Nigerian graduates are highly employable; government and employers are liars.


It is so pathetic to hear the government, employers and human resource personnels make statement that “the reason for high rate of unemployment among Nigerian graduates is that they are highly unemployable”.

To debunk their lies, one need to ask where are the job vacancies which exist that cannot be filled by either fresh or experienced Nigerian graduates? If Nigerian graduates are unemployable, where did we get the employees of banks, judiciary, military, education, sports and the medical field? Are they all foreign trained or expatriates? Moreover, the local content act has given so much opportunities for Nigerian engineers to take up positions and projects in the oil and gas industry as well as other aspects of engineering.

They make so much noise as if there are millions of job opportunities lying fallow, waiting for expatriates or the next generation of graduates to fill as a result of the claim of their unemployability of this generation of Nigerian graduates.

Nowadays, employers only equate employability to having an extremely beautiful resume, proficiency in English language and the ability to have excellent scores in their interview questions. Anyone who falls below these criteria is considered unemployable and misfit even though the recruiters have extremely few job vacancies. These were not the criteria in the 60’s and 70’s when there were abundant job opportunities in Nigeria. Developed nations look beyond these attributes by providing on- the-job training, technology and business hubs as well as mentorship programs for their graduates.

Some graduates are termed unemployable because they cannot make correct sentences in English language. However, basic English language is taught at the primary and secondary schools and not at the tertiary institutions, as this is what most recruiters misunderstand. Employers should stop making mountains out of moles of the mass unemployment in Nigeria. The fact that there are few graduates who perform poorly at job interviews does not mean we do not have thousands of qualified candidates who perform excellently in them.

It is a pity that the liars have never for once said that Nigerian graduates are not good as political touts. During electioneering campaigns, politicians recruit both graduates and non graduates as ad-hoc touts to desperately pursue their political ambitions. However, graduates of developed nations are properly positioned to create jobs while children of politicians have juicy appointments waiting for them even before the graduate.

The government keeps shifting the blame of mass unemployment on the graduates because the government lacks job creation ideas as well as the ability to produce job creating graduates. Nigeria spends less than ten percent of her budget on education yet they want magic like countries that spend more than the twenty-six percent UNESCO standard. There are nations with high quality of education in which some of their tertiary institution drop-outs have created jobs that have grown to multinational companies.

Science and engineering graduates are the worst hit by the meagre spending on education because they are extremely good at the theoretical aspect of their jobs but lack the requisite practical knowledge because our campuses are blessed with virtually obsolete and empty laboratories and workshops. If these same set of people were to graduate from universities of developed nations, they would excel in all aspects their studies, become gainfully employed and even create jobs in foreign lands. The question to ask is, do we blame either the graduates or the government for the virtually empty and obsolete laboratories and workshops we have in Nigeria higher institutions?

Successive administrations in Nigeria have wasted several opportunities to create abundant jobs for her graduates. For example, Ajaokuta Steel Complex and the Delta Steel Complex are two projects that can provide more than three million direct and indirect jobs. Nations like India, South Korea and Iran that started similar projects alongside Nigeria have surpassed their installed capacities, and had established more plants.

Several resource poor countries have provided abundant job opportunities and become industrialised by importing raw materials such as agricultural produce, crude oil, iron ore and other solid minerals from resource rich nations like Nigeria. They set up factories, process the raw materials, add value and sell to prodigal nations like Nigeria. Hence, they make profits of ten to hundred folds compared to nations that sold the raw materials.

So much jobs would have been created if the right policies had been made. Millions of jobs were created in the telecommunication sector in 2001 by former president Obasanjo as a result of the right policy that was made. For example, the four ailing refineries have a combined processing capacity of 450,000 barrels per day if working at optimum capacity, while we produce 2,000,000 bpd of crude oil. Even at optimum capacity, our refineries cannot refine more than a quarter of the crude oil produced. If the right policy is in place, Nigeria has thousands of jobs to be created in crude oil refining and other aspects of the oil and gas industry alone.

