Everywhere in the world, one of the most prevalent political campaign promises remains the creation of massive job opportunities so that citizens, especially the youth, put their acquired skills to evident practice, and, of course, earn something. Such a campaign strategy seems to be a hot bait that easily puts political candidates in the centre of public attention. Yet, we seldom take to task our political leaders who fail to fulfil their campaign promises. Such a tendency is deeply entrenched in our society and it leaves political leaders more unconcerned and disinterested.
Perhaps, the question which we should ask ourselves is: are we really sure that the creation of massive job opportunities is a viable option that politicians should have to ease the tragedy of unemployment? It seems we are gradually gliding towards a world where ‘formal unemployment’ will establish itself in our midst. Thus, only those who are eager to engage into self-employment will explore perfect avenues of sustaining or consolidating their socio-economic statuses.
The last time I checked, the majority of the youths who are in institutions of higher learning expect to get some form of formal employment at the end of their training. Yet, it is becoming clear that such a world, where everyone who goes through formal education gets formal employment, will be hard to find. We are living in a fluid world; a world where survival is slowly turning to be something that will only favour the fittest. It is a world where everyone will be responsible for their own survival. Hard times are in the offing.
Speaking to some university students who gathered at Chancellor College in Zomba during a conference organised by the National Scholar Association, Managing Director for Business Consult Africa Henry Kachaje was quick to warn the students that they are eagerly waiting to explore a world they won’t find. Essentially, he was telling the students that they should develop an entrepreneurship spirit because they might be shocked to find that formal employment in the corporate world is like gold dust.
He gave an example of when he was in college about two decades ago. He worked with a certain firm on attachments where he saw four employees being replaced by one computer. That was about two decades ago, and obviously with the supersonic speed at which technological development is taking place, tomorrow a computer will be able to replace fifty people. Such is a world we will surely find. We are very unlikely to find a world where companies and organisations will be increasing the number of employees. To the contrary, while companies and organisations will be increasing their productivity, human resources will be slowly becoming less desirable.
It is only fair that our attitudes on employment be formatted. Political campaigners may promise that they will create numerous job opportunities, but we need to be mindful that the opportunities might simply slip from humans to machines. This is an inevitable phenomenon because we are living in a society where machines are at the centre of development.
One significant thing that we need to be aware of is that every company or organisation’s desire is to make profits and therefore remain in business. In the same line, companies and organisations will always try their utmost to ensure their expenditures are minimal. And if a computer can come in to assist, is there a company or organisation that will reject it? Of course, there are instances where a human being might be more preferable than a computer, but these too are very minimal.
Perhaps, political campaigners should be taken seriously where they promise to provide loans for those who want to engage in entrepreneurship. We can create a world of entrepreneurship where socio-economic reforms at individual level can be achieved. This seems the only perfect alternative to formal employment which is slowly drifting away like mist.
It is always true that government has a significant role to create the conditions that are essential for the promotion of entrepreneurship at the level of an individual, but we cannot pass over the fact that at the centre of governments are political figures that seldom have our welfare at heart. At the very core of policies that can improve the welfare of citizens are the national middle-class whose sole intention is to either enrich themselves or consolidate their economic positions. Thus, it becomes difficult to rely on politicians as far as entrepreneurship is concerned.
We will not find a world where politicians have the capacity to lay aside their personal interests to aid the unemployed. A world where all citizens have access to the little government-processed loans – regardless of one’s political affiliations – will be hard to find. If we don’t put into place proper strategies that will make us self-reliant, we are likely to continue wallowing in the deep recesses of abject poverty.
We may sit down and wait for opportunities to come our way, but such an attitude will take us a step backwards for those who wait for opportunities are most likely to be losing the little opportunity they had. Just like Carrie Wilkerson once said, “the longer you are not taking action, the more money you are losing.”
Entrepreneurship takes a lot of sacrifice, thus those who desire to beat unemployment by becoming entrepreneurs must not give up because of a single hiccup. After all, the sweetest triumph is that which seemed most impossible. And, a world where formal employment will easily flow like a river won’t be found. Such a world is an impossible creation in the midst of the massive and rapid technological development that is taking place.
