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Causes and Effects of Youth Unemployment Problems in Nigeria
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to look into the causes and effects of youth unemployment problems in Nigeria. The rate at which unemployed graduates roam the street after the National Youth Service constitutes social malice to the country as a whole. In Nigeria, it is expected that both individuals and government at all level should join hands to build a Nigeria where everyone is resourceful and useful.
Every year thousands of graduates are turn out for whom there are no jobs. Nigerian streets are littered with youth hawkers and bike riders who ordinarily would have found gained employment in some enterprises; or would have demonstrated their skills and resourcefulness if there are enabling environments and reliable management structures on ground. Instead, the youths have now shifted their attention to Cybercrime popularly known as ‘419’. This is the wrong use of technological innovation, which ordinarily should have been channelled towards technological advancement as witnessed in U.S., Canada, United Kingdom and China- the emerging world’s production and economic power. The large number of youths who are unemployed are capable of undermining democratic practice as they constitute a serious threat if engaged by the political class for clandestine activities.
In Nigeria, accurate unemployment rates are difficult to access. However, according to Oyebade (2003), Nigeria’s unemployment can be grouped into two categories: first, the older unemployed who lost their jobs through redundancy or bankruptcy and second, the younger unemployed, most of whom have never been unemployed. Moreover, the educated unemployed tended to be young males with few dependents. There are relatively few secondary school graduates and the lowered job expectations of primary-school graduates.
Unemployment is one of the major issues affecting Nigeria’s economy and its society. The rate of unemployment has increased during last few years due the fallout from the economic challenges and I will shade light to the topic.
Causes of unemployment in Nigeria
Every economy is characterized by both active and inactive populations. The economically active ones are referred to as the population willing and able to work, and include those actively engaged in the production of goods and services and those who are unemployed.
After a thorough research I have identified the main causes of youth unemployment in Nigeria they are:-
During some research I found out that Nigeria is experiencing economic recessions because of a significant decline of GDP in the first and second quarters of 2016. The data shows that GDP decline in the first quarter of 2016 is -0.36%, where the second quarter shows -1.5%. Still, the numbers can be misleading as the economic recession and financial crisis can occur without Gross Domestic Product reports. Nigeria showed some growth in the GDP for the fourth quarter of 2016, which is 0.8%. Moreover, financial analytics expect that the first quarter of 2017 is also expected to have a positive growth in GDP. Nevertheless, it does not mean that the country will clearly get out from the economic recession.
One of the major factors responsible for the high level of unemployment in Nigeria is the rapid growth in population. There has been an increase in the growth of the labour forces along with the inadequate supply of jobs. The rapid population growth has been coupled with rural-urban migration. This has increased the population in cities thereby raising the level of joblessness.
Every year, many graduates come out from the universities and colleges of education in Nigeria with little or nothing to contribute to the society. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, more than 200,000 alumnae graduate from Nigeria tertiary institutions yearly, but only very little number of them secure jobs after years of their graduation. The reason is because there are little facilities and ill-equipped lecturers/instructors who rendered poor services to the graduates when they were in their institutions.
This is the major reason for unemployment in many countries that don't take genuine care of their Education sector. Countries who don't reinforce what the undergraduates are instructed in their individual establishments of higher learning with useful foundation are probably going to 'clean up' graduates yearly who can't have a decent effect on the general public. At the point when the graduates that are given out each year can't safeguard what they studied, the main thing they do is to add to the unemployment level of the nation.
Selfish governments don't buckle down in making production companies where citizens of the country can get employed to decrease joblessness; rather, they continue taking and stealing from the people in general from their reserve. At the point when the assets that should be utilized by the legislature to give work to the majority isn't utilized, the following that takes after is ingenuity ascend in joblessness status.
A government that fails in her duty to help minimize unemployment in any country is as bad as a shepherd that does not care for his flock. Some top government officials are after their selfish interest without considering the importance of making provisions for her citizens. Due to the government's weakness, unemployment becomes the major problem in the country.
