CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Of The Study

The phenomenon of unemployment and crime wave is not new in the world like in the sub-Saharan African countries, Cameroon and Kumbo is not an exception. Being an ethnographic study, context is essential for it appreciation. This study is set against the background of what is known popularly in Cameroon as la crisis-crisis of unemployment and crime wave that conjures simply more than the Spector’s of economic and political uncertainty, indeed understand by most as a deep moral crisis.

Unemployment is probably the most widely feared phenomenon of our times. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s unemployment resulting from slow economic growth or economic crisis which was one of the most serious economic problems in Cameroon and the rest of the world (Ndichia, 2011)

The problem of unemployment has remained intractable even in the developed economies of the world like the U.S.A German France to mention but these few. Being unemployed makes one happy. Awake (1983), stated that unemployment could bring happiness or makes one wanted and needed. It further argued that people acquire certain skills so that they could be employed and be able to provide for their needs and that of the family, but unemployment seems to step in and dash this hope. Unemployment is one of the social problems in Cameroon which has assumed a greater dimension with the emergence of the `black god” that is crude oil as every young school leaver had to abandon the village in search of employment in the urban centers. The government on her side also forget the Agricultural sector, which was the mainstay of the economy in the 1960s.

By 1986, an estimated 3.7million people were said to be unemployed with about a 1.5million youths joining the labour force annually. This resulted in an urban unemployment rate of 8% and rural unemployment rate of 4% (Federal office of statistics, 1986). All the components of youths, especially graduates, retrenched civil servants and private sector employee.

Unemployment consists of all those that are willing to but are unable to find jobs. The total labour force of Cameroon is made up of those between the age of 15years and 59years. unemployment arises when the demand for labour of the factors of production falls.

In this study therefore we are going to examine the causes and impacts of unemployment on the crime wave in Kumbo municipality.

Looking at the unemployment rate in sub-Saharan Africa, the case of Cameron is no different; we see that young people who are aged between 15-25 represent more than 60% of the continent’s total population and account for 45% of the total labour force. Unlike other developing regions, sub-Saharan Africa’s population is becoming more of youths with youths are the proportion of the total population, projected at over 75% by 2015 due to the high fertility rate underlying momentum and is expected that this number of youths will not decline before 20 years.

It is estimated that about 133million or more than 50% of the youth population in Africa are illiterate (Nyuylim 2006). Many youths have little or no skills and are therefore largely excluded from productive economic and social life. Those that have skills often exhibit irrelevant skills to the current demand in the labour market. In a situation where education and skill requirements are increasing, resulting in millions of unemployment and under-employed youth. The incidence of youths on unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to be over 20% (Nyuylim, 2006)

The economic crisis of Cameroon happened during the 1980s, various economic conditions combine to lead to this crisis in the economy of Cameroon. The government of Cameroon admitted the economic crisis that was chiefly caused by the sudden drop in the prices of export goods of Cameroon in the international market. The major outcome Cameroon’s economic crisis was the hike in the price rate of daily activities.

The government of Cameroon lost a large part of revenue and trade deficits were also incurred, the government however was not interested to accept help from other partners like the USA and Germany. The government adopted certain policies to overcome the economic crisis of Cameroon. These policies include the stoppage of providing benefits to civil servants, the selling of various objects, the privatization of many sectors. The measures taken by the government led to an increase in crime and violence rate and with these problems, the country accepted packages from International Monetary Fund, African Development Bank and World Bank.

In 1993, the government was forced to reduce civil service salary by 30-50% in an effort to limit its spending and throughout this period, it tried with little success to revive the country by making structural adjustments and reforms. Only during the late 1990s did Cameron begin emerging slowly from the doldrums averaging annual growth of almost 5% from 1995 to 1999.

The government began a 3-year structural adjustment program that aims to continue the privatization of state enterprise and the improvement of public management. The government has also revived tax laws and undertaken reforms to encourage investment while several infrastructure projects should also help the projects (www. Cameroon overview of the economy,12 June 2013.

World statistics on unemployment rates include Cameroon-30% 2001, Liberia-85% 2003, Burkina Faso 77% 2004, Zambia 50% 2000, Senegal 40% 2007, Kenya 40% 2008, Switzerland 40% 2006, South Africa 23.3% 2010, France 19.2% 2003, Ireland 14% 1998, Albania 13.5% , Canada 8% 2010, Qatar 0.5% 2010, Poland 11.8% 2010, Jamaica 12.9% 2010, Tunisia 14% 2010 (source: CIA world Facebook 18 December to 28 march 2011. Retrieved from http www. national master.com)

The unemployment rate in Cameroon decreases to 3.80%in 2011from 5.60% in 2010. the unemployment rate in Cameroon is reported by (institute National de la Statistique du Cameroun. Historically, from2010 until 2011 Cameroon’s unemployment rate average 4.7%reaching all-time high of 5.6% in December 2010 and a record low of 3.8 percent in December 2011. In Cameroon, the unemployment rate measures the number of people actively looking for a job as a percentage of the labour force.

According to the Director of statistics, Joseph Tedou unemployment rate stands at 9.3 percent. In the same vein, the unemployment rate was found to be 68.8 percent. Youths between 20 to 29 years older are the most affected. Other affected groups include women and University graduates.

1.2 Problem Statement

How do young people at the margins of national citizenship make sense of their lives in local society? What mechanism do they employ to negotiate the transition to full adult status in a context where national institutional support for them has become tenuous or disappeared completely? How do we analyses account for the ways in which younger generations of Africans, experiencing block mobility, deal with the predicament on account of post-colonial elites’ continuous cling to power and resources? How and in what context social categories (such as youths or adults) are contributed, negotiated, and experience? These questions inevitably demand a critical discussion of the meaning of youths (understood in this study as a position of structural dependency), social adulthood, citizenship, and social participation. This study answers the above questions by focusing on the unemployment on crime wave among youths in Kumbo.

The Kumbo Municipality has remained as one of the breadbasket in Bui Division. The area has attracted a lot of youths from the surrounding villages as a result of the economic opportunities offered in places like Mbveh, Tobin, Shisong, and Kimbo. What however remains controversial is that majority of these youths do not find the employment opportunities envisaged. Many are forced to engage in unorthodox means to survive. As such, the main aim of this work was to investigate the extent to which unemployment has led to the crime wave among youths in Kumbo Municipality. In this light, the study sets out to answer the following question

1.3 Research Questions

1. What factors have contributed to unemployment in Kumbo Municipality?
2. How has unemployment led to the crime wave among youths in Kumbo Municipality?
3. What strategies have the people of Kumbo
4. Municipality adopted to reduce crime wave among youths?
5. What possible recommendations can better be adopted to fight against employment and crime wave in Kumbo?

1.4 Research Objectives

1.4.1 General Objectives

This work is aimed at examining the implications of unemployment on crime waves in Kumbo urban area.

1.4.2 Specific Objectives

1. To examine the factors that has contributed to unemployment in Kumbo municipality
2. To find out how unemployment has led to crime wave in Kumbo.
3. To examine the ways adopted by the people of Kumbo to reduce the crime wave.
4. Making appropriated policy recommendations

1.5 Research Hypothesis

Ho: The provision of formal job opportunities cannot minimize the crime wave in Kumbo.

H1: The provision of formal job opportunities can minimize crime wave in Kumbo