocative. 

The perceived dangers packaged in the new Curriculum of Education has brought the document to the fore since the leadership of CAN raised the issue in a meeting with the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and asked the government to ensure there is no discrimination against any student because of religious beliefs in our public schools. ‎

Speaking through its President, his eminence, Rev Dr Samson Olasupo A. Ayokunle, the umbrella body of all Christians in the country foresaw the danger ahead if the curriculum that merged Christian Religious Knowledge and Islamic Religious Knowledge with the Civic Education is made to stay.

 The organisation also disclosed some perceived discriminations against Christian students in the curriculum. 

 According to Ayokunle, “...In this curriculum, Islamic and Christian Religious Studies will no longer be studied in schools as subjects on their own but as themes in a civic education. This undermines the sound moral values that these two subjects had imparted in the past to our children which had made us to religiously and ethnically co-exist without any tension.

 “...Islamic Religious Knowledge was equally made available as a subject in another section without any corresponding availability of  Christian Religious Knowledge. Is this not a divisive curriculum that can set the nation on fire? Is this fair to millions of Christians in this nation?”

To buttress his point, the CAN President cited a case in Kwara State where a student was punished for refusing to register for Islamic Religious Knowledge.

 “A Christian student in a secondary school in Kwara State had his body lacerated with cane by the Arabic Teacher because the pupil refused to do Islamic Religious  Knowledge when French Teacher was not available and Christian Religious Knowledge, Hebrew or Greek were not part of the options at all.”

 But in a swift reaction, the Federal Ministry of Education debunked the claims that Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) had been removed as a subject of study from the secondary school curriculum and Islamic Religious Studies reintroduced.

 According to the Director of Press, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. Chinenye Ihuoma, the ministry has only designed a new subject which merged Civic Education, IRS, CRK and Social Studies into “Religion and National Values”.

 But her words, to say the least, confirmed the well grounded fear of the national Christian platform when she stated that the ministry has designed a new subject which merged Civic Education, IRS, CRK and Social Studies into “Religion and National Values”.

The man heading the National Education development and Research council contradicted his minister by insisting that CRK and IRK are still distinct subjects. 

How on earth are these two persons speaking from both sides of their mouth on a clear policy matter which is written in black and white and already read by diverse group of persons including the national hierarchy of Christians?

The man in the Education research and development council faulted his minister when he asserted that: “CRK is not a theme in Civic Education. Civic Education is a distinct subject on its own which teaches the rudiments of good citizenship”.

This position contradicts that of the Ministry. He went further to disclose a directive given by the Minister on the merger which the ministry under his watch claims has not been implemented.

 His words, “For the avoidance of doubt, the last review of the curriculum was approved in 2013 and implementation commenced in September, 2014. In both instances, neither the Christian Religious Knowledge nor Islamic Studies was removed from the curriculum".

 “In fact, at the commencement of the present administration, the Hon. Minister of Education sought and obtained the approval of the National Council on Education to make Christian Religious Knowledge compulsory for all Christians students and Islamic Studies compulsory for their Muslim counterparts".

 “Efforts are in top gear to print the Christian Religious Knowledge and Islamic Studies Curriculum separately in order to maintain their characteristics and distinctiveness".

 “In this Curriculum, no child should be coerced or compelled to learn or be taught in school any religious studies subject  but only one (out of the two) that restrictively relates to the belief system professed by the child and his/her parents.”

Christian Association of Nigeria also raised another key point thus: "If the new curriculum is treating the two religious subjects separately as being claimed, why do we have a satanic topic in the Civic Education like 'IS JESUS THE SON OF GOD'? Or is the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo who disclosed to CAN leadership that this was in the curriculum he earlier saw lying too?" 

These historical and or deliberate half-truths are a total abuse of the essence of public policy formulation and implementation.  

 R.K. SAPRU in his book "Public policy- formulation, implentation and evaluation" stressed that a public Policy inputs are demands made on the political systems by individuals and groups for action or inaction about some perceived problems. 

Such demands, the writer said may include a general insistence that government should do something to a proposal for specific action on the other. 

If i may ask, what is the problem inherent in the teaching of Christian Religious Knowledge and Islamic Religious Knowledge? If these two courses are wrong why does the constitution recognises that students be educated in the religious beliefs of their parents so long as they are not yet up to the age of consent. 

The Universal Declarations of HUMAN RIGHTS and all other international human rights laws recognise the teaching of religious beliefs of the parents to the students. 