When the government blames the graduates for mass unemployment, should the graduates then tell the government that they are not fit to govern because of poverty, insecurity, hunger and other anomalies in the land? Should graduates tell our leaders to step aside for leaders in the developed nations to govern us? The government should be aware that it is this set of people that are flying the flag of Nigeria in entertainment, arts, fashion, e-commerce, software development and sports with little or no assistance from the government.

Finally, a stitch in time saves more than nine, having it in mind that Nigeria’s population is expected to hit 400million people by year 2050. Abundant job opportunities can be easily created in all sectors of the economy if the right steps are taken.

oneolajire2000@yahoo.co.uk

share this until it gets to the government.

I guess you think hiring you is my civil duty, and not because I want you to slave for me so I can make money off your labour. Unfortunately, with so few jobs and so many looking, why should I hire a person who did not learn to construct a simple sentence if it is pertinent to the job?

Soon, being a graduate would be like primary school, and no one would touch you if you don't bring quality to market like a Masters. I can only hope you prepare or starve or you pray I enter the charity business or set up a church.

budaatum:
I guess you think hiring you is my civil duty, and not because I want you to slave for me so I can make money off your labour. Unfortunately, with so few jobs and so many looking, why should I hire a person who did not learn to construct a simple sentence if it is pertinent to the job?

Soon, being a graduate would be like primary school, and no one would touch you if you don't bring quality to market like a Masters. I can only hope you prepare or starve or you pray I enter the charity business or set up a church.

what about the millions of graduates who understand English language and perform well at job interviews and yet are unemployed? do they deserve gainful employment?

Nigeria is creating an army of unemployed graduates, if the situation is so terrible now, what would it look like in 2050?

If we are still talking about graduate unemployment, what about the higher number of unemployed illiterates we have, won't they result into crime and prevent the employed ones to enjoy their wages?

oneolajire:


what about the millions of graduates who understand English language and perform well at job interviews and yet are unemployed? do they deserve gainful employment?

Nigeria is creating an army of unemployed graduates, if the situation is so terrible now, what would it look like in 2050?

If we are still talking about graduate unemployment, what about the higher number of unemployed illiterates we have, won't they result into crime and prevent the employed ones to enjoy their wages?

We really do not create enough jobs for the number of graduates seeking. We, as a nation, do not invest in the infrastructure that would create jobs. You'd see this in the little amount of internal and foreign investment in Nigeria, and the low productivity. Go to a local government authority and you'd see most have no electricity and lots of staff hanging around doing nothing. Yet they all get paid (unless Aregbe is your governor then you don't for months!), for producing absolutely nothing, partly due to lack of resources to do anything but mostly through mismanagement and ineptitude.

It also does not help that as soon as a Nigerian has money, they fly abroad to go shopping, they buy a foreign car and taps for the sinks in their house, eba and fufu goes off the menu, and if they have enough they'd buy education abroad for their children too. All this creates employment abroad and not in Nigeria. But can you blame the Nigerian with money? Healthcare and education in UK is done by angels from God compared to what Nigeria has to offer and even Nigerians working there become angels on arrival.

It is not just about English, but about our education system which is still stuck in archaics inherited from religion. Instead of teaching our graduates to think and reason, we teach them to believe, which has a tendency to destroy their ability to create. If our graduates are taught to think, reason and create, they themselves would create the jobs and employ themselves and the illiterates.

So, I'll recommend two solutions. Revamp our education so it teaches people to solve problems they face. And electrify (though, since electricity is a function of education, solve the first, and there shall be light). If we don't, our 43.87% population aged 0-14 in 2018, would have had their children and by 2050, might be 70%. One just need think how many would become alimajeri, fulani herdsmen, ritualists, and armed robbers, after all, they too must eat.

budaatum:

We really do not create enough jobs for the number of graduates seeking. We, as a nation, do not invest in the infrastructure that would create jobs. You'd see this in the little amount of internal and foreign investment in Nigeria, and the low productivity. Go to a local government authority and you'd see most have no electricity and lots of staff hanging around doing nothing. Yet they all get paid (unless Aregbe is your governor then you don't for months!), for producing absolutely nothing, partly due to lack of resources to do anything but mostly through mismanagement and ineptitude.

