The growing industry of street begging

By Yemi Olakitan 

The issue of street begging in major cities of Nigeria is a worrisome subject to many, particularly in Lagos, Onit

sha, Kaduna and other major cities of the Northern states. It has become a common phenomenon for beggars to eke out a living on account of one physical disability or the other. Some use babies to attract sympathy while others pretend to be stranded and in need of help. Ag Head of investigations, Yemi Olakitan examines what is apparently a multimillion naira “industry”.

The issue of begging in Nigeria is a long standing social phenomenon, which in certain places especially in the North, cuts across generations. It is usually tolerated based on religious or cultural beliefs that often dedicate an obligation to help the poor.

However, it has been established that begging has a negative implications for the economies of the cities, the environment and the beggars themselves.

The growing population of beggars in Nigeria constitutes a blemish or environmental nuisance and a health hazard, particularly those carrying infectious and contagious diseases. Some scholars argue that begging has serious implications for Nigerians and the economy as beggars are not productive and contribute nothing to the economy.

Beggars portray a bad image to visitors, tourists and foreign investors and unless government develops a practical policy that will cater for the welfare of the poor and remove beggars from the streets, they will continue to pose a problem to the society. The situation is also dangerous because criminals disguise as beggars to perpetuate evil deeds. The story is still fresh in mind of the notorious cannibal, Clifford Orji, who pretended to be mad, waylaid and murdered many people right in the middle of Lagos and ate their body parts or sold them for ritual purposes.

He was reported to have died in prison while awaiting trial.

However, beggars continue to be part of the Nigerian society. Lagos, the commercial capital of the country has a large share of the nation’s beggars. In Lagos, beggars can be seen in very corner of the state. At most strategic roads, many with some form of diseases are carried and put at the center of the road with men and women with sacks in their hands soliciting for money.

Religious places of worship are one of the favourite places for beggars in Lagos.

According to Deaconess Shola Abimbola of the Global Church of the Living God, “In Lagos, it is not uncommon to see beggars in various religious centers particularly churches. There are people who come to church, well dressed and looking well and what they do every Sunday is to beg for money.

“I think Lagos is a preferred destination for beggars in this country and many of the beggars you see on the streets are not even Nigerians. They are from neighboring countries such as Niger, Chad, and Cameroun.”

Friday prayers at the thousands of mosques scattered across the country are also targeted by beggars, who capitalise on Islamic injunctions concerning alms to beg from Muslims.

However, the authorities are not happy with the situation.

In 2013, the Lagos state Government launched a war against begging in the state Governor Babatunde Fashola vowed to eradicate all forms of begging.

The governor stated that the law against begging must be enforced to ensure that beggars were stamped out of the streets of Lagos, as their activities constituted nuisance to the public and the government. Fashola, said there was no reason why people should beg for alms on the streets of Lagos when they could easily learn some vocational skills.

“When we say people shouldn’t beg on our street, we mean it. The reason is that begging is not an option here.

Everyone must contribute to this economy and those who have drug problem or illness have the choice to visit our remand homes where we feed them, rehabilitate and treat them.

“So, we have provided a choice and there is a law against street begging and we will enforce it,” he stated.

The governor added that several people had been trained at the vocational centers and had become very useful to the society, stressing that those begging for alms could also make themselves available for training in order to become useful to the society.

He explained that the Lagos State Remand Home and Skill Acquisition Centre, Isheri, was developed over the last years essentially out of nothing.

The governor said the wood work section at the centre was where a lot of the state’s school furniture was being made adding that the boots worn by officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority and Neighborhood Watch were being made at the footwear centre.

“We have been to the refrigeration unit of the centre where they teach them basic refrigeration, maintenance, operational and management skills. The young ladies make foot mats, dresses and all of that.

Other state governors such as Enugu State Governor, Sullivan Chime had vowed to get beggars off the road in his state, saying street begging was an offence under the law.  Governor Abdul Fatah Ahmed of Kwara State also thought it wise to put in place certain measures aimed at discouraging people from street begging.

Reports say more women have turned beggars in Kwara State. These women reports daily in public offices to beg for alms, claiming that they had contributed to the electoral victories of public officers.

According to the law, any person who hawks or wanders about to beg for alms is guilty of the offence while any person who encourages or facilitates any act of street begging is equally guilty.

Besides, any person who contravenes the provisions of the law would be guilty of an offence and would be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N5,000 or imprisonment not exceeding three months or both.

The law has defined alms to mean money, food, clothes or other material things. At one of his monthly media chats, Governor Ahmed described as unfortunate, the myriad social problems confronting the country, resulting to a few people going into street begging as a profession.

He said his administration has created a rehabilitation programme under the ministry of social welfare to ensure that a lot of skill acquisition centers across the state are put into use, wondering why many people particularly the beggars have refused to take advantage of this.

The governor noted that the increasing presence of beggars in the state was largely as a result of the evacuation done in other states where they just bundled them into vehicles and dropped them indiscriminately in different locations of the country.

While those states have their own laws to contend with, he said, his state also has its own and would not bend the rules simply because they want to take care of the less-privileged.

He called on beggars to take advantage of the systematic programme government put in place for their rehabilitation; he warned that to take to street begging was to contravene the law as government’s door is wide open to support beggars who seek rehabilitation.

Investigations by Sunday Mirror shows that begging still continues despite the government efforts aimed at curbing it and the laws put in place to arrest offenders. It was found that some of them are controlled by “godfathers” who are entitled to a ‘cut’ of the money they get on a daily basis in return for ‘protection’.

Ezekiel Keith, a Lagosian and social commentator, says begging in Lagos is worrisome. “It is something the Lagos State Government has not succeeded in curbing despite the megacity status of the state, the law and the rehabilitation centers. It is not uncommon to see beggars wherever you turn to in Lagos begging for food or money. You would think that it is because they are disabled but some are able-bodied men and women with no apparent disability except laziness and poverty. You will find them on the streets, bus stops and garages, even children are not excluded. Sometimes, one will see women with children begging for alms, at other times; you may find children running after you, pulling on your clothes asking you for money. These things still go on.”

Some people believe that the Almajiri system practiced in the North has ensured that a high number of children are perpetually on the streets begging for alms. Nigeria’s Almajiris are the worst of beggars. These street urchins are a product of that system and impoverished homes. They are deserted or are turned out from their homes as early in life as age five or six, and sent to  live with Quran teachers in local madrassa also called “makaranta alo” (Arabic schools), which are mostly dilapidated “dormitories” constructed from rotten corrugated roofing sheets or inferior bricks.

The pupils’ learning materials are torn fragments of papers with portions of the Qur’an or small wooden slates known in the Hausa dialect as “alo”. “Alo” is used to write down verses of the Qur’an to be memorized.

The Senate President, David Mark had recently charged Northern governors to ban the ‘Almajiri’ system. He had argued that the Almajiri system is counterproductive and is a breeding ground for miscreants.

According to Elder Theophilus Ajibola, an educationist, Almajiris system is the worst thing that has even happened to the Nigerian child. “This is where children are indoctrinated into another form of Islam by perverted and paranoid Islamic teachers to become violent. These children often grow up to have a negative view of life, it is from such ones that terrorist find willing recruits,’’ he said.

