UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

BY
DR. A. B. C. NWORAH

Over the years, the nation’s unemployment problems have risen astronomically. Daily OUR HIGHER institutions churn out hundreds of thousands of graduates into the already choked unemployment market. Many analysts have in fact contended that that the vast number of the unemployed in the country provides a ready market for criminals and the ever increasing security challenges the nation is currently confronted with. In order to ameliorate the problem there has been a suggestion for the immediate introduction of a social security scheme for unemployed graduates and artisans to sustain them until they are employed. School Leavers could also be included in the scheme to ease the burden on parents. The increasing number of youths engaged in violent crimes could be drastically reduced if they are provided with a small subsistence allowance.
This approach will no doubt help to curb Youth restiveness. Developed climes like Europe and America recognized the consequences of hunger in time and have moved quickly to curb it. After the French revolution, France introduced new patterns of work rules for employees and provided some welfare facilities for them and their families. Not long after other parts of Europe followed their examples. Britain also introduced a scheme to help the unemployed. Today lesser and weaker economics like Rumania, Bulgaria, Poland, USSR and Cuba have also introduced unemployment benefits in one form or the other to keep their youths out of crime. It is important to note that some of these countries do not have a drop of oil in their soil, like Nigeria yet they have made provision for this segment of their society despite the huge resources it demands. There is need to find out the exact cost to the nation to put such a scheme in place youths. For instance if there are one million unemployed youths in the country, N5,000 for each of them per month would cost the nation N5 Billion a year.
At N10 thousand each, it would cost N120 Billion per year. Is this too much a sacrifice to make to bring sanity to the nation? If all the three tiers of Government, as well as corporate bodies, jointly set their target on spending N200 Billion yearly on such a scheme, they would, no doubt make appreciable impact. There is the need to reduce the current high cost of governance to achieve this. And this requires that corruption must be tackled head on. The fear that a good number of youths would become lazy and unenterprising with such a provision should be jettisoned as this has not proved to be true in nations where this is practiced. We can learn from these countries how they manage these abuses. Thereafter, efforts should be intensified by both the government and the unemployed to create jobs as well as putting in place an arrangement that would transform these youths into job providers themselves. There is need for governments at all levels to have the political will to introduce this project. It would no doubt revamp and revitalize the nation’s economy and help in checking crime.
It would help to develop business opportunities which would keep youths busy. Everyone must now resolve to cut down cost to feed the hungry. It can be done if we check our individual greed. A winner takes it all mentality will ultimately drown all of us. The current plethora of allowances paid to public officials could either be slashed down or out rightly removed to pave way for the payment of unemployment benefits to our teeming populace. All public officials from the top to the lowest must begin to think of how to make this necessary sacrifice to save the nation from what has been described as the hunger induced crime wave we are now experiencing.

Source: Recorded live from FRCN daily commentary