Lack of regular electric power supply
This is the biggest cause of unemployment in Nigeria. Talking of how lack of electricity has caused unemployment in Nigeria, the matter is multi-faceted. Many foreign companies that would have come to invest in this country (considering the big marketing vista in Nigeria) and which would have provided many employment opportunities to Nigerians to reduced unemployment, have changed direction to other neighbouring countries with constant electricity supply in order to avoid operating at loss with 24-hours running of generators (which) is now becoming the tradition in Nigeria.
The same problem has affected many local companies which could not cope with the high cost of running electric plants/generators all the time, and were thus forced to fold up and threw their employees into the labour market.
Unemployment in Nigeria has been worsened by the recent decline in the country’s economy. A lot of people have been laid off, while new jobs were not created. Most companies laid off employees because they can’t afford a lot workers.
Another problem that is closely related to that of poor quality education, as a cause of unemployment in Nigeria, is of lack of skills.
It is hard to see any person who is full of skills and still suffer from unemployment. A skilful person can adapt to many environments and feed appropriately to the fullness. One of the principal causes of unemployment among adults of different locations of the world is because good skills which can give them good self-employment are lacking in them. There is much importance of skill acquisition.
For many years running, most Nigerian youths have disdained acquisition of skills, thinking that the time spent on such is wasted, and opting for so-called ‘clean-shirt’ and ‘easy’ ways of making money. With such mentality, these youths have grown into middle-age and even senior age without any skill to fall, thus becoming liabilities to themselves and others.
On the other hand, it is hard to see any person who is full of skills suffering from unemployment. A skillful person can adjust to many situations and environments and at least, feed himself and his household appropriately.
It is therefore, recommended that graduates who studied various fields of engineering mechanical, electrical/electronics, etc. — should humble themselves to do practical training or apprenticeship in workshops of technicians for practical knowledge. In that way, such graduates will be fully equipped for employment (by employers or by themselves) and help reduce unemployment in the country.
Negligence of Agriculture and Other Natural Resources
Nigeria, as a country, is blessed with many un-utilized resources which are enough to gainfully engage every un-employed person. But the craze for quick ‘oil money’ has made both government and individuals to direct all attention to only the oil industry.
Those who are older would recall that the Federal Government and the Regional Governments of Nigeria managed the country with agricultural and other natural resources before the ‘oil boom’ (which has now become ‘oil gloom’).
In those days, cocoa production was the mainstay in Western Nigeria (with the famous Cocoa House built from the proceeds); groundnut production was the mainstay in Northern Nigeria with the fame of the ‘Groundnut Pyramids’ back then; coal from Udi in Enugu, was the mainstay of Eastern Nigeria while rubber and palm oil were the mainstay of Midwestern Nigeria.
Unstable and corrupt political environment
Another key problem is poor leadership and high level of corruption in Nigeria. The failure of the government to perform their constitutional duties has resulted in the high level of unemployment. Also, the high level of corruption in Nigeria among politicians has resulted in the mismanagement of the funds and resources supposed to be used for the creation of job opportunities for the people.
Corruption is a cause of unemployment Nigeria because when those in government who are to use public money for building more industries are busy embezzling the funds for their selfish use, the result is massive increase in unemployment rate.
Without going too far, Nigeria is said to be the 8th most corrupt country in the world and so, has high unemployment rate. The corruption in Nigeria makes government to spend less on the welfare of the citizens of the country.
When corruption is taken as normal routine, functions which are to be performed by three or even four persons are taken up by only one person and that one person collects all the salaries meant for the three or four persons.
In the same vein, we often hear of ‘ghost workers’ in some government establishments where names of imaginary workers are added to pay-rolls and some few corrupt bosses collect such salaries at the end of the month without any work done. The result of all these immoral acts is increased unemployment for the masses.
IMPACT OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA
It is clear that any nation which faces unemployment will have a decline in industrial production. This is because those who are to be employed in various manufacturing companies are not given opportunities to boost the output of the country.
