A few days ago, the Federal Government announced the constitution of a national committee on job creation under the chairmanship of business mogul Aliko Dangote. The 20-member committee is expected to review existing reports on employment generation in Nigeria and outline key findings and recommendations. The committee is also mandated to study how other countries combat unemployment with a view to developing a pool of possible policy interventions.

Ordinarily, any effort to find a solution to the huge unemployment problem besetting the country ought to attract commendation. But the setting up of this committee at this time and its mandate are very troubling. Clearly, it creates the impression the government is really not very serious about the monster called unemployment.

It is indeed amazing that, given the challenge that unemployment constitutes to this country, it is just now the Federal Government is setting up a committee to synthesise various reports on the subject presumably before something can begin to be done about it. What this means is that those running the government are just now waking up to the reality that joblessness is indeed a serious problem threatening the peace and stability of the country.

The excuse may be that it was just in May that Goodluck Jonathan became substantive president and now that he is in the saddle, he needs to have a holistic picture of the malaise before he can unveil his roadmap for tackling it. Such an excuse cannot be good enough because unemployment is not an emerging problem in Nigeria.

The challenge has been with us for a long time now and it is fair to expect that any one who accedes to the presidency of our country ought to have a fair idea of what the trouble is and what is required to solve the problem. Such a person does not need the services of any committee to have a handle on the matter.

We expect that having been vice-president in the Yar'adua-Jonathan administration before he acceded to the presidency, President Jonathan ought to be conversant with the problem and the plan to contain the monster, given the fact that job creation is a part of the seven-point agenda of the Yar'adua-Jonathan administration. That this is not the case is unfortunate.

We believe that this committee is one committee too many. It is time wasting, unnecessary and serves to demoralise the spirit of millions of hungry and angry Nigerians who have no means of livelihood and who cannot now have any feeling that a solution is anywhere in sight for the problem of their joblessness.

If the Federal Government or governments of the states of the federation and the 774 local governments are serious about tackling unemployment, there are many organisations and agencies of government that can provide the blueprint for addressing the problem, rather than relying on a committee, most of whose members are captains of industry and who will simply not find the time to do the work no matter their passion to help the jobless.

If by now the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, the National Directorate of Employment, the National Poverty Alleviation and many international and local NGOs which have for decades been involved in the twin issues of unemployment and poverty do not have the statistics of the unemployed and the blueprint that can be relied upon to help solve the problem of unemployment, then there is something terribly wrong with our system.

The threat posed to the corporate existence of this nation by millions of unemployed youths who are easily recruited for political thuggery, religious and inter-communal conflicts, kidnapping and other serious vices should make the tackling of unemployment one of the primary obligations of all our governments. The matter should not be handled by endless committee meetings and other foot-dragging approaches of government.