Mr. Babatunde Adisa, a Lagos state businessman, who spoke on the subject, said, “poverty and desperation create the right environment and fertile ground for religious extremism. The only reason why terrorism thrives in the Northern part of the country is because the environment there is conducive for it. Why is it that there is no terrorism in Saudi Arabia or in Qatar, where Islam is the major religion? If you get to these countries, you will think that you are in heaven. The poverty level there is low. Nobody wants to blow themselves up with a bomb there. Beggars should be rehabilitated. Those who can work should be positively engaged in our farms. The Lagos State Government alone cannot handle it. It is a national problem that must be handled from the federal government to the state governments and the local communities”, he said

However, Mohamed Teid, a Muslim activist, said that the religion obliges Muslim to cater for beggars.

“Islam has obliged us to cater for the needy in our midst so that they will have no cause to beg on the streets. If we are truly believers in the teachings of Islam, We will see that the religion has made a number of provisions to cater for beggars. There would be no beggars on the streets if we practice the provision of the Islam. There is Zakat, the compulsory charity that should be taken from the rich and distributed among, or expended for, the needy, to establish its importance, Zakat is not given by the rich but taken from their wealth annually. Sharia would have solved the problems of begging in the North but it was restricted to chasing away prostitutes and banning alcohol”.

Reverend Andrew Akinsuyi, a Nigerian-Canadian, who is also the president of a Christian charity organisation, named Salvation of God Mission, said some beg out of poverty while others are simply lazy.

He said, “In Canada there are beggars. It is a worldwide phenomenon. There are people who are genuinely poor and there are people who are lazy and do not wish to work but prefer to beg. There is nothing you can do to these kinds of people, they will always beg. They may not be physically challenged, begging is in their mentality. It is a disease of the mind.

“Many of these people need professional counseling to leave the streets even if you give them work or a house, they will still go back to the streets. It is a disease of the mind. There is something they do in Canada which I will love to introduce in Nigeria if I have sponsorship for it. They establish food bank for the poor. Individuals and corporate entities donate food items to certain centers and the poor can go there and collect food. It is a very laudable programme and I wish that we can emulate the system in Nigeria. The federal and state government must work together if we must eradicate begging in our nation. They must establish rehabilitation centers, vocational training centers and ensure that every Nigerian, no matter how physically challenged, can be productively engaged. The society itself must not live the work in the hands of the government because the poor will always remain among us. We must all join hands together in tackling the menace by providing training. Rehabilitation, opportunities for beggars and every Nigerian so that they can be removed from the streets”.

However, the Dean of Post-Graduate School, Nigerian Defence Academy Professor Adam Okene, called for synergy among state governors in the northern parts of the country to eradicate the problem of Alamajiri and street begging.

According to him, 30 per cent of children in the North are street beggars, while recent research showed that the North-west geo-political zone of the country accounts for 70 per cent of the beggars in the country.

Perhaps it was in recognition of the disturbing trend that President Goodluck Jonathan initiated about 124 Almajiri Models Schools across the country, especially in the North. He personally commissioned the first set of 35 Almajiri Model Schools constructed by Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund. The symbolic commissioning exercise was done in Sokoto.

These 64 schools that are on stream are those built on behalf of the administration by UBEC. The 64 schools are located at: Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi, Yobe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Oyo, Osun, Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo, Rivers, Kogi, Niger, Katsina, Taraba and Nasarawa States.
This was part of a drive to completely tackle the out-of-school children challenge that is negatively affecting the nation’s overall development.

The consequences of the ubiquitous presence of the Almajiris across the North and in other parts of the country are felt by all Nigerians.

Beyond the construction and furnishing of these schools, the Jonathan administration developed specialised curricula in 11 subjects that are taught in these schools to enhance quick assimilation for the boys. The curricula, which flow with the mainstream basic education curriculum were based on the culture and needs of the Almajiris.
Many have raised fears about the sustainability of this programme.

However, the Supervising Minister of Education Barr.  Ezenwo Nyesom Wike said the directive of the President on continued engagement with stakeholders at all levels will be carried out.
Another important step towards sustaining and expanding the gains of this programme was a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the Federal Government and State Governments on the running of these schools.

It covers the running of the schools, maintenance of infrastructure, enrolment drive, employment of qualified teaching and non teaching staff, provision of uniforms and writing materials and the provision of day-to-day running expenses of the schools.

The MOU also provides for the protection of facilities at the schools, impact assessment after pre-determined periods of operation and submission of quarterly reports by State Universal Basic Education Boards, SUBEBS, to UBEC. The last major component of the MOU is ensuring that sustainable provision for the feeding of the Almajiris in the schools is always on ground.
Also, the Jonathan administration developed and produced a National Framework for the Development and Integration of the Almajiri Education into basic education.

This framework is to serve as a guide to states, local governments and nongovernmental organisations to key into this project aimed at providing quality education to these less privileged Nigerians.

It is however no clear how this programme is being implemented now especially with the raging insurgency situation in the North, which has led to over two million people being displaced from their homes and communities with many already destitute, a factor that is bound increase the population of beggars across the nation.

Oil Theft in Nigeria: The Bleeding Continues

Recent pronouncements by the Federal Government indicate that the nation loses over $1bn monthly to activities of oil thieves in the Niger-Delta region.  The financial and environmental impacts of illegal, industrial scale oil bunkering in Nigeria pose a serious threat to the nation’s wellbeing and require urgent interventions by relevant stakeholders. Ag. Head of Investigations, Yemi Olakitan, examines the subject.

The recent sharp drop in global oil prices has only compounded an already bad situation. With an estimated 400,000 barrels of crude oil lost to oil theft daily, the price volatility in crude futures underlines the dangers confronting the nation’s finances, which is already feeling the shockwaves including devaluation of the naira, adjustments to the 2015 budgets and the looming spectre of a moratorium on new government projects.

The African Development Bank Group had in its African Economic Outlook 2014 listed oil theft as one of the factors responsible for the drop in oil revenue in Nigeria.  The report, which covers 54 African countries, presents the current state of economic and social development as well as prospects for countries in the continent. According to the report, Nigeria had been battling with serious disruptions in oil production and lifting operations occasioned by multiple leaks, pipeline vandalism and oil theft.  It said: “growth of the oil sector was hampered since 2013 by supply disruptions arising from oil theft and pipeline vandalism.”

It said, “Negative growth of the oil sector may also continue to drag down overall growth until a lasting solution is found to the challenges of oil theft.

According to reports, Nigeria is ranked worse than Mexico, Iraq, Russia and Indonesia among the top five countries most plagued by oil theft.  Nigeria’s losses to crude theft are also put at $1.7bn, about N312bn per month, representing 7.7 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

Illegal activities in the oil producing regions range from illegal bunkering, refining and sale of stolen crude and export of stolen crude to the international market. What many find difficult to understand is how vast amounts of crude oil are taken from pipelines and transported via large barges, loaded on ships which then “disappear”.

Only recently, it was reported that the Nigerian Navy destroyed 53 illegal refineries in Ashafama forest in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta.

The Commander of NNS Delta, Capt. Musa Gemu, told newsmen in Warri that 53 metric tonnes of crude was burnt during an operation against bunkering. Gemu said the command would continue to fight illegal oil bunkering until the illicit business was completely eradicated in the area.  He warned those engaging in illegal oil bunkering to desist from it or face the wrath of the law. Gemu appealed to the Chief of Naval Staff to dialogue with the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to assist the command with smaller boats to navigate narrow creeks.

The naval commander also said his command had on September 18 impounded a large vessel in Dodo River, Delta, with about 540 metric tonnes of stolen crude on board. The 11 Nigerian crewmembers were arrested.  The list of such arrests is endless, but those caught represent just a minute fraction of those who get away with such activities.

