 |
| President Muhammadu Buhari |
The year 2020 is not looking to have much excitement in store for
Nigerians.
The Nigerian Minister for Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige
disclosed on May 2nd 2019 that the unemployment rate in Nigeria is
set to hit 33.5% by 2020.
Nigeria has been witnessing an ever increasing
unemployment rate since the turn of the century. This however has gotten worse
since the coming of the present administration led by Muhammadu Buhari.
As part
of a report by the National Bureau of Statistics in Nigeria on December 19th
2018, it was disclosed that in 2017, the unemployment rate was 18.8%. This
figure however rose to 23.1% in 2018; it was ‘just’ around 13.9% in 2016.
Popular
opinion in Nigeria has it that the Buhari administration has birthed widespread
economic hardship in the country despite the nation having oodles of opportunities
to succeed.
A survey by Macrotrends showed that from 2000, there was a record
rise in hunger prevalence (2.5%) in Nigeria in 2016 (one year into Buhari's
rule).
According to the 2019 Global Report on Food Crises
(GRFC), "The worst food crises in 2018, in order of severity, were: Yemen,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Syrian Arab
Republic, the Sudan, South Sudan and northern Nigeria. These eight countries
accounted for two thirds of the total number of people facing acute food
insecurity - amounting to nearly 72 million people."
It is also a common belief that the figure for the
unemployment rate in Nigeria is much higher than that disclosed by the
government. The high unemployment rate in Nigeria has been linked to crimes
such as insurgency, banditry and kidnapping.
There is also an alarming rate of
drug addiction among the unemployed youths. The government has however taken to
the let them eat cake approach to the cries of the masses.
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