THE CHALLENGE OF UNEMPLOYMENT

In recent times the unemployment rate in Nigeria has become really alarming ,it is now put at about 80% ,true or false the rate of unemployment is terrifying. In the 21st century everyone wants a blue collar job and parents further exacerbate the situation by making their wards and children focus solely on formal education. People parents usually invest a large amount of money to send their children to school and the children if they are lucky to graduate spend year’s job hunting with no jobs available. We have over qualified people manning menial or very junior positions in all kinds of establishments.The situation is even worse in Northern Nigeria due to new wine being put in old bottles ,Northerners have refused to accept that there has been a paradigm shift,most Northerners blame the lack of progress in the region on the fact that the leadership of the country is not from their region ,human beings generally forget things easily, the North was in control of the country for years but the level of development  was nothing to write home about.

Nigerians generally abandoned labour with the flow of oil from the Niger delta region,farming was abandoned, craftsmen abandoned their craft. Every one wants to be a contractor or be in the oil business.Another reason people aim for office jobs is the opportunity to defraud their places of work commiting corporate armed robbery using pens instead of guns stealing from more people with less effort and manpower.The media is awash with stories of Government employees and political office holders subverting state resources,with the creation of the EFCC the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission we have seen Governors, members of the National assembly, heads of banks even a former Inspector General of police prosecuted . Those apprehended form less than 2% of the corporate armed robbers on d streets, what actually happens in our offices daily is worse from procurement personnel, clerks, accounts officers etc. In Kano state about 8000 ghost workers were discovered, while in Kaduna state 118 million is lost to payment of ghost workers monthly. Many people are looking for an easy way out to survive that is why we have internet scams; yahoo-yahoo, advanced fee fraud better known as 419, armed robbery and kidnapping on the increase.

 Some time ago a graduate serving his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program in Kaduna was in a taxi travelling from Kano to Kaduna when armed robbers stopped them, all passengers were ordered out of the vehicle and forced to lie down on the side of the road on their stomachs. The robbers collected all the cash and valuables on the passengers but the poor youth corps member (better known as corper) had very little money. He was afraid he would be shot for having no money and emptied his pockets for the robbers to see, luckily for him one of the robbers saw the corpers  NYSC identification card that is what saved the poor boys life the robbers picked up the id card and asked him where he was posted and how much his allowance was, he answered them in fear and they laughed calling him a poor boy, they told him they were all graduates who had finished school years ago but the lack of employment opportunities in the country had made them turn to robbery. Lack of employment and gaining employment or being chosen for political appointment are not excuses for stealing peoples money either directly or indirectly, stealing is stealing in whatever form.

In as much as Government has failed to provide a conducive environment for economic growth in the country; Citizens have a responsibility to try and create something to survive on or that would be a means of survival for others. Lack of motorable roads, pipe borne water, electricity, a good railway system and corruption have been used for too long as excuses for our underdevelopment. Other countries have the same challenges and still achieve a lot more than Nigeria has. We have an over abundance of man power, what we lack are ideas, the mentality to think out of the box and create ways out of the rut we are currently in. Formal education is currently over rated, what our people need is skills acquisition, the ability to turn whatever they have to their advantage.

I have not exonerated Government as it needs to live up to its responsibility for the provision of basic amenities to enhance the life of its citizens, but Nigerians need to put more faith in themselves and their abilities.