Nigeria’s unemployment numbers are speaking

By Akpo Ometan

Nigeria’s unemployment numbers according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics has risen once again. On current count, the summary is this: one in every Nigerian of working age is out of work.

Now if that is not troubling, I do not know what is. Able-bodied men and women young and not-so-young, who should be gainfully engaged are out of work. How did the famous economist, John Milton Keynes out it: ‘it is better to pay a man to dig up holes and to fill them back than to leave him unemployed.’

Employment is many things. It is an economic lifeline. It is also an enabler of personal self-worth and social adequacy. It equally is a first step in crime and vagrancy fighting. So working hard at keeping the factories and mills running and the farms churning is a first priority in any governmental arrangement. This is why the crisis is this deep in the Nigerian experience.

Unemployment figures: 2017 – 2020

Source: Nairametrics