Editorial (Guardian Newspaper)
donationTHE recent warning by the Lagos State Government to politicians, philanthropists and other affluent members of society to stop donating motorcycles and tricycles to people, as supposed means of poverty alleviation and employment is really timely and commendable. It has appropriately challenged a disgraceful, even insulting practice that has gradually become the norm in most communities across the country. Commercial motorcycle and tricycle riders are on the increase because a mindset has over time been built that it is a lucrative trade thus making people jettison quest for real skills and making governments too lazy in dealing appropriately with challenges of transportation on one hand and unemployment on the other.
Just embarrassingly, the donation of motorcycles and tricycles has become a veritable means of grassroots mobilisation, especially, by politicians, who give little thought to the sustainability of such an empowerment strategy. Such donations may give succour to the recipients in the short-run; it is nevertheless, unsustainable, especially, if the beneficiaries lack appropriate skills for self-employment.
There is need, therefore, for the well-to-do in all communities to collaborate with governments in finding a lasting solution to the issue of poverty and mass unemployment, especially, among the youths. Half measures or mere tokenism such as buying motorcycles or tricycles for people will not solve the problem. It could actually aggravate it instead.
In the case of Lagos State, Commissioner for Transport, Kayode Opeifa, who issued the warning, explained that those vehicles were even at variance with the transportation master plan of the government. He suggested that rather than purchase multiple motorcycles and tricycles, the benevolent Nigerians should instead team up with government in its mass transit policy by pooling resources together to invest in public transport-related empowerment and wealth creation programme. He stressed that government will not condone the menace of motorcycles and tricycles, especially, in restricted streets. But Opeifa did not state how this approach would benefit the targeted recipients.
Without doubt, the practice of donating motorcycles and tricycles under the guise of empowerment is not good enough. Politicians are the guilty lot and they don’t seem to appreciate the negative impact of this gesture. What seem to matter are the short-term benefits. Granted that the gesture provides short-term employment; it is despairing for people to wait for donations of vehicles as the only means of survival. Empowerment doesn’t amount to tokenism but teaching them skills that would be useful to them for the rest of their lives? It is needless to donate, say, in a rural community, hundreds of such motorcycles to folks, whose immediate need is not transportation. Given the bad roads, wear and tear coupled with poor maintenance, within six months or so, the vessels would collapse, and the recipients would be back to square one.
Against this backdrop, there are smatter ways of empowering people. They could be given training through which they acquire skills that would in turn create wealth and employment. Acquisition of skills is better and is sustainable while tokenism is counterproductive. In a way, it would seem a deliberate attempt to eternally pauperise the people.
Skills such as plumbing, carpentry, hairdressing, bakery, dressmaking, masonry, bead making, are in high demand. Youths who have no opportunity to further their education after secondary school should learn these trades and many may in turn become employers of labour. This promotes self-actualisation more than being motorcycle and tricycle drivers.
Philanthropists and politicians should look out for youths that have one skill or the other and support them to set up their own businesses. There are thousands of youths who have acquired needed skills but lack the financial capacity to set up their businesses. People with skills should be trained. The technical schools, which have been neglected for so long should be revived to provide the platform for acquiring lifelong skills. Nothing is wrong with people giving or receiving donations but there is the need to re-orientate the people on sustainability. Yes, there is the hindrance to these propositions such as lack of electricity and infrastructure, but this remains only a challenge to the extent that the government has not fully surmounted it.
One viable option is for the people to come together and form cooperatives to gain access to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) finance. The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), was created in 2003, to promote the development of micro, small and medium enterprises. But the agency has not lived up to expectation. The same applies to the micro finance banks, licensed to leverage small businesses but have become a huge disappointment.
There is need, therefore, to reconfigure the SMEs to meet emerging realities as small and medium scale enterprises form the bedrock of any economy. And all empowerment schemes by government and private bodies or individuals should be rooted in this reality
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