Chapter 5

                      Labour

It is an established fact that labour is a crucial factor of production. Be it skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled, the reward for labour is salaries and wages. According to St Louis Fed, ‘…Labor is the effort that people contribute to the production of goods and services. Labor resources include the work done by the waiter who brings your food at a local restaurant as well as the engineer who designed the bus that transports you to school. It includes an artist's creation of a painting as well as the work of the pilot flying the airplane overhead. If you have ever been paid for a job, you have contributed labor resources to the production of goods or services. The income earned by labor resources is called wages and is the largest source of income for most people. ‘

 (https://www.stlouisfed.org/education/economic-lowdown-podcast-series/episode-2-factors-of-production)Labour has played crucial roles in the advancements of various societies of the world. Undoubtedly, governments have been able to liaise with their relevant labour unions to come up with favourable policies that would translate into enormous job opportunities, availing citizens the privilege to contribute their quota towards the growth and development of their societies. This is one of the factors that propelled China to pursue accelerated development. Of course, thanks to their population, which is tantamount to a great labour force. Simply put, the greater the labour force, the greater the chances of sustained growth and development.

Nigeria of the 50s, 60s and 70s had great labor force that made the diversity of economy possible. The use of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labor force led to the readiness of various agricultural resources in the then regions of Nigeria: the cocoa produce in the west, the palm produce in the east and groundnut pyramid in the north. Before the heavy dependence on oil and ‘trampling down’ of the agricultural sector from the mid-80s, the labor force was alive and well. But what happened to the today’s Nigeria? The incessant and recurring disputes between the governments of the times (beginning from the mid-80s) and the Nigerian Labor Union reflected in frequent strike actions embarked upon by the latter caused a drastic decline in the labor force. When salaries are either delayed or not paid, when businesses experience incessant power failures and suddenly shut down, one would expect retrenchment of workers. Thus, heightening the unemployment rate. That is being experienced in Nigeria, over the years.According to Macro Trends, it says that ‘Unemployment refers to the share of the labor force that is without work but available for and seeking employment.Nigeria unemployment rate for 2019 was 8.10%, a 0.15% decline from 2018.Nigeria unemployment rate for 2018 was 8.24%, a 0.15% decline from 2017.Nigeria unemployment rate for 2017 was 8.39%, a 1.33% increase from 2016.Nigeria unemployment rate for 2016 was 7.06%, a 2.75% increase from 2015.Nigeria unemployment rate for 2015 was 4.31%, a 0.25% decline from 2014.

(https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/NGA/nigeria/unemployment-rate)’Read what Country Studies has to say regarding the Nigerian Labour force, Labour Union, strikes and unemployment:‘The size of Nigeria's labor force was difficult to calculate because of the absence of accurate census data. The labor force increased from 18.3 million in 1963 to 29.4 million in 1983. Census data apparently understated the number of self-employed peasants and farmers, but estimated that the proportion of Nigerians employed in agriculture, livestock, forestry, and fishing fell from 56.8 percent in 1963 to 33.5 percent in 1983. The percentage of the labor force employed in mining rose from 0.1 percent in 1963 to 0.4 percent in 1983. Exactly comparable data were lacking on manufacturing, but from 1965 to 1980 industry's share of the labor force rose from 10 percent to 12 percent whereas the services sector grew from 18 percent to 20 percent of the labor force.UnemploymentThe national unemployment rate, estimated by the Office of Statistics as 4.3 percent of the labor force in 1985, increased to 5.3 percent in 1986 and 7.0 percent in 1987, before falling to 5.1 percent in 1988 as a result of measures taken under the SAP. Most of the unemployed were city dwellers, as indicated by urban jobless rates of 8.7 percent in 1985, 9.1 percent in 1986, 9.8 percent in 1987, and 7.3 percent in 1988. Underemployed farm labor, often referred to as disguised unemployed, continued to be supported by the family or village, and therefore rural unemployment figures were less accurate than those for urban unemployment.

 Among the openly unemployed rural population, almost two-thirds were secondary-school graduates.…In the early 1980s, the civilian government found itself losing control of organized labor. Numerous wildcat strikes occurred in 1980-81, and in May 1981, the NLC mobilized 700,000 of 1 million unionized Nigerian workers for a two-day strike, despite the opposition of a government-supported faction. Working days lost through strikes declined from 9.6 million in 1982 to 200,000 in 1985 in the midst of a decline in national income that had begun in 1983. Industrial unrest resulted, however, in demands by larger number of workers for payments of salary arrears and fringe benefits as real wages fell by almost 60 percent. The causes of the decline in real wages were the World Bank-advised SAP and the unfavorable terms of trade that resulted from the collapse of the world oil market between 1986 and 1989.’(http://countrystudies.us/nigeria/56.htm)