Industry experts including oil firms have estimated the volume of oil theft at between 100,000 and 400,000 barrels per day. What is not in doubt is that those involved are largely beyond the reach of the law

Individuals benefitting from the sale of stolen oil do not re-invest in oil exploration or production. The bulk of earnings are diverted outside the country into international bank accounts.  Sabotage to pipelines and flow-stations and careless handling during the bunkering process cause environmental damage to the region.

According to environmental experts, vast areas of the Niger Delta have become polluted with oil as a result of the many spills associated with illegal bunkering and pipeline sabotage while the cost of remediation is mind-boggling.

Traditional livelihoods, such as fishing and farming, have become increasingly difficult if not impossible to pursue.  Alternative jobs, however, have not been created for the largely unskilled and poorly educated residents of the impacted areas.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC had repeatedly warned that the acts of illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta could expose the region to the worst environmental disaster ever faced in the history of the country. The corporation estimates that the country presently loses over 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day to oil thieves, warning that if unchecked, such criminal activities could cripple the nation’s oil and gas production.

The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, was among eminent Nigerians who had raised alarm over the high rate of oil theft in parts of the Niger Delta. She urged government to declare a national emergency to tackle the menace.

Ahmed noted that a recent facility tour of Shell oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta conducted by the NEITI management had revealed “mind-boggling theft of petroleum products”.

“The increasing rate of stealing of crude through illegal oil bunkering activities in the creeks is troubling”, she had said.

Shell, is reported to be the worst victim due to its vast oil and gas assets in the Niger Delta. The company recently came out with a statement lamenting the impact of illegal oil bunkering on its many pipelines.

The justification often given for the regrettable acts is that residents who have no opportunity to earn a legitimate living have more incentive to engage in pipeline sabotage and oil theft. To make matters worse, some of the oil producing communities have developed a new “business model” of demanding monetary compensation for environmental damage, which is usually caused by illegal oil bunkering. Villagers are keen to direct oil spills whether accidental or intentional to their communities for the short-term economic benefit of selling the oil on the local market or claiming damages from the international oil companies, IOCs.

According to reports communities rupture pipelines in order to claim compensation from resultant spills. Communities also form “service companies” which offer “protection” or “environmental clean-up” services.  Some village leaders allegedly charge IOCs for operating in their areas with the threat that if they do not get “settled” illegal bunkering or militant attacks could occur.  Not too long ago, the Niger Delta activist and Chairman of the Itsekiri Regional Development Council, Chief Ayirimi Emami, had slammed oil bearing communities in the region for “actively and passively”  aiding the illicit trade instolen oil.

He said, “The host communities cannot claim ignorance about those involved because those doing it are not ghosts; they are humans who live in the community. So, they are either actively involved or passively, through their acquiescence. Most members of the host communities benefit through handouts and other forms. So, they keep quiet and would not offer information or report the criminal acts.’’

“The security agencies are also involved, it is very simple: Delta State for instance has three exit/entry points. They are at Escravos, Forcados and Ogheye (in Warri South West, Burutu and Warri North local government areas). There is no way a vessel can enter or leave without the military seeing them. If they are not involved how do the illegal bunkering vessels pass?” he queried.

His position was supported by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State who said: “All boats are stopped at these checkpoints. I have been stopped every time I travel in the area. If I, a governor, can be stopped how do the criminals pass unhindered?”

Emami said the technical skills needed to carry out some of the illegal bunkering operation are beyond a layman. He advised the IOCs to look inward in the quest for answer to illegal bunkering.

In a special report in 2009 titled: ‘Blood Oil in the Niger Delta’, activist Judith Burdin Asuni, founder and executive director of Academic Associates Peace Works, had noted that between 30,000 and 300,000 barrels of oil per day is carted away by oil thieves who operate in Niger Delta.

The report, which was also based on information from local communities; members of the armed groups in the region, as well as interviews with U.S., British, Dutch, and UN officials, identified three types of illegal oil bunkering as small-scale pilfering for the local market, large-scale tapping of pipelines to fill large tankers for export, and excess lifting of crude oil beyond the licensed amount.

In 2010 alone, the JTF impounded vessels carrying 724MT of stolen crude. The JTF announced during one its operations that it destroyed about 6,000 illegal refineries across Niger Delta. More than 150 persons suspected allegedly involved in illegal bunkering were said to have been arrested. Also, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) also revealed that the task force arrested vessels carrying 1.3million barrels of stolen crude.

The oil workers pointed out that the volume of oil stolen in Nigeria, was more than double the total production of Ghana and could destabilise any government.

What could be a way out of this perennial problem that has defied solution? The Federal Government thinks that lifting the ban on oil bunkering could discourage small scale illegal activity for a start

According to social commentator, Pa ????? Ogunjobi, “The only solution to oil theft in Nigeria is what the President Goodluck Jonathan has done. Jonathan redefined the word bunkering, giving it the actual meaning. Bunkering is not oil theft but the legal business of supply petroleum products at sea. The president had also gone a step further by lifting the ban on bunkering, which is perfectly necessary to create jobs and give an opportunity for companies who desire to the business legally and with transparency in The Niger Delta area”.

Speaking further, Ogunjobi noted bunkering is not really an illegal business what people confuse with bunkering can best be described as oil theft.

“If we combine that with adequate law enforcements and give the people who are willing to do the business correctly the necessary support they need oil theft will soon be a thing of the past. Don’t forget that criminality is a child of hopelessness particularly among the youth. Government must continue to find ways to engage the youth positively in the Niger Delta area in other to arrest criminal activities that are having negative impacts in the economy.

“The resumption of bunkering services in the country will save oil, gas and marine operators the stress of going to Senegal, Cape Verde and Cote D’Ivoire to fuel vessels operating in Nigerian territorial waters and also earn the country some foreign exchange and reduce illegal oil bunkering or oil theft” , he said.

Reports reveal that the business, if properly handled, has the potential to take more than 10,000 Nigerians off the unemployment market. Much of these opportunities are for jobs on Nigerian flagged bunker vessels and licensed firms in a country, where over 5,000 ocean liners shuttle cargoes annually.

Analysts further defined bunkering as the lifting of petroleum products from one point to another with a license. In the absence of bunker stations in Nigerian waters, approved operators largely use boats to distribute fuel in the territorial waters and riverine areas. Bunkering provides fuels such as marine diesel, low fuel oil, lubricants and others to sea craft. Bunkering companies also provide fresh water to vessels at sea.
Unfortunately in Nigeria; oil bunkering has been tied to oil theft. This erroneous position was perpetuated by senior government officials in relevant agencies helped by the media and this has robbed the country of legitimate foreign exchange earnings in the legal business of bunkering.  It is not unusual to find reports in the media claiming that Nigeria loses billions of dollars annually to ‘oil bunkering,’ whereas the alleged loss was due to oil theft or illegal bunkering.

Navy Captain S. O. Ayeni, head of the Directorate of Marine Services, Nigerian Navy, however, warned that any ship that must bunker in the country’s territorial waters must fulfill the requirements of the Navy.

“The operator will be expected to present to the Nigerian Navy headquarters, an application for bunkering clearance, detailing the vessel involved, location of bunkering operation, or discharge point, quantity of bunker fuel and duration of the operation.”

Operators must obtain licenses and certifications from the DPR and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency on the quality of the products and the vessels.

It was in 2014 that the Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr. George Osahon announced federal government’s decision to return oil bunkering business activities in Nigeria’s territorial waters as a legitimate business.

