In recent times I couldn't help but think about how the artisan and Craftsmanship industry of Nigeria will be 10 years from now.

I remember back in the 80s and 90s, it is common and even a thing of pride whereby people sign up for apprenticeship for a couple of years to get the required skill in their field of interest.

Some Parents like my father even insisted on adding artisanry to formal education as plan B. So all each children had to learn a skill while waiting for admission or during the one year industrial training period in higher institutions ( A legacy I will earnestly follow with my lineage).

Aside the fact that it is a huge boost to ones C.V., you will never beg for food unless you weren't serious with your training.

But today you hardly see youngsters, learning Craftsmanship or artisanry. Every body wants to be a content creator, a programmer, content writer, Yahoo yahoo and the likes.

Nobody wants to be a plumber, an electrician, a technician, a mechanic, a bricklayer or tiler, welder, iron bender and the likes.

Have you noticed how difficult it is to get an experienced and skilled artisan these days. Sometimes you have to wait for days for them to come and do jobs for you in your house.

The crux of the matter is the crop of experienced and skilled artisans and Craftsmen and women presently available are those from the 80s and 90s. Most of their apprentices are actually with them just to make ends meet thereby prioritizing the need to make money above that of properly learning the skill from their master.

Personally I think it's just a matter of a couple of years before we realize the dire situation of artisanry and Craftsmanship in this country. Maybe by then we will start looking for foreigners to fill in the gaps.

What do you guys think?

No body wants to do dirty Job again but right now being an artisan or having an hand work does pays more than White collar job talking nigeria current reality salary doesn't increase yet inflation is roof top high.

#OP. By that time, people will rush to learn because their jobs will be lucrative. Imagine you have to pay high to do little maintenance job in your apartment. Nobody will tell Nigerians to embrace handwork again

Look op...I dont know you but I am sure you will not dare do a job that will take you 35 years to save #100,000 in this economy.

I doubt if you know how much pure water for a bag cost now or what food prices are saying . When are you gonna settle down with this our Nigerian ladies that don't want to date poor guys with your daily wages of #5000 or less?

Right from when I was small,I have decided my faith and dream of no stress job like going to the office from AC to my car with AC but as soon as one graduated and start facing the reality in Nigeria,nobody will tell him to learn a digital skill and do freelancing or join a forex broker with 97% win rate .

Na ur type go see small legit hustler for street with a car and you will tag him yahoo boy. How old are you?

Have you forgotten we are in the 21st century when almost many skills are fading away with the advent of robot who do such works and other program applications?

How come you don't know digital skills like programming,graphic and design,digital marketing and a host lot of skills are taking over the conventional skills you used to know.

You had better change your mentality and meet this new generation young boys to show you the way.

Edited: If you want to join the 2 trading companies I am presently getting alot of income each week,DM me.

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I'm taking content writing jobs.
Reach out to me if you need my service.

Hmm.. well you said the truth as for me i learnt screenprinting around 2017 and i still dey use am chop till today despite working as a salary earner.. don't mind this youngsters they gonna learn the truth soon. That didn't even stop me from publishing two books also because i love to write play I'm a playwright also.. if you type in Olamide Akinosun into Google search bar a snippet will tell you all about me. My bio is like this : playwright, graphic design and screenprinting..

Do am if he easy.

Damn our youths are chasing the easy way of making money such as yahoo Yahoo, rituals through skull mining, they don't have time for such things anymore..the corruption of the elites is unfortunately affecting the youths of our country

The youths of today wants to be like Obi Cubana without hard work.
South West is even worse. Almost all youths in Ogun are into skull mining business

You are on point. This is now the reality in Nigeria.

Most artisans can't even work on the new products we have. A fridge repairer once spoilt my refrigerator and ended up adding extra parts to it before it could work. Another one collected money severally but ended up making it worse.

What is the way forward?

Pay hourly and have a standard wage, a lot of people will do a lot things. Abi make I leave 250k per month soft hustle go do welding because of passion?

No mind them, they prefer skull mining �

First, this is not true:

Onyewarri:
...
Aside the fact that it is a huge boost to ones C.V., you will never beg for food unless you weren't serious with your training.

Secondly, I knew you were going to mention internet fraud the moment I started reading and you didn't disappoint.

Onyewarri:
...But today you hardly see youngsters, learning Craftsmanship or artisanry. Every body wants to be a content creator, a programmer, content writer, Yahoo yahoo and the likes...

