Contrary to Dr Ngige’s views Nigeria is sitting on a manpower time bomb and needs a Reichsautobahn programme to employ our youth 

By Ayo Akinfe 

(1) Over the last 48 hours, Nigerians have been reacting to the comments of labour and employment minister Chris Ngige about how the country can afford to keep losing doctors to overseas countries because we have an abundant supply of replacements. Clearly, Dr Ngige is not familiar with Nigerian health service statistics and World Health Organisation recommendations. Nigeria currently has one doctor to the over 5,000 members of the population, which is way below the global recommendation of one doctor to 600 citizens

(2) According to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, the nation has about 72,000 registered doctors, with only 35,000 practising in the country. Using World Health Organisation standards and recommendations, this means there is a deficit of over 260,000 doctors in Nigeria

(3) Subsequently, a minimum of 10,605 new doctors needs to be recruited annually to meet global targets. What Dr Ngige should have said is that Nigeria has the potential to keep replenishing all those doctors we are losing because with a population of 180m, we have the manpower to produce replacements. If he had good media handlers, that is what they would have put together for him and then asked him to outline a policy on how this will be achieved 

(4) About 70% of Nigeria’s population is below the age of 30 and 42% of the populace is below the age of 14. This actually means that if we want to mass produce medical doctors we have the potential to. However, with someone like Dr Ngige in charge of labour training, we know this will never happen. He simply lacks the vision to even fathom such a policy, talk less not of finding ways to fund it and get it actualised and implemented 

(5) As things stand, Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder as we have a chronic youth disenfranchisement crisis on our hands. I found stark evidence of this recently when I read a report about that kidnapping taking place on the Abuja-Kaduna highway. According to an account provided by one of the freed hostages, the kidnappers who abducted her numbered several hundred. They were mainly teenagers and their leader was only about 26 years old

(6) She said the kidnappers communicated with their victims in Hausa and with each other in Fulfude. Basically, they could not speak English. With no formal education, job prospects, training, visible skills set or future, these youths have no other way of surviving other than crime. It is thus no surprise that they have resorted to kidnapping

(7) Apparently, these heavily armed youths who all have AK47s have created a whole village in the bush that serves as their base. No doubt, with time, their ranks will continue to swell as more hapless youths who see no future for themselves join them. This is how Boko Haram began and how the Fulani herdsmen saga started. Youths with no future are offered the power of an AK47, money and authority, so grab it with both hands. It actually gives them some dignity

(8) It should fall on Dr Ngige as the minister for labour and employment to address this crisis but how can he when he does not even acknowledge there is a problem? What Nigeria desperately needs right now is a Reichsautobahn programme. This was a scheme introduced in Germany in the 1930s when unemployment was about 50%. People were mobilised to work on major infrastructural programmes up and down the country, building roads, railway lines, dams, power plants, water treatment works, drainage systems, etc 

(9) Although not ideal as the working conditions did not match those of skilled craftsmen, the Reichsautobahn project served the purpose of getting Germany’s youths off the streets, reducing crime and building up the nation’s infrastructure. Many of the autobahns (highways) they built back in the 1930s are still standing today 

(10) Given that Nigeria has 16m unemployed people and an annual infrastructural deficit of $100bn, I do not see us having any alternative than an Reichsautobahn programme. It will get our youths to lay down their arms in exchange for work, as well as build roads, power plants, housing estates, railway networks, etc and address our insecurity crisis. I am just thinking of a catchy name to give the programme, one that will galvanise and motivate our youth!