Unemployment amongst Nigerian youths 

Sir: The traditional means of explaining a term is by painting a clear picture of the term. Tejuan Pettinger (2019) gave a classical definition that best captures the term, ‘‘unemployment as a situation where someone of a working age is not able to get a job but would like to be in full time employment.’’  Despite the robust economy of Nigeria, it is so pathetic that the menace is ravaging the country. Despite the avalanche of wealth domiciled in this country, it is so sad that we are still backward owing to negligence and misappropriation of the country’s resources by the same leaders who promise to safeguard our wellbeing.

Additionally, after the oil boom in the 1970s that led to massive employment in the country, it is so sad to admit that such fate has not occurred again after several decades. Most times, it is not as if these graduates are not employable, but the greed on the part of those wielding powers, coupled with the corrupt tradition in the country, the chances of these innocent graduates are being sacrificed for money. It is annoying and absurd to be commercialising employment offers? Now, the same person struggling to feed and meet up with his daily need is being asked to cough up a million naira for a job offer. This is preposterous!

In another glance, the political instability laced with varying economic policies as a result of change in power discourages the smooth running of the private firms; thereby leading to bankruptcy, and to survive this pressure, they will have to retrench some staff and this will add up to the already deteriorating figures in the country.

On the part of some youths, truth be told, some graduates are not employable. This is owing to their poor academic performance as made visible in their certificates, and also their inabilities to measure up with their acquired certificates.

Going to school to acquire a degree in a certain discipline is one thing; another thing is to be highly proficient and efficient in such field of endeavour. Most people in our world today got employed through their social media handles without even having to attend any interview or write aptitude tests.

This is a clarion call to the presidency, through the Ministry of Human Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development as headed by Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouk to as a matter of urgency and necessity swing into action towards revitalising the N-power  scheme so that the heap of unemployment could be trimmed off a bit. This scheme was created for unemployed graduates and non-graduates between the age of 18 and 35.

• Subaru Mutari Itopa.