Historically, bunkering started in Nigerian waters as a legitimate business with licenses issued by the DPR in 1979. But by 1984, the business was stopped by the General Ibrahim Babangida administration due to abuse in the system. At that time, crude oil theft was beginning to rear its head in the country and it was believed to be perpetrated by firms engaged in bunkering.  General Babangida’s answer to the problem was to place a total ban on the supply of bunkers to vessels on the waters; an action experts say is tantamount to throwing away the baby with the bath water.  Chief Olusegun Obasanjo tried to resuscitate bunkering services in Niger Delta area where operation license was pegged at $60,000 (about N7.5m then). The then Information and Communication Minister, Frank Nweke Jnr, said that the revocation of the ban became pertinent due to the decision of government to strengthen the capacity of its appropriate institutions to manage and supervise that aspect of operations in the oil sector, which was expected to rake in about $1 billion yearly into its coffers.

However, somevessels that required bunkers were supplied through the black market, while those that could not patronise illegal supply channels due to issues of corporate governance guarding their operations resorted to neighbouring countries to fill up their tanks.

The lifting of the ban on bunkering is expected to have reasonable positive effect on the economy and oil theft. New companies will come up to render bunkering services and a lot of Nigerians will be engaged directly and indirectly by these companies.  Players in the endangered indigenous shipping may have to look the direction of bunkering as it is related to their original business.

The DPR Director, Mr George Osahon says the resumption of bunkering operations in the country will generate revenue for the government and create employment opportunities that will buoy the economy.

President of Nigeria Indigenous Shipowners Association, NISA, ????? says there are still a lot to be done to ensure that the business is not messed up again.  Operators involved in bunkering services and using Nigerian-flagged tankers are also required to show proof that appropriate duty was fully paid, while vessels leased from abroad must obtain temporary importation permit from the Customs. This is the position of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
The Deputy Controller, Operations, Eastern Marine Command, NCS, Port Harcourt, Mr Edorhe Elton says, bunkering vessels must not leave the Nigerian territorial waters, whether they were home-used or leased.

Conveying President Goodluck Jonathan’s approval to stakeholders in Lagos the Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. George Osahon, described bunkering as a downstream business involving the fuelling of ships of all kinds on the high seas, inland waterways and within the ports. Usually, the fuels supplied include Automotive Gas Oil or diesel, Low Pour Fuel Oil and recently, Liquefied Natural Gas.

“Bunkering as a legitimate business line should not be confused with illegal trade in stolen crude for which the same term has been freely used in the Nigerian lexicon,” he said.

Potential beneficiaries from the resumption of bunkering operations, , include fishing trawlers, LNG tankers, Very Large Crude Carriers, Ultra Large Crude Carriers, coastal tankers, bulk cement cargo carriers and bulk wheat cargo carriers.  Others include General Cargo Carriers, container carriers, Floating Production Storage Offloading vessels, FSO, rigs supply vessels, tug boats and marine support vessels and other offshore oil facilities.

The Executive Director, Anyiam-Osigwe Group, the parent company of Nuel Energy Limited and PSTI Oil & Gas, which is involved in bunkering operations, Mr. Michael Anyiam-Osigwe, said, “The bunkering business was suspended for quite some time because there is a misconception about it in Nigeria. When we talk about bunkering, people think it is an illegal activity and this is not correct because when you steal crude, that is not bunkering, it is crude oil theft. If you are doing illegal bunkering, it means you are engaged in bunkering operations without a licence.”

In an attempt to explain what led to the widespread misconception about oil bunkering in the country, Anyiam-Osigwe, said, “What I suspect is that when people steal crude oil, they use vessels to sell it to other ships on the sea. So, that becomes illegal bunkering because you are not licensed. It is also oil theft because you have stolen the crude and you are selling to users as though you are bunkering. This is because once you are doing a ship-to-ship transfer, it is called bunkering. In other words, once a smaller ship is pumping petroleum product into a bigger ship, that is how bunkering operations work.”

According to the Chief Executive Officer, Ships and Ports, Mr. Bolaji Akinola, an average of 5,000 sea-going vessels tie up at various Nigerian ports every year. Bunkering will open up the business and help in curbing the menace of oil theft.

Some have argued that bunkering is another way of saying that oil stealing should go on, Lagos lawyer, Barrister Muniru Shittu said, ‘such critics do not understand the issues at stake. Bunkering will hopefully reduce or eradicate oil theft in its entirety. The added advantage is that it will create employment for the teeming population of Niger Delta youths some of whom, despite the amnesty has insisted on profiting illegally through oil theft. Bunkering gives them an opportunity to stop stealing and to do dome thing positive, legal with their lives which will give peace of mind to everyone involved and also bring progress to the nation.”

Speaking further, Shittu said, “We cannot say that since the ban on bunkering was lifted oil theft has stopped, No, it is not an overnight job but one thing that is sure is that there is hope that, as more and more people enter the business and since they can buy oil legitimately and sell at a reasonable profit, the problem of oil theft or illegal bunkering will soon be forgotten.

According to him, “The people of Niger Delta should respect the memory of environmental activist Ken Saro Wiwa and stop the menace. They should embrace the opportunity offered them by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. They should apply for the licenses and do clean business, this is what will bring meaningful progress to our nation, end oil theft and clean up our environment.”

However, with the huge profits reaped from oil thefts and failure to arrest and prosecute the big fish mired in the “business”. The likelihood is that it will be business as usual until the right political will to end the bleeding of the nation.

A nation grossly under-policed

By YEMI OLAKITAN

Nigeria, with a population of about 170 million has just 314,000 policemen on the beat across the nation, while Ghana with a population of about 25 million is reported to have over one million policemen. The growing security challenges facing the country and the agitation for state police is part of the reason why some analysts have suggested that Nigeria is grossly under-policed. Acting Head of Investigations, Yemi Olakitan, examines the issues.

It was the Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Senator Paulinus Nwagwu Igwe of Ebonyi State that stated the obvious recently when, he pointed out that the nation is grossly under-policed and the force is not properly equipped to properly carry out its functions.

Speaking against the backdrop of cross border crimes and the raging insurgency on the North, Igwe said: “The truth is that our borders are very porous. We have thousands of border areas that are not adequately manned or policed. This is why the insurgents can take over several local council areas and mount flags,” he said.

Speaking further he said, “We have only 314,000 policemen in Nigeria and it is like a ratio of one to 200. Our fellow West African country Ghana, with a far less population has over one million policemen for the population. It makes intelligence gathering look like a child’s play. We are pleading with government to allow for more recruitment because the numbers are just not adequate. We have to be proactive. So we are pleading on the executives for a waiver on recruitment, we are still lagging behind in World Policing Index when put into consideration that Before now we had seen a lot of obsolete acts that have hindered the development of the Police Force. We want to make sure that the Police are friendly, civilized with improved living standards in order to make it acceptable. It is the largest organization in the country. But the Act governing it is obsolete. We still rely on the colonial laws, which are no longer relevant and make us look as if we are not moving forward,” he stated.

These comments point to the very nature of policing in Nigeria and its myriad problems confronting the Force such as underfunding, corruption and unprofessional conduct. The security situation in the country and other issues confronting the Nigerian police has also made eminent Nigerians to call for a state policing system for more efficient service delivery.

