By OTIEDHE JUDE

Nigeria is a nation that is well endowed with multifarious and resources both human and material.

However, due to gross mismanagement, profligate spending, wept mania and adverse polices of various governments of Nigeria. These resources have not been optimally utilized; these resources have not been adequately channeled to profitable investment to bring about maximum economic benefits. As a result of the foregoing, Nigeria has been bedeviled with unemployment and poverty. Economic growth which is supposed to be a solution to the problem of unemployment and poverty appears not to be so in Nigeria. Nigeria’s official statistics shows that economic growth has not always been accompanied by decline in unemployment and poverty.

Nigeria as a country has a dual economy with a modern segment depending on oil earnings, overlaid by a traditional agricultural and trading economy. at independence in 1960, Agriculture accounted for well over half of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and was main source of export earnings and public revenue. The oil sector which emerged in the 1960’s and was firmly established during the 1970s, is now of overwhelming importance to the point of over dependence on it. It provides 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange earnings and about 65% of budgetary revenues. Competition between ethnic and regional groups for power and access to the country’s oil wealth are increasing intensity.

The largely subsistence agricultural sector has not kept up with rapid population growth, and Nigeria, once a large next exporter, now imports food. Based on Gross National Product (GNP) per capital, Nigeria is rated among the world’s 20 poorest countries. What an ivory. For a country that is ranked as the sixth largest producer of oil in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to be rated among the 20 poorest countries in the world. Economic growth since the 1970s in the country has been erratic, driven primarily by the fluctuations of the global oil market. From the 1980s to the present day, Nigeria has faced growing economic decline and falling living standards, a reflection also of political instability, corruption and poor macroeconomic management (most notably the failure to diversify the economy).

Agriculture, forestry and fishing sector has suffered a relative decline because of the dominance and over dependence on oil in the country’s economy. surprisingly, agriculture is now dominated by traditional small holders raising subsistence crops such as sorghum, maize, cassava, yams, millet, rice and wheat which is mainly for their own consumption. One doesn’t have to be flabbergased that Nigeria that used to be one of the largest producers of tin in the world, with production based around the highland district of Jos. With a production capacity of an average of 10, 000 tonnes per year in the 1970s has drastically collapsed to an average of 100 tonnes in 2000. thanks to the overwhelming importance that has been placed on oil, which has left other segment of the country’s economy to suffer.

It is a well known fact that unemployment and poverty, are the most pressing problems facing the Nigeria government today. With well over 70 million Nigerians unemployed and as well as more than 75% of youths that graduated from tertiary institutions in Nigeria over the past 10 years still unemployed, combined with the UN discovery that over 75% of the Nigerian populace are living below the UN’s poverty level of earning one pound in a day. It leaves me wondering as to which way forward for the Nigerian youths whom are supposed to be the future of the country. One point is clear that the implication of over dependence on oil in the country has led us know where but has left us to suffer the problem of unemployment. Unemployment leads to poverty, and poverty in turn forces people into crime and other dubious ways of making money. If the problem of unemployment can be solved, then the level of poverty will drastically reduced as a result, the crime rate in the country will equally reduce.
If the country can properly annex and utilize all the abundant resources that is at her disposal, the problem of poverty and unemployment will be a thing of the past. The government should give equal priority to other segment of the country’s economy like agriculture, fishing, forestry, tin, ore, gold and stop the over-dependence in oil. The solution to the problem of poverty is in our hands. The time to act is now. Lets diversify the country’s economy, with the diversity of the country’s economy, more factories and industries will be built and more human labour will be employed. Locally made goods will be promoted and importation of goods will reduced to a considerable extent.

All the relevant authorities should please join hands together and welcome this solemn call for the economy diversity in other to save our blessed nation NIGERIA from the cancar worm of unemployment and ensure a bright future for our youths whom are the leaders of tomorrow.

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