It also does not help that as soon as a Nigerian has money, they fly abroad to go shopping, they buy a foreign car and taps for the sinks in their house, eba and fufu goes off the menu, and if they have enough they'd buy education abroad for their children too. All this creates employment abroad and not in Nigeria. But can you blame the Nigerian with money? Healthcare and education in UK is done by angels from God compared to what Nigeria has to offer and even Nigerians working there become angels on arrival.

It is not just about English, but about our education system which is still stuck in archaics inherited from religion. Instead of teaching our graduates to think and reason, we teach them to believe, which has a tendency to destroy their ability to create. If our graduates are taught to think, reason and create, they themselves would create the jobs and employ themselves and the illiterates.

So, I'll recommend two solutions. Revamp our education so it teaches people to solve problems they face. And electrify (though, since electricity is a function of education, solve the first, and there shall be light). If we don't, our 43.87% population aged 0-14 in 2018, would have had their children and by 2050, might be 70%. One just need think how many would become alimajeri, fulani herdsmen, ritualists, and armed robbers, after all, they too must eat.

yea, our education needs to be seriously revamped. Abundant jobs can still be created in several sections of the economy, not only in electricity provision.

we spoken too much English in Nigeria, yet, Indians that do not understand English like we do are better than Nigeria in engineering and job provision. Ask Dangote why he makes use of Indians and their technology.

Job creation is not as difficult as the government sees it, Npower is not it, trader money is not. There are great ideas, it is only that our leaders don't want to think

https://www.nairaland.com/3102449/part-2-entrepreneurship-scam-nigeria

Do you know that entrepreneurship in Nig is a scam? follow the link above and you'll see how the government avoids providing jobs for the graduates

budaatum:
I guess you think hiring you is my civil duty, and not because I want you to slave for me so I can make money off your labour. Unfortunately, with so few jobs and so many looking, why should I hire a person who did not learn to construct a simple sentence if it is pertinent to the job?

Soon, being a graduate would be like primary school, and no one would touch you if you don't bring quality to market like a Masters. I can only hope you prepare or starve or you pray I enter the charity business or set up a church.

hi, still waiting for your response. the post is to generate intuitive reasoning on how to tackle graduate unemployment and not to make HR personnel feel pompous.

This is front page material

MisterFresh:
This is front page material

rightly said

oneolajire:


hi, still waiting for your response. the post is to generate intuitive reasoning on how to tackle graduate unemployment and not to make HR personnel feel pompous.

You already have my response. I recommended two solutions. "Revamp our education so it teaches people to solve problems they face. And electrify (though, since electricity is a function of education, solve the first, and there shall be light)", and neither is to "make HR personnel feel pompous", as you allege.

I do wonder though, why you think it is someone's responsibility to employ graduates instead of graduates employing themselves. After all, a graduates will have spent 4 or so many years learning something or the other, so why can't they use their knowledge to make themselves useful at least so someone may want to employ them, and that, if they can't gainfully employ themselves? Is their graduation not in problem solving, perhaps? Did they learn nothing?

Please read of a recent graduate below and tell me if this graduate will be gainfully employed solving problems.

