But last week, the National Bureau of Statistics , a public agency, gave scary statistics about the performance of the economy, indicting the Federal Government as a critical player, thus dispensing the motive issue about its statistics.
Six years earlier, that is Q4 of 2014, the country’s unemployment rate was 6.4 per cent, suggesting a percentage point increase of 26.9 per cent. The 5.2 per cent increase in six months was also the steepest jump in recent years. Whereas the number of persons in the economically-active or working-age population was 122.1 million, a 4.3 per cent increase from 116.9 million reported during the previous survey, the size of the labour market tumbled by 13.2 per cent to 69.7 million. This suggests that more jobless people have voluntarily withdrawn from the labour market for reasons ranging from despair to criminal engagement.
The geographical distribution of unemployment is also a part of the scary pattern. The report shows a wide disparity in the figure posted by different states, with the range analysis hovering around 45 per cent. Imo State posted a 56.6 per cent unemployment rate to top the table as against Osun State’s 11.7 per cent. The disparity speaks to the country’s uneven development and unequal poverty level.
A day after the unemployment poured on the digital space, the inflation data came in with their traditional apprehension. The headline inflation, which has stoked multiple socio-economic crises, rose to 17.33 per cent, the highest in four years, year-on-year , showing that Nigeria is fully back to the 2017 crisis.But like the labour market, the character of the inflation is dreadful. For instance, the food inflation jumped to 21.