₦airaland Forum

Thanks for this comment..

The current level of unemployment in our clime is audible to the deaf and visible to the blind. This have made various stakeholders in our society to take bold steps in addressing this unfortunate phenomenon.

The school just like the "smith's" workshop is a place where various crude metals are refined and shaped to meet societal needs. The process requires a lot of craft.

From time immemorial, evolution has been occurring in this sector from the ancient blacksmiths of Rome and Awka to the great US and Ajaokuta Steels respectively (shh!).

The school is a place where the human mind is moulded by academic and technical craftsmen into desired shape to meet the needs of the society according to her exigencies per time. In this regard the Nigerian University Commission in her wisdom has made entrepreneurship compulsory at undergraduate levels in all universities, to address the current menace of unemployment in Nigeria. Beautiful idea!

Just like the great walls of China built to protect her people from external attack, the attack has continued unabated even after such a huge effort. This made the Chinese to ask "who are the gatekeepers?"

Isreal has been a country I admire so much for her ground breaking achievements in technology and innovations in recent times. She has the highest density of startups per capita in the world and is ranked No. 2 in innovation, according to the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness report. What a great achievement for a country whose population is about 8.6 million ( about the size of Delta and Bayelsa States).

Nevertheless, these people have used a method that is not commonplace in our clime.

The average entrepreneur in Nigeria, Africa is a trader who deals on commodity wholesale or retail by himself and his family or some poorly paid sales boys/girls or an artisan e.g mechanic or tailor whose workshop has been on same location with same equipment since 1990 when his father started the work for him after freedom from his "Oga", with ill treated apprentices learning under him and working for him as he pockets the money as the "Oga".

So when the call for self employment and entrepreneurship was made in our country, these where the common societal template for entrepreneurs which our people look up to. To crown it all even the universities,colleges and NYSC are beckoning on these people to compulsorily teach entrepreneurship to our students and corps members. What a disaster!

While their counterparts in Isreal, Singapore and United States are beginning startups inspired by 21st century digital technology driven innovation hubs, exploring blockchain technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things, Machine Learning, drawing inspiration from Silicon Valley entrepreneurial titans, who are our students (youths) drawing their inspiration from?

Folks who are in Lagos may not see things my way, but some of us from the "village" attending universities, colleges, polytechnics, serving as corps members, training as artisans can relate to this. It breaks my heart!

Dear friends, thank God for the smartphones, use yours, to be smart as the world is now a global village.

You have no excuse!

Educate yourself to challenge the status quo!
The day is dawn and the scorch of the dry season sun knows no boundary.

Pursue your new idea using new approaches!
Source: www.kinesthouse.com