Social critic and veteran journalist Chief Bayode Ogunmupe, confirming the senator’s submissions, said, “An analysis by the United Nations in 2010 recommends an approximate median of 300 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants. Put in another way, this is approximately 100 policemen to 30,000 inhabitants of any country. Nigeria’s 314,000 police men to a population of about 170 million people have gone far below that recommendation; little wonder Nigeria has heavy casualties in the fight against terror.”

A look into the huge disparity in the number of policemen in Nigeria and the population clearly shows that Nigeria’s policing problems are more than corruption and indiscipline as claimed in many circles.

Ogunmupe, who said he wrote a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan on the matter which has not yielded desired results, hopes the situation will change this year. “I once wrote a letter to the president, I received a reply, but my recommendations have not been implemented. The situation is alarming when you look at the huge population of unemployed graduates, with such a shortage in policing; all we need to do is to recruit these young Nigerians and give them the necessary training. This will serve as a double edged sword in solving the nation’s problems. It will help in reducing our high unemployment rate and improve the Nigerian Police Force,” he said. When asked for his take on the agitation for state creation as a solution, he said, ‘Nigeria is a federation. I personally believe that the Federal Government is too powerful. Security is too important to be left in the hands of the Federal Government alone. If we must get it right, we need federal, state and local government policing. This is the only way to curb the insecurity that plagued us,” he said.

He also pointed out that the country also needs forest guards, as the absence of forest guards, and inadequate border patrol corps has created a safe haven for terrorists and criminals in Nigeria. “We have large uncultivated forest in Nigeria and we don’t know what is going on in there. An example is the Boko Haram insurgents hiding in Sambisa forests and that is just the one we know, what about others, we don’t know?”, he noted.

The high level insecurity and crime rate had led to the agitation for state police. It was the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu that first made the call for state police when he was in power. According to him, the population of Lagos State and the increasing crime rate in his state made it necessary. He was convinced that state policing will help improve security in his state.

In 2014, there was a report of an evil forest, discovered by the Nigerian police in Ibadan, Oyo state. Hundreds of people were killed by kidnappers and many decomposed bodies of dead victims were found in a forest. In the said forest, there was a building called the Soka house of horror, a den of killers who created a syndicate where innocents Nigerians were systematically murdered, some were kept as prisoners, starved until death or slaughtered for rituals. In the isolated bush, life was said to be hellish with a barbaric and fetish criminal activity thriving unabated”

Analysts said, this evil forest had been in existence many years before it was discovered it had been argued that, it is the absence of state and community policing that have contributed to the success of such criminality in Nigeria.

According to Ezekiel Keith, a social commentator, “if we have enough police systems that could have been prevented.”

‘‘Judging from our population and the number of officers in the Nigeria Police Force, it is apparent that we are under-policed and I support the agitation for state policing because the present system is not working. The state police if created will add to the number of police and they will work together to solve the security problems facing the nation. Some are afraid that state police will nullify federal policing. No, it will only complement it. All hands should be on deck. People are afraid that governors will use the state police to harass opponents. This is why we should remove their immunity and ensure that governors are not above the law. They can be prosecuted by the Attorney General of the state or that of the Federation, who should not be appointed by them or controlled by them. Nigeria should learn from developed countries,” he said.

According to the Nigerian constitution, the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, is the most important law enforcement agency in the country and the present system allows the Force to be controlled and funded by the Federal Government.

The Inspector General of Police heads the Nigerian police. Historically, the Nigerian police began with a 30-member consular guard formed in Lagos Colony in 1861. In 1879, a 1,200-member armed paramilitary Hausa Constabulary was formed and in 1896, the Lagos Police was established. A similar force, the Niger Coast Constabulary, was formed in Calabar in 1894 under the newly-proclaimed Niger Coast Protectorate. In the North, the Royal Niger Company set up the Royal Niger Company Constabulary in 1888 with headquarters at Lokoja. Thereafter, the protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria were proclaimed in the early 1900s, part of the Royal Niger Company Constabulary became the Northern Nigeria Police, and part of the Niger Coast Constabulary became the Southern Nigeria Police. Northern and Southern Nigeria were amalgamated in 1914, but their police forces were not merged until 1930, forming the NPF that was headquartered in Lagos.

During the colonial period, most police were associated with local governments. In the 1960s, under the First Republic, these forces were first regionalized and then nationalized. The NPF performed conventional police functions and was responsible for internal security generally, supporting the prisons, immigration, and customs services and performing military duties within or outside Nigeria as directed. Plans were announced in mid-1980 to expand the force to 200,000. By 1983, according to the federal budget, the strength of the NPF was almost 152,000, but other sources estimated it to be between 20,000 and 80,000. Reportedly, there were more than 1,300 police stations nationwide.

Investigations by Sunday Mirror reveals that the United States, in addition to federal and state police forces, has around 75 federal law enforcement agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, who deal with interstate crime. The FBI has some 20,000 plain clothes agents who usually concern themselves with major offences such as murder, kidnapping and robbery. It publishes a list of the ‘ten most wanted fugitives’ and provides state and local police forces with relevant information.

According to reports, the FBI has had its role expanded to include ‘homeland security’ and there’s talk of merging or at least co-coordinating the activities of the FBI with those of the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA. Each US state also has a reserve national guard under the command of the state governor that can be called on to deal with civil unrest such as riots, as well as natural catastrophes, e.g. earthquakes, fires, floods and hurricanes. It appears that all these police forces have their jurisdiction and laws governing their operations in the United States.

Speaking with Sunday Mirror, Prince Henry Osuagwu, the CEO of Zaka Guards, a security company, wonders why Nigeria cannot learn from developed countries. “Definitely Nigeria is under-policed. Take a place like Lagos as an example; we have about 20 million people living in Lagos. For one to police Lagos State alone, effectively and professionally, I believe that you need to look at the population. To me you need one policeman to three hundred individuals to effectively provide adequate policing. We have about 300,000 policemen in the country to police a population of about 200 million Nigerians. This is inadequate. In actual sense, we need about two million policemen in Nigeria. The Nigerian constitution says the Federal Government must protect lives and property. The new IG need to be on top of his game.”

“We also need intelligence. It is not just by numbers alone. You need intelligence gathering, data classification and investigation. If you just put a high number of policemen on ground without intelligence they will be running after crap. The population of Nigeria is not commensurate with the number of policemen on ground. This is a good place to start. In addition, Nigeria needs community policing. If we have what we call community policing and the local people can work directly with the police and they can give information to the police, then, our security situation will improve greatly,” he said.

According to the Governor of Akwai Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio, state police is the only solution to resolving most of the intra-conflicts in the country. “In most developed democracies, policing is not a federal thing alone. In Abuja, policing 160 million is not possible. You must allow the local councils to have its say in policing. The state government should have its say and then the Federal Government should have its own say in policing,’” he said.

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, had said recently that, the state government must be involved in policing even if it is without arms. “There is a lot state police can do in a state like Lagos. They can help in the areas of sanitation as inspectors, protect lives and properties. The argument that politicians will abuse state policing is like saying that politics is more important than lives. Such an argument is weak,” he said.

For Chief Chekwas Okorie, the founding National Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, state police is the reform that is needed to check criminal activities and even reduce corruption within the police force and the society. “It is not that it is the answer to all of these but the issue of effective policing in Nigeria can never be achieved with the present structure of the Nigerian Police”, he noted.

Former Military President Ibrahim Babangida also sees nothing wrong with the call for creation of State Police. “There is the need for us to go forward; I do not think there is anything wrong with the state police and I believe that the state police will work. “In 1959, the police and Dandokas (local police) were used to beat and harass people in elections, but the situation is different now. I don’t believe the fear of what happened in the 1950s should continue to haunt us. We should try to move on. We have gone beyond that level now in this country. Honestly, I don’t think any governor can use state police to intimidate and harass anybody. The whole essence is to provide security of lives and property of the people. I feel the fear is unfounded”.