The aforementioned public policy book also affirmed that:"In the political system model, outputs are regarded either as effects on the environment or as ‘feedback’ to the political supporters of the system. Easton says that outputs are said to constitute a body or specific inducements of the members of a political system  to support given, or by socialization into the political norms of the society."

In other words, policy outputs are the actual decisions of the implementers. Theory are what the government does, as distinguished from what it says it is going to do. 

Writing further the author stated thus: "Examples of policy outputs relate to such matters as the educational institutions built, taxes collected. Compensation paid, or curbs on trade eliminated. Outcomes are real whether intended or unintended", so the writer said.

“In the final analysis, the success of public administration of development can be measured only in relation to the implementation is of critical importance to the success of government". 

The writer also reminds us that: "However good the political system, however noble the goals, however sound the organizational system, no policies can succeed if the implementation does not bear relationship to the intensions of the policy adopters". 

A dispassionate assessment of the defence put up by the federal ministry of Education under Adamu Adamu and his Director General of the National Education development and Research council which contradicts each other, shows the wide gap between what bad intention that there is in the bigoted actions of these officials who are misusing  their public office to frame national education policy that would alienate a greater chunk of the Nigerian population in the guise of attempting to introduce a new curriculum for public schools. 

This plot amounts to an unmitigated evil that must be exorcised if we must avoid witnessing religious war. 

*Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA  (HURIWA) and blogs @ www.huriwa@blogspot.com; www.emmanuelonwubiko.com.

We’re working to stop cruelly-sourced lizard penises being unknowingly sold via major online retailers

Our new research reveals that male monitor lizards’ sexual organs are fraudulently sold as tantric plant roots, believed to bring good luck. The animals are cruelly trapped, killed, and illegally-traded, before their penises are sold on the likes of Amazon, eBay, and Etsy

In collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University, the Wildlife Trust of India, and Indian Wildlife authorities, we recently uncovered the international trade of monitor lizards, cruelly exploited for their body parts.

The dried penises are fraudulently sold as ‘Hatha Jodi’, a plant root used in religious ceremonies.

We’re asking all online retailers stop selling these cruelly-sourced body parts.

Stolen from the wild

These wild animals are being illegally-poached from the wild, caught in traps and snares.

Some will have their throats slit or their skulls smashed in before their genitals are removed. Others will still be alive during this horrendously painful process.

Our global wildlife advisor and lead scientist, Dr Neil D’Cruze, said: "We were shocked at the sheer audacity and scale of this illegal wildlife trade. Deceitful dealers claiming to sell holy plant root labelled as ‘Hatha Jodi’ are in fact peddling dried lizard penis to unwitting customers.

"These illegal items are readily available in the UK and USA with potential street value of £50,000."

Some Asian tantric practitioners in the UK, USA and Europe believe that the plant root can bring good luck, wealth and happiness, and can ward away spirits.

However, the lizards being poached for their body parts are far from lucky, and suffer immensely.

Most of these animals are poached in India, where any trade involving a monitor lizard or its body parts is an offence under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Two species of monitor lizard which are also traded for their parts, Bengal and Yellow, have the highest level of international legal protection.

Neil D’Cruze said: "This international illegal trade is of major concern for the continued survival of the lizard species involved.

"Both Bengal and Yellow Monitor lizards are protected under Indian and international law. But even a quick search reveals hundreds of items on sale, sometimes at prices over £200 apiece. If left unchecked, this demand could grow to the extent that it pushes some wild populations over the edge."

To help protect lizards and end this cruel trade, we’re approaching all major international online retailers to request that they remove all illegal monitor lizard body parts sold as ‘Hatha Jodi’ from their websites.

From the desk of:Animal Rights Association of Nigeria-07040303030

https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/news/were-working-stop-cruelly-sourced-lizard-penises-being-unknowingly-sold-major-online-retailers

HURIWA DEMANDS IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF POLICE SERVICE DIRECTOR

HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) to release with immediate effect the Director of Finance and administration of the Police Service Commission Chief Emmanuel Ibe detained since two weeks based on unsubstantiated petition from the Special Assistant on prosecution to the President Mr. Okono Obono Obla.

HURIWA accused Mr. Obla of misusing his office to engage in proxy fight for his relation working in the Police Service Commission who have had a running battle with the arbitrarily detained director of finance and administration over the control of the police staff cooperative Society which reportedly secured huge landed assets from the Abuja political authorities for the use of members.

