IF ONLY

Still shaking our collective head in wonderment and trying to make sense of the bafflement in our collective mind after the recent callous destruction of job-seekers' lives, Okonjo-Iweala has, once again, dipped her head in her backside by claiming that only 5.3 million people are unemployed in Nigeria. Just in case you thought I made this up, she belched her latest nonsensical claim in Abuja, at the commissioning of the Global Distance Learning Institute. I had to read and re-read it just to be certain I wasn’t hallucinating!! I mean, c’mon, she’s spouted a lot of gibberish over the years, but here, she’s at her loopiest. This is an absolute insult to the Nigerian people and to the memory of the dead. Does this blockhead think people would just take her word for it? What statistics informed her claim? Let’s look briefly at some very simple figures:

 Country                               Unemployment Rate (%)                       Month/Year

USA                                                       6.70%                                      Feb/2014

United Kingdom                                   7.20%                                      Jan/2014

Germany                                               5.10%                                       Feb/2014

France                                                10.20%                                       Nov/2014

Spain                                                  26.03%                                       Dec/2013

Greece                                               27.50%                                       Dec/2013

South Africa                                      24.10%                                        Dec/2013

If one was to go by Okonjo’s claim, then, based on the available latest census figures (168.8 million in 2012), and assuming a labour force of a mere 70% of the population ( i.e. 118 million), then Madam  Coordinating Minister is telling us, mere mortals, that our unemployment rate is just 4.5%!! Better than even Germany''s? This half-wit of a woman is definitely off her rockers. No more needs to be said. If she gets off her backside and takes a tour of Abuja alone, she may, just may, see misery written on the faces of more than half a million people. And that’s Abuja alone! One day soon, she and her co-wreckers and co-habitants of Cloud Cuckoo Land will shudder to life on Planet Earth.

On another, shall we say, heart-warming note, there is a consensus expectation that Nigeria’s GDP is set to overtake South Africa’s once the rebasing exercise (from 1990 to 2010) is completed. The distinct possibility of Nigeria becoming the largest economy in Africa should normally signal a marked improvement in the citizens’ quality of life. Not in Nigeria. The steady growth in GDP in recent years should not be attributable to any particular set of government policies. Nigeria is growing in spite of the relentless assault of corruption and maladministration of the nation’s resources. If, and if only, this growth were harnessed properly, one can only imagine where the country would be today. What is the point of rising GDP year after year if the quality of people’s lives is deteriorating at a faster rate than the economy is growing? What is there to write home about when joblessness and hopelessness are conjoined at the hip?  What is the basis for felicitation if the thieves in authority don’t give a monkey’s about the plight of the thirsty and the hungry? What is the point of joyous hand wringing and victorious backslapping if billions upon billions of stolen dollars are seeping into foreign bank accounts of these God-cursed politicians and their cohorts? If only Nigeria chose a different destiny. If only.