According to lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, , “The issue of establishing state police is not really about whether the country is ready for it or not. It is necessary in a federation. What has been militating against the re-establishment of state police has been the fear that the state executives, just like the Federal Government, can use the state police to harass political opponents. If Nigeria adopts the option of a state police, it would be going the way of Britain whose police maintain separate areas of jurisdiction ranging from county to county, borough or a group of many counties. The Metropolitan Police (under the Home Office), which covers an area of 15 miles radius, does not have jurisdiction over London, which has its own city police. Apart from this, the railway, dockyards and armed forces have their own police. There are also other specialised units like motor patrols, police dog handlers and an anti-riot mounted branch, ‘’ he said.

Barrister Jessica Ibeawuchi said, “The US is a classic example of how we can solve the problem of under policing in Nigeria. The United States has many police agencies that exist separately. While the state police take charge of highways and enforcement of state laws, cities have their separate police under the authority of a commissioner, who is an appointee of the mayor. At the federal level, there are nine agencies that work hand in hand with local police formations. We can just learn from this.”

Investigations reveal that France is another country that operates a decentralized police system. While the gendarmerie is supervised by the armed forces, the Surete Generale is under the authority of provincial prefects, the equivalent of governors.

Paris, the capital, has its own police, called the Paris Prefecture. In French, the term “police” not only refers to the forces, but also to the general concept of “maintenance of law and order” (policing). There are two types of police in this general sense: administrative police, uniformed preventative patrols, traffic duties, handling of the mentally ill, etc. judicial police

Law enforcement and investigation of crime, Thus, the mayor has administrative police power in a town (i.e. they can order the police to enforce the municipal by-laws), and a judge has police power in their court (i.e. they can have people who disrupt the proceedings expelled from the court room). Some other countries follow this model and have separate police agencies with the same role but different jurisdictions.

Local police or Gendarmerie precincts may not be capable of conducting complex investigations. For this reason, both the police and the Gendarmerie maintain regional services dedicated to criminal investigations. In addition, both the Police and the Gendarmerie maintain laboratories dedicated to forensics. Most criminal enquiries are conducted by the Police. Justice may choose either service; sometimes, if the judiciary is disappointed by the results or the methods of one service, it may give the enquiry to the other service. The National Police also features some central offices with national jurisdiction, charged with specific missions, such as the national anti-terrorist division.

James Xavier, a Nigerian who has traveled extensively says “the number of police officers in Nigeria in comparison to population is pitiable. The presence of a good number of policemen creates a sense of security and a conducive environment for economic growth. The seeming fear that the state governors will manipulate the state police at their whims and caprices is unfounded if, both federal, police agencies, state police and Local Government area police are informed of their jurisdiction and one is not an extension of the other, such that the governor cannot order the autonomous Police in the Local Government area like a puppet since the state does not pay them salaries. If it becomes the responsibility of the tier of Government to provide security for their sphere of authority, there will be a better move towards a more friendly and effective community policing in Nigeria. Today, the mention of the Nigerian police leaves a sour taste in our mouth. We need a more professional, de-centralized and effective police system that will uphold their commission oath to maintain law and order,” he said.

President Goodluck Jonathan in his part openly stated the government’s position at the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA conference. He expressed worry that state police force could be abused by the various state governments with reference to the manipulation of State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) by sitting governors.

However, in June last year, delegates at the National Conference in Abuja attempted to solve the problem of under policing Nigeria by resolving that states can in the future establish, fund and control a Police Force of their own, as well as put into place community policing, thereby proffering a solution to the problem of under policing in Nigeria.

The conference delegates noted that when enacted into law, this resolution will put to rest the long debate and controversies in Nigeria over the establishment of state police. The agreement was reached as the Conference considered the report of the Committee on National security.

“The state police when established by states that desired them are to compliment the efforts of the Nigeria Police Force. The areas of jurisdiction of the Federal police will cover the entire country and on clearly spelt out matters and offences while the jurisdiction of the State Police will cover the state and operate within the laws enacted by the State Assembly, the delegates had said in a statement.”

The conference had also decided that the government should set up a Counter Terrorism Architecture to take up such responsibilities such as harmonizing national counter terrorism efforts and providing the platform for foreign assistance.

“It would equally interface between Nigeria and Africa Union (AU) countries especially contiguous states such as Niger, Chad, Cameroun and African Center for the Study and Research on Terrorism and engage the services of well-trained counter terrorism operatives to work within the established in-country infrastructure,” the statement said.

A proposal for the establishment of a National Border Patrol Force to secure and protect the nation`s border was also approved by the conference. The Border Patrol Force is to be domiciled in the Ministry of Defense.

In mapping out security architecture for the country, the conference accepted the proposal for the creation of a Security and Intelligence Services Oversight Committee (SISOC).

The committee is to be composed of a retired Chief Justice of Nigeria as chairman, a former head of the Civil Service, and a former Director General of the State Security Service or National Intelligence, as members.

Similarly, the conference also accepted the proposal for the establishment of Water Way Safety Corps to man the waterways and riverine areas. The corps is expected to perform similar functions as that of the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC)

The proposals mandating government to enact a law that would impose speed limit on convoys of government officials and limit to the number of vehicle to be in such convoys were also accepted by the conference.

The number of vehicles in the convoys is to be determined by Federal Road Safety Corps in consultation with the Police and the Department of States Security Service.

Such a law is expected to reduce the recklessness of convoys of government officials which had in the past led to loss of lives; it would also reduce wastage of government funds.

The conference also agreed that retired military personnel should be mobilized and trained to fight terrorism.

However, all these recommendations are yet to see the light of day and the problem continues unabated

Youth unemployment: A time bomb

By YEMI OLAKITAN

For more than a decade, Nigeria has been confronted with a massive unemployment crisis. Thousands of university graduates enter the labour market from tertiary institutions on a yearly basis only to roam the street for years searching for non-existent jobs. As youth unemployment rate continues to rise by alarming proportions, fears of possible social unrest become increasingly justified. Ag. Head of Investigations, YEMI OLAKITAN examines the problem with special emphasis on the way forward.

Boladale Muraina is a young graduate of Business Administration from Lagos State University. Just before graduation about six years ago, he had high hopes of working in a bank. In fact, he had his eyes set on Guaranty Trust Bank, where he had an account. Today, he earns a living by riding a tricycle in the Agege area of Lagos, a situation brought about by the need to face the reality that hundreds of thousands of other graduates have more or less the same ambitions, yet the jobs are not there.

For millions of young Nigerians, especially graduates, frustration is the name of the game.

“I graduated from the Lagos State University six years ago with a B.Sc in Business Administration and I am still applying for jobs. It is very discouraging, sometimes the situation makes one wonder if the purpose of getting a higher education has not been defeated after all”, he told our correspondent in an interview.

“I cannot be sitting down at home; so I had to borrow money from my father and an uncle to set up the tricycle business, popularly known as Marwa. I want a job that befits my level of education, because anybody can do that job, even an illiterate. I am a graduate”, he said, wondering when that will be.

