Getting a job these days, any job for that matter, is getting harder by the day, suggesting an economy hit hard by the doldrums or one lacking in good plans or both. The evidence is there for all to see. In the streets of major towns of Nigeria today armies of youths, armed with their apparently depreciating certificates move aimlessly about looking for that increasingly elusive job. At the end of a long bleak and grueling day, they head for home, tired, despondent and hope fading into the dim horizon,

The job market in Nigeria, particularly as it affects the youth is this bad. In fact, youth development minister, Akinlabi Olasunkammi, disclosed recently in Abuja at a two-day workshop on Entrepreneurship Development for Job Creation among Nigerian Youths" that according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS), more than 80 per cent of Nigerian youths are unemployed. The scale of this joblessness is confounded by the fact that even those 20% with jobs are underemployed. In short, with a youth population accounting for about 60% of our total population of 140 million it means possibly over 70 million of our youths may be without jobs. Even those with degree certificates are not doing well at all. Indeed they are faring for worst, as according to the youth development minister, only 10 per cent of graduates coming to the job market every year secure paid employment. This means 90 per cent graduates of our universities and polytechnics, after six years of studies, often marked by unimaginable difficulties are idling at home or wasting away in cities whose dwindling job openings continue to close in their faces.

Clearly, something is wrong with an economy with over 80 per cent unemployment among its energetic youths. This appalling situation is a serious cause for concern for all, a looming danger that could seriously hamper the country’s quest for peace, stability and economic prosperity. A jobless youth is not only hungry but may also eventually turned into an angry person and vent this anger on the larger society through some negative ways. Frustration can lure a person into crime which may by why today the country is witnessing growing incidences of criminal activities such as armed robbery, prostitution, hard drug addiction, kidnappings, hostage-taking and child trafficking. The major culprit for all these criminal behaviours is lack of jobs to keep them on the straight lane of life.

It is often said that the future belongs too the youths. Which is undoubtedly true. The salient issue though is the kind of preparation we are making for that tomorrow. It the country investing enough today to secure a better future for them? How much are we putting in the health sector to ensure a healthy citizenry? How important is education to us? Are we investing enough and is it he right type of education? Is the educational system producing the enough manpower with the requisite skills who can be employed anywhere in the world? There must be something odd and scary about an educational system which year-in-year-out turned thousands of poorly trained white cola job seekers in an economy with a choked job market instead of producing enterprising job creators. Why are we having very few wealth creators, businesses and ventures that add value to the economy. It is an accepted fact that the strength of any economy largely depends on small scale businesses and cottage industries. They rather than the big enterprises are the engines that power an economy and provide employment opportunities to millions of workers. Why is the country failing in this all important area of the economy? Is it due to inadequate power supply and lack of access to capital? How much is the present infrastructural decay in the country affecting the tempo of our economic growth? On the whole, is the issue not really about bad governance, including the rampant corruption that is eating deep into our fabric? All these and many more are legitimate questions seeking honest and forthright answers if we are to begin the Herculean task of tackling the present unacceptably high level of unemployment among our youths and other national malaises.

The enormous energies of the youths should be channeled into productive ventures rather needlessly allowing such energies to be dissipated in criminal activities and vices. This means they have to be properly trained and re-trained to enable them acquire skills required for a 21st century competitive economy. Tomorrow beckons to them but only if they are today properly and adequately prepared can they dace that future with the assured confidence of winners. The country badly needs them because its future depends on them and indeed they have so much to give us. On the other hand, they can visit needless pains on us if we neglect their welfare. It appears all previous measures and current ones, such as the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), aimed at addressing the worsening job market are not working, at least not to anyone’s satisfaction. If so, it is incumbent on the government to adopt a more holistic and proactive approach to take the teeming jobless youths out of the streets to factories, garages, mines, agriculture, carpentry, shops and other means of gainful employment. This is the most effective way of taming the … called unemployment.