SAM OHUABUNWA: JONATHAN TACKLING UNEMPLOYMENT

The growing unemployment in Nigeria hit the peak in 2010 following the Global economic crisis which caused a shrinking of the global economy. 

In 2011unemployment rate in the general population was nearly 24% with Youth Unemployment reaching nearly 50%. 

But as today overall unemployment has declined to less than 20%( Actually about 15% in the first half of 2014 according to National Bureau of Statistics) and Youth unemployment has gone down to less than 38%. 

Though these changes may not look as dramatic we would wish, but they have occurred by two pronged approach pursued by Jonathan- Supporting a revival of the Agricultural, industrial, Entertainment, and several other sectors of the economy to provide opportunities for absorbing the youth from the private sector  angle and the various efforts being made to create jobs in the Public sector especially through the Various safety net projects of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program( SURE-P). From the Community, Social Women and Youth Employment ( CSWYE) Program, over 180,000 Youth & Women have been employed, over 10,000 Health workers( midwives, Nurses and Community Health workers) have been employed, over 5000 Youths have been trained through the Technical Vocational Educational Training in different Skills and vocations and deployed to several industries while 15000 Have been employed by FERMA in road repairs and Vegetation control, nearly 50,000 hitherto Unemployed graduates have been given jobs through the  Graduate Internship Scheme( GIS) across the Nation.

The YOUWIN Programme has enabled several Young Nigerians (especially Women) to receive grant from the Federal Ministry of Finance to set up new businesses through which they have employed other youths. 

The determined implementation of the local content law in the oil and gas and elsewhere in the economy has created more jobs and more wealth for Nigerians. 

If these efforts to create jobs directly and indirectly that have led to measurable improvement in the unemployment rate over the last four years do not amount to good economic management, then tell me what is.