COVID-19 HAS PROVED THAT NIGERIAN GRADUATES ARE HIGHLY EMPLOYABLE
Since the outbreak of the novel corona virus in Nigeria, it has been difficult for Nigerian government and elites to live the way used to. Previously, it is medical tourism to the UK or India. They detest the public health sector, while some even travel out of the country to treat common cold, malaria and many other sicknesses.
The major reason is that they do not believe in the quality of professionals in our institutions. Government prefer to waste money on frivolities instead of developing our institutions and infrastructures.
Presently, the stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone as the Nigerian health sector workers have become the major warriors in the covid-19 battle. They have exercised neither fear nor excuses.
The government has no substitute to the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab scientist, etc, they have always vilified. Almost all these professionals were trained in Nigeria and they are doing their best.
Imagine a situation where Nigerian airports were not closed and the developed nations have no case of corona virus, elites and people in government would have fled Nigeria for safety. We would have been left for spiritual and traditional healing homes.
Once again, covid -19 has told us to look inwards, invest in human capacity development, build reputable institutions as we have no other home.
I will keep saying that Nigerian graduates are highly employable.

Employable with no basis fund, okay next

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

nice one

EdoBoy90:
nice one

got you