The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) commends the National Bureau of Statistics for its consistency in living up to its mandate of providing relevant statistical information and data on Nigeria’s economy.
The recent report on unemployment and underemployment for the third quota of 2018 indicates that in general the number of persons unemployed in the country has increased by 3.3million year on year from 17.6million in Q3 2017 to 20.9million in Q3 2018.
In addition, underemployment which decreased from 13.20million in Q3 2015 to 11.19million in Q3 2016 has in two increased to 18.21millioon in Q3 2018.
Further indicating that the combined rate of unemployment and underemployment increased from 40.0% in Q3 2017 to 43.3% in Q3 2018.
Beyond the increase in the size of the labour force as a possible cause of the unemployment, we are worried that the increasing pool of graduates, skilled and semi-skilled youth in the unemployment market especially the increase in rural unemployment even as we celebrate a boost in food production is an indication of the sluggishness of the economy to actively diversify beyond oil, extractives and primary agricultural production. It is more worrisome that as unemployment/underemployment increase so is the general increase in social vices and criminalities around the country where the youth are the most common perpetrators.
The congress is also concerned that the number of women in the unemployment/underemployment which is currently 6.6% higher than that of men is partly an indication of the increasing vulnerability of families as poverty and cost of living increase and the economy is yet to fully recover from recession. This situation not only worsens the vulnerability of women in the socio-economy but further exacerbates the gender dimension of social vices and criminalities in the country.
The combination of unemployment and underemployment coupled with inflation and a high cost of living put additional pressure on the workers who by traditional expectation will have additional responsibility to cater for some of the needs of relatives and friends. This reality further justifies the need for an urgent implementation of a new minimum wage which organized labour will keep its struggle until it is fully implemented without further delay.
Indeed the failure of the current government is a continuation of the failure of successive regimes to have a critical understanding of the development needs of the country and therefore employ strategies that fundamentally addresses the parasitism of the private sector and sluggishness of the economy to diversify.
We therefore recommend that the real sector which has the capacity to create employment be reorganized within the context of an alternative model that departs from an over ached dependence on the private sector and foreign investment. There is need for an aggressive fiscal and monetary policy that will reduce the cost of borrowing and increase spending in such a way that stimulates production and increases the agricultural value chain.
It is in this context that we recommend that the 2019 budget provision for debt servicing should tilt more to local debt servicing. It is only when we have improved on local production and export that we can guarantee a proposed growth rate of more than the abysmal level of 1.8% in 2018 and a target of single digit inflation rate.
While we commend further the improved financial management policies that have led to some an appreciable increase in tax revenue so far, we call for a further tightening of loopholes and leakages that encourage illicit finance outflows and corporate tax evasions. Specifically we call on a review of the policy on tax exemptions, tax holidays and profit repatriation all of which do not add value to sustainable growth through creation and sustained decent job creation and industrial value chain.
At the same time we demand that the government reduces the budget overhead cost by reviewing the allowances and jumbo pay of the members of the National Assembly and political appointees. We also demand that the so called security vote of state governors be subject to auditing by the federal auditor general with report made available and accessible for scrutiny where so required.
This way it is expected that more revenue will be available for spending to boost the real sector.
The government must live up to its responsibility of managing the welfare and security of its citizens through programs and policies that give measurable output which must be adequately reflected and supported by the budget and the medium term expenditure framework.
—-Comrade Ayuba Wabba, mni. President, NLC
