Recently, the Federal Government announced plans to pay unemployment benefits to Nigerian youths. The government would also re-launch the cash transfer programme to vulnerable Nigerians, which was stopped following the scandalous financial sleaze uncovered in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. If these poverty alleviation programmes are effectively implemented, they will go a long way in reducing extreme poverty in the country. However, the government should come up with a pragmatic blue-print that will enable it to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty.
The extant practice of doling out paltry cash to vulnerable Nigerians monthly is not enough to lift anyone out of poverty. Moreover, it is not sustainable. With over 133 million Nigerians, who are multi-dimensionally poor, Nigeria is unfortunately touted to be the poverty capital of the world, in spite of her enormous human and material resources. With our untapped agricultural potential, Nigerians should have no pact with poverty.
The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, is optimistic that the intervention will reduce the excruciating hardship arising from high costs of food items. According to him, “at this period of heightened food prices, the President has committed to doing all that can be done to assist in giving purchasing power to the poorest and in that line, he has committed and instructed that the social security unemployment programme be devised, particularly to cater for the youth, for the unemployed graduates, as well as the society as a whole.”
About twelve million Nigerian youths are expected to be beneficiaries of the programme. This figure represents just a small fraction of the unemployed youths and vulnerable Nigerians. There is a need to increase the target beneficiaries. In 2022, the Worldometer estimated the youth population in the country to be 70 percent of Nigeria’s estimated 217 million people. This accounts for approximately 151 million people. Out of this number, about 53 per cent of the youths are unemployed, according to a figure released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The number of unemployed Nigerian youths is alarming and unacceptable. However, we applaud the government’s plans to provide social security for unemployed Nigerian youths and other vulnerable Nigerians.
The unemployment benefit should be meaningful enough to take care of the monthly bills of the unemployed graduates and vulnerable youths. It should be better organised and administered than the N-Power programme that started on a good note but fizzled out when more was expected.
It is instructive that the government must have a comprehensive register of the potential twelve million beneficiaries of the unemployed benefit, and they must cut across the six geopolitical zones and party lines. This programme should not be for APC members and their supporters alone. It should not be for party loyalists and praise singers. It must be for all Nigerians. In other words, it must not be politicised.
Similarly, the monthly cash transfer programme should reflect the nation’s diversity. It should not be restricted to a certain part of the country. There are vulnerable people all over the country and they must be reached through this intervention. Even before the suspension of the cash transfer policy of the federal government during President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the programme was already enmeshed in an avoidable crisis.
While it lasted, there was no comprehensive register of vulnerable Nigerians. Many Nigerians don’t even know the beneficiaries. Even those who benefited were said to be largely cronies of leaders in the ruling party. There was no transparent process from the inception of the programme. These shortfalls must be avoided in re-launching the cash transfer programme.
While the present poverty alleviation programmes are temporary, the government should initiate more realistic and sustainable programmes that will really lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty. There is a need to borrow templates of some countries that have succeeded in lifting millions of their people out of poverty. These counties include China, Bangladesh and India.
Beyond this, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive plan to create massive jobs for the Nigerian youths through agriculture. The government can easily create massive jobs through the mechanisation of agriculture and promotion of agro-business and all seasons’ farming. We believe that developing the business side of agriculture will make it more attractive to Nigerian youths.