Social Security or Unemployment benefits possible.

[nestoba]

Hurray! Social Security For The Unemployed

With Sunny Igboanugo



The big news now is that our government has finally gotten round to the issue of the unemployed, one of the critical problems of our social structure. Media reports had it at the weekend that the Federal Government is making a robust social security arrangement that would take care of the unemployed in the country.

Quoting the Minister of Labour, Adetokumbo Kayode, at inauguration of the National Working Committee on Social Security Policy for Nigeria headed by former Head of State, Dr. Yakubu Gowon, the report said the Federal Government was aiming, at capturing the informal sector, through the new policy.

One of the major troubling ironies of Nigeria, in situating the relationship between the leadership and the led, is the apparent reluctance of our leaders replicating the examples they have seen elsewhere, back home. Most Nigerian leaders, either lived abroad for a long time or are regular visitors and, therefore, home to the way policies and programmes aimed at making life meaningful for the people are not only put in place, but work perfectly in those climes, only to come back home and to be part of the endless rot. There is indeed no telling that our leaders are not blind to how the poor in these societies are cared for, but have even become beneficiaries themselves.

Perhaps, it would be difficult, yet, to ascertain why the government has decided to take its present action. Perhaps, those influencing things in Abuja are beginning to feel the pinch of the social vices, such as high-level crimes, which have their roots in the millions of the unemployed in the society, especially the youth.

It may even be possible that the recent Federal Government's decision to withdraw policemen from unauthorised persons has suddenly jolted them to the clear danger to which they have become exposed, hence they must have started piling up pressure for the authorities to do something before they are finally consumed also, by the dangerous whirlwind that has snuffed life out of many. It may also be that this is all politics, especially now that in words and body language, politicians are speaking 2011.

Whichever, we may never know until the time comes. But for now, this sounds like sweet music to our ears. For it assures that we are still with our sense of values. What a big relief!

[nestoba]

Nigeria has all the resources to address the social and economic neglect suffer by vast Nigerians. In order for there to be a meaningful implementation of the social security scheme, there is the need for a proper identity management of the population. Currently, there is no social security number for the Nigeria people, and the national ID card is still a picture and plastic without any online security value to match with the challenge of the time. A valid national ID, must as a matter of fact contain the individual name, and his or her social security number. With the social security number, the individual biodata are linked. A well managed social security number is needed to assist the police, custom, immigrations, judiciary and the general business community, in carrying out their work effectively.
Now, the question of social security for the unemployed, that is a very good step in the right direction. But the issue is that ,there should be a national social issurance number for all bonafide residence in Nigeria, that will help in the implementation of the programme, so that people can be well identified.
In any social security scheme, those who are physically challenge and the senior citizens are also considered, I should expect the government to also give attention to this. Social security benefits in any organized society stems from the three levels of government: the local government, state and the federal- the benefits are paid monthly by the contribution of the government in these three levels.
The senior citizens are not just those that had retired from employment of the government or private companies, but include anyone above the age of 65 . So in that case, farmers in the village , at 65 should qualify for pension.
If social security is well implemented, it will go a long way in reducing many anti social behaviour currently common in Nigeria.
I am sure, the Senate, house of assembly members and the local government council chairmen will consider making an enabling bill that will facilitate the social security programme.

[Afeni]

Social security is a recurring expenditure (meaning its a regular payment to address monthly needs/yearly or whatever). Infrastructure is a capital expenditure. In a situation like Nigeria's it is better for the government to focus on capital expenditures which will boost the productivity of the economy and enable it to support more employment and better working conditions.

If the government were to implement social security now, at a time when the roads are sub-par, power is unavailable for most of the day, and there is no efficient railway system for the transport of goods and people, that would amount to selling ones house for a loaf of bread.

In addtion, implementing social security and unemployment benefits will act as a disincentive to work. It will also cause hyper-inflation as price levels will adjust *dramatically* to account for the increase in Naira (being that it is not being matched with increased productivity in the economy).

This is one of those things that appear like a good idea on paper, but will ultimately wreck the nations economy even more so than it currently is.

Rather than address the employment situation in Nigeria via social security, the government ought to utilize land already under its control to teach and employ Nigerians in the practice of farming. This will bring unemployment down and stabilize the country such that foreign investors will feel safe enough to come over and invest in creating better jobs for the people.

Btw, for those of you that say Nigeria has enough resources to implement social security, please tell where this resouces are? In case of haven't realized, THERE ARE A LOT OF NIGERIANS. Even the billions derived from petrol is peanuts compared to the number of Nigerians it is meant to sustain.

[nestoba]

There is money in SWISS BANK Account. There is alot of money in contract inflation. There is alot of money on oversea trips, and to settle party men, but there is non for the social benefits. The concepts of social security must be well understood. It is based on defining the real meaning of human right and what government mean to the people. People must have access to some form of income- to get basic needs such as housing, food and healthcare. The problem with Nigeria is not the availability of fund to build infrastructure, the problem is corruption- contracts are over invoice and with poor delivery. It is not that there is no fund to address social security, most of the budget money ends up in different programmes which has no bearing with poverty reduction, the reason is that there is no enabling bill for proper implementation, and moreso, the issue of poor identity management.

