TACKLING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

There is need to realign the nation’s educational curriculum with needs of the economy

The ‘State of the Nigerian Youth Report 2025,’ recently released by Plan International Nigeria in collaboration with ActionAid Nigeria, found that youth unemployment now stands at 53 per cent. That translates to about 80 million young Nigerians without jobs. “This represents shattered dreams and wasted talent. Unless urgent action is taken, Nigeria risks losing its greatest asset,” the report of these two reputable international non-governmental organisations working with vulnerable and excluded people and communities warned. That half of the nation’s labour force is idle is bad enough. But worse and extremely dangerous is the fact that more than the majority of that army of idle citizens is peopled by those between the ages of 15 and 35. Even if some people may dispute the figures from Plan/ActionAid Nigeria, available reports from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) also confirm a consistent pattern of worsening unemployment in the country.

The danger of such a high level of idleness among millions of young persons is already manifesting in the high level of crimes in virtually every corner of the country. And it should concern all relevant stakeholders. Even without conducting any research on the issue, it is a notorious fact that most of the people who ride in motorcycles to kidnap school children are youths who if otherwise meaningfully engaged might have been unavailable for those anti-social endeavours that now make the country very insecure.

Harping on the danger of this state of affair, former President Olusegun Obasanjo once sounded a note of warning. He said his greatest fear for Nigeria and indeed, the African continent, was “youth explosion as a result of anger, frustration, unemployment and lack of opportunities.” Yet, as dire as that prediction sounded, Obasanjo was only emphasising the worries that have preoccupied many critical stakeholders for quite a while. An uncontrolled demographic bulge at a period of dwindling resources has put the country in a very difficult and potentially explosive situation. Nigeria, the seventh most populous country in the world, has a fertility rate that far outstrips its economic growth. 

Figures available paint a dire situation of millions of Nigerian youths roaming the streets looking for work but finding none. The situation is compounded by the economic environment that has necessitated a situation in which rather than hire, many private enterprises now fire their staff. Joblessness and frustrations are evidently fuelling the sense of youthful volatility and indeed the frequent cases of unrest across the country.

Unfortunately, the response from the authorities to these challenges remains incoherent. Despite all the rhetoric about job creation, the tilt is still towards heavy government participation by way of bubble political jobs as governors appoint thousands of idle special assistants. Besides, incentives for private sector and youth participation are scanty just as a credit regime to drive the sector does not exist. The level of insecurity in many of the communities has also made it practically difficult for farmers to continue to engage in agricultural production. And with rural dwellers denied access to their farms and other sources of legitimate livelihood, it is little surprise that Nigerians are reeling from soaring food prices.

Of more fundamental imperative, however, is that we must urgently realign the nation’s educational curriculum with the needs of the economy. Even though there are many well educated young men out there in the street, it has been said with some measure of justification that many of the school leavers are actually unemployable with regard to their training and skills. It has therefore become necessary that our educational training curriculum at all levels incorporate skills acquisition and entrepreneurial development so that graduates leave school with the capacity to create wealth rather than seeking jobs that are not there.