With the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world and resulting from the past and current governments not co-operating with the labour union and other trade unions to bring about straight-to-the –point and workable policies that would be auspicious to making the labour force attractive for the citizens to exercise their potentials and consequently facelift Nigeria to the best of their abilities, the ‘National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says 42 per cent of Nigerian employees have lost their jobs on account of the disease.The bureau, in a report just published, said the economic shock imposed on Nigerians by the pandemic exceeds whatever they may have experienced between 2017 and 2018.’(Source: https://thenationonlineng.net/covid-19-claims-42-per-cent-of-nigerian-jobs-says-nbs/)

The Nation, one of Nigeria’s leading newspapers, had its headline read: ‘The Oronsaye Report: massive job looms at the ministries and departmental agencies.’(The Nation, Page 32, Volume 14, Number 5052, Sunday, May 31, 2020)While many countries are assiduously working round the clock with their governments working closely with their labour and trade unions toward creating alternative channels for employment of their citizens through the formulation of effective education-orientated policies amid the paradigm shift engendered by the COVID-19, Nigeria keeps recording mass unemployment. The future of workers is hanging on the balance of uncertainty as security of their jobs becomes questionable, slashing of salaries and wages (if at all there is) and possible stripping off entitlements appear inevitable. Education builds character and brings to limelight a visionary leadership. Education makes people to think in the direction of virtues and abstaining from the ugly subjugation of vices. Men of rectitude have accomplished great feats through the veritable tool known as education. It has always been the approach the live the life. Education illuminates the clear-cut distinction between being right and wrong.Nonetheless, it takes the involvement of the government and people to engineer education-fashioned philosophies and policies that would engage all and sundry in all fronts towards the desired individual accomplishment and general advancement of their nation. Without this, it would be a situation of building a castle in the air. As the old saying goes, ‘it takes two to tango’.

A situation where there is a negligence of education and are unresolved disputes between the government and the people on matters of interest will see the unfolding of the societal ills such as insurgency domestic terrorism, suicide, poverty, child trafficking (selling of children), arm robbery, fraud, to mention a few. Nigeria is sadly a prime example of the manifestation of negligence of education and unresolved disputes between its government and people. A once peaceful country has now become a nation that is under terrorist alert, a bee-hive of all forms of social insecurity.The negligence of education and the disturbing lack of resolution between the federal government of Nigeria and people have seen the lack of social amenities put the citizenry in the dark as many companies, businesses and enterprises wound their windscreen of operation, the health sector ‘not really being active’ in containing various health vices like the corona virus, economy falling from the grace of being the Giant of Africa to the grass of just chasing the shadows of revamping, gifted hands resort to doing heinous crimes like armed robbery, advanced fee fraud (internet scam), left with no other option than to sign up to be the epitome of kingnapping, all the survive, or even being depressed to the point of taking their lives due to the frustration and confusion being experienced, battle with health impediments to survive and have next to nothing to contribute to research and development (just being consumerist) due to no concrete platforms created.The negligence of education and the disturbing lack of resolution between the federal government of Nigeria on coming up with education-reach policies have derogated the image of Nigeria internationally and on a global scale. A country that was once respected is now known for all manner of evils. The media has reported the ugly escapades of many Nigerians caught in drug trafficking, arms dealing, fraud and armed robbery. Nigerians are depicting the consequences of the government not co-operating with the people in taking seriously the conceptualization of education policies to advance the Nigerian nation. It is so disheartening to see gifted hands struggle to leave the country to make it overseas.

 A country having all what it takes to become a great attraction to the world has its gifted hands struggle to live above the poverty line of a US dollar on a daily basis, let alone maximizing their creativity and potential!Until Nigeria sees the need for government to focus on addressing pertinent problems confronting the security and peaceful co-existence among its people by providing basic amenities, increasing employment opportunities through meaningful roadmaps in response to the paradigm shift caused by the pandemic, building proper health facilities and employing qualified and well-trained health professionals, develop a think-tank economic team or committee, increase the size of the labour force to possibly engage Nigerians and investing and budgeting considerable amount of money to research and development (science and technology), there would be more ailments of devastating consequences that would be caused thereby plaguing the existence of a once-great Nigeria. It should be asserted that education has to become a lifestyle: a culture that needs to be imbibed in the mindset of all and sundry because, in the words of Learnrite International Institute of Research, ‘Education is the light through which one sees oneself and the society at large. It liberates one from ignorance and disease.’ The once-named Giant of Africa can be the giant once again if the consent of the government in terms of co-operating with the people to come up with policies instrumental for national change is demonstrated. Then, education will become a vaccine for societal ills.