SamuelDk:
Championing 5 personal Community Development Service projects in Kwara within 5 months in my service year was a major breakthrough for some communities forgotten in the rural. With the zeal of meeting the 2030 targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) I could lead World Suicide Prevention Day Campaign/Conference/Rally in Kwara which saved lives and hit national newspaper and local radio stations, sensitize over 1200 students across 4 secondary schools in Edu LGA, Kwara, provide school uniforms to indigent pupils and pair of a dozen classroom chairs to LGEA Primary School Ndeji, Edu LGA, in a bit to lift pupils from writing on the floor and provide Sabongeri-Ndeji a borehole within a month.
Under the mentorship of Enene Akonjom Foundation, I was able to meet up with my targets before the termination of my service year. I dedicated the first 5 months of my service year preparing, planning, strategizing and carried out needs assessment in Edu LGA. I pasted over 9 plans on the walls of my room and woke up to them.
World Suicide Prevention Day Campaign/Conference and Rally was the first project which was made possible through collaboration from over 18 organizations in Kwara State. My kind of zeal was unstoppable, I could approach any government and private organizations seeking for partnership. All resources and funds needed were contributed from different organizations. Most of them where people who were readily committed to the cause of Suicide prevention, one of which is Suicide and Depression Awareness Foundation (SADAF) who linked me up freely with what my money can’t afford. My call for volunteers ushered in UNILORIN students with burning zeal for humanitarian services. At this point I could use the power of collaboration with energetic youths to achieve the global goals. The Nigerian Red Cross Society was of a great assistance with their volunteers, technical advice and resources. The Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development offered up their hall for our conference. Linkage from volunteers gave us free airtime to use UNILORIN FM for suicide prevention sensitization. The outcome of the whole event was pushed to feature in the Guardian Newspaper, all for free. Thanks to Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI) who gave professional and technical assistance to my team. We utilized online campaign, billboard and radio stations (Harmony Fm and UNILORIN Fm) to reach out to Kwara people and suburbs.
I came across a primary school in Edu (LGEA Primary School, Ndeji), where pupils sit on the floor to learn. I was triggered with empathy for those children and took some snapshots while sitting on same floor with them. I was certain I could lift them from sitting on the floor to learn. I began to seek support from NGOs who could be of help to give these children a more quality education. The advocacy was coupled with the provision of school uniforms to 15 indigent pupils in same school who have no access to it. Enene Akonjom Foundation and Leave Impact for Eternity (LIFE) Foundation made donations which lead to the construction of pair of dozen classroom chairs and 15 school uniforms. The cost of the chair construction was reduced through mutual collaboration with the community Timber Association to assist supply wood at a 50% discount.
October 2019, I set out to sensitize over 1000 students across 4 secondary schools in Edu LGA, on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Teaching the SDGs in secondary schools was a major target to raise the next generation social change-makers, who do not see problems from the perspective of government’s failure but as a global challenge that needs collaborative actions to make the world a better place to be.
December 2019, I volunteered for the SDG Family Activation (World Largest Lesson) anchored by DEAN Initiative, to extend the SDG sensitization to a community in Edu LGA called Sabongeri-Ndeji. The outcome of the sensitization exposed the only source of drinking water which was bad and pitiable. The community pleaded me to save them from the health danger they face with the water. I quickly took snapshots of the situation in NYSC uniform and uploaded to Twitter (@sam_unleash) seeking for intervention. I look it upon myself to advocate for them until it comes across their saviour. I collaborated with Mr Kehinde Akinsola, the coordinator World Largest Lesson Kwara Chapter and we formulated the #ConstructSabongeriWater twitter hashtag. The campaign officially kicked off January 1st, 2020 with the support of the Kwara State SDG Activators Team and a separate WhatsApp group of volunteers dedicated for the cause. My responsibility was to compose daily advocacy tweet while the team make it viral. The viral campaign came across the path of many government organizations and NGOs whose cause is about water. Next Blue Stories, an international storytelling platform about water followed the campaign update and sent me a private message tagging my campaign an inspiring one and requested the inspiring story behind it published on their international storytelling platform. The campaign terminated on the 23rd day of January, marking 23 days of consistency. The #BuildAWell #FixABorehole #WaterTheNeedy twitter team intervened. Within 7 days, construction of a manual borehole was completed on the site and from 30th January, Sabongeri-Ndeji had access to clean water for the first time in the existence of the community.
The actualization of these projects tell how collaboration with people (especially youths) of like-minds can be of great support for local actions towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. I challenge and encourage all corps members to live up to the tenets of their service to our fatherland through implementation of community development service projects and meet up with the main objective of the National Youth Service Corps scheme.
Samuel Dike Omaka (KW/19A/1928)
07030537705
Kindly comment and share let good deed trend.

budaatum:

You already have my response. I recommended two solutions. "Revamp our education so it teaches people to solve problems they face. And electrify (though, since electricity is a function of education, solve the first, and there shall be light)", and neither is to "make HR personnel feel pompous", as you allege.