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria in a statement last night by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko told the EFCC to hands off the matter which is already a subject of a subsisting petition before the office of the Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbanjo unless the acting Chairman of EFCC has no respect for the high office of His Excellency the Acting President. 

HURIWA accused the Presidential aide of masquerading about as the chief law officer of the nation making use of letter headed papers of the Federal Attorney General and minister of justice to allegedly harass unsuspecting members of the public including top public service officials whom he categorized as his personal enemies.

HURIWA also included the petition sent to the Acting President by the detained Director of Finance and administration of PSC Chief Emma Ibe and the general secretary of the cooperative society Mr. Obinna Malokwu titled a "PETITION/COMPLIANT AGAINST ABUSE OF OFFICE, IMPERSONATION, NEPOTISM AND INTIMIDATION OF MEMBERS OF THE EXCUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE POLICE  SERVICE COMMISIION STAFF MULTIPURPURPOSE COOPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED BY MR. OKOI OBONO-OBLA, SPECIAL ASSITANT TO THE PRESIDENT ON PROSECUTION: AN URGENT CALL TO SAVE-OUR SOUL"

It goes thus: "We write to your Excellency to use your good office to urgently save the Executive committee members of the police service commission staff Multipurpose cooperative society limited from persecution and intimidation in the hands of Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, special Assistant to the president on prosecution. 

The cooperative society is an independent legal entity which is governed by the Nigerian cooperative societies Act 1993.The Act confers powers on matters of corporative societies in the hands of the Director of cooperatives. The society has majority of staff of police service commission as its members (see FHC Ruling on suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/585/2012 attached).

2. Mr Okoi Obono-Obla , has embarked on gross abuse of his office, impersonating the Honorable Attorney General of the Federation (HAGF) ,and in the process has been persecuting and intimidating the Executive Committee Members of the society.

 He has taken it upon himself to use the various security agencies, namely, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Department of a State services (DSS), the Independent Corrupt practices and other Related Offences Commission and the Nigerian Police Force, all at the same time, to cause the intimidation, torture and harassment of the Executive Committee Members of the Society on the prompting of his nephew, Mr. Okoi Uyouyo, a staff of the police service commission, who has been boasting to some staff that he would deal with the Executive committee Members of the Society.

3. Mr. Matthias Okoi-Uyouyo, who had long resigned from the society and all his dues paid to him, connived with Mr. Obono-Obla to write a petition to the office of the Honorable Attorney General of the Federation (HAGF) despite the fact that his earlier petitions whereby he maliciously alleged abuse of office, corruption and impunity against the president and other Executive Committee Members of the Cooperative Society has long been disposed off by the various agencies on the affairs of the society.

4. Mr Okoi Obono-Obla, and uncle to the petitioner Mr. Okoi Uyouyo, having been appointed Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution in an undisguised case of impersonation, abuse of office and crass display of nepotism, high jacked the matter and personally wrote to all the security agencies as well as to the offices of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and Chairman, Police Service Commission. In one of his letters to the chairman, police service commission, he directed the Chairman to suspend Mr. Emmanuel Ibe, President of the Cooperative Society from office on an unsubstantiated allegation (see copy of letter marked Annexure A attached).

5.The directive to suspend Mr. Emmanuel ibe from office forced the society to approach the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, whereby the court issued An order restraining the commission and HAGF from suspending Mr. Ibe from office(see copy of ordered of Court Annexure B attached).

6. Failing to secure the suspension of Mr. Ibe from office, Mr. Obono-Obla now took it upon himself to persuade the various security agencies to re-investigate the matter purporting that the directive was given by the HAGF. Whereas the same office of the HAGF had in year 2014 issued a directive to the Federal Capital Territory High Court to discontinue the matter and subsequently the matter was struck out by the court (see attached Court Order of the High Court of FCT dated 12^th March, 2014 marked Annexure C and DPPF’s letter to the chairman, police service commission dated 19^th March, 2014 marked Annexure D).

7. Mindful of the fact that Mr. Obono-Obla is on a mission of vendetta on behalf of his nephew, the Executive Committee Members of the Society filed a Law Suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/478/2016 against the Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, the HAGF and the Nigerian Police Force(see Court papers marked Annexure E(i) and E(ii) attached). Mr. Obono-Obla snubbing the Law Suit in Court, has gone ahead to persuade the various agencies, particularly the EFCC to hunt the Executive Members of the Cooperative Society and other stakeholders including consultants who carried out various assignments for the society.

