Solving Nigeria's Unemployment Problem By ACTNOW

ACTNOW, a political action committee affiliated with the All Progressives Congress (APC), joins millions of Nigerian youths in paying its condolences to the families of the young Nigerians that lost their lives in the bid for a better tomorrow at the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment exercise. While we mourn the loss of lives, it is also important to highlight specific steps an APC government would have taken either to prevent that particular tragedy, or in response to it. This will ensure such a dreadful incident never happens again.

1. Let qualified organizations conduct recruitment examinations:

The Federal Government should have used a tried and tested body with expertise for the administration of examination on such large scale If you have a national examination for almost 600,000 candidates, who will you outsource such a huge project to? An unknown company without experience in conducting examinations or an organization with 62 years experience conducting national examinations, with offices in every state capital? The biggest reason for Saturday's tragedy was a lack of capacity, because the Interior Ministry chose nepotism over competence.

2. Organize separate written and physical examinations: 

By trying to conduct physical and written examinations on the same day, the government was asking for trouble. A more reasonable way to organize such large scale recruitment exercises would have been to lead with a written examination, use the results to shortlist the best performing candidates before inviting them for a physical examination. This would have created an environment for a more manageable process, preventing the avoidable loss of lives.

3. Promote Job Search Agencies: 

The rush for the NIS vacancies is a symptom of a bigger disease, chronic unemployment. Under the PDP government, 1 in 4 Nigerians and 1 in 2 young Nigerians are unemployed. Our party will ensure there are job seacrh agencies created in every local government to help job mobility among youths. The agency will encourage businesses and government parastatals to list vacancies, which will then be shared with interested job seekers that register with the agency. This will improve the information on available jobs and reduce unemployment.

4. Matching Fund Scheme: 

This scheme will provide matching funds for businesses that have secured funding elsewhere for their businesses, provided these business will create a minimum number of skilled jobs.

5. Allowances to discharged but unemployed NYSC members: 

This allowance will be paid for up to 12 months while discharged NYSC members seek jobs, or acquire skills and training for employment or entrepreneurship.

6. Vocational Training: 

We will expand the successful vocational training schemes our party is already running in several APC controlled states. The examples of vocational training in Osun and Kwara States will be expanded as a template for nationwide job creation. This will not only enable young Nigerians run their businesses, it will also allow them take up jobs that are currently being done by expatriate artisans.

7. Focus on SME Development: 

SMEs are the engine of growth and job creation all over the world. An APC government will focus on deepening access to finance for SMEs and also help them improve business capacity. The aim is to ensure more than 50% of SMEs in Nigeria survive past their 5th year, enabling them to create million of jobs annually to eradicate the growing employment rate .

8. Emergency medical facilities at public venues: 

The absence of functioning emergency services at public venues, especially those that hold large crowds, is unacceptable and irresponsible. An APC government will ensure no public venue that accommodates more than agreed number of people will lack a functioning emergency unit. If this was available at many of the centres, we are not in doubt that many of those that died would have been revived.

9. Hold appointed office holders accountable: 

Under an APC government, if public officer is responsible for a blunder of this magnitude, s/he will be immediately asked to step aside for a proper investigation of the incident. If found culpable, such an official will be asked to vacate his/her office and replaced by a more competent individual. By ensuring we run a merit driven government, we will drive the overall performance of public officials.

10. Conduct a proper inquiry: 

In 1989, 96 people died from an incident during a football match in England. The result of an inquiry into the disaster led to far reaching reforms on how stadiums were built and how police officers controlled crowds. Any respectable government should conduct a public inquiry to understand the reasons for this disaster, mainly to ensure specific action plans are identified to prevent such a tragedy in future.

This incident is a reminder to all Nigerian youths that the reduction in unemployment should remain the cardinal objective. At the All Progressive Congress, we have identified job creation as one of the most important objectives of our Roadmap to a New Nigeria. 

For more on this plan, please visit - http://anewnigeria.ng/a-new-nigeriaroadmap/roadmap/

Signed: ACTNOW
www.actnow.ng