I do wonder though, why you think it is someone's responsibility to employ graduates instead of graduates employing themselves. After all, a graduates will have spent 4 or so many years learning something or the other, so why can't they use their knowledge to make themselves useful at least so someone may want to employ them, and that, if they can't gainfully employ themselves? Is their graduation not in problem solving, perhaps? Did they learn nothing?

Please read of a recent graduate below and tell me if this graduate will be gainfully employed solving problems.

I don't agree with you because you spoke from both sides of the mouth. Firstly, on one hand, you wrote that we really have the problem of mass unemployment, so you proposed revamp of the education sector while you also made a case for more electricity generation.

Secondly, on the other hand, you wrote as if the fate of graduates are in their hands as they have no reason to be unemployed because they spent some years on campus. Your example of what a corper did (a lone example out of tens of millions) is like easily catching a small fish out of the river, and saying one can catch all the fishes and whales in the ocean so easily.
The corper is brilliant, but how many of government's irresponsibilities is he going to address?




If I may ask, what problems will education graduates solve? They are meant to teach. They all pray to teach in public schools, but unfortunately, government seldom recruit teachers, so they take up jobs in private schools with poor payment.

If I may ask again, what problems do you want agric graduates to solve when political farmers are the ones taking government loans? Each time farmers are mentioned, what the government plans for are people who who use cutlasses and hoes in a world where there are modern and sophisticated means of farming.

When electrical engineering graduates cannot help contribute to solving power problems. Civil engineering graduates cannot help improve rail and road networks in Nig.

I can go on and on and on as touching graduates abilities at solving problems. Nigerian graduates are talented but unequipped.

I still maintain that government has a lot to do if unemployment is to be tackled. Government should not shift her responsibilities of job provision to graduates

You keep pointing at government as if government is some lot of people who dropped down from Mars and not the people we elected ourselves. Surely if we wanted them to solve our problems for us we'd elect problem solvers, but do we?

I'm a strong advocate in one's life being in ones own hands, and not one to believe in waiting for others to come and be my messiah, be they government or anyone else.

Our education system does not on the whole equip our graduates to solve problems, is my point here, or our graduates would use their education to solve their number one problem, which is finding a source of income. Thankfully, the one I did show you is just one of very many as many graduates do take their life into their own hands like he has done and found something worthwhile to do. You must be aware that just mentioning on his cv what he mentioned there would make him wantable. Or would you rather hire one who was waiting for government and not hire him?

You mentioned graduate teachers. I know many who are taking advantage of the abysmal secondary education in their state and have set up a private home tutoring service. A group I know are currently looking for funding to launch an app to connect their students with tutors. Their take home pay was over 200k each last year just for teaching mathematics, and they reckon they'll clear half a million this year and a million each the next.


You mentioned agric. Amazingly, that is one field where lots of opportunity abound as traditional agric is stuck in the dark ages and well educated farmers can and are making a killing with modern techniques. Do you know Nigeria is one of the lowest meat consuming nations in the world? You'd be amazed what can be done on a ranch instead of leaving cattle rearing to uneducated Fulanis.

Anyway, I'm done here, talking from both sides of the mouth as you say. You got it all sorted and I'm pleased.

oneolajire:

I don't agree with you because you spoke from both sides of the mouth. Firstly, on one hand, you wrote that we really have the problem of mass unemployment, so you proposed revamp of the education sector while you also made a case for more electricity generation.

Secondly, on the other hand, you wrote as if the fate of graduates are in their hands as they have no reason to be unemployed because they spent some years on campus. Your example of what a corper did (a lone example out of tens of millions) is like easily catching a small fish out of the river, and saying one can catch all the fishes and whales in the ocean so easily.
The corper is brilliant, but how many of government's irresponsibilities is he going to address?




If I may ask, what problems will education graduates solve? They are meant to teach. They all pray to teach in public schools, but unfortunately, government seldom recruit teachers, so they take up jobs in private schools with poor payment.

