Sustainable
Jobs in Nigeria

Unemployment
is a situation where an abled job seeking person is not able to find a job. Unemployment
is one of Nigeria’s biggest problems, Nigeria is very populated country of
approximately 193 million people, and 14.6 percent of its population are
unemployed making it 27 million unemployed Nigerians. 1.7 million Nigerians
graduate every year adding to the already huge existing number in the labour
market seeking for jobs. Its obvious that unemployed is one of the major issues
Nigeria is facing. Should the government be blamed for unemployment or the
people? And how can Nigeria get sustainable job for her citizens?  And what is causing the high unemployment
rate? By the risen of the sun is the risen of a problem in Nigeria. New Crimes
are reported every day, from house burglary to kidnaping to bombing. But nobody
has thought of the solution as being employment. Providing well paying
sustainable jobs, would not only just make solve the problem of unemployment in
Nigeria. It would go a long way to even improve the literacy rate in Nigeria.
Most nigerans have given up on school, because you end up with nothing to do
after graduation, so they think “why will I waste my time” that’s why Nowadays
you see so many illegal crimes happening every day because they don’t have jobs
to keep them busy.  

Unemployment rate in Nigeria
grown on a rapid level.  In 2009 the
number of unemployed people went from 3.5 million to 11.549 million. As of in
January 2015 unemployment rate was 24.2 percent, it grew to 33.3 percent in July
2016.  38 percent of the people that fall
among the employable age are unemployed. Unemployment is higher for youths
aging 15-24 holding 65 percent of the unemployment in Nigeria as of September
2016. And in terms of gender, majority of the unemployed youths are women, they
are accounted for more than 50 percent of unemployed people. By geographical
location, the rural areas have the highest rising number of unemployed youths,
the population of unemployed youths in the rural area rose from 2.9 million in 2008
to 5.9 million in 2012.

The chat bellow shows the
percentage of unemployed female youth and youth at the rural areas.

The chart bellow shows
the youth unemployment rate.

Nigeria is blessed with
lots of human and natural resources, with her resources being capable to employ
almost all of the unemployed in her nation if put into an efficient use. But unfortunately,
the rate of unemployment especially of the youth is alarming and is of high growth.
And below are the a number of factors responsible for the high unemployment
rate in Nigeria.

Unstable electricity supply:
irregular supply of electricity is one of the biggest cause of unemployment in Nigeria.
Many foreign companies would have love to invest in Nigeria, considering the
big vista market in Nigeria and would have provided employment to some of the
employable citizens, but would not unfortunately because of the inconsistent and
unpredictable power supply of the country, and have moved to some of the neighbouring
countries with constant power supply to avoid their companies being at lost with
24 hours running of generator which has now become Nigeria’s tradition.

Local companies have also
been affected with the same problem, which some of them end up closing down
their companies because of the high cost in running electric generators, with
their employees thrown out into the labour market.

Poor educational
standard: 1.7 million graduates are released yearly into the labour market. Some
of these graduates come out half baked, with little or nothing to contribute to
the country. Many end up unemployed curtesy of the little facilities and poor
trained instructors who provided them with poor services while in their
institutions. These graduates come out with little or no practical backgrounds
that they can impact to the society, and some of them not being able to defend
their certificate.

Agriculture and other
natural resources negligence: Nigeria is blessed with agriculture and natural
resources that many of this unemployed will be able to engage in, but these
resources are been neglected because of the search for quick oil money. The government
and the people have all gone crazy about oil, and all the attention have been
directed towards the oil industry. Oil is now the main source of Nigeria’s GDP.
Years ago, Nigeria was managed with agricultural production: such as, cocoa and
groundnuts and other natural resources: including, coal, and rubber before the
discovery of oil.

Corruption: corruption can
be defined as an immoral action that involves, bribery and embezzlement of
public funds for personal use. A government is corrupt when it makes use of
public funds for selfish use. Corruption is one of the major issues of Nigeria as
well as on unemployment. Nigerian government officials embezzle the public fund
allocated for building industries to create more job opportunities for the
people, which results to the high rate of unemployment in the country.  Nigeria ranks the 8th most corrupt country
in the world, which explains the high unemployment rate. the money meant for
this operation most of the times end of in the pockets of the government
officials. Sometimes these officials establish names of imaginary workers and
add to the pay roll then later collect the money for their personal use, this
is another form of corruption.

Unemployment is an
alarming issue both at the rural and urban area, though more critical in rural
areas. Unemployment results to many problems that affect the development of the
country, namely;

Boko
haram: Due to the activities of boko haram, the economy
witnessed decline in foreign investment. Nigeria moved from 8.65 billion
dollars in 2009 to 6.1 billion dollars in 2010. Unemployment and idleness was
the cause in the increase of boko haram and other crimes, which resulted to
closure of school and divided ethnic lines in some places like Jos.

Monopolised economy: it
is no longer news that Nigeria is now in a monopolise economy. Dangote hold 50
percent of food manufactures in Nigeria, with no competitor, the rest 50
percent is among the rest food manufactures in Nigeria. In addition, 65 percent
of the economy is the hand of few authorities, leaving the rest 35 for the rest
of the population.

  The tourism sectors. The tourism sector
is one of the large labour employer, and fetched80 billion annually. But it
went shamble due to boko haram activities, kidnapping and other ongoing crimes
in Nigeria. The aviation industry has also low customer turn out, due to flight
cancellation and air crash (P.O.S. Uddin). Example of dana air
that claimed the lives of more than 160 people.

Solutions

The government and the
individuals need to work together to reduce unemployment in the country. The government
should subsidise agriculture by providing free requirements for farming such
as, tractors, fertilizers and seeds amongst all. And also give more lands to
the workers with improving performance as an encouragement to the other
farmers. The government should also provide food manufacturing and processing industries
and more manufacturing industries, this would not only help in reducing unemployment
but also reduce the amount of unnecessary imported things in the country like
tooth pick. It would also boost the local market and open more doors to the
international market.

Free and quality
education should be provided to the families that can not afford school fees. Education
can go a long way in developing the country. Students should be taught
practical ways of using their potentials and learn to develop entrepreneur
skills and not be dependent. Education would not only make the citizens
employable and job creators but also reduce the crime rate in the county. Students
should also be taught the importance of nationalism.

Steady electricity should
be provided. Providing steady electricity would bring back lots of industries
that have closed because of constant loss in sales with running on electric
generators. It would also open doors to more foreign investors. It would also
give the people a reason to go to school to make themselves employable, most
youths nowadays decline school offers because of inadequate jobs.

Conclusion

Unemployment have been a
major issue in Nigeria since 2008. Unemployed youths have been engaged in
different sorts of crimes because of lack of jobs and idleness. The government is
filled up with corrupt leaders that only think about themselves and their families,
instead of using public funds to create more sustainable jobs, the embezzle the
money for their personal usage. The youths are too dependent on the government for
jobs, instead of being innovative. Agriculture is the most promising step to
take towards sustainable job innovation. If sustainable jobs are created, crime
rate will be reduced, the country’s economy will also be boosted