Counselling the retrenched workers in Nigeria

Worker retrenchment on a massive scale was introduced in Nigeria by the Military Government a few months after the overthrow of the civilian regime at the close of 1983. It was regarded as one of the short term measures to resuscitate the depressed economy through the reduction of overhead costs. Paradoxically, mass retrenchment of workers has brought about devastating side effects such as an insidious inflammation of psychosocial problems that call for psychotherapeutic activities by counsellors.The retrenchment effect has been most experienced by ethmic minorities, the poor and less educated Nigerians. A sample of 500 retrenched workers has revealed a variety of devastating psychosocial effects such as deteriorating self-esteem, general irritability, stomach ulcers, a tendency to commit crimes, high blood pressure and heart diseases, financial emaciation and depression. Counselling strategies such as vocational counselling, rational counselling and educational counselling for minorities have been recommended.Paper presented at IRTAC 1985, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 15–19, 1985.