Stakeholders identify Green jobs as solution to unemployment in Nigeria

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s Labour sector have identified the creation, transition and implementation of green jobs as a means of balancing the unemployment challenge as well as countering the effects of the ongoing global climate change which has also affected Nigeria.

They made the call in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital at a one-day national consultative meeting for the Alliance for Green Jobs Nigeria powered by the Ministry of Labour and Employment and supported by the International Labour organisation (ILO).

This proposal to create massive green jobs for Nigerian women and youths was tagged “Green Jobs Alliance for Nigeria “ and it is designed as a Public Private Sector Initiative also involving government institutions and the organised Labour.

The focus of the meeting is to get the input of key stakeholders at the planning stage of the project.

According to the ILO Country Director for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Serrie-Leone and ECOWAS, Ms Vanessa Phala in a message, she said the Alliance for Green Jobs Creation is built on the Paris Agreement which highlighted a just transition and decent work as essential elements to responses to climate change.

She expressed optimism that the alliance will contribute to strengthening the resilience of the nation’s local economy and expansion of opportunities for decent job creation.

“Considering the increasing unemployment in the country, this initiative has become extremely important and has placed emphasis on our collective actions and commitments.

“As a United Nations (UN) specialized agency, the ILO’s mandate is to advance opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

“On the climate front, ILO has commissioned a number of studies. A rapid situational analysis of the ‘employment-climate-environment nexus’ was carried out in the country in 2020, with the aim of identifying entry points in the national policy framework for just transition policies”, she said.

She said it takes consistent efforts to ensure that opportunities from climate intervention and actions are maximised for creation of green jobs.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Ms Kachollom Daju, said the current economic growth model is highly vulnerable since it is based on only two major unsustainable energy resources; Wood, and Oil & Gas, which are primarily produced through deforestation and highly unsustainable with high rate of natural resource consumption.

The Minister admitted that Nigeria faces waves of severe impacts of the climate change phenomenon, such as the rising frequency of climate-induced disasters; increased numbers of eco-migrants, with large numbers of internally displaced persons; high level degradation of the ecosystems; massive number of unemployed and underemployed youth, and significant pressures on agric production.

“Other consequences include massive erosion of the biodiversity; as well as increasing food insecurity with negative effects on morbidity and mortality rates.” the Minister said.

The Minister who commended the ILO’s support in creating the new, more environment-friendly Nigeria said “As owners, Drivers and Champions of the new green economy for Nigeria, we have the power to change the status quo and to create a desired nation, devoid of these myriads of environment-related socio-economic challenges.”

Acting President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Joe Ajaero in a good will message, said that every country has had its fair share of the effects of the ongoing global climate change and that it was imperative for everyone to rise up to ward off the challenges the change has brought.

“The alliance for green jobs is one of the possible ways to write off the challenges of climate change, green jobs must be sustainable in order to cure the deficits that drive global forces in the economy”, Ajaero said.

For Dr Stephen Agugua, National Project Coordinator of ILO ‘Just Transition and Green Jobs Project’, he said“Just Transition is a gift to global climate change discussion for the working people of the world.

“It demands that there should be a shift from fossil fuel carbon intrusive economy and the production of consumption system that is less carbon intensive”

There were good will messages from the organised labour, employers’ association, the Climate Change Council and the Chairman, House Committee on Labour and Employment in Nigeria’s House of Representatives among others.