8. It is also worthy to note that the Resolution of the Members of the society at an Extra Ordinary General Meeting stating that they have no complaints against their Executive Committee Members on the persecution of Mr. Obono-Obla has been completely ignored by the EFCC and other security agencies investigating the matter (see latter to EFCC and resolution of members marked Annexure F attached).

9. We therefore write to your Excellency most respectfully to please use your good office to cause a stop to the harassment and intimidation of the Executive Committee Members of the Police Service Commission Staff Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited in the hands of Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, special Assistant to the president of prosecution who has been using various security agencies particularly the EFCC in carrying out undisguised personal vendetta contrary to the code of conduct of public officers.

10. While we look forward to your fatherly intervention, kindly accept our good wishes and warm regards, Sir."

Leave your Wives, Children out of your political fight-HURIWA tells Wike /Amaechi

A pro-democracy and non-governmental organization-HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked the erstwhile governor of Rivers State Rt.Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his successor in office Mr. Nyesom Wike to stop dragging names of their spouses or families in the political mud of discord.

In the considered opinion of the rights group, the family unit is such a fundamental foundation of the whole society that it must be insulated from quicksand and ethically depraved political disagreements amongst divergent political camps anchoring to win or retain political power in Rivers state come 2019.

In a statement by the National coordinator comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National media Affairs Director Miss. Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA asked the duo of governor Wike and the transportation minister Chibuike Amaechi to exercise restraint and decorum and respect their distinctive families.

HURIWA admonished both the current and former Rivers State governors to limit their disagreements to pure ideological crusade and argue based on political facts and figures and avoid the temptation of reducing their conversations in the public domain to the “bedroom issues” of their wives or children because the family as the foundation that builds an enduring society must not be destroyed because of temporary political fights.

HURIWA therefore condemned the revelation in a radio programme by the governor of Rivers State Mr. Nyesom Wike in which he was reported as casting aspersion on the wife of the transportation  minister for allegedly receiving monthly settlements from the political appointees in the state executive council under her husband for eight years.

The Rights group dismissed this line of public allegations as wholly unnecessary and uncalled for especially coming from the Rivers State governor who is looked upon by millions of youth and human rights organizations as a symbol of virtuous Christian family man who is reputed  to be enjoying a very happy and joyous family life.

“We plead with these two political giants of the Niger Delta to respect the African traditional value system and leave their families out of their temporary political infighting. The family's sanctity must not be unduly violated".

"The political battles of the two should basically be focused on political ideologies and not to engage in infantile “Kitchen- like quarrels" of petty traders”.

The Rights group reminded both Chibuike Amaechi and Nyesom Wike that: “In Africa for instance, the traditional background of the family encouraged all members of the respective families to promote, protect and nurture the basic African cultural values like respect for elders; community fellow feelings as reflected in communal land tenure and ownership; live-and-let-live-philosophy, altruism (including economic and medical variants of it): and hospitality."

HURIWA argues that since the family builds the world, all African families and families everywhere in the world should promote those attributes which projects the common good of humanity. 

"Such attributes includes peace, unity, love, social justice and truth. That is the real meaning of traditional marriage especially against the background of African family value system”.

HURIWA recalled that Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, had alleged that each commissioner and local government chairman in the state paid the erstwhile governor’s wife, Judith, N3million and N2million monthly respectively.

HURIWA quoted the as saying that: "while some paid N3million, others paid N2million to the Amaechi’s wife. He said he was aware of the payments because he was Chief of Staff to Amaechi and had knowledge of what happened then".

Wike, reportedly made the revelation during an interview on Rhythm FM Port Harcourt on Monday.

Nigeria and the unemployment monster By Emmanuel Onwubiko & Queen Onwughalu

Something very unusual in Abuja happened on Monday June 19^th 2017. 

This incident has to do with a young man in his early thirties who was so well dressed that he successfully mingled with other business executives and government officials at a particular five star hotel in the central business district of Abuja.

But the clean dress of this smiling young man was only a facade because right inside this man was a groundswell of worries and poverty- induced anxiety. 

He sat very close to us during the tea break but apparently wasn’t allowed to partake in it because he couldn’t produce his official invitation.

This young man looked at us and gestured to us that he hadn’t eaten since the last twenty four hours. 