Employing graduates and learned persons will increase products which are yearly produced in many nations. When there are fewer numbers of cosmetic companies in a nation instead of having many, the yearly output made by the country will be small. But when there are many cosmetic companies that produce the same products, the yearly cosmetic products will be of high increase. The high increase is because more workers were employed which help in rapid outputs that were obtained. In the contrast, due to low national industrial output because of unemployment, nations Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreases.
The most direct impact on the economy of an unproductive labour force is lost output in terms of goods and services. With no income tax to collect and the loss of receipts from indirect taxes payers. Most of youths that have the requisite skills in entrepreneurship, who even came out from institution of higher learning with wonderful results have no place in the work environment of Nigeria. This ugly scenario has made the labour force to be unproductive.
What business does an employed worker have with criminal act going on in his or her country? Most people start thinking of one crime or the other that they will indulge in to make money when there is no source of income for them. Unemployment has made many minds to be idle which hence results to crime engagement. Many crimes committed today are because people do not have what they do for their living-unemployment.
With the growth of youth unemployment, the gap between the rich and the poor kept growing, resulting in social tensions which could affect the entire spares of the community, state and the entire country (Niger-Delta militancy, North-East, North-Central insurgents killing, etc).
Due to frustration that results to the inability of engaging in a gainful employment, most people turn to drugs and even go ahead to be addicted to it.
It is an established economic reality that the size of the workforce directly impacts on country’s GDP. Not only does the work force produce manufactured goods or services or agricultural produce in direct proportion, but also brings in its wake increasing purchasing power, which in turn, fuels economic growth. Thus unemployment contributes to reduction in the potential which exists in spurring a country's GDP (Njoku and Ihugba, 2011).
High level of poverty Mathematically, unemployment is directly proportional to poverty. Even any baby who is taught on unemployment can know that unemployment can result in Poverty. In the 2013 release of top countries that face high unemployment rate by International Labour Organization, Africa faces the highest unemployment rate. When this is compared with the poverty level of African Continent, it is not farfetched that Africa continent is the poorest continent in the world. Yes! It is the poorest.
Psychological effects
Youths, who have spent two or more years in schools and colleges, have dreams and aspirations. These are dreams of securing satisfying jobs following their long years of struggle, meeting basic necessities of life (food, clothing, shelter and healthcare), graduating to a life of comfort and dignity and, eventually, enjoying the luxuries of life. The trauma of seeing their dreams trampled week-after-week, month-after-month, can and does lead to deep psychological scars that is very difficult to face at such a young age. This trauma can impact on individual's self-esteem and can lead to clinical depression.
Family support
In a country like Nigeria, where the people retire when they are not tired and there is no social security net, very often families depend on their son or daughter graduating from school or college to take up employment in order to support the entire family. When that does not happen, the financial woes are unimaginably sorrowful.
It is equally easy to visualize that lack of steady income could also lead to inadequate nutrition and adversely affect health of the youth and their families.
h. Political instability: When unemployment grows in a community, dissatisfaction with the incumbent Government follows. This in turn, leads to frequent changes in Governments or formation of unsteady coalitions. Neither it is healthy for long term stable economic policies nor could this situation lead to a vicious circle of political changes.
Conclusion
Based on the facts above, it is clearly shown challenges that cause unemployment in Nigeria are self-imposed and caused directly by Nigerian citizens. Only few are not self imposed and they exist because most Nigerians (especially the rich and powerful) are lazy.
However, for unemployment to finally leave Nigeria and Nigerians alone, it is very important that Nigerians understand that they are battling an enemy that they created themselves. If this is not realized, then, there is nothing much that can be achieved.
The good thing, however, is that, if Nigerians truly wish to stamp out unemployment in the country, it would be as easy as asking a doctoral candidate to write ABC and his/her thesis but the current situation shows that’s not the case.
Reference:
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7. https://notopoverty.info/causes-of-unemployment-in-nigeria-solutions/
