Without doubt the novel coronavirus pandemic currently ravaging countries all over the world is earth-shaking and heart-shaking. The rich and the poor are in panic. Governments and the governed are in disarray. Economies are trembling. Movements are restricted and dangerous. Sound sleep and free interaction are rare, all because of the coronavirus raging globally.

Consequent upon the fact that COVID-19 is not a respecter of the high and the low, countries were evacuating their citizens from Nigeria. The federal and state governments in Nigeria were up and doing, taking various measures to curtail further spread of the virus as well as treating the infected, to prevent fatalities. This is commendable indeed.

There is, however, a time-bomb which the three tiers of government in Nigeria have not taken very seriously – given the way they are responding to the pandemic – even though it is much more devastating than coronavirus. This deadly time-bomb is the Virus of Unemployment. This unemployment virus has been spreading fast in Nigeria for a while now. But the governments have been handling it with kid’s glove, the way they handled the Boko Haram insurgency when it initially started as a little movement in Borno State.

The governments are not paying the right attention now because children of the well-to-do people seem not to be affected by the Unemployment Virus. It is very obvious that the storm is now gathering. And, with the impacts of the current coronavirus pandemic, the bubble may soon burst. Unemployed youths are already gathering and joining voices together in many forms, getting ready to explode in ways that will be more terrifying than the threats of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic. Without doubt, unemployment is a ticking time-bomb which will do no one any good, when it eventually explodes.

I am a job creation and youth empowerment consultant. By virtue of my job, I have carried out research on the level of unemployment and the mindset of the unemployed youths in all the states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. My findings prompted me to submit suggestions for job creation and youth empowerment to the governments of the late Umar Yar' Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, as well as the 36 state governors from tenure to tenure. It is only one state that haphazardly tried one of the suggestions till today. The major complaint has been, No Money to implement the suggestions. Nigerian governments have been complaining of no money, but they have been succeeding in raising money to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

There was a sigh of relief during the regime of former President Yar'Adua, when a presidential committee on job creation was set up, to more effectively address the challenges of youth unemployment and underemployment. It’s however sad that the government was short-lived. No attempt close to that has been made by the federal or state government ever since. All we have been seeing are cosmetic approaches. Of what value is employment or self-employment opportunity that does not pass the tests of profitability and sustainability?

It is a great height of comedy when an elected administration says they have created job opportunity that has only two years tenure, with a salary that cannot take care of monthly feeding, not to talk of rent and other contingencies. It is a waste of money for governments to be boasting of training and empowering unemployed youths of the 21^st century in Fashion Designing, Barbing, Culinary art and the likes, when over 70 per cent of people currently in those trades are sleeping and waking up in their shops, because they have little or no job to do. That explains the high rate of relapse of the unemployed youths trained in these trades. The governments are still busy, wastefully pumping money into these types of training without any form of assessment or evaluation.

For example, let the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and Industrial Training Fund (ITF) provide a comprehensive list of all the unemployed youths they have trained in various trades and the addresses of where those candidates are practising the skills today. The rate of success will be less than 30 per cent. Why then is the Federal Government still wasting more money doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results? Things don't work that way!

For effective and result-oriented mass job-creation and youth empowerment that will pass the test of profitability and sustainability, the federal and state governments need to encourage empowerment training programmes in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Transportation and Safety, Trado-Medicine and Wellness, Agriculture and Agric Support Services, Manufacturing and Support Services, Education and Support Services, Tourism and Support Services, Innovative and protected Music and Movies, just for a start.

Relevant ministries departments and agencies (MDAs) need to wake up to their responsibilities to support the initiatives in the above-mentioned sectors, as against the current practice of passiveness, non-challance and corruption.

Governments must desist from pursing many projects at the same time. There must be selective focus on certain areas and achieve the set goals before pursuing others. This has been a cause of the pitfalls of Governments in the past. For example, the three areas Nigerian governments need to focus more attention, more than anything else, are Electricity, Security and Road infrastructures. With these three in proper shape, other things will fall in place. They are all achievable either directly by the governments or through private sector participation. Where there is commitment and sincerity of purpose by the government, there will surely be a way.

The current noise about the fight against corruption is much more than the results. In a country where there is open display of moral decadence and corruption in homes, workplaces and government offices, it will be difficult to use measures that have human interface to fight corruption. What the governments need to do is to establish systems that can automatically checkmate corruption at all levels.

For example, to check corruption in road traffic law enforcement, install relevant cameras (open and hidden) at strategic points on the roads and link every vehicle document and driving licence to the BVN. Once an offence is committed, instant deduction is made from the bank account of the vehicle owner. This is just an example! There are other more sophisticated systems suitable for each government operation that can curtail corruption with very minimal or no human interface.

The economic challenges caused by coronavirus pandemic should not be an excuse for federal and state governments to fail in paying adequate attention to job-creation and youth empowerment. The President and Governors must know that “an empty stomach is not a good political adviser.” If the unemployed youths are allowed to get to their wits end, no government or security forces will be able to resist or stop them. Then, it will become crystal clear that the scourge of unemployment is more devastating and deadlier than the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic.

The Federal Government of Nigeria (previous and current) put the nation in this poverty state. Why are we still importing petroleum products? Why are we still importing iron and steel, with Ajaokuta and Itakpe here with us? Why are we importing bitumen with the second largest deposit in Agbabu, Ondo State? Why are we concentrating on import-based chemical fertiliser when we have abundant organic Moringa Oleifera fertiliser? What happened to the Oku Iboku Newsprint Manufacturing Company? Why is electricity still a problem? Why is it difficult to distribute pre-paid metre to every house in Nigeria? Why is there no fully-developed and functional tourist centre in Nigeria despite the potential? Why the retention of redundant and unviable government agencies, thereby building up pensions and gratuities their staff did not work for?

So many more questions are brewing in the minds of Nigerian youths waiting for expression. When these and allied questions are genuinely looked into and effectively addressed, then Nigeria shall become great for the very first time in history. It shall be well.

The effect of coronavirus is this much in Nigeria because of inadequate proactive measures. The pandemic will soon be over. The governments and governance at all levels must not relapse to what it was. There must me a demonstration of visionary and selfless leadership to make Nigeria great among the comity of Nations.

It is now or ….

•Jide Owatunmise is national president, Driving School Association of Nigeria, Abuja; e-mail: dsannigeria@yahoo.com; WhatsApp: 08033216376.

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