[Dapxin]

Social security is a recurring expenditure (meaning its a regular payment to address monthly needs/yearly or whatever). Infrastructure is a capital expenditure. In a situation like Nigeria's it is better for the government to focus on capital expenditures which will boost the productivity of the economy and enable it to support more employment and better working conditions.

If the government were to implement social security now, at a time when the roads are sub-par, power is unavailable for most of the day, and there is no efficient railway system for the transport of goods and people, that would amount to selling ones house for a loaf of bread.

In addtion, implementing social security and unemployment benefits will act as a disincentive to work. It will also cause hyper-inflation as price levels will adjust *dramatically* to account for the increase in Naira (being that it is not being matched with increased productivity in the economy).

This is one of those things that appear like a good idea on paper, but will ultimately wreck the nations economy even more so than it currently is.

Rather than address the employment situation in Nigeria via social security, the government ought to utilize land already under its control to teach and employ Nigerians in the practice of farming. This will bring unemployment down and stabilize the country such that foreign investors will feel safe enough to come over and invest in creating better jobs for the people.

Btw, for those of you that say Nigeria has enough resources to implement social security, please tell where this resouces are? In case of haven't realized, THERE ARE A LOT OF NIGERIANS. Even the billions derived from petrol is peanuts compared to the number of Nigerians it is meant to sustain.

+1 to that.

[DeepThought]

+1 to that.

I quite disagree.
If properly planned and implemented, (meaning if the intention from day one is not to chop and clean mouth) this has the potential to revolutionalize Nigeria and actually, for the first time in our history begin to produce something that remotely look like citizens.

The money given out doesn't even have to be much, it could be just a token, but the message would be in the fact that the government actually cared enough to try.

As Nestoba already said, there is money for everything else under the sun in Nigeria but not for this

[Kenn]

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People,

I cannot help but be cynical (and actually, a little angry as well) about this; not only because it is a case of ‘dem want dash you your human right’ as Fela would put it, but also for the clear misconception of the idea of social security and this tendency of putting the cart before the horse. To start with, social security cannot be aimed at capturing the “informal sector”, because the informal sector, like the formal one, contributes hugely to national development and, actually, employs more people than the formal sector! What the informal sector needs is real and strategic support, not patronizing ignorance like this one!

For instance, one of the ways the government can help the informal sector is to create development banks that can give special kind of loans for the diversification efforts of the economy. I mean, every day we hear them celebrate the Nigerian banking sector, but you will never hear of development banks! How do you realistically grow the productive sector if you do not have a proper financing regime for the informal sector? When would they realise that it’s the health of the informal sector that guarantees the survival of the formal sector?

Another way government can help the small and medium-scale sector is to make business registration easier and reduce incidences of multiple taxations. They could also help by providing free and subsidized training programmes for aspiring entrepreneurs, including provision of informative literature to help with start-ups. Of course, it would help to underline all this with a strong academic support in our universities and targeted investment in information technology, research and development.

On the social security issue itself, as I said, it’s a case of them now wanting to give us a right that is already ours. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 16(2)(d) states:

“The State shall direct its policy towards ensuring that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens”.

Yes, that is the very Constitution in operation in Nigeria for the past 10 years! So, it isn’t as though the writers of the Constitution did not know that Nigeria can provide unemployment, sickness, welfare and disability benefits and so on for ALL citizens; the problem is the crooks in charge simply refuse to implement it!

Of course, at this point, I am not naive enough to believe that it’s something we need to start tomorrow or in the data-challenged atmosphere of our public policy system today. First, we need a credible census, broken down into their different categories for the purposes of targeted delivery. Then, there has to be massive investment in infrastructure and educational standardization, as it is quite clear we have lost huge grounds in these areas over the years. We must then open up the productive sector to massive injection of capital, first with the aim of getting our people into work, real work. Once we begin to do these, to be anchored by a government with the political will to truly fight corruption and not merely pay lip service to accountability at all levels, then we’ll be on our way!

Social security is not an alternative to employment; it’s a safety net for those who are temporarily or permanently out of the labour market. The less we have of these people, the better the health of society. So, any programme on that level must always have employment as the end game. Social security therefore cannot only be about collecting the necessary allowance monthly or weekly; but must also mean opportunities for training, retraining and job placements and so on.

The bottom line of what I’m saying is this – no one should talk about social security as though they’re doing us some favour right now. The Constitution guarantees it already. However, before we can begin to implement it, considering how far we’ve bastardized our economy and institutional policy delivery system at all levels, we need to do our home work with proper sectoral data collection (including a credible census), get ourselves back into a productive mode, which must start with proper diversification of the economy from an oil-dependent one, thus creating new lines of jobs and training opportunities for new people and then using government policy and public money astutely to support key sectors by way of initial investments to get things rolling.



CHEERS!


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