According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the
unemployment rate in Nigeria was 14.2% in the last quarter of 2016 (up from
13.9% in the preceding quarter).
Bad as this looks, I think it's actually much worse than the
numbers show.
Let me paint a scenario.
Say Mr. Emeka Babatunde Ahmed has a job or is employed or
engaged in some meaningful way and he is on his way to work on a Monday
morning.
The time is 7:15am
Somewhere around Yaba bus stop, an accident occurs. A Danfo runs into an Okada, and both rider and passenger are sprawled on the ground. A
small crowd gathers and the driver is trying to explain how it was the Okada man's fault while everyone is insisting
that he takes the accident victims to the hospital.
What do you expect Emeka Babatunde Ahmed to do?
Join the crowd in hassling the Danfo driver or continue on his way to work?
We all expect he would feel pity for the Okada rider and his passenger and maybe
stand in the crowd for a minute or two ranting about how reckless Danfo drivers are and then he would
continue on his way to work.
I said I believe the unemployment rate in Nigeria is a lot
higher than 14.2% and I will tell you a story to illustrate why I think so.
Early this year, right after MMM crashed, I was driving to work when this guy steps in front of
my car on Apapa Road, just before Costain roundabout. Thankfully, I was only
doing about 40 km/h. I was about 20 meters away from this guy and I saw him
look at me, turn away and step off the curb onto the road. I virtually stood on
my brakes to avoid hitting him.
There was some impact and my right headlamp broke but he
didn't seem too battered; just a little shaken. Luckily for me, everyone around
saw what had happened and there was even a policeman in mufti who told me to
get in my car and drive away since it wasn't my fault and the guy wasn't hurt.
Then out of nowhere, this other guy shows up and starts
talking about how his friend may be
bleeding internally and had to be taken to a hospital. And then three more guys
show up and apparently, they are all best buds.
I agree to take their friend to the hospital and
all four of them hop into my car. At first, they say there is a traditional chiropractor
not too far away in Ebute Metta but when we get there, we are told she is not
in. Next, they say we should take him to the General Hospital. At this point, I
call an admin officer at work and ask if my medical benefits could cover other
individuals in accidents I was involved in. He responded in the affirmative.
When I tell them I'm taking their friend to my own hospital,
three of them ask me to drop them off. Now it's just the first friend and the dude involved in the
accident left in the car.
We get to the hospital and the nurses take the guy involved
in the accident upstairs to run preliminary tests. The lady at the front desk
asks for his name so she can open a file for him and this guy's friend goes, "I am coming, let me
go and ask him his name". He didn't even know the guy!
Why would a full
grown man with no visible physical disabilities or apparent mental impairment
jump into a car with another man involved in an accident who he does not know
on a weekday morning. It kind of reminded me of how I used to jump at every
opportunity to get into the car whenever my dad, brother or one of my sisters
was going out. I didn't have any business where they were going, but I just
loved being in the car.
I left the hospital after signing for his treatment to be
billed to me.
And this story is the basis of my assumption that there are
more unemployed or underemployed people on the streets of Nigeria than the
statistics would have us believe.
Time and again, I have seen it happen. There's an accident
or an altercation of some sort and before you know it, a crowd has gathered and
most of these people stay until the very end.
Statistics always tell a story. And like every story, it is
entirely the prerogative of the story teller to take the plot wherever he
wants.