But we told him that we have just few cash to buy fuel for the car but that if he wouldn’t mind eating the remainder of the food of one of us but he gladly jumped at our offer and before you could say Jack, this guy had swallowed all the meals we passed on to him from one of us.

This scenario is a testament to the crude reality of the effects of economic recession and unemployment. On daily basis in our official function as human rights defenders, we come in contact with a variety of young person searching for sustainable means of livelihoods.  

At the last count, our Non-governmental organization has built a data base of curriculum vitae of hundreds of young persons who drop them off every day in our office looking for openings of any kind for them to be gainfully employed. Few years back, we were compelled to write to the then Labour and Employment minister Chief Emeka Wogu to ask that he set up a functional data bank of genuinely unemployed youth in Nigeria and he assured us that his office will actualize this aspiration.  But as we write this joint article we can report that no such project is in place even when it was once a component of one of the annual budgetary projections. A data bank of jobless youth is critical because scientific statistics helps in proper placement of job seekers in their appropriate places when vacancies exists in both the public and private sectors. Then entered the economic recession which means that unemployment has ballooned out of control. 

Youth unemployment in Nigeria is indeed a time bomb that is ticking and threatening to explode with devastating consequences if no deliberate but workable actions are adopted by all and sundry to reverse the trend.

But is there light at the end of the tunnel? 

Is there the faintest possibility that officials of government that run the economy can confidently overcome these challenges?

Well, the statistician general of Nigeria Dr. Yemi Kale and the finance minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun seems to be singing contradictory tunes on the question of when exactly the current economic recession will end. 

The end of economic recession could significantly signpost the beginning of good development for millions of our unemployed youth because once the productive sector becomes vibrant it means that more hands would be constructively engaged. But we don't seem to know when this blistering monster of economic recession would end. 

Whilst the director General of the National Bureau of Statistics Dr. Kale is of the view that recession would abate by next year, the minister of finance Mrs. Adeosun appears to be more interested in the political angle of the response to the question by optimistically saying it will end soon. 

Optimism alone doesn't solve economic recession or depression. Be that as it may, it seems the Finance minister is anchoring her optimism on the year 2017 budgetary projections. 

Incidentally, the major government agencies that are expected to stimulate youth employment have just been allocated appreciable quantum of capital budget but the problem is with the implementation going by the often known tradition whereby capital budget of most ministries often witness a little less than fifteen percent implementation profile yearly.

The minister of budget and National planning Senator Udoma Udo Udoma of the current government recently published a citizen budget guideline for the just signed 2017 budget which we received directly from his office.

From this booklet, the following cheering news are contained: the Niger Delta development commission would receive N64 billion from the statutory transfer, the universal basic education gets N95.18billion,Science/Tech-N41.7b;Youth/Sports-N5.44;Defense;N139.29b;Education-N151.92b;Health -N55.61; Interior-N63.76b; Social Intervention-N150b; Agriculture-N103.79b; Water Resources-N104.24;MITI-N81.73b;Transport-N241.71b;Works,Power/Housing-N553.71b. We will return to these specifics shortly. 

First, we make haste to emphatically state that unfortunately, the Federal government plans to proceed with the privatization of such publicly owned assets such as the liquefied Natural gas (LNG) and the Nigerian national petroleum Corporation. LNG is unarguably Nigeria’s best run public enterprise. 

This move may create unemployment and may end up in the transfer of our national assets to few privileged individuals with connections to the powers-that-be.

We say this because in the citizens' guidelines to the current budget given to us, an information shows that already government has earmarked N35 billion as revenue expected from sales of government property and privatization proceeds.

 You may then wonder how cheap these refineries and other national assets are about to be sold away. This is sad and pathetic, if you ask us. 

There is however nothing to show what government intends to do to re-invest this paltry proceeds into other productive ventures that could create job opportunities for our large army of jobless youth.

This is because in the same 2017 budget this government is going cap in hands to foreign lenders to borrow. A total of N1.66 trillion is budgeted for debt servicing. 

We know that this debt servicing and selling off of national assets are two items that would benefit the cronies of government officials and contractors who usually sponsor candidates for elections.  

We say so because if you read through a particular item in the book on economics edited by Simon Cox, it will become clearer that selling off national assets at the long run may not necessarily create employment opportunities for those who need these lifesaving openings amongst the vibrant young population.

 In the book titled: “Economics: making sense of the modern economic”, the writer argued thus: “A fashionable strand of skepticism argues that governments have surrendered their power to capitalism- that the world’s biggest companies are nowadays more powerful than many of the world’s government."