Muraina is lucky to some extent; many of his peers have been driven to crime with many of high profile kidnappings in recent years linked to university graduates and undergraduates. For the women, prostitution under whichever guise is the easy option.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s current youth unemployment rate is over 25 per cent. This simply means that over 25 million of the country’s youth population of about 100 million are unemployed. Youth unemployment has been a cause of concern for all well meaning Nigerians for many years while successive administrations have attempted to tackle the problem to no avail.

According to economist and social critic, Chief Bayode Ogunmupe, the problem of youth unemployment aside from insecurity is akin to sitting on a keg of gunpowder. “Aside from terrorism, youth unemployment is one of the greatest threats to national security. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. A scenario in which young men and women graduate from our tertiary institutions with no hope of a gainful employment many years after graduation spells doom for the future of this nation.”

Speaking on possible solutions to the problem, he said, “Investments in agriculture, information technology, sports, arts and entertainment, entrepreneurial education, all these will go a long way in solving the problem. If creatively harnessed, the huge population of unemployed youth in Nigeria may actually be a blessing.”

Only recently, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, charged the Federal Government to prioritise the creation of employment opportunities for the nation’s teaming youths in the 2015 budget, stressing that if the unemployment situation in the country is not urgently tackled. It may lead to a disaster.

According to TUC President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, said, “The rate of unemployment in Nigeria is currently one of the highest in the world, at 24 per cent, particularly among over 50 per cent of our youths in urban areas. There is urgent need for the Government to show more concern by reviewing its policies on youth entrepreneurship, as the high unemployment rate among the youth, especially young women has negative effects on our country’s development, particularly as we approach 2015 general elections. Some of the effects of youth unemployment are seen in political unrest, economic instability, drug abuse, crime, prostitution, human trafficking, terrorism and kidnapping,” he said.

Speaking further he said, “Nigeria is not just sitting on time bombs but as we can see, the bombs are exploding in scores through murderous insurgencies, with the high level youth unemployment in the country.”

According to the International Labour Organization, ILO, unemployment occurs when people are without work and are actively seeking for jobs. The problem is one of the biggest threats to social stability in many countries including Nigeria, putting the global rate at 12.6 per cent. Nigeria’s unemployment crisis is more serious compared to others. For example, South Africa’s unemployment rate is standing at 22 per cent, and Ghana is about 14 per cent, several reports put Nigeria’s unemployment rate at about 24 percent.

The ILO recent Employment Report indicated that lack of structural transformation and high population growth has limited the opportunities for decent jobs in Africa.

Young people continue to be among the hardest hit by the jobs crisis yet, the report suggested that there is little hope for a substantial improvement in their near-term employment prospects.

Analysts have said this is a dangerous trend since the youth holds the key to achieving economic development.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, quoting NBS figures recently in Abuja said no fewer than 5.3 million youths are jobless in the country, while 1.8 million graduates enter the labour market every year. This figure is a conservative estimate of the actual number of unemployed youths in the country, going by previous statistics released by NBS, which put the number of jobless Nigerians at 20.3 million. The minister explained that the unemployment figure has been accumulating over the years. She said the nation’s inability to track the number of people coming into the labour market is a part of the problem of managing the new entrants.

The trampling to death of graduate job seekers during last year’s nationwide recruitment exercise by the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, paints a most poignant picture of the problem.

In Port Harcourt alone, some 25,000 applicants were to participate in a recruitment interview at the 16,000 capacity Liberation Stadium. Over 500,000 young people applied for the 4,500 job openings. Another dimension to the problem of youth unemployment is that young people are made to pay fees to various recruitment agencies, which promise to give often non-existent jobs to desperate applicants. The high unemployment situation has suddenly created an industry of so-called job placement agencies, many of which are quacks and crooks that collect money from desperate unemployed young Nigerians.

While President Goodluck Jonathan administration has recognised the enormous unemployment problem faced by Nigerians, addressing the situation has been haphazard with hurriedly concocted intervention programmes. Some of the initiatives, which appear to be mere variants of what previous administrations before him had adopted programmes aimed at solving the nation’s unemployment problem. Some of these are the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and its skills acquisition programmes, NAPEP, PAP and the recent SURE-P and YOUWIN.

YOUWIN is a business plan competition initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan, to assist Nigerian graduates with business ideas. Anyone who writes an outstanding business plan is being given some fund to start-up a business. The goal for this programme is to increase employment and reduce unemployment.

These intervention mechanisms aimed at ensuring job creation opportunities have all performed below expectations.

Reports reveal that the Federal Government’s job creation efforts such as the have only scratched the problem surface.

Investigations by Sunday Mirror reveals that Federal Government efforts will need to be multiplied and replicated at the state level if unemployment is to be reduced. Conscious effort must be directed at creating an environment that will encourage and sustain entrepreneurship, while investing heavily on infrastructural projects such as electricity, roads, airports and seaports.

Investigations by Sunday Mirror also reveal that a lack of skills relevant to the workplace is one of the problems militating against youth employment in Nigeria.

Young people who have pursued a course of study with a specific career in mind often find themselves with general or theoretical knowledge that does little to prepare them for the actual tasks they will encounter on the job. This is partly due to stale school curricula and poor connections between employers and the educational system.

Many young people also lack specific “21st century workplace skills” such as cooperation, communication, critical thinking and creativity. For many employers most of the young graduates from Nigerian higher institutions are hardly unemployable and will require additional investments in in-house training to get them to fit into roles in their respective organisations.

To succeed in the workplace, young people need to acquire not only skills, but the experience that demonstrates to employers that they are capable of applying those skills to practical business tasks.

There have been arguments that corporate entities need to consider lowering their demands in order to give young Nigerian graduates the opportunity to learn and develop talents in their companies, but the opposite has been the case as employers scale up requirements to enable them shortlist only the best or well connected from long lists of applications.

For Kemi Oladele, a graduate of Linguistics from the University of Ilorin, who easily qualifies as a “veteran job-seeker”, fresh graduates stand little chance of getting jobs as most of the employers seek people with many years of experience.

Speaking with our correspondent, she notes, “Companies are usually looking for applicants with five or even 10 years experience; they do not want to consider those of us who have no experience at all. We have to start somewhere. Experience does not fall from heaven, if they do not employ us. How do we gather the experience? They need to give us a chance. On how she plans to solve her unemployment problem in the New Year, she said, I am just tired of applying. I guess when the time comes my job will find me”.

Yet, the spectre of a nagging social problem spinning out of control looms.

A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Moniru Shittu says, “all levels of government in the country need to be reminded that unemployment, especially among youths, is a dangerous trend for any country. Experience from other nations, has pointedly shown that youth unemployment could provoke violent revolutions. Nigeria has the largest army of unemployed and under-employed youths in Africa. One out of every three Nigerian one is either unemployed or under-employed. Youth’s unemployment is the root cause of poverty, youth restiveness, gangsterism, bank robbery, kidnapping, assassination, and other criminal activities”.

Speaking on the solutions to the problem Shittu said, “Agriculture is the solution. If we mechanise our agriculture, we will produce more food for our country, more raw materials for our industries and we can also engage more people and cultivate more hectares. Agriculture will provide food security and by-products would support and encourage small scale industries. For example, cultivation, processing and export of cassava products have become very lucrative since the advent of global warming and production of ethanol. The world is clamouring for renewable energy that is clean and can be derived from renewable sources such as agricultural products, waste, sun, wind etc. Cassava products are in high demand after all over the world for the production of ethanol, which is preferred over fossil fuels because it does not emit carbon dioxide, which is the major cause of global warming. Cassava is produced in Nigeria abundantly. Cassava alone can solve the problem of youth unemployment in Nigeria. This is just one area that government can take advantage of”.

