Unemployment, Who Is To Blame?

By Vandoline Nkwain (UB Journalism Student On Internship)

University education in Cameroon today is far from providing people with jobs with a majority of Degree holders roaming the streets.

This situation brings to mind a question as to why people should spend
large sums of money, get big qualifications and remain jobless in the
end. However, very few people bother to look into the cause of their
plight and others are quick to point fingers at others, blaming them
for their joblessness.

Most often, the government has been blamed for
failing to provide graduates with jobs but it seems the problem goes
beyond that.The unanswered is what unemployment actually is and how it affects the Cameroonian economy.

Ten people were asked to define unemployment before this article was
written. Four of these people said unemployment is a phenomenon in
which people do not have well paid jobs to sustain themselves and their
families; two said when people are not engaged in an economic activity
of any sort, they are unemployed; three said it is a situation in which
government does not provide jobs for its graduates.

Yet, according to
another, if the resources of a country are under utilised, be they
human or non human resources, there is unemployment.Most people who talked to The Post advanced several reasons for unemployment.

According to a University of Buea Journalism and Mass Communication
graduate, Stephen Moki, the real problem is with Cameroonians who sit
and wait for the government to employ them. To him, this group of
people see self-employment as reserved for the uneducated. He argues
that employment does not only mean getting into the civil service. He
revealed that with his Degree, he works on his farm and also employs
other Cameroonians.

Mercy Abang, a History graduate contents that she roasts fish to make
a living. She blamed government for the unemployment of graduates.
"Government officials have monopolised public offices, using them as
personal business, asking for bribe at every opportunity," she argues.

On his part, Police Commissioner, Peter Diangha said unemployment in
Cameroon is due to lack of skills. To him there are a lot of jobs but
there are no professionals to fit into them. However, he suggests that
students should opt for more professional, rather than general
education.

Economist’s Analysis

Eric Ntarmark, holder of a Master’s Degree in International Economics,
defines unemployment as the under utilisation of the resources
available in a country at a given time. He says it is the absence of
jobs for people who are of working age and who are seen to be actively
seeking for employment.

Ntarmark sees the constant changes in
technology as a factor that contributes greatly to the growing trend of
unemployment. "In the yesteryears, it was possible to have good jobs
with just the Advanced Level, but nowadays, people must have specific
professional skills and be computer literate to have the same job,"
Ntarmark said.

Ntarmark recommended the professionalisation of university courses as a
solution to the problem. He further suggested that government officials
could use the embezzled money to create employment for other citizens,
by opening farms or investing in businesses that could employ them.
Besides, he advises jobseekers to stop waiting for government to offer
them employment but to create employment or acquire professional
skills.

Employment Authority

Talking to The Post, the Southwest Provincial Delegate of Employment
and Professional Training, James Foretia, said only about 20% of
Cameroon’s population is employed to offer the services for which they
were initially trained. He attributes this situation to the economic
crisis, which struck Cameroon in the mid 1980s and the devaluation of
the Franc CFA in 1994, which both   slowed down the rate of industrial
productivity.

Foretia said government created the unemployment
situation it motivated students to go to the university and study
either History or Law while neglecting Technical education. This, he
said, made Cameroonians to have a bias against Technical education and
consequently become un-enterprising. "Academic degrees are no longer
sufficient for job acquisition, now it is professionalism that counts,"
said Foretia.

He added that the government is doing its best through the Ministry of
Employment and Professional Training to curb the high rate of
unemployment. He takes the Integrated Support Project For Actors in the
Informal sector as the enigma of projects to boost productivity and
create employment. This project, he said, grants loans to business
people, which are refundable from after the twelfth month. Besides, job
orientation, counselling and placement have been introduced to help
citizens fend for themselves.

Besides the above, some people believe that some government officials
have hijacked public offices and made them their family or tribal
property. This, they argue, has promoted corruption whereby have to
offer bribe in order to gain employment.

Thomas Orock, guidance counsellor at the Provincial Delegation of
Employment and Professional Training suggests that a change of
mentality towards technical education would make an apt solution to the
problem. "People should not think that because they are holders of big
academic qualifications, they couldn’t become taxi drivers because it
is for the uneducated. Instead, by virtue of their education they could
learn any other trade in the face of unemployment and become better off.

Sunday, 30 September 2007 at 05:34 AM in News | Permalink