If I may ask again, what problems do you want agric graduates to solve when political farmers are the ones taking government loans? Each time farmers are mentioned, what the government plans for are people who who use cutlasses and hoes in a world where there are modern and sophisticated means of farming.

When electrical engineering graduates cannot help contribute to solving power problems. Civil engineering graduates cannot help improve rail and road networks in Nig.

I can go on and on and on as touching graduates abilities at solving problems. Nigerian graduates are talented but unequipped.

I still maintain that government has a lot to do if unemployment is to be tackled. Government should not shift her responsibilities of job provision to graduates

budaatum:
You keep pointing at government as if government is some lot of people who dropped down from Mars and not the people we elected ourselves. Surely if we wanted them to solve our problems for us we'd elect problem solvers, but do we?

I'm a strong advocate in one's life being in ones own hands, and not one to believe in waiting for others to come and be my messiah, be they government or anyone else.

Our education system does not on the whole equip our graduates to solve problems, is my point here, or our graduates would use their education to solve their number one problem, which is finding a source of income. Thankfully, the one I did show you is just one of very many as many graduates do take their life into their own hands like he has done and found something worthwhile to do. You must be aware that just mentioning on his cv what he mentioned there would make him wantable. Or would you rather hire one who was waiting for government and not hire him?

You mentioned graduate teachers. I know many who are taking advantage of the abysmal secondary education in their state and have set up a private home tutoring service. A group I know are currently looking for funding to launch an app to connect their students with tutors. Their take home pay was over 200k each last year just for teaching mathematics, and they reckon they'll clear half a million this year and a million each the next.


You mentioned agric. Amazingly, that is one field where lots of opportunity abound as traditional agric is stuck in the dark ages and well educated farmers can and are making a killing with modern techniques. Do you know Nigeria is one of the lowest meat consuming nations in the world? You'd be amazed what can be done on a ranch instead of leaving cattle rearing to uneducated Fulanis.

Anyway, I'm done here, talking from both sides of the mouth as you say. You got it all sorted and I'm pleased.

My main point of writing this post is to affirm that Nigerian youths are highly employable and not the other way round.

I'm very informed, (click my moniker and have a view of my write ups on entrepreneurship, job creation, agriculture etc) I know several examples of individual efforts some have made to make impact in the society, such as the corp member you mentioned earlier.

The individual efforts are too few- just like taking a cup out of the ocean.

Sometimes government of responsible nations don't even create the jobs but they provide avenues for investment. Our leaders are mostly voted on religious or ethnic sentiment, and not by merit due to illiteracy and lack of information and the political space being already highjacked by cabals and political godfathers.


A lot can still be done to create job for the large number of unemployed graduates in Nig by both public and private sector. They are simple steps as I believe

oneolajire:

Our leaders are mostly voted on religious or ethnic sentiment, and not by merit due to illiteracy and lack of information and the political space being already highjacked by cabals and political godfathers.

So, we, the electorate, ignorantly elect leaders that satisfy our "religious or ethnic sentiment, and not by merit", and we do this "due to illiteracy and lack of information", which is what allows "the political space to be "highjacked by cabals and political godfathers", and you disagree that education of the electorate, which reduces illiteracy and increases access to information so the electorate know to elect leaders who would help them solve the problems of unemployment, is the solution?

Our "individual efforts are too few" because too few are educated! And by education I mean acquisition of skills! You'd note this by seeing the difference in a skillful roadside mechanic and many graduates who have no skills whatsoever!

Below is my comment in a thread where an architect is concerned about grades and not the skills.

budaatum:
We do tend to focus on the grades and not on the skills. We then graduate with a 1^st but with no skills at all!

There's good advise for you here. Your grades do not determine your know how, and its the know how that matters in what you've chosen to study. So just graft and get that degree and be judged by your fruits of your labour and not by your grades alone.

They lied that Nigerian graduates are unemployable, please where did they get those working in NCDC and other agencies fighting covid-19? See their ugly faces as they cannot travel out for foreign medical treatments. We develop our human capacity together here or we enjoy the sufferings while it lasts.