Besides
insecurity and corruption in high places, unemployment remains one of the most
critical problems the country is facing. Nigeria, the most populous country in
Africa and the second largest economy in the continent with a population of
over 150 million, is endowed with diverse and infinite human, material and
capital resources. Sadly, however, years of unbridled corruption, mis-management
and sheer waste have hindered economic growth in the country.
Consequently, the nation’s resources have been left under-utilized leading to
unemployment and abject poverty, the twin evils which experts believe may
scuttle the attainments of the Millennium Development Goals in the country (Bakare, 2013).
While a recent
World Bank statistics on youth unemployment in Nigeria rated it at 38 percent, 2012 National
Baseline Youth Survey Report of National
Bureau of Statistics (2013) indicated that more than half, about 54
percent, of youth population were unemployed; Bakare, (2013) revealed that
realistically 80 percent of Nigerian youths are unemployed with secondary
school graduates mostly found among unemployed rural population accounting for
about half of this figure, while university and polytechnic graduates make up
the figure. In his comment on the level of unemployment in Nigeria, Issa Aremu
the Deputy President of the National Labour Congress said, “Find out about the
number of people who applied for the last recruitment by the Nigeria
Immigration Service and the Customs Service. When more than a hundred thousand
people apply for just about 3000 vacancies, then you should know whether the
figures are true” (Ekott, 2010). Yet the Federal Government has rated its
programmes (YouWin, Sure-P etc.) to create employment for millions of
unemployed youths as successful.
According to
Aganga (2011), “we have a good economy which is growing at an average (rate) of
7%”. He went further to say that in 2008 our economy (i.e., Nigeria’s economy)
grew at 6.9% which is approximately 7%. But the paradox is that an economy that
grows at 7% cannot absorb a growth of population of 2.3% into employment or at
best the labor force that grows at an average of 0.3% (Adawo et al, 2012). This
is a clear indication that these resources have not been effectively utilized and
transformed into jobs to benefits ever growing youth population of the country.
Therefore resulting to rise in youth unemployment which has social, economic
and political problems such as: increasing poverty, increasing militancy,
violent crimes, kidnapping, restiveness and political instability.
