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It is no longer news that a number of people who are employable live without having a job in Nigeria.
Unemployment and poverty have been described as major challenge to government across the world.
Kogi State like any other State in Nigeria is not exempted from this twin challenge which has caused the State anti social behaviors of her youths who over the years are engaged in thuggery and violence as survival strategy.
With an already over bloated Civil Service work force and a monthly dwindling statutory allocation that virtually goes into the payment of salaries,the over saturated government service certainly can no longer cater for the need of providing gainful employment to its teeming graduate indigenes.
Unemployment, especially when chronic affects the unemployed in ways other than their pocketbooks. It affects their future ability to find a job, their psychological well-being and more.
Even the employed are affected by unemployment because the ripple effects affects the overall economy and the communities where they live.
Nobody, whether unemployed or not, is immune to the far-reaching effects and lasting consequences of unemployment.
But determine to change the negative trend of unemployment to a positive one where jobs are created and using the State’s abundant potentials and opportunities, Captain Idris Wada’s Agricultural and Industrial Transformation programs as well as the vast arable land the state is blessed with seems to be paying off in creating job for its teeming youths .
Kogi State though richly endowed in natural and human resources,its huge tourists attraction sites and its potential to attain the status of a national food basket of the nation, the state had still not grown in tandem with its capacity to be the sole provider of employment for its large labour force.
On assumption of office, the Wada administration was faced with the problem of unemployment. It was so rife in the State that thuggery became lucrative, acceptable and fashionable.
According to a report published by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development in 2009, Kogi State alone has deposits of a total of 29 mineral resources (in) commercial quantities.The report revealed that the state alone boasts of enough deposits of coal to supply all of Nigeria with electricity for 400 years. And enough limestone to keep three giant-sized cement factories (with over 15m tons annual capacity) operational for an unbroken stretch of 99 years.
The State Capital, Lokoja also hosts historical relics and geographical monuments, notably the museum of old European commercial activities and the confluence of River Niger and River Benue.Job creation programs are deliberate programs or projects undertaken by government of a nation to assist the unemployed members of the population in securing employment. This the administration of Capt Wada has done by concentrating on macro economic policy in order to increase the supply of jobs, and by creating more efficient means to pair employment seekers with their prospective employers.
True to his words and as part of his transformation agenda, the Wada administration produced a blueprint for the 21 local councils to cultivate crops that they have comparative advantage.
Capt Wada’s administration by making agriculture less energy sapping,has attracted Kogites to the farm.
Beginning with the establishment of Accelerated Rice Farm Project (ARFP) across the nine flood affected local government areas of the state.
The pilot scheme of dry season rice farming flagged off December last year in two local government areas in Lokoja and Kotonkarfe created about 3000 direct and indirect jobs.
Still in the area of Agriculture, the Wada led administration has embarked on aggressive production of rice, cassava and palm tree plantations at a rate that has generated employment.
When fully operational, the Alape crop processing zone in Agbadu and other farms in the state will offer close to 20,000 direct and indirect employment.
Through the signing of about eleven memorandum of understanding with foreign partners, 5000 jobs directly and indirectly is expectedly been created for the teeming unemployed youths in the State.
About 5,000 other jobs have equally been created in the state for unemployed school graduates through the Youth Empowerment Scheme of the Wada administration.
The Youth Advancement Program of the present administration aside providing skills and gainfully employing indigenes of the state,has also enabled others through the Micro grant of between N250,000 and N500,000 given to them by the State Government to be self independent in their businesses.
The administration has equally opened the space for foreign and private investors from foreign nations to have sign memoranda of understanding with the Kogi State Government for investments in coal to power and the exploration of other mineral resources in the State. Several jobs are expected to be generated in this sector.
The ongoing move to resuscitate the Ajaokuta Steel Plant recognized as the fulcrum of industrialization for the country and which has been bedeviled over the years by some forces against its take off, would soon have its jinx broken as bold steps by the State Government to reawaken the sleeping giant is already concluded.
Reprom Company Nig. Ltd, in partnership with the Kogi State Government has put in place machinery to reactivate the steel plant in the next few weeks. Expectedly, over 20,000 direct and indirect jobs will come on stream as another initiative of the Wada administration .
The approved employment of several Medical Personnel,the on going recruitment of 500 Teachers, employment of ad-hoc sanitation workers and some other permanent employment to mention just but a few into the services of the Kogi state government, complimenting the employment created by the industrial and agriculture revolution of the present administration deserves commendation and is a step in the right direction.
With so much priorities placed in repositioning the Education, Agriculture, Health and Social Infrastructure sectors by the present administration.
Evidences abound that within the last eighteen months, a sustained investment has been made in providing jobs for its teeming unemployed graduates.This efforts by the government of Capt Wada will no doubt lessen the negative effects of unemployment.
Individuals who face unemployment with greater financial resources, as well as those who report lower levels of subjective financial strain, report better mental health and more life satisfaction than those who experience unemployment with fewer economic resources and a greater sense of financial stress.
This therefore calls for schemes by both the Federal,State and Local government that will not only empower the vulnerable, create a middle class, the introduction of an enhance wage at all levels and a drastic reduction in the cost of accessing education and health facilities in the State, will certainly reduce poverty and improve standard of living for its people.
Kogi State Government’s social support program though remarkable, should be sustained and improved upon as it will also go a long way in mitigating the negative impacts of unemployment and under employment.
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