TACKLING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
There is need to invest more in vocational education
Former Statistician General of the Federation, Yemi Kale, warned recently that rising youth unemployment in the country should be considered a national security threat. Each year about 4-5 million young Nigerians enter the labour market that isn’t creating jobs fast enough, raising the unemployment level to about 53 per cent. “To address this, we need to invest in vocational and digital skills training tied to high-growth sectors,” Kale said. “Expand credit and regulatory support for MSMEs and start-ups….”
We agree with Kale that unless the relevant authorities do something critical and urgent about the astronomical rise in unemployment levels, particularly among the youths, Nigeria may be sitting on a time bomb waiting to explode. Figures available paint a dire situation of millions of Nigerian youths roaming the streets looking for work but finding none. For President Bola Tinubu, one issue that must be uppermost in his mind is how to tackle this challenge. It should not be taken for granted that because Nigerians are somewhat resilient, they will continue to accept the tough socio-economic conditions. If things continue the way they are today, nobody should be under any illusion that Nigeria is insulated from the kind of social and political upheavals currently being witnessed in some African countries.
The unemployment crisis has created a lost generation of graduates who cannot find jobs. Many of them are exasperated. The reality of our situation today is that Africa’s most populated country paints a terrible situation of joblessness. Indeed, the NBS has reported a consistent pattern of worsening situation of unemployment. That such a huge number of the nation’s labour force is idle is bad enough. But worse and extremely dangerous is the fact that majority of that army of idle citizens is peopled by those between the ages of 15 and 35. Worse still is that there is no evidence to suggest that the authorities in Abuja and the 36 states appreciate the gravity of the situation nor are there plans to deal with it.
The clear and present danger of such a high level of idleness among young people is already manifested in the high level of strife and crimes in virtually every corner of the country. Whereas the multitude of violent outbursts might have religious and ethnic undertones it is a notorious fact that most of the people in the fields and trenches of war are youths who if otherwise meaningfully engaged would have been unavailable for those worthless anti-social endeavours. Some of the factors aggravating this situation include a growing population amid declining financial resources, predominant production of primary goods over finished products, aging public infrastructure and opaque systems of governance. In several parts of the country where farming is the main occupation, the incessant violence on communities by terrorists have made the profession a serious hazard.
Of more fundamental imperative, however, is the urgent need to realign the nation’s educational curriculum with the needs of the economy. It has been said with some measure of justification that many of the school leavers are unemployable, with regard to their training and skills. It has become necessary as Kale suggested that our educational training curriculum must incorporate skills acquisition and entrepreneurial development so that graduates leave school with the capacity to create wealth and jobs rather than seeking jobs.
