I am from a country where 95% of the population is either angry or scared. The times have passed when, if you successfully get a B.Sc degree, you are considered “made”. Gone are the days when our parents would tell us stuff like, “if you want to succeed, you have to read your books”. That worked during the time of our fathers. At least, I know my father got a job and a car after He completed his first degree from University of Ibadan in 1974. And there are a million other examples of such cases back then in Nigeria. Those were the days when the educational system paid off and people could fulfil their dreams just by being educated.
But when exactly did things change I feel so lost. Compare the 70s/80s to this current Nigeria. Its like a different country. The youth are idle and angry. People graduate from the University and it is like a new level of suffering and frustration has begun except for a select few. Employers make recruitment processes so tedious and long as if one is looking to be employed as the president of a Country. Then you see groups like Niger-Delta Avengers coming up and then you still wonder why some people could be so callous. Let us face the battle from the right angle here because things don’t just suddenly happen. It is a build up of the deception that the past generation and we as individuals have gotten ourselves into. We would all agree that about 95% of the people that were so studious in school did that in order to finish and get jobs with the likes of Shell and Chevron. Creation of job opportunities or addressing the issues in the country were not the goal. From all indications, we were taught to be dependent on other people’s success for a means of livelihood rather than what they are lacking. What they did not know was that every other child will go to school just like their children and just as educated as their children; looking to depend on someone else’s success for a means of livelihood as well. So if we all have that mind set, where exactly would the jobs come from?

“Start doing! Start creating! Start seeing the opportunity to better lives around you! You cannot place your life and Generations to come in the hands of some Government filled with old people that do not remember what it feels like to be young and handicapped by decision-makers.”

Our educational system has failed to address the issues with the country. We are taught our courses so abstractly, that they seem like spiritual subjects (I am talking as a science student). We realize that we go out and cannot even relate the courses with the real world. We see machines and technological systems around us and do not know how they work or even have a flare for building them – that for someone who has spent half a decade in Uni. It is mostly the fault of the educational system because it focuses on every other thing except what really matters. Can a science student not finish from the University and gain expertise in web development? And this, not through personal learning but through what the school has imparted. We have so stuck to the same educational routine that the world has changed and we still refuse to change with it. Nobody cares about dy/dx if I dont even know how it relates with anything in the real world. Don’t get me wrong, these things are used one way or the other, but they never teach us how it is used or where or how to make them useful in the world and particularly in Nigeria. Can we not finish from the University with an urge to create something we have gained expertisein and make this available to Nigerians?

One thing that is seriously crippling Nigeria’s economy is high rate of importation. We almost never create anything ourselves. Look around you if you are in an office or even at home, or on the road- anywhere, and see if 90% of what is around you is not a product made in China or Japan or USA or some other country. It is so bad that it has even become a thing of pride for a lot of us that if we use imported wears and appliances, we are on top of the world. We see the Aba made wears and gadgets and refuse them and infact castigate them for making such gadgets. Where exactly are we headed with this kind of mentality? How can there ever be jobs if all we do is rely on outsiders to create them and so we work for them. Of which working for them means we can just do what we can and live comfortably.

My major concern here is that if this mentality continues, what will the future be for the coming Generations. The rate of unemployment is increasing and the number job opportunities meagre compared to number of job seekers. We have to break lose from the thinking of I have to get a job when im done schooling and start thinking “how will I create job opportunities when I am done schooling”. If it happened that the whole logistics chain of most products was within Nigeria, just imagine the number of job opportunities we would create. Imagine that we had phone manufacturing, coupling and distribution companies all in one within the same country, the future would be secure for our children. But as it is, with a mentality of just living to make money and settling down, that cannot happen.

So, first off, the youth should cancel the notion of gathering many certificates in order to improve their profile and rather focus on acquiring a skill that can create job opportunities or better still that can make you sought after and a consultant in a particular field.


I believe with a shift of focus, the Ministry of Education can make a great impact in the change that Nigeria needs. The entire science educational curriculum should be changed. Maybe only Primary school should retain their curriculum and teach general science. But starting from JSS1, students can start taking courses like: Phone fabrication, refrigerator making, Power generation and so on. Enough of taking irrelevant topics and deceiving people only for them to finish and realize that nobody in the real world cares where the thorax and abdomen of a housefly is!

We cannot just be a people that carry out installations, coupling and consumption and expect that there will be jobs. I have even seen people that are working and all they do is create jobs for themselves in order to remain within the company and keep making some money. That cannot be your calling in life. That cannot be fulfilment of purpose. If you are not yet doing what you wish you could be doing to impart lives or on the path to doing that thing, then you have not yet started!

This is a call to the youth to take over. I for one believe that I am more than this. I cannot keep on feeling like trash because I was rejected an employment when I am very creative. We are the light of the world, a city that is set upon a hill that cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven.

I am creative and believe that with enough investment in personal development and acquiring a useful skill, I can contribute greatly to the lives of Nigerians. I believe that every single one of us can achieve the same by looking inwards and looking beyond just making money at the great possibilities and opportunities around us. I know very well that I cannot do it alone. I see people around me suffering and what I think of is that, “this person has a potential for greatness and if given the right opportunity, would use his/her God-given creativity to invent things that would better other people’s lives”. I want to create something that Nigeria has been importing and by so doing, create job opportunities for Nigerians. We all have to want this and not just want, but start doing this! If having Generators is what it takes to have Electricity in each house, can we not manufacture this within Nigeria? We have a large population with creative minds. So is this not possible?

A cry to the youth: stop being angry at the Government and still not doing anything about it. It’s a big waste of energy. Looking in retrospect, anger has only made the situation worse. Anger has only made people more selfish and corrupt. We were never like this as kids. We believed we could do anything and whatever we wanted to do as kids that required our creativity, we just did. So why stop now

Start doing! Start creating! Start seeing the opportunity to better lives around you! You cannot place your life and Generations to come in the hands of some Government filled with old people that do not remember what it feels like to be young and handicapped by decision-makers. I have noticed that they do not care. So be your own decision maker! Decide to live and love. Use everything you got within you to better the lives of those around you. Don’t let money be your driving force because when you are on the right path, money will be the one chasing after you. After all, our God has said “seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you”. Seeking how to better the lives of Nigerians is part of seeking first the Kingdom of God because He also said that if we reject help to those around us, then we reject Him. Just look around you and see what people are lacking or what is making them suffer. As for me, I want to make people realize that they can do and be anything they want to. What is that thing you have been wishing and hoping you could be? I call you to start being!



https://oseghr./