Impact of Transformation Agenda on Economic Development in Nigeria During Jonathan Administration
Chapter One
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The aim of the research work is to:
- Determine the roles of federal government in the resolution of high importation of food in Nigeria.
- find out if the transformation agenda being helpful in any way.
- find out the reasons for setting up the transformation agenda program.
- know if this present administration be better than the previous administration.
- offer solution of how Nigeria can solve the problem of importation.
- find out if the transformation agenda have any significant effect on the social and economic development of Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
THE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA
Nigeria’s development efforts have over the years been characterized by lack of continuity, consistency and commitment (3Cs) to agreed policies, programmes and projects as well as an absence of a long-term perspective. The culminating effect has been growth and development of the Nigerian Economy without a concommittant improvement in the overall welfare of Nigerian citizens. Disregard to these 3Cs has resulted in rising unemployment, inequality and poverty. The need for a holistic transformation of the Nigerian State has necessitated a strategy that gives cognizance to these 3Cs. The current administration has responded to this need in its Transformation Agenda, which covers the period 2011 – 2015. The Transformation Agenda which is based and draws its inspiration from the NV 20:2020 and the 1 st National Implementation Plan (NIP), aims to deepen the effects and provide a sense of direction for the current administration over the next four years. The agenda is based on a set of priority policies and programmes which when implemented will transform the Nigerian Economy to meet the future needs of the Nigerian people. The prioritized policies, programmes and projects contained in this document were properly scrutinized by a Presidential Committee set up for this purpose and endorsed by Mr. President. It was assisted by technical experts drawn from the public and private sectors. While this exercise does not cover all projects in the 1 st NIP and the 2011 budget but rationalizes them on the basis of certain criteria to produce a more compact set of programmes on which the government will deliver in the next four years.
TRANSFORMATION AGENDA AND THE LEVEL OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA
One of the major reason for the transformation agenda by president Goodluck is to reduce the level of unemployement in Nigeria; Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose from 21.1 per cent in 2010 to 23.9 per cent in 2011. The labour force swelled by 2.1 million to 67,256,090 people, with just 51,224,115 persons employed, leaving 16,074,205 people without jobs. Insufficient jobs resulted in additional 2.1 million unemployed persons in 2011, up from 1.5 million in 2010, even as Nigeria’s population, according to NBS, grew by 3.2 per cent in 2011, from 159.3 million people in 2010 to 164.4 million in 2011. NBS however, added that, “Unemployment was higher in the rural areas, at 25.6 percent, than in the urban areas, where it was 17 per cent on average.” NBS however, admonished that in the light of the country’s fast growing population, there is need to double efforts at creating a conducive environment for job creation in order to reverse the trend. Therein lies Nigerian’s fears. For instance Akintude Maberu told The Nation that “government is yet to come up with conscientious and people-oriented policies targeted at getting millions of unemployed Nigerian youths actively and meaningfully engaged”(Okorocha, 2014:5). While noting that unemployment remains one of the major concerns in the country today, the renowned fiancé analyst and stockbroker dismissed current federal government’s programmes aimed at creating jobs as “more propaganda.” He argued that reversing the trend of rising youth unemployment must start from the nation’s education sector, which he said must be overhauled along the line of skills acquisition. Hear this: “Nigeria’s education curriculum should be immediately revised to incorporate entrepreneurial skills and enterprise development. This would adequately horn the entrepreneurial skills of Nigerian youths (Okorocha, 2014:5). The idea, Maberu explained, is that with adequate skills and hands-on experience in various vocations, Nigerian graduates would be self employed after leaving school while those in school would find something doing even before completing their education. He said that this would save Nigerian youths the stress and trauma of endless and fruitless search for paid employments in a highly saturated labour market. The approach, according to him, has become even more necessary considering the fact that many Nigerian graduates are unemployable. Maberu also took a swipe at the structure of Nigeria’s civil service which, according to him, is not structured in a way that allows qualified youths take up vacant positions left by retired civil servants in an open and transparent manner. While conceding that indeed, few employment opportunities exist in the country, he however, expressed regrets that the few job openings in various government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), unlike in the past, are no longer openly advertised. He asked, When was the last time you saw job advertisements in the papers by any of the MDAs? adding, you hardly see advertisements for jobs these days, and until there is a progressive shift from bottom up, allowing civil servants in MDAs to genuinely retire and make room for the younger ones instead of reserving those jobs for their cronies, the rising unemployment trend in the country may never be reversed (Okorocha, 2014:5). Maberu argued that the need for more concerted and holistic efforts to reverse the rising youth unemployment has become even more necessary considering the grim picture painted recently of the global unemployment market by the International Labour Organization (ILO). ILO (2014) projected that global unemployment would hit over 215 million by 2018. The organization in its ‘Global Employment Trends 2014’ noted that the uneven economic recovery and successive downward revisions in economic growth projections have had an impact on the global employment situation with the result that about 202 million people were unemployed in 2013 around the world. The figure, according to ILO (2014),is an increase of almost 5 million compared with the year before, reflecting the fact that employment is not expanding sufficiently fast to keep up with the growing labour fore. ILO(2014) said the bulk of the increase in global unemployment is in the East Asia and South Asia regions, which together represent more than 45 per cent of additional jobseekers, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. Latin America, by contrast, added fewer than 50,000 additional unemployed to the global number-or around 1 per cent of the total increase in unemployment in 2013. ILO (2014) said overall, the crisis-related global jobs gap that has opened up since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, over and above an already large number of jobseekers, continues to widen. ILO (2014) projected that in 2013, this gap reached 62 million jobs, including 32 million additional jobseekers, 23 million people that became discouraged and no longer look for jobs and 7 million economically inactive people that prefer not to participate in the labour market and on current trends, it would rise by a further 13 million people by 2018. It also said that if current trends continue, “global unemployment is set to worsen further, albeit gradually, reaching more than 215 million jobseekers by 2018.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research design is the plan structure and strategy of investigation developed so as to obtain answer to research questions and control variance (Kerlinger, 1973:45).
SOURCES OF DATA
The researcher used both primary and secondary methods of data collection.
Primary Data: This is data that is obtained first hand from the respondents. Primary data method is obtained through the administration of questionnaires and personal interviews.
Secondary Data: secondary source of data are opinions of exports in the experts views and are obtained from related literature from private, professional ad academic libraries.
THE POPULATION STUDY
The study of population would cover about 200 respondent that have idea about the transformation agenda during president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan administration. The responses of both the gender will be considered for the purpose of the research work.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
This chapter is devoted to the presentation, analysis and interpretation of the data gathered in the course of this study. The data are based on the number of copies of the questionnaire completed and returned by the respondents. The data are presented in tables and the analysis is done using the chi-square test and pearson correlation.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The aim of the research work is to:
- Determine the roles of federal government in the resolution of high importation of food in Nigeria.
- find out if the transformation agenda being helpful in any way.
- find out the reasons for setting up the transformation agenda program.
- know if this present administration be better than the previous administration.
- offer solution of how Nigeria can solve the problem of importation.
- find out if the transformation agenda have any significant effect on the social and economic development of Nigeria.
FINDINGS
From the responses of the respondents we were able to find out that:
- transformation agenda has significant effect on the growth and development of the Nigeria economy.
- High rate of importation have significant effect on the economic development of Nigeria
- Goodluck Ebele Jonathan regime will be better than the previous regimes in Nigeria.
- the transformation agenda has significant effect on the expenditure processes in Nigeria
- Nigeria has undergone series of change under Goodluck jonathan’s regime
CONCLUSION
From the responses of the respondents and the result of the data analysis, we conclude that there is mean differences in gender responses of the respondents that the transformation agenda has significant effect on the growth and development of the Nigeria economy, the male counter part responded more than the female because of their differences in political interest.
RECOMMENDATION
From the findings and conclusion made we recommend the following to assist the future administration in policy decision making
- The Jonathan’s regime should focus on the maintenance of all the Nigerian refinaries as this will reduce the rate at which Nigeria export crude oil to other countries for refining.
- The future administration should model the present adminstrtion so as not to leave anything unfinished
- The present administration should work on the importation rate of the country as this have significant effect on the economic growth and development of Nigeria.
REFERENCES
- Ajala A. and Alonge S.K (2008) Health Sector Reforms: Implementations For Reproductive Health. National Anthropological and Sociological Association (NASA) Conference,
- Usman Danfodio University, Nigeria. (BUSINESSDAY, 04 JAN 2012). Retrieved on 21st of February, 2012 From
- http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/analysis/editorial/31522-public-servicereform-and-transformation-agenda-)
- Esteva C. (1995) Development in Sachs W. (ed) The Development Dictionary: A guide to knowledge as power. London and New Jersey Zed Books LTD
- Gyong J.E. (2011) Good Governance and Accountability in a Democracy. 50th Years of Nigerian’s Nationhood. Issues and Challenges for Sustainable Development.
- Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, Nigeria. Haynes J. (ed) (2005) Development Studies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Ilufoye, S.O (2010) Democracy and Good Governance: Nigeria’s Dilemma. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations Vol. 4 No. 6.
