Just how grave the problem of unemployment is in the country was evident in the number of applications received from those seeking to enlist in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). According to the Police Service Commission (PSC), it had received 705,352 applications as at April 19, to fill 10,000 vacancies! The force requires 500 cadet Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASPs), 500 cadet inspectors, 1,500 specialist officers and 7,500 constables to fill the 10,000 vacancies approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, to reinforce the police for better performance.
We commend the president for this gesture which would boost police personnel in the country even though the number still falls far short of the requirements stipulated by the United Nations, which is about one policeman to about 450 persons. We urge the commission’s chairman, Mike Okiro, to build on the apparent smoothness of the exercise by seeing it to a logical conclusion.
But that is not where we are going. Our concern in the present instance is about the situation of unemployment in the country as reflected in the number of applications vis-à-vis the number of vacancies in the police force.
Definitely the PSC must have got beyond what it bargained for, with 202, 427 applications received for the position of cadet assistant superintendent of police (ASP), 169,446 for the position of cadet inspectors and 333,479 for the position of constables. Considering that the total number required by the force is 10,000, what the statistics tells us is that at least 70 persons would be scrambling for one vacancy. Scary as this might be, the truth is that it does not necessarily mirror the unemployment situation in the country.
It is far worse.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the police force cannot be the first choice of many Nigerian job seekers due either to personal reasons or old prejudices, some of which are completely unfounded. We have no doubt that even among those who have indicated interest in joining the police force; many were forced to it by the harsh economic situation of the country. What we are saying in effect is that there are more Nigerians out there looking for jobs than the statistics by the police recruitment has revealed.
This is dangerous.
Indeed, it is particularly frightening when we realise that many of the unemployed are graduates and youths who have dreams that cannot be fulfilled unless they are gainfully employed. Youth unemployment is a problem anywhere, but particularly worrisome in our kind of environment where there are no social safety nets for the unemployed. We are sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
The government must move fast to arrest the situation. The way the executive and legislative arms of government keep passing blames over the budget does not show that they know the time bomb that youth unemployment, among many other pressing national challenges, symbolises. We cannot afford the laidback approach being witnessed in government as if we have all the time in the world to put things right.
Both arms of government must realise that with government as a dominant spender in the economy, quick passage of the budget will take off some of the heat in the country. Economic activities will kick off afresh and some of the unemployed will find jobs in the construction companies and other sectors of the economy, with their various spin-offs also helping to take away some of the unemployed from the larger unemployment queue.
The long-term strategy though will be in having the statistics of the number of graduates churned out by our various higher institutions with a view to planning how they would be absorbed into the economic system. Of course there must also be the enabling environment to let everyone practice his or her trade, irrespective of the level of their education because that is the only way to ensure that we reduce the crime rate in the country.
We should not forget the age-long maxim that “an idle hand is the devil’s workshop”. A stitch in time saves nine.
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