We were received by the Director of Studies Air Commodore Emmanuel Jekada. The topic of our discourse was Citizen Engagement, Labour, Productivity and National Development. There were two colleagues Dr Husaini Abdu the Country Director of Action Aid Nigeria and Dr Akeem Mojisola Adeyanju, a lecturer from the Mass Communication Department of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. They made presentations on the same topic with varying emphasis.
My paper drew on business case studies research which defined productivity as the efficiency with which a firm converts human resource, technology and raw materials (inputs) into products and services (outputs). Since human resources constitute the largest cost for many firms, labour productivity has special importance and vitally affects competitiveness. The key factors for enhancing productivity are training which can improve the knowledge and skills of staff. Improved recruitment and selection, which may have the same effect; and investment in equipment and new technology, which together increase output per worker. Better employee motivation can be the most powerful factor of all. Another important factor is gaining loyalty of staff to ensure major gains in output and quality.
On citizen engagement, the paper highlighted the fact that citizens participate in governance through advocacy organised by pressure groups. Among them are civil society organisations CSOs comprising nongovernmental organisations NGOs, community based organisations CBOs faith based organisations, FBOs trade unions, professional bodies, the press and political parties. These CSOs take the lead in organising activities to influence policy at various levels in order to promote development.
The paper defined national development as ‘expansion and growth of a people in an area of government. It can also mean development of infrastructure such as roads, schools hospitals. However people centred development is now the vogue and development is measured based on improvement in development indicators such as poverty level, literacy rate, maternal, infant mortality and morbidity rate, life expectancy, unemployment rate. All these determine a country’s rating on the Human Development Index. Citizen engagement takes place on sectoral basis with the press undertaking its constitutional assignment of ‘Monitoring the process of governance and holding the government accountable to the people.’ Trade unions focus on workers’ rights and improving productivity, women’s groups address gender mainstreaming at all levels as a strategy for promoting for development. There are also CSOs working on budget tracking to promote accountability, anti corruption coalition focusing on good governance while youth promote youth activism on various issues to promote sustainable development.
The paper used the eight goals of Millennium Development Goals as the benchmark to measure Nigeria’s progress on the development pathway. Productivity is enhanced through job creation when industries are fully operational and producing at full capacity, a vibrant private sector that attracts investment and security of lives and property. The verdict from the MDG Countdown Strategy is not encouraging. The 8 MDG goals are unlikely to be achieved in 2015—next year. Goal 1– is on eradicating poverty but unemployment is high. The poverty rate has increased to almost 70%, insecurity is pervasive with the insurgency in the North East zone leading to unbelievable loss of lives and pauperizing citizens. Resource control conflicts, criminality, politically motivated violence are all taking their toll on lives and property.
Goal 2 is about providing universal basic education for all. There has been remarkable improvement in enrolment rates for primary schools but about 10million children are out of school. The number of almajirai and child hawkers roaming our streets underscores this. Goal 3 is about mainstreaming gender and empowering women but women remain the poorest of the poor and affirmative action is not in place. Goal 4 is to reduce child mortality rate. There has been an improvement but it is still high at over 340,000 infant deaths reported annually. Goal 5 is about maternal mortality which remains high at 545 per 100,000 live births.
MDG Goal 1 expects countries to eradicate extreme hunger and Poverty and Goal 8 target 16 expects countries to ‘In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth’. At a conference last year, the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, put the level of unemployment in Nigeria at 37percent but late Prof Festus Iyayi said it was above 40 per cent and would rise to 50 per cent at the end of 2013. Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala however stressed that ‘employment initiatives were part of the government’s interventions in youth unemployment with the intention of creating jobs and averting violence among the youth. The first phase of youth employment scheme had 1,000 youths shortlisted from 24,000 initially invited for examinations, who had obtained between N1 million to N10 million grants to set up various businesses. The output has been cheering with 15,000 jobs created so far from the initiative. The second round of the scheme, which was essentially for women, had been launched. Third phase of the scheme would commence soon.
My paper identified monumen-tal corruption as one of the biggest obstacles to achieving the MDGs. It cited United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes UNODC Report. Findings show that ‘the estimated sum of money stolen by the Nigerian elite between 1960 and 1999 from the treasury varied between $400 billion and $600 billion. Director of UNODC, Mr Tim Daniel, had reported that $110 billion was being looted annually from the treasury, while stolen monies stashed in foreign accounts increased from $50 billion in 1999 to $170 billion in 2003’. “Concretely, those billions of dollars could have translated into millions of vaccinations for children; thousands of kilometres of roads; hundreds of schools, hospitals and water treatment facilities that never came to be.” The Nuhu Ribadu Committee commissioned by the federal government showed that Nigeria had lost about N4.64 trillion in the last 10 years from deals Nigerian government officials signed with foreign oil multinationals. The Ribadu report also revealed that the NNPC had failed to report N86.6 billion to the government in 10 years by simple manipulation of exchange rates by officials of the corporation. About 150,000 barrels of crude oil are stolen each day in Nigeria, a loss of $13.5 million per day (at $100 per barrel). In a year, that stands at $5 billion (N750 billion)