Plus the fact that you included it with things like content creator, a programmer, content writer, and then added "and the likes" at the end instantly discredits your argument in the faces of people in those fields (including me).

What links do those careers have with fraud? Seun Osewa who owns Nairaland is a programmer.


But I'll put that aside since I understand what you're trying to say (unless you have hidden intentions).

You need to understand how the world (and the method of generating wealth) is changing and how people follow those changes, without even realizing it.

In the past, wealth was generated from farms. Basically, the more farmland you had, the more money you had.

Wealth later moved from farms to industries (factories, etc.) during the industrial revolutions. And people followed...

That's why we had lots of craftsmen and technical schools in the 80s and 90s compared to today since there were lots of industries in the world and most of the tech stuff we take for granted today were evolving at the time.

Now, wealth has moved from industries/factories to services and people are following suit.

That's why you're seeing less people in craftsmanship these days.

And let's not talk about our increased population,
The increasing complexities of skills required to become a craftsman,
The destruction of the middle class who are the biggest spenders, which means fewer jobs for craftsmen,
The massive deindustrialization that has been happening in Nigeria since the 70s due to poor government policies and forced us to focus on importation over manufacturing/assembling, and so on.

That said, you'll be surprised to know that everything you're saying now was the same thing everyone else said in the 80s and 90s:

They complained about people leaving the farms for craftsmanship. And now, you're complaining about people leaving craftsmanship for the digital world.

You'll be surprised again to learn that someone in the future will make the same complaint about people leaving the digital world for something else.

It's just the world happening and is nothing to bother about.

Like seriously serious

Handy

No problem ...DIY will take over. In "saner climes" DIY is key...everyone has tools at home

Onyewarri:
In recent times I couldn't help but think about how the artisan and Craftsmanship industry of Nigeria will be 10 years from now.

I remember back in the 80s and 90s, it is common and even a thing of pride whereby people sign up for apprenticeship for a couple of years to get the required skill in their field of interest.

Some Parents like my father even insisted on adding artisanry to formal education as plan B. So all each children had to learn a skill while waiting for admission or during the one year industrial training period in higher institutions ( A legacy I will earnestly follow with my lineage).

Aside the fact that it is a huge boost to ones C.V., you will never beg for food unless you weren't serious with your training.

But today you hardly see youngsters, learning Craftsmanship or artisanry. Every body wants to be a content creator, a programmer, content writer, Yahoo yahoo and the likes.

Nobody wants to be a plumber, an electrician, a technician, a mechanic, a bricklayer or tiler, welder, iron bender and the likes.

Have you noticed how difficult it is to get an experienced and skilled artisan these days. Sometimes you have to wait for days for them to come and do jobs for you in your house.

The crux of the matter is the crop of experienced and skilled artisans and Craftsmen and women presently available are those from the 80s and 90s. Most of their apprentices are actually with them just to make ends meet thereby prioritizing the need to make money above that of properly learning the skill from their master.

Personally I think it's just a matter of a couple of years before we realize the dire situation of artisanry and Craftsmanship in this country. Maybe by then we will start looking for foreigners to fill in the gaps.

What do you guys think?

/
That's life.

Nigerian immigrants in Libya are the main artisans because the citizens there refuse to do such manual labour.

Ghanaian and Togolese immigrants in Nigeria are becoming the main artisans in Nigeria because Nigerian citizens refuse to do such work.

Online begging has replaced artisanship as a thriving profession in Nigeria.

/

I think it's because of the mindset people have about those jobs.

The ones left will notice the increase in demand, if what you say is true, and steadily increase their prices.

Hh

This topic is very serious

Currently there is no job for the trained ones.

Patience is lacking in our generation, it takes patience to learn a skill, most times years.

But the youhths want it now, they always says "the future is now"

Hence, the cause of the cybercrime (Yahoo) and the ritual.


Run away from anyone who dosent believe there is something called tomorrow.

May God help us.

You're very right. I am currently supervising a construction project and I can attest to all you have said. Personally, I regret not learning a trade to add to my formal education. I envy and marvel at these guys as they ACTUALLY do the work. It makes me feel like a fraud cos I can't actually do anything myself.
My kids and any young one around me will learn a trade in addition to formal education. It is the way to go

I'm on my way to village make I go clear bush for farming jare

While I was in school then, we don't pay school fees rather we present handwork as our school fees
All these things ain't in school anymore