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Economic Confidential,
March, 2009
FEATURES
Global Job Crises And The Nigerian Prodigals
atayibabs@yahoo.com
A recent trip back to Nigeria brought the reality home. Nigerians,
an inimitable set of the most hardworking and intelligent people on
the face of the earth, contributing to global development in all
spheres of human existence, are not insulated from global job losses
after all. The brimful arrival lounge of the Murtala Mohammed
International airport was all confirmation needed. Luggage of all
sizes and colours belonging to returnee Nigerians struggled with the
attendant human traffic for relevance. In the midst of this urban
chaos was frustration and disillusionment boldly inscribed.
A chat with some of them unearthed the deep currents of
dissatisfaction flowing copiously beneath the ocean of thoughts in
which their jerky return to the land of their birth has subsumed
them. Job losses, redundancies, shrunken investments, “Madoff
syndrome” attacks, mounting bills to pay, and switched off services
and utilities all topped their bill of complaints. In a 21st century
re-enactment of the biblical parody of the prodigal son, they are
coming back home with the hope of finding jobs where they are none,
creating non-existent opportunities as well as reverse the brain
drain in our universities to brain gain. A sudden flash of
realisation and alien patriotic zeal seem to suddenly burst on their
sight.
The facts on the ground are grim. Governments, Multinationals,
Corporations and blue chips across the globe where these vibrant
Nigerians once regarded as their fortes, impregnable safe havens,
are now grunting under the smashing yoke of the latest capitalist
malady called recession. Initially it was the capital market, and
then oil and gas, motoring, manufacturing, banking, aviation and now
media institutions are all reeling in this unfathomable descent to
nothingness. Internet giant, Yahoo ran up one-off costs of more than
$600m during the first quarter as it shed 1,600 jobs, equivalent to
10 per cent of its workforce, and took a hefty accounting charge on
its international operations. For the full year, the company
remained in the black with profits of $424m, compared to $660m in
2007, fended off a takeover offer from Microsoft, struck an aborted
co-operation partnership with Google and wrestled with a shareholder
rebellion.
On their part, Microsoft announced the most sweeping job cuts in its
history as a worsening economy and weak spending on technology sent
quarterly profit sharply lower. Microsoft stated in a release that
“in the light of the further deterioration of global economic
conditions, it was eliminating up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, marketing,
sales, finance, legal, HR and IT over the next 18 months, including
1,400 jobs today.” Toyota, General Motors, Honda, Royal Dutch Shell,
British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Bank Paribas, Airfrance-Klm, British
Airways, Rfi, Bbc have all tasted the bitter fruit of job cuts in
the face of dwindling fortunes with over two hundred thousand hands
waking up into unexpected docility.
All these notwithstanding, the end of this global job sludge appears
far from the vista of realistic permutations as the world economy is
firmly on the part to losing no fewer than 51 million jobs by the
end of 2009. In its recent damning report, the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) said that the global job cuts which could climb
51 million by the end of this year is a direct consequence of the
disparaging economic meltdown, which has dealt heavy blow on
economies of Europe, America and Asia. The ILO figures indicate that
developed economies would be hit hardest with the fastest rise in
unemployment rates, from an average of 5.7 per cent in 2007 up to
6.6 to 7.9 per cent in 2009 and East Asia which had the lowest
regional unemployment rate at 3.5 per cent in 2007 is forecast to
experience a jump of between 4.5 to 5.5 per cent in a year.
Putting it plainly, this crisis carries the prospects of pushing
another 200 million workers into extreme poverty as they and their
dependants are faced with the grim reality of being forced out of a
living in informal, underpaid and unstable work situations
especially in Africa South Asia. With no remarkable progress in
poverty reduction and the colossal weakening of the middle classes,
and the attendant socio-political and security implications, the
situation could get even worse especially for Africans in Diaspora.
With this seemingly unending dramatic twist of events, Nigeria has
once again proven to be the last resort to many of its citizens in
Diaspora what with the current unprecedented scramble for Lagos and
Abuja flight tickets from major destinations in the world. As they
come in their droves, it is only apposite to assure them of
Nigerians’ usually receptive and legendary courtesies to both
foreign and indigenous visitors. They should be reminded of their
country’s peculiar circumstances in case they may have forgotten due
to long sojourn overseas. They are indeed welcome to their country,
which is powered by the lethal fumes of generators and fuelled by
crime. A Nigeria that subsists largely in a yet to be recognised but
trail-blazing leadership meltdown where every family unit
constitutes a government on its own, providing water, power,
security and tarrying roads.
A refreshingly new country where banks and other financial
institutions declare cooked and cancerous profits and dividends
under a distended money market regime that stands economics on its
head awaits them. Also waiting with its long arms of welcome is the
history grabbing, Obama-endorsing capital market, tucked firmly in
the ‘safe’ hands of Transcorp patrons and led by one of their own, a
“been to” with a shouting green card to match. This market, imbued
with a loathsome distaste for good corporate governance, and all its
manipulative tendencies that are not market-driven, awaits them with
its prostituting spiral fall and the trademark regulatory impotence
that stalks its existence.
The 21st century Nigeria feverishly longs to embrace her prodigals
in her bosom from where poverty and ill-gotten wealth both flow,
coalescing into a confluence of motion without movement, and forming
tributaries of widespread deprivation, infrastructural decay, moral
decadence and militancy of epic proportions. Beneath this bosom is a
history of job losses, which has long transmuted into job scarcity
with recruitment tests into banks and para-military bodies recording
over 200,000 applicants as well as sending some of them to their
early graves. Yes, this is the Nigeria they have read so much about,
where the minimum wage rests comfortably within the State confines
of $52 and any attempt to disparage the tokenism is stoutly resisted
and termed as blackmail by the ruling class.
A different country awaits them, a Nigeria where electoral
excellence has been elevated to the realm of rocket science and
pharmacognosy. Where town union elections end up in bloodbath,
professional and student bodies fight continually over elections,
their teachers fare no better, up to selections in traditional
institutions, blood must flow. An experience of a lifetime beckons
for these incoming agents of brain gain. Welcome to educational
paralysis, an overarching rustication of academic ideals where
intellectuals gather to listen to the foolishness of idiots because
of donations, decorate with degrees, the very people who ruin them
and bestow honoris causa on nonentities all for filthy lucre.
Welcome back to your country, the 20th hungriest country in the
world, where 65 per cent of its population live in food insecurity
with insufficient access to the amount and variety of food necessary
for a healthy and productive life. Welcome back home, welcome to
Nigeria.
Atayi Babs Opaluwah
Ikoyi, Nigeria |
