The strength of the economy of any state, they say, is determined by the contribution of the youth. The strength of the youth therefore, cannot be over-emphasized in terms of national growth.
It is the understanding of the roles expected of these group that a necessitated the need to acquire necessary moral, academic and ethical credential to ensure that one is fit to meet with the demands and the challenges of the society to study.
We cannot compare the relevance of academic certificate as obtained in the classical era of independence and what is obtainable today in the labour market.
Professor Eskor Toyo said, during a social action summit at Aluu, that in the early 60s and 70s, corporate organizations such as banks and insurance company would visit schools and grants the students employment in advance because of the desperate need of human resource. He added further that some companies would jingle the bell around their host communities for vacant positions in their respective companies.
The graduates of those days had the luxury of choice to pick from as there were jobs at both private and public sectors. He opined further that it is those who failed secondary schools that usually secure front desk jobs in banks and were handsomely paid. This was the period that Nigerians who had to travel abroad for any reason would only do so reluctantly.
The chronological phase of event has turned the taste of education sour as the number of unemployed graduates has out weighed the few lucky ones who would stick their neck and balls to any job available even if the “take home pay” would not take them home. According to publications by the National Manpower Board (NMB) and Federal Bureau of Statistic (FBS), only about 10% of graduates released annually into the labour market from tertiary institution in Nigeria are employed. The survival of the fittest became the rule as even the public sector only have hinge-hole vacant space for the teeming graduates that flood the society.
Former Minister of Interior, Major General Godwin Abe (Rtd) recently said that 43 persons died in the recent recruitment exercise into Nigeria Prison Service (NPS), wherein over 300,000 applied for less than 700 vacancies. Similarly, 20 persons were reported died during a recent recruitment exercise into Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). The Scramble for desperation for 3000 vacancies by over 195,000 applicants caused the deaths.
Nigerian graduates now find solace in entering for various reality shows and dance hall competitions where the chances of being chosen even as a participant is very slim. It is on this sad premise that a youth corps member said at the Orientation Camp in Lagos that he “feared that he is leaving the university” as three of his siblings who are already graduates are still at home with their parents. “I fear that I might join the wagon of the unemployed” he concluded.
Femi Aborishade of the Committee for the Defence of Human Right (CDHR) noted that there is the need for government to revive old and seemingly dead sectors that once and still can contribute to the growth of the economy. Ajaokuta Steel Company, according to him, is enough to accommodate over 60,000 jobs. Also, the textile industry is fallow in operation but can employ lots of thousands of graduate if revived.
Same are other sectors such as the Railway and the Shipping line that dies about 20 years ago. He believes that the government can look into these dead industries and use the graduate to revive them, thus increasing the county’s GDP. The International labour organization (ILO) has estimated that only about 2% of the world GDP committed to social good would abolish poverty from the face of the earth. What stand in the way of allocating 2 per cent of the world GDP is the priority given to the protection of the profits for a few, rather than the needs of the overwhelming majority of humanity.
In other words there is the need to eliminate the chaos and antagonism among individual capital owners, nations, international and regional bodies.
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