Impact Of Economic Meltdown On The Staff

INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The issue of Economic Meltdown affects not only the staff of Enugu State College of Education (Technical), it affects also the citizens of this beloved and great country Nigeria and other countries all over the world like United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), China etc. The definition of the term “Economic Meltdown” according to various views from several sources will be considered. First of all, another word or phrase which can be used interchangeably with economic meltdown is “Economic Crisis”. Now, the definitions:
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (6th edition) defined the word economic as a term “connected with the trade, industry and development of the wealth of a country, an area or a society”. It also defined meltdown as “a situation whereby something fails or becomes weaker in a sudden or dramatic way”. Therefore, economic meltdown is “a situation whereby there is a decline or decrease in the economic activities of a country”. It further means that the economic activities of a country have been decreased in a sudden way.
Pius (2007) sees economic meltdown “as a situation whereby the rate of the economic activity of a country decreases”. This decrease according to him implies that the rate in which the economy of a nation used to be is no longer like that due to some factors. Such factors as listed by the authorities includes: decrease in employment opportunities, inflation etc.
Macrocom (2009) said that like many other issues in economics, “economic meltdown” is an expression for which any interpretation would do. So therefore, he said that meltdown implies ‘great heat and high temperature’ but according to his way of thinking, he defined economic meltdown as “the lack of economic activity which brings about coldness (i.e. decrease) and not heat (increase) in the air (i.e. in the nation’s economy).
Marshal (2008) sees economic meltdown in its simplest term as “economic go-slow”. Just like traffic jam which halts the movement of people with motor vehicles, that is how economic meltdown halts the economic activity of the country.
There are numbers of argument which caused the economy to crash as badly as it did in years 2008 and 2009 hence, the research work on this topic and also what made the economy to fall into recession starting from December 2007.
According to Ajayi (2009), one important solution to the present economic meltdown is for a developing country like Nigeria to diversity their economy, wage a serious battle against all forms of corruption and promote all those values that supports development. Leaders should rule with the fear of God and the followers must not only believe in themselves but they should be positively committed to the task of nation building.
Atughonu (2009) said that this disease called “economic meltdown” which has brought so many expertise almost to a mockery should be seen as a definite issue. People now should know that their wisdom can equally fail them in the long run. According to him, the solution to this issue is that people should have love for one another and not to believe in so much acquiring of wealth or in their own wisdom. They should believe in supreme wisdom, have positive thought, shun away corruption, greediness and most importantly turn to God.
People do wonder and ask questions about when this economic meltdown will last. According to Gerd Leonard (2009) he believes that there is still a long way to go before a recovery will begin. Acneguy (2010) said that it will take a long time for the economy to experience any form of recovery because the economic meltdown issue is the longest so far in the past decade. He also said that even when the recovery will begin, business owners will need a new set of tactics to do well during the recovery period.

Statement of the Problem
The task of achieving economic recovery and to achieve sustainable growth among the staff of Enugu State College of Education (Technical) is rather daunting. The reason is because Nigeria as a country appears to be in a very low economic state which is unfavourable to the growth of workers (like ESCET staff) economically.
Infact, this have indeed caused the low standard of living among ESCET staff and workers all over the country. Other factors like the non-payment of staff as at when due, low income received by staff etc have indeed made this economic meltdown situation to be experienced more by workers all over the country and due to the fact that no solution is forthcoming from the nation’s economic desk, the economic lives of the workers are being affected including the staff of ESCET.

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of economic meltdown on the staff of Enugu State College of Education, Technical (ESCET). Specifically, the study intends to:
i. Determine the causes of economic meltdown.
ii. Determine the effects of the economic meltdown situation on the staff of ESCET.
iii. Determine the possible strategies to achieving economic recovery and sustained improvement in the way of life of the staff of Enugu State College of Education (Technical), Enugu.

Significance of the Study
This study is knowledgeably enriched and endowed with information which would be of immense importance in the sense that the result of this study would bring about a change of heart on the general outlook of the nation’s economy.
It would be of immense help to present and prospective National economic planners. It would also help them (i.e. economic analysts) on how to bring about a change (i.e. providing possible strategies) in the economic system of Nigeria.
Government (both state and federal levels) would find the result of this study helpful in the sense that most factors which brought about a decrease in the economic activities of the nation would be x-rayed and this would make the government to know the area to start proffering solutions to the problems. It would also bring about an increase in the standard of living of the people and then ensure equitable distribution and consumption of goods and services by the Nigerian citizens.
The result of this study will be beneficial to further researches in that it will form a base for further research work.

Scope of the Study
The study was strictly carried out to determine the impact of economic meltdown on the staff of Enugu State College of Education (Technical), Enugu.
The researchers focused on both the academic and non-academic staff of this great institution in order for them to help in identifying and explaining the different ways in which the economic meltdown have an effect in their lives. Also, the causes of economic meltdown, the effect and the strategies to achieve economic recovery are also within the scope of this study.

Research Questions
The following questions were raised for the study:
1. What are the causes of economic meltdown in the country’s economy?
2. What are the effects of economic meltdown on the lives of the staff of Enugu State College of Education, Technical, Enugu?
3. What are the possible strategies to the economic meltdown situation in order to improve the economic status, growth and development of the staff ESCET and also the Nation’s economy?

Definition of Terms
a. Economic Meltdown: This is a situation whereby there is a decrease or decline in the economic activity of a country.
b. Economic Planning: This is the allocation of resources by the government in such a way that growth increases rapidly which will lead to an overall improvement in the standard of living of the people in a given country.
c. Inflation: This refers to a state of economic affair in which too much money constantly chases too few currently produced goods and services in a country.
d. Unemployment: This means the existence of a large number of physically prepared men and women (i.e. working population) in a country seeking for jobs but are unable to find any.