PRESIDENT BUHARI, NASS AND THE REJECTION OF PEACE CORPS BILL
PRESIDENT BUHARI, NASS AND THE REJECTION OF PEACE CORPS BILL
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
March 2,2018
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There are several reasons advanced for the establishment of the "Nigerian Peace Corps" by its advocates, but the major argument advanced by its promoters is creation of employment opportunity to the Nigerian youth.
Quite frankly, our youth needs Jobs! Jobs! And Jobs! In fact the army of unemployed youth in the country is a time bomb waiting to explode. All hands must be on deck towards finding lasting solution to the problem of unemployment in Nigeria .
President Buhari has declined to assent a "Bill" for an act to establish the Nigerian Peace Corps which is presently an NGO as one of the Nigerian Paramilitary organizations in the country . He declined to assent the "Bill"on two major reasons : (1) Its dublication of functions with other security agencies and (2) Its financial implications to the nation's economy.
In my view, from the onset the National Assembly (NASS) should not have passed the Bill. Creating too many ineffective government agencies that will add to the already over bloated public service in the name of creating Jobs to the youth, in my view , is not the best thing to do by NASS.
Some people argue that it will secure our schools. For me, rather than the establishment of Peace Corps for our schools' security, let NASS come up with laws that will strengthen the Army, Police, and Civil defence Corps etc., with enough motivation, equipment and the required personnel in order to do their Jobs properly .
On the issue of Jobs. The best thing the NASS should concentrate on, in my suggestion, is making laws that will "force" the "executive arms" of government to support the private sector, entrepreneurship development , and technical as well as vocational skills acquisition for self-relience. Let NASS insist on reducing the cost of Recurrent Expenditure by the executive. Let them make laws that will encourage increase in Capital Expenditure as the surest way of encouraging investments for Job creations.
There is nowhere in the world where government employs everybody. In China and India which are the first and the second most populated countries in the world, their governments spend less than 15% of their annual budgets on the public service. In Nigeria we spend over 75% on the public service. The Private sector is the real engine of growth everywhere in the world.
In addition , NASS should focus more on making laws that will force the executive arms of government to invest more funds on infrastructure and security which will lead to favourable atmosphere for the establishment of many industries, businesses, revival and establishment of new Textiles etc.These will definitely lead to creation of more Jobs than establishing more government agencies that will only employ very few privilege Nigerians.
Electricity is very critical to Jobs creation. It is one of the surest ways of stimulating industrial revolution and entrepreneurship development. Nigeria with a population of about 180 million people at its peak of generation can only generate about 7,000 megawatts of electricity without even the capacity to transmit all of it.
Egypt with a population of 95 million people has about 30,000 megawatts of electricity and South Africa with a population of 55 million people has about 34,000 megawatts of electricity. These are our African brothers. More so, both Nigeria and Iran are oil and gas producing countries. Iran with a population of about 81million people has 78,000 megawatts of electricity . Why can't the legislators push for similar megawatts or even more than that ?
The National Assembly should and or must be reminded that , in modern economy including in countries like : Russia and China. The private sector is the major employer of labour. In fact, it is the best and the most sustainable way of creating Jobs .
The role of "modern governments, from USA, Russia, China, Brazil to India have since changed from the traditional role of Jobs provision " to "the modern role of Jobs Creation ". In modern governance the “duty” or “role” of government has since shifted from “employment Provisions to “employment Creations.
A lot of Jobs could be created through the formulation of good policies and programmes that would encourage the private sector to provide Jobs. On the other hand, Jobs "Provision"means the direct employment of people by the government. This could only employ few people.
The government should pre-occupied itself with the provision infrastructure, security, and good policies and programmes that will support the private sector to create jobs for all.
Let there be effective legislation to strengthen our security agencies.Let there be effective oversight functions from the NASS in order to make sure that our existing security agencies live up to their expectations.
May God bless Nigeria!