According to reports, Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava with over 41 million metric tonnes per annum, followed by Brazil, Thailand and Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. Cassava is produced all over the country but more abundantly in all the southern and the middle belt states of the country.

A former Director of Audit, Lagos State University and founder of Omoteso Farmers, Mr. Augustus Omoteso, says Nigeria’s unemployment crisis would persist if the country’s leadership continues to ignore farming as an approach to solving the problem confronting the youths.

He said it is regrettable that Nigeria has vast amounts of uncultivated land lying fallow and yet the youths are without jobs.

“Government can start with 1,000 graduates; put them on six months training on pig farming, you only require six months training for pig farming, then after the training, offer each of them five hectres of land and a paltry N100,000 to start. And in the next six months or maximum one year, these people would be able to employ other employable applicants and even graduates,” he said.

“Only farming can solve our unemployment crisis. Americans have got substitutes for oil but we are still lagging behind. It’s only agriculture that can sustain this country,” he said.

Omoteso, who is also the Secretary of National Agbekoya Farmers Association, Lagos State Chapter and Chairman, Agbeloba Farmer Association-FADAMA Users Group, Lagos State, said pig farming is very profitable, if the farmers would take medication and sanitation of the environment seriously.

A report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, NBS, on Small and Medium Enterprises shows that the sector manufactures more than 90 per cent of the products used in Nigeria. Similarly, the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys, says small scale entrepreneurs are the primary engines of job growth in developing countries.

In the 106 countries studied, small businesses, which represented 55 per cent of all businesses, recorded an annual employment growth rate of 18.6 per cent, compared to a rate of 8.1 per cent for medium businesses with (20-99 employees), and minus 0.1 per cent for large businesses with (more than 100 employees).

Experts have proffered different types of solutions to combat the problem of unemployment. One of them is self employment. Founder of a youth organisation, Project Hope, Pa Ayodeji Ogunjobi, said, “Youths must improve their skills through entrepreneurial training and networking that will make them self-reliant and not dependent on employment that may not be forthcoming”. He emphasised that self-employment is one of the major solutions to the high unemployment rate among youths in Nigeria.

Speaking further, he said the Nigerian government’s practice of awarding major construction works to foreigners with the mindset that Nigerian engineers will not perform such functions effectively should be discontinued. According to him, foreign contractors bring in artisans to Nigeria instead of choosing Nigerians for the work. This is a systematic way of contributing to the already problematic unemployment situation. ‘‘Encouraging schemes like YouWIN is laudable. Establishing more of this kind of schemes by both government and individuals will go a long way to curb the menace-unemployment.”

However, some private sector organisations and non-profit entities have stepped up efforts at creating jobs.

For example, the Rockefeller Foundation is looking at opportunities in creating online jobs as one of the ways to address the problem of unemployment in Nigeria where the ICT sector is the largest in Africa with $18 billion in investments and the highest number of Internet users on the continent. As a result the foundation is partnering with Nigerian non-governmental organisations such as Paradigm Initiative based in Lagos, to introduce digital jobs to young people in Nigeria.

According to Paradigm Initiative, there are hundreds of jobs online that young Nigerians can do and they do not need formal applications or experience, all they need is the right skill to perform the jobs.

According to the group, “The digital economy holds significant potential for creating formal jobs that are accessible to historically marginalised youth. These ‘digital jobs’ – defined as any short-term or permanent positions that use information technology to deliver a product or service – are in the formal sector and therefore provide higher wages and long-term job stability, which are two key mechanisms that enable people to work their way out of poverty.

“Nigeria has a very large youth population, many of whom are unemployed or under-employed. They can take advantage of opportunities within the digital sector. All they need to work is a computer, Internet access and a ready to work attitude. Access to these opportunities is most transformative for disadvantaged youth, for whom accessing formal employment could be pivotal in changing generations of systemic marginalisation; however, these youth are least well positioned to compete for these opportunities as their talent and potential are often overlooked.”

According to reports, the online work sector is estimated to grow to become a $5 billion global industry by 2018. The partnership between Paradigm Initiative Nigeria and the Rockefeller Foundation is expected to build on this momentum by developing an awareness raising campaign and tools that will help connect thousands of Nigerian youth to online work.

The Rockefeller Foundation recently gave a grant of $500,000 to Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) for the expansion of its Ajegunle.org Project.

The project has worked from Ajegunle, an underserved community in Lagos State, to connect Nigerian youths with ICT-enabled opportunities. It employs a ‘train-the-trainer’ capacity building model that uses a positive peer pressure concept to transform Ajegunle as a model for intervention in other underserved communities across Nigeria.

Executive Director of PIN Gbenga Sesan said, “Unemployment is a major challenge in Nigeria. Each year, tens of thousands of students graduate from tertiary institutions but only 10 per cent of them are gainfully employed two years after graduation. Disadvantaged communities account for a majority of these unemployed youth. The digital jobs campaign presents an opportunity for Nigerian youth to generate income and build their digital skills, while preparing themselves for future work in the digital economy”.

Another private sector initiative is the $100 million programme to support and promote entrepreneurship across Africa launched late last year by the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

According to the Chairman of Heirs Holdings and founder of the Mr. Tony Elumelu, the $100 million endowment is “to encourage the maturation of African entrepreneurs”, and to help up to 10,000 budding African entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into sustainable businesses.

Specifically, the programme is to provide 1,000 entrepreneurs a year for the next 10 years with seed capital of $5,000 and additional returnable capital of up to $5,000. According to Elumelu, by making half of the money returnable, programme participants are encouraged to develop a sense of responsibility. “I want to make sure there is some spirit of accountability,” he added.

The application process began this month with the announcement of the initial 1,000 participants expected by the end of March. In order to be eligible for the initial $5,000 seed capital, successful applicants will have to go through a 12-week online mentoring and training programme.

CEO of Tony Elumelu Foundation, Dr. Wiebe Boer, said the businesses supported by the program are expected to create at least one million new jobs and generate $10 billion of new revenues.

Beyond the promise of receiving financing, mentoring and support, entrepreneurs have an additional incentive to apply – the chance of having their business noticed by Heirs Holding as a potential investment opportunity.

Elumelu believes that the initiative will enable African entrepreneurs transform the continent. “In 2015 the African entrepreneur will emerge on to the global stage, as a new generation shows the world what those of us doing business in Africa have long known: that our continent is home to some of the most exciting and innovative entrepreneurial talent.

“From advanced mobile-payment systems to new agricultural-insurance models, we are already seeing how entrepreneurship is transforming Africa. But in Africa, business growth alone is not the full story. It is perhaps not even the most important part. Entrepreneurship matters especially for its potential to transform society.

“For centuries, the continent was impoverished by the extraction of raw materials by colonial powers. Africa was unable to generate or sustain its own wealth, as it was forced to buy finished goods created with African resources at premium prices.

And it lacked basic infrastructure except for the roads and ports built to move exports. If Africa is to transcend that chapter of its history and realise its economic potential, it must first become self-sufficient – and the private sector is vital to this process.

“Imagine the same continent filled with businesses that can process crude oil into petroleum, cocoa pods into chocolate and cotton lint into fabric, all while retaining the finished-goods premium instead of sending wealth overseas.

As homegrown businesses meet social and economic needs by creating goods and services with an innate understanding of the local environment, they can bring private capital to vital infrastructure like road transport and power generation. And they can create jobs for Africans, which will in turn create an African middle class – a new generation of African consumers,”