"Democracy is a sham. Profits rule, not people. These claims are patent nonsense. On the other hand, there is no question that companies would run the world for profit if they could. What stop them is not governments, powerful as they may be, but markets", they submitted. 

"Governments have the power, all right, but they not always exercise it wisely. They are unreliable servants of the public interest. Sometimes, out of conviction, politicians decide to help companies reshape the world for private profit. Sometime, anti-market thinking may lead them to help big business by accident. And now and then, when companies just set out to buy the policies they want, they find in government a willing seller. On all this, presumably, the sceptics would agree".

The writer also argued in this powerful book that: "But they miss the next crucial step: limited government is not worth buying. Markets keep the spoils of corruption small. Government that intervenes left and right, prohibiting this licensing that, creating surpluses and shortages-now that kind of government is worth a bit. That is why, especially in developing countries with weak legal systems, taming capitalization by regulation or trade protection often proves such a hazardous endeavor".

"If NGOS succeeded in disabling markets, as many of them they would like to, the political consequences would be as dire as the economic ones. It is because the sceptics are right about some things that they are so wrong about the main thing,” so the writer of the aforementioned book averred. 

A deeper reading of the year 2017 budget does not bring out the practical steps that this government intends to adopt to create the much needed jobs for the teeming Nigerian youth searching frantically for jobs.

 Does government actually understand that youth unemployment is a major threat to national security?

Those who support government based only on their political affiliation would argue that the chunk of money allocated to such critical sectors such as Agriculture, Science and technology amongst a few others represents the resolve of the Buhari's administration to tackle the hydra headed monster of unemployment. 

But come to think of it, we have established the fact that successive governments including the current one have bad history of implementation of capital components of the budgets.

How does government intends to make sure that the young graduates who have chosen to embrace professional agriculture can access the credits from the Bank of Agriculture or bank of industry to take off smoothly? It is true that government said it has begun the recapitalization of these lending institutions but it is still factual to state that these two critical funding bodies hardly make any significant impacts in the drive to create employment opportunities in the informal sector such as professional agricultural practices such as running farms and such others like fish and animal farms for profitability. 

A peep into the latest statistical data of unemployment should tell the government officials that there is fire on the mountain.

  In Quarter two (Q2) of year  2016, the Labour force population (i.e. those within the working age population willing, able and actively looking for work) increased to 79.9 million from 78.5 million in Quarter one (Q1) of 2016, representing an increase of 1.78% in the Labour force during the quarter. 

This means 1.39 million persons from the economically active population entered the Labour force that is individuals that were able, willing and actively looking for work. 

This magnitude of this increase between Q1 and Q2 2016 is smaller when compared to Q4 2015 and Q12016, which was an increase of 1.59m in the Labour force population. 

Within the reference period, the total number of person in full time employment (did any form of work for at least 40hours) decreased by 351,350 or 0.65% when compared to the previous quarter, and also decreased by 749,414 or 1.38% when compared to Q2 of 2015.

The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics like most countries in the world now uses a variant of the ILO definition such that the unemployment is the proportion of those in the Labour force (not in the entire economic active population, nor the entire Nigerian population) who were actively looking for work but could not find work for at least 20 hours during the reference period to the total currently active (Labour force) population. Accordingly you are unemployed if you did absolutely nothing at all or did something but not for up to 20 hours in a week. Underemployment however occurs if you work less than full time which is 40 hours but work at least 20 hours on average a week and /or if you work full time but are engaged in an activity that underutilizes your skills, time and educational qualifications. 

These are critical information gleaned from the official website of the Bureau of National statistics of Nigeria.

We think government should concentrate part of this national budget to engage in the massive capacity building of the youth population because trained manpower is the driving force of most of the well to do economies like China and Japan. 

Government should invest more in information technology and work on strategic engagement of young persons to do technology transfer from friendly advanced economies such as China or Japan. 

It is better to teach the youth how to fish than to spoon-feed them with fish. Another sector to be tapped into is Sports Development because sports are now big time foreign exchange earners for such big nations like Brazil. 

Nigerian young talents must be looked for and developed for exports because by so doing the revenues accruable from their extremely impressive salaries and sign on fees can contribute a lot towards national development. 

*Emmanuel Onwubiko & Queen Onwughalu wrote in from Human rights writers Association of Nigeria (Abuja Nigeria). We can be reached on huriwa@gmail.com.