Obasanjo From the least expected quarters came the warning that is fast becoming a recurring decimal in Nigeria because of the worsening state of anomie in the country. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has added his voice to the strident alarm that the country could implode anytime soon because of growing youth unemployment. According to the former president, Nigeria’s latest activist, we should not rule out the kind of unrest that shook the Arab world this year in Nigeria. Chief Obasanjo spoke on Monday at a workshop entitled “Economic diversification and revenue generation” held in Abeokuta, organised by the Ogun State Government in conjunction with the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). Before now, some eminent and not-so-eminent Nigerians had expressed similar sentiments.
At least three governments capitulated in the Arab world this year alone as a result of growing discontent. The first was Tunisia where the regime of Ben Ali was overthrown in January by irate Tunisians who demanded for a change in the political order. Next was Hosni Mubarak’s regime that also fell after 18 days of massive protests by Egyptians who sought an end to the 30-year Mubarak presidency. The third government to fall was that of the hitherto ‘strongman of Libya’, Muammar Ghadaffi, after being in power for 42 years. Because Ghadaffi behaved like the greedy fly that would follow dead bodies to the grave, he ended up being consumed by the revolution.
As former President Obasanjo observed, the mass protests in the Arab world occurred because there was a ‘disconnect’ between ‘economic growth’ and ‘employment generation’. “It doesn’t matter which way you look at it today. People are now talking of Arab Spring. Some people will say, ‘Is Egypt not developing?’ On economic scale, after South Africa, it is Egypt in Africa. Has Libya not got resources?
“At one time with a population of about five million, Libya was producing as much oil as Nigeria was producing. But there was still discontent because, yes, in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it may be growing well, but in terms of employment generation, there is disconnect.
“At one time with a population of about five million, Libya was producing as much oil as Nigeria was producing. But there was still discontent because, yes, in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it may be growing well, but in terms of employment generation, there is disconnect.
The youth revolts we have witnessed in every part of the country should warn us that it is a ticking time bomb. Jonathan has paid only lip service to the problem of youth unemployment. What, for instance, happened to the N139 billion approved for jobs in December last year?
The three countries shaken by what has now become the ‘Arab Spring’ are by far better than Nigeria in terms of many economic indices. So, if gold rusts, what would iron do? If these countries could erupt, what then is the guarantee that such an eruption is far-fetched here, where unemployment is officially put at 23.9 per cent and one out of every two youths is unemployed? Now, the government is considering pulling the trigger by insisting on the removal of what it calls fuel subsidy come next year, an action that would compound Nigerians’ woes.
The three countries shaken by what has now become the ‘Arab Spring’ are by far better than Nigeria in terms of many economic indices. So, if gold rusts, what would iron do? If these countries could erupt, what then is the guarantee that such an eruption is far-fetched here, where unemployment is officially put at 23.9 per cent and one out of every two youths is unemployed? Now, the government is considering pulling the trigger by insisting on the removal of what it calls fuel subsidy come next year, an action that would compound Nigerians’ woes.
This is why we urge governments, particularly the Federal Government, to do something quickly about job creation. This is not the time for pious statements about the problem but about finding pragmatic solutions to the scourge. President Jonathan has himself seen the matter in the context of the looming Armageddon. He however stuck the ominous note with an attitude of helplessness and resignation. Waxing prophetic as a leader is important, but that alone would not solve the problem or wish the revolution away. We need to fix power supply quickly and as well address other infrastructural deficits that would make the country an investor’s delight. It is not until then that we can all go to sleep with our two eyes closed and hope to have a happy night rest. It is by finding jobs for the teeming unemployed youths that we can keep their minds positively engaged and free them from idleness that could make the Devil otherwise engage them.
One could ask what Chief Obasanjo did to stave off the impending cataclysm because the cause of whatever uprising we may experience in the country lay in the past; and Chief Obasanjo was an active player in that sordid past. As a matter of fact, if any revolution happens today in the country, it is not because the Goodluck Jonathan administration is totally responsible for it, but more because the president has been in the corridors of power for long, even before the mantle fell on him. So, he is seen as a part and parcel of the old order. He may therefore reap the revolution for his inability to demonstrate the capacity to take the country out of the woods.
We have to take the warnings of impending revolution seriously. Even if former President Obasanjo raised the alarm for attention-getting purposes, we should not throw away the baby with the bath water by ignoring him. There is some sense in his alarm.
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