"More than 200 million people are unemployed worldwide. And 40% of them are under 24." - IMF
Now that's a staggering statistic !
200m?! I bet Nigeria contributes 100m to the global figure. Ok maybe I'm exaggerating a bit...since Naija no get reliable statistics. But I reckon almost everyone in Nigeria knows someone (most likely a graduate) who's out of work/ or didnt have one in the first place and desperately looking for a decent job - or has given up the search entirely and started a small business/ learnt trade/hustle on streets.
Allow me to do some free consulting for Oga Jonathan and let's try and estimate the number of jobless youths in this Country.
Another fresh batch of corpers just left camp. Yay! The third and final batch for the year. Reports reaching
me suggest Lagos camp was overcrowded (as usual). My sources reckon they're about 5k(despite the ASUU strike). They're 36 states n FCT. Let's say 4k on average multiplied by 37. Equals 148k. Times 3 batches. 444k. So the Nigerian economy needs to create about half a million jobs annually to absorb the number of graduates the universities are churning out. I reckon that for every graduate entry-level vacancy there are 100 "qualified" candidates. Pls don't ask me how I came up with that figure.
Not trying to get you depressed, on the contrary am trying to give you hope and believe in a better tomorrow. It's an attempt to encapsulate the struggles of a Naija youth hustling for daily bread. Against the seemingly impossible odds, Nigerian youths are still optimistic about the future. Good job, marriage, house full of kids, fledging careers, successful business etc. We go hammer!
Some might call it blind optimism, but what other option have we got? Become hopeless and despair? Settle for failure? Just sit and fold our arms and say the times we are in are different? Certainly not!
I'll leave you with the words of Barack Obama.
"Hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Hope is the belief that destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by the men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be." - BO
I wonder where half a million jobs will crop out from annually. It's true that there are few slots and competition is high but still how many graduates are really employable? The state of the Tertiary Institutions is a sorry one indeed. Any Government that doesn't move Education to the forefront of her plans just can't develop.
ReplyDeletena so we see am o
ReplyDeletewonderful piece of article, but are u sure you r actually not trying to get us depressed??
ReplyDeleteam actually getting depressed reading this
Deletenice one,if only the government could read this
ReplyDeleteVery well said Ola. :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome write-up.
ReplyDelete@those getting depressed.....chin-up!
Just have believe in yourself and keep working hard. People will notice you!
And it's true not all grads are emloyable, but at least all the employable ones should find decent jobs to start with. Other should go and farm or trade :) lol
True word ola
ReplyDeleteGud one.......
ReplyDelete