Why Is There Such A Rush For Robots When We Are Not Prepared? 

This craze of replacing human labour with robots and technology is not healthy for our country’s workforce at this moment.
Regardless of your argument, this is a real red flag for us given the percentage of underemployed and unemployed Nigerians.

Nigeria is not yet prepared for robotic breakthroughs. It will destroy our economy and labor, as well as cause more security issues for the country.

Both the state and national assemblies must seek legislation to limit the influx of robots into most corporations willing to do bsuiness in our environment, which is causing enormous layoffs in multiple sectors. This is not to say that innovation and its various benefits are unimportant, but the disadvantages for our impoverished country outweigh their benefits for us.

With over 53% unemployment and underemployment, I don’t think it’s fair for additional workers to be laid off and replaced by robots.

In a country with over 200 million people and no fair employment opportunities, we don’t have many jobs for humans, yet the few that are left are earmarked for robots. This is totally unacceptable.

The imbalance between available employment and job seekers in the country is mind-boggling. Rather than looking for ways to create additional jobs to compensate for this discrepancy, robots are being introduced to replace humans and take away these few jobs.

Countries that have gone fully technological have a labor shortage and will undoubtedly require the 5th generation of computers to meet their labor demands. This cannot be true of Nigeria, where citizens flee the country in pursuit of menial jobs overseas and where around 53% of the existing population is both unemployed and underemployed.

The robot shown below is reported to be a new innovation by a Nigerian bank that hopes to replace front-desk assistants with robots. This means that if the bank has a total of seventy (70) branches across Nigeria, with three (3) front desk assistants in each branch, bringing the total number of front desk employees to two hundred and ten (210), with the introduction of Robots as new front desk assistants, these people employed specifically for the purpose of front desk jobs would become redundant and would be asked to leave, as no employer would be comfortable paying the salaries of redundant employees. Extend this to other banks in the country, and imagine how many people would be laid off if this robot became the new normal.

A few out of the number may be able to be employed elsewhere, but the fact remains that the majority would remain unemployed and return to the job market to join the pool of job seekers.

Many years ago, while still a computer science undergraduate, I gave a presentation about the risks of fifth-generation computers and how they would take jobs away from humans, leaving many unemployed. My reference was to banks, and I stated that if electronic security doors are introduced to replace human security, it will eliminate employment and the source of living for many ordinary Nigerians. Today, we are seeing not just security guards but also cashiers lose their jobs to tech-enabled counting equipment among others; in the not too distant future, banks and other such facilities in Nigeria will be totally robotic with only a few human workers. What happens to our workforce and population as a consequence of this?

While technology has made crucial advances, I believe Nigeria is not ready to join other global nations that deploy robotics to compensate for labor shortages.

Every corporation in the country, both public and private, must be required to keep a certain number of employees based on their firm size and revenue turnover. Make and enforce legislation to prevent unwarranted layoffs until there are adequate jobs for our workforce.

We cannot be battling insecurity, poverty, and various social vices as a result of our idle population, and Robots are being introduced to retrench those few with jobs.

__
Uloka Chibuike is a public affairs analyst and a trained strategic communicator.
Ulokachuks@yahoo.com