The paradox of celebrating workers’ day continues unabated everywhere but one can certainly not ignore the irony here in Africa. Although several nations celebrate workers of the world in May, the day is becoming a day for protest groups (especially the unemployed masses) to register their dissatisfaction with the political elites. Youth groups in Africa have over the years mounted massive protests arguing that May Day is ‘meaningless’ when majority of the African youth are jobless. 

“With over 50% of African youth unemployed, it makes no sense for the continent to celebrate May Day,” says Agyeman Kodua, a final year student of the University of Ghana. Many people in Ghana are also wondering why the country is celebrating when over 40% of government workers have not been paid for the past five months.

A quick glance at the current unemployment statistics portrays an alarming “official” unemployment rates across Africa. If these figures are said to be ‘official,’ then one can only imagine the alarming rate at which the unofficial figures would be in the various African countries.

As a government worker who had a day off to ‘celebrate’ May Day, I took some time to do a little research about the rate of unemployment on the African continent. I discovered that in the EAC/SADC and COMESA region, the unemployment rate in Mozambique is 60%, Djibouti: 59%, Namibia: 52%, Zimbabwe: 51%, Congo: 51% Kenya: 44%, Swaziland: 40% Burundi: 35%, Angola: 28%, South Africa 26%, Lesotho: 25%, Ethiopia: 20%, Zambia: 19% and Botswana: 15%.

Moreover, in West Africa, the unemployment rate in Senegal is 49%, Mali: 42%, Equatorial Guinea: 38%, Ivory Coast: 36%, Nigeria: 28%, Liberia: 18% Niger: 16% and Ghana: 12%

Northern Africa is not spared. Mauritania, for example, has an unemployment rate of 33% Libya: 30%, Chad: 26% and Sudan: 21%.

These figures when added translate to over 400 million people roaming the streets of Africa without jobs. With such alarming numbers, why should Africa celebrate May Day? Does it make sense for 1 billion Africans to celebrate May Day when most of them are without jobs?

Why too much unemployment?

Unemployment in Africa can be attributed to bad leadership and lack of vision. As a result of bad leadership, there are no clear policies that address unemployment in Africa. We currently lack industrialization that creates jobs. We export unprocessed agricultural products and minerals, thereby losing money and jobs. Agriculture alone has the potential to eliminate unemployment from Africa, yet governments have never considered supporting the farmers. Many of state institutions that were meant to create jobs have been sold off to private investors who lay off local workers and bring in workers from abroad.

The continent's bad educational system also contributes to the unemployment scourge. Our education system is not tailored to address the needs of our immediate environment.  I have been reliably informed that the Copper Belt University in Zambia for instance is a business school. Do the courses therein prepare Zambians to harness and add value to copper? Look at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. It is dominated with arts, political and social science courses, leaving very little room for science and technical causes. How will Africa develop with such discrepancies?  We train people who come out with the notion that respective governments and society must employ them. They do not take any initiative to create jobs for themselves. There are many graduates who do not see the need to be on the field/site but rather they want to be in the offices. They want to be in suit and tie.

Corruption is also a factor. Many donors send money dedicated to Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs). If such moneys would be put to proper and targeted use, SMEs would expand employ more workers. Unfortunately, such moneys end up in the pockets of the political elites for self-aggrandizement and financing political campaigns/rallies. Some politicians even buy votes instead of setting up businesses that can employ the young ones.

The way forward

Educational reform is needed to address the crises posed by unemployment. We need an educational system that will be tailored to the needs of our immediate environment. There is no need for a university which sits on huge oil and gas reserves to be training people who can sing and dance as we see in the Niger Delta State University, (Nigeria) which has no oil and gas research department. Our universities must identify the challenges within their immediate environment and help train more specialists to address them.

Additionally, every organisation must dedicate itself to the fight against corruption. Moneys that are meant for infrastructural development must not end up in offshore accounts somewhere while our people continue to dwell in communities without reliable water supply.

Governments must dedicate more resources to the building of industries to help absorb some of the unemployed youth. This will help tackle the challenge posed by unemployment such as armed robbery, prostitution, unwanted pregnancies and the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Until a higher percentage of our people are adequately employed and duly paid to work, the celebration of workers’ day will have no useful significance in our society.

By Honourable Saka

The author [email protected] is Project Coordinator, Project Pan-Africa.