They say the best way to understand a subject is to
experience it. Having graduated in Nigeria and now being faced with the brunt
of no job and applying for countless of jobs with nothing to show
for it, I now understand the typical Nigerian graduates’ cry of no employment.
The job situation has gone from bad to worse over the last few years. With the unemployment rate rising to 12.1% in the first quarter of 2016, it is clear we have to create a way out of this mess. Now that this has been said, I like to attend to
the reasons why we cannot afford to employ even half of the graduates dropped
into the labor market in Nigeria.I like to clarify that these are all my
opinions and they stay subject to change. I do not claim supremacy of knowledge
so if you disagree, drop your comment and we would reason together. Let’s get
down to business
Poor Educational system
Speaking from personal experience, almost every job
advert right now is asking for 5 – 15 years working experience and masters
degree for employment. While experience is very useful in most job positions
and virtually everything in life, it can only be gotten from gaining an
employment. The fact that the Nigerian graduates are asked to provide masters
degree in almost all openings only says one thing "There is no faith in the
university first degree they hold" and it is as useless as P in Psychology. That
is demeaning for the Nigeria school system and a slap on their face. It
belittles our Bsc and gives an impression that we spent 4-6 years in the university
whiling away our time hence, the need to get a masters degree even without the
intention of doing so. I personally take offence to that as a Bsc holder. Soon, the duties of cleaners and janitors will be relegated to Bsc holders.
But then in fairness to employers, The educational
system which has become really faulty over the years are producing lazy
intellects (see post on Intellectual laziness for reference), some of who
cannot even spell their names and cannot fit into the work force due to lack of performance and emptiness upstairs. Many Nigerians just want to be graduates
irrespective of if they learned anything at school or not. Nobody wants to give a job to
someone who has no fore knowledge of the field he/she is applying to or at
least, no sane person. Except you know somebody who knows somebody...
Apparent Dereliction in Government Responsibilities
The fact that government takes for granted the
provision of jobs for its citizens is disgraceful and contemptible. So again, I
will speak from personal experience. Sometime in 2012, I was an intern at the
Federal Ministry of Health. In one of the departments I worked under, I was shown
the hierarchy for Disease control. They explained there was a DSNO (Disease
Surveillance and Notification Officer) at the federal, state and local
government level. The local government DSNO reported to the state DSNO who in
turn reports to the Federal DSNO. The problem is there was only one DSNO at the
federal level. In my curious state, I asked how she manages data for 37 states
and if she doesn’t get to mix up the information resulting in discrepancies, Stating to my defense that
Nigeria was too large for one person to control disease surveillance. Their
response “the government cannot employ more people to fill the voids even
though by right, it is supposed to be at least one officer to each state”. You
can imagine how many more organizations need more hands but are not provided
with it due to government’s lapses.
Dependence on Government
The government isn’t doing its duty and providing
jobs but so what? Take a look at all this developed countries, capitalism is the order of the day for them. They create employment for themselves and the people
of their states. Whatever they can get their hands on; they turn into a million
dollar venture. They do not wait for the government to spoon feed them. One of
my graduate friends took the insight and started making shoes (great things
start small). He refused to sit and grumble about the lack of employment. There
is dignity in labor. The excess dependence on government to provide jobs for
every graduate in the country has made graduates indolent. They have become a bag of
lazybones. We need to get to that point where we can make things happen with or
without government, where we can create employment for ourselves and other
graduates. Contradictory you say? I am aware.
Slow to no Economic Growth
The slow growth in the economy is one of the reasons
the government cannot afford to employ more people. Reason being they won’t be
able to sustain payment. The lack of diversification of the economy has made us
mostly dependent on oil hence the economic growth has been heavily relied on
the price of crude oil in the international market. The weakening of the Naira
is another issue affecting the economy. It has made it difficult for
manufacturers to import raw materials for local industries consequently leading
to lower production of goods in the country and laying off of workers in such
industries.
Unemployment is growing across the nation like a
malignant tumor and there is need to perform a lasting surgical procedure on it
lest we get to a point where we have to eat grass for survival. While we keep
pressuring and urging the government to perform better and do their part, make
an escape route.
Comments
Post a Comment