Development means “improvement in the country’s economic and social conditions”. More specially, it refers to improvements in the way of managing an area’s natural and human resources. To create wealth and improve people’s lives. Dudley Seers while elaborating on the meaning of development suggests that while there can be value judgments on what is a development and what is not, it should be a universally acceptable aim of development to make for conditions that lead to a realization of the potentials of human personality.
I am always appalled and bemused when our political leaders discuss issues of Nigeria development. Not only because of the hollow points they marshal to project their arguments but also because of obvious doublespeak congealed in their thoughts and actions.

Our brand of interrogating development is amusing. We always equate development with some physical and gigantic projects. To us, development in impersonal and therefore exist outside of the people. Thus, we locate our brand of development with building roads, big buildings, skyscrapers large motorways, etc. It is not uncommon for a person who visits his village after a long time and seeing multiple storey building replacing bungalows exclaiming-“This place has developed”.

What I am saying is that it is the yardstick used in measuring development in the real estate sector that had been imported into measuring development in governance. This is unfortunate as it has defined the whole essence of what ought to be people-centred development. But then, this is a misnomer and where we completely got it wrong. The core of any development effort should be the people- the human element. That is the development of their intellect and their mental capacities. The new craze for private sector participation in the infrastructural development of Nigeria lends credence to this viewpoint.

A people with sophisticated and complex mentality processes can easily create wealth which can be deployed. To this extent, it is imperative for government development efforts to be wholly people’s oriented, believing and rightly so that a people with a development mindset would be positively mobilized to affect physical development to make life easier for themselves.

To place Nigeria on the part of development is very easily contrary to what many people beliefs. I will just use one example for explication and we will see how development can be achieved by political actors and by extension how such action will earn any government extensive goodwill, political capital and a large dose of legitimacy.

Recently, the media is awash with news that one hundred (100) employment slots into highly sought Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was allocated to the Senate. We might not have heard about it if the Senate leadership had been less susceptible to avarice and distribute it down the line to every senator. But Senator Ahmed Lawan appropriated about 25 of the 100 slots for himself. The remaining was shared among less than ten ranking senators. This irked many of the other senators that did not benefit from the sharing of the largesse. Till now, the senate president has not explained. I belief political solution is being worked out at the background.

However, what got me in this whole Senate/FIRS employment saga is that the civil society, the opposition, organized Labour, the human right community, Marxist oriented lecturers among others have not risen up either collectively or individually to condemn the act. The Nigerian masses had been seriously pummeled and browbeaten to submission by the political class. At the time this is still raging, the recruitment of 10,000 policemen is generating its furore. The sharing formula which is seemingly at the exclusion and disadvantage of the average Nigerian had pitched the IGP against the Police Service Commission with all manners of drama playing out.

In the list released by the office of the IGP, Nasarawa State, one of the states in Nigeria with the lowest number of local government area and incidentally the home state of the current IGP and Katsina State, the home State of the President got the highest number of employment slots. Yet again, our civil society is not annoyed enough to react. Sharing employment slots among politicians is now the rule rather than the exception. Recently, Senator Remi Tinubu, accused Raji Fashola, the current minister of works and housing of not giving her employment slots during his time in office as minister of power, works and housing.

Recall the immigration employment disaster by Abba Moro where a lot of young people lost their lives in the process of searching for a job to earn a decent living.

Abba Moro is now a senator of the federal republic. Also of relevance to this discourse is the purported head hunting of children of the powerful Nigerian elite by the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele in other to stabilize his position at the apex bank at a time when there was a new sheriff in town in President Buhari who arrived the scene determined to clean the Augean stable.

These are just a few of the very many instances of politicizing employment opportunities and employment politicking in Nigeria. These few that got mentioned made it to press when there is disagreement or exclusion of a member of the elite circles from sharing of political booty. Mediocrity now reigns supreme in our land and meritocracy has been completely orphanized. Ministries and agencies employ people every day yet unemployment keep increasing daily.

