The unemployment rate in Nigeria is alarming. The extent is that students graduate without the hope of getting jobs. The labour market offers few opportunities. An idle hand is the devil’s workshop.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) registered over 1,900,000 candidates for the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. Among these candidates are children peasants like hawkers, roadside sellers and Nigerians who work tirelessly to eke a living. The average Nigerian struggles to obtain JAMB, go through the tug-of-war of gaining admission to the university and hustle for funds to graduate only to end up in the street for petty jobs as a means of survival.
Nigeria, despite being the leading economy in Africa was in 2019 reported to have an overall unemployment rate of 25%, with an additional 20% of its 186 million people being underemployed. The situation is worse for young Nigerians, as the unemployment rate for people between the ages of 15 and 35 hit 55.4% in 2019.
Although the federal government has been advocating entrepreneurship skills as a fall back for students who cannot gain employment after school, lack of funds, lack of resources, marketing strategies challenge, unstable economy and inconsistent government policies are few among issues standing in the way of the federal government’s advocacy towards entrepreneurship.
Many promises have been made both at the national and state levels yet the rate of unemployment in Nigeria keeps increasing. How then can students rely on their certificate as a means of livelihood? Students are gradually losing hope in Nigeria’s education system, where graduates are not guaranteed employment.
Nigeria has lost many creative minds to other countries because of unemployment and it’s becoming more rampant among youths who cannot get jobs. Nigeria is the only country we can call our own and I doubt if there can be anywhere like home.
The Nigerian government needs to consider the rise in unemployment and provide remedies like creating job opportunities and funding entrepreneurial skills to avoid further damages.
Kamarudeen Kudirat
Mass Communication Department
University of Maiduguri
