THE HARD TRUTH: Stop telling the youth to create jobs

There is something irritating about a professor who has spent most of his working life drawing a salary telling unemployed young people to go out and create jobs.

It becomes worse when a minister, comfortably seated in an air-conditioned office and enjoying a salary, allowances and other benefits, delivers the same lecture.

And it becomes insulting when those giving these lectures are themselves unwilling to surrender positions they have occupied for decades.

The message to Namibia's ama2000s is familiar: Stop complaining. Be innovative. Become entrepreneurs. Create your own employment. Do not wait for the government.

It sounds wonderful coming from people whose salaries arrive every month.

But here is a question: If creating jobs is so easy, why are those giving the advice so determined to keep theirs?

Why do some professors resist retirement? Why do senior officials fight to remain in office beyond retirement age? Why do political leaders continue seeking appointments after decades of public employment?

Surely, people who believe so strongly in entrepreneurship should show how it works.

Let the professor leave the university and establish a business employing unemployed graduates. Let the former minister build an enterprise that survives without government contracts or political connections.

Let the senior official who has spent 30 years advising others about economic opportunities try surviving without a guaranteed salary.

Then perhaps the lectures will carry more weight.

This is not an argument that older people have nothing to contribute. Experience and institutional memory matter. Namibia needs knowledgeable people who can mentor younger generations.

But mentorship is not the same as occupying a position indefinitely.

There comes a time when experience must be transferred rather than guarded, when leadership must prepare successors instead of blocking succession.

A university cannot preach innovation while denying younger academics opportunities to rise. A ministry cannot speak convincingly about youth empowerment while treating senior positions as permanent possessions.

And we must stop pretending that every unemployed graduate can simply become an entrepreneur.

Businesses require capital, customers, premises, equipment, electricity, transport and access to markets. They require an economy in which people have money to spend.

A graduate without savings, collateral or influential connections does not become an employer because a professor has delivered an inspirational speech.

Entrepreneurship is important, but it cannot become an excuse to avoid creating employment opportunities or addressing the barriers young people face.

Nor should young Namibians be made to feel that seeking paid employment is evidence of laziness.

There is dignity in employment, just as there is dignity in running a business.

The irony is that some of those most enthusiastic about telling young people to become self-employed have never tested their own advice under the conditions facing today's graduates.

They entered institutions when times were different. They built careers, earned salaries and accumulated financial security.

Today's young people are being asked to build businesses in an economy where even finding transport money for a job interview can be difficult.

Of course, retirement alone will not solve unemployment. One senior official leaving does not automatically create hundreds of jobs.

But succession, fair recruitment and opportunities for promotion matter.

Instead of asking only what ama2000s are doing to create jobs, ask what established professionals are doing to create opportunities.

Namibia needs young entrepreneurs. It also needs young lecturers, managers, engineers, directors and public servants.

They cannot all become employers. Nor should they have to.

Perhaps the next time a professor or minister tells unemployed young people to create jobs, someone should politely ask:

‘Professor, minister, if entrepreneurship is the answer, when are you going to try it?’