ARE THERE REALLY JOBS IN NIGERIA?

In the third quarter of 2016, the unemployment rate in Nigeria increased to 13.9%. Unemployment is a phenomenon that occurs when a person actively searching for a job is unable to find work. Gone are the days when youths graduated from the university with so much hope for the future. These days, Nigeria youths dread the day they enter the Nigerian job market. Job-hunting in Nigeria has become a painful and frustrating process. An average Nigerian graduate applies for at least 10 jobs in a week yet they are not invited for interviews. Every Nigerian knows someone who is unemployed and searching for a job. It makes unemployed people wonder if there really are jobs in Nigeria. Here are some factors responsible for the high unemployment rate in Nigeria.

Erratic Power Supply:

Poor power supply is a problem that has been plaguing Nigeria for decades. We live in a country where we constantly switch between the dark ages and the era of civilisation. Sometimes the power supply is so erratic that the nation is plunged into darkness for several days. Thank God for generators that remind us that we have left the dark ages. This problem is what has sent investors and big companies running to neighbouring countries like Ghana. If we had a constant power supply and these companies had stayed in Nigeria, they would have increased the number of jobs in Nigeria. The erratic power supply also makes it hard for individuals to start their own businesses. Spending more than half of your profit on generator fuel is not business friendly.

Lack of Skills:

Even with how popular entrepreneurship has become in recent times, there are individuals who still look down on people who learn artisan skills. In an interview recently, a graduate spoke about how she was ridiculed by friends because she chose to engage in the crayfish business. What exactly is wrong with artisan jobs? The problem with Nigerians is their unwillingness to learn skills that can lead to job creation in the long run.

Nepotism:

This is an unfortunate reality in Nigeria today. There are Nigerians who would rather employ an unqualified family member. You find employers hiring people who are clearly not qualified just because they speak the same language. As a result of this, candidates who are actually qualified and deserve the job end up unemployed.

Poor Quality of Education:

Many Nigerian universities or institutions of tertiary learning cannot boast of standard laboratories and learning equipment. This affects the quality of graduates they produce every year. Last year, an associate professor of Law in UNIJOS was caught cheating during her PHD examination. If an associate professor could be so unsure of herself that she had to resort to examination malpractice, what has she been teaching her students?

Unemployable Graduates:

We complain every day about how unemployment is affecting our friends and loved ones. Have we stopped to think about the fact that they might not be employable? Human Resources managers have complained time and again about the average Nigerian graduate being unemployable. There are jobs, but there are no competent hands to fill the vacant roles. What we have in abundance are graduates armed with certificates that they cannot even begin to defend. How do you explain a graduate who cannot define a major phenomenon in a course he claimed to study for four years? Such manner of graduates will definitely have challenges getting employment if the selection process is honest, rigid and dependent on merit.

This is not an appealing situation but this is where we are as a nation. This is the card we have been dealt, we need to decide how we play the hand.

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