The Civil service commissions merely exist in names only. The Head of Service of the Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi Esan expressed her frustration with the employment system in Nigeria recently when she said the head of agencies employ at will and bring paper for her to sign later. This sum up the rot in the civil service which has made it impossible for the organization to attract the very best in our midst.

A few months ago, I was discussing an important issue about development in Africa with a senior colleague at work, especially where I felt we got it wrong in this part of the world and he said “Some years ago, I applied for a consultant position in an international organization. After a rigorous but open recruitment process, I did not get the job, someone else did. I did not feel bad about not getting the job and I agreed that the best candidate got it. This is because the selection process was purely merited driven and transparent. We were given access to our test and interview scores with their grading criteria. A few months later, when the organization had another opening, I was contacted”. This essentially is what is lacking in our recruitment policy.

Even the so-called recruitment agencies are headhunting job applicants for exploit. They charged these young graduates, milk out the little they earned and eventually downside them upon request anytime because our employment law is very weak, ineffective and porous. Little Wonder, these set of people would place an advert on social media, websites and national dailies with not just unrealistic job targets but also a deadly age limit, elongated years of experience and other forms of unnecessary requirements to limit and kick out job applicants. They forgot not everyone can afford private University education.

The incessant strike by the Academic Staff Union of University, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education is enough to lose hope in our derail educational system which ought to have been completely overhauled with many 21st century courses and modifications by all authorities. Many graduates of Nigerian Polytechnics have continued to be discriminated against by some employers of Labour at Public and private institutions as if they were not contributing positively to the national development, yet all we hear on the news every day is mouth wash and parody of legislations.

Our leaders glorified certificate to the detriment of skills and sideline those who wish to work with dedication to the whim and caprices of unnecessary kowtowing. Wouldn’t you rather say without solid networking and referrals, to get a good job for a common man in Nigeria is a joke? No wonder late Aminu Kano once said when he was alive that Nigeria will not know peace until the son of nobody can make it with without anybody. Is this not true?

The present global pandemic of COVID-19 has exposed Nigeria weak health system. Recently a chieftain of Lagos chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Fouad Oki, said it is imperative of the Buhari administration as well as the 36 states’ governors to start looking at the microeconomic indices in the reflection of local content to stabilize employment after the pandemic. Oki further tasked the government to take a critical look at the country’s healthcare system, which according to him, has been badly exposed as being below standard by the pandemic.

Although, he acknowledged that the challenges in the healthcare system are not due to inadequate medical personnel, but a lack of political will on the part of the government to do the needful. “COVID-19 has seriously exposed the dangers our nation is prone to in case of national emergency and it is high time we faced the reality,” he said. “For instance, I wonder what would have happened if what is happening in the United States, Italy, Britain and other western nations that are presumed to have standard medical system had happened in Nigeria?” imagine that ! is he not correct? I am very sure if COVID-19 emanates from Africa, some of our bad leaders would have traveled out with their families, leaving more than 120 million Nigerians to die.
Like I said earlier, development is not rocket science. Any serious government that is desirous of placing Nigeria on the path of development can start with our fractured employment process. I appreciate the monetized nature of our politics, so because of that, the government can make about 80% of vacancies to be filled through merit while the remaining 20% by political patronage. The merit driven process must not only be transparent but be seen to be transparent so that every citizen have a fair and competitive chance.

At the end of the day, those that are not even lucky enough to be employed would start having confidence and belief in the system when they hear the testimonies of luckier candidates without political connections or godfather. Let us ask ourselves when last did any government agency conduct a merit driven employment process in Nigeria? I know for a fact that this present APC government has not conducted any, likewise the preceding PDP government. That is the reason why our graduates keep running after politicians and in the process turning to thuggery politicking to the extent of idolizing even half-educated politicians since they know that their survival lies in their hands and they possess the magic wand to delink them from poverty through dispensing of employment slots

ALABA DAMILARE SAMUEL, FROM JDPM, OYO STATE.