Unemployment and underemployment is seriously confronting the Nigerian
youth in all ramifications. The increase in population of Nigerians is one of
the challenges facing the labour market which the government on its part failed
to provide full employment to its citizenry. Many Nigerians today are
underemployed despite their intimidating credentials being possessed in high
flying institutions in the world together with economic recession and inconsistent
policies in the country. It is unfortunate that Nigeria has been unable to resolve the employment
debacle that has been undermining the well-being of many Nigerians for a number
of years now. More depressing, still, is the fact that many youths have remained
stranded outside the vortex of the nation’s economy. This situation portends
disaster for any nation. No country can expect peace and progress when its
youths are kept idle, angry and unfulfilled. It is a recipe for social unrest
and disaster. The percentage of unemployed Nigerians is likely much higher than
we have been told, and the number of youths that are unable to find jobs has
already reached dangerous heights. Apart from the unemployed, Nigeria also has
a high percentage of the underemployed – that is, those whose income, are so
low that they cannot afford the basic necessities of life such as food,
clothing and shelter. Excerpt from Population
and its Impact on Level of Unemployment in Least Developed Countries: An
Appraisal of the Nigerian Economy by Imoisi Anthony Ilegbinosa,
OlatunjiLekan Moses and Ubi-AbaiItoro Praise. The
overall tone and the statistics of this entire research article is ominous and
truth be told, overwhelmingly scary for youths of Nigeria. At first, I stared
at the topic, Unemployment and Population growth and wondered what affected
what; this was before I added the ‘students’ to the topic. My
mind swirled as to how to write this topic lightly and still give out sound
advice as it concerned unemployment and population growth to the students. Because,
let’s face it, ominous materials aren’t really fun to read and the message is
lost when people generally scroll away from reading the depressing statistics. Despite
the above excerpt postulating on the Impact of Population on the Level of Unemployment,
I reasoned that it could also be vice versa – ‘The impact of Unemployment on
Population Growth’. Like
I mentioned before, I aim to write this article quite lightly and you might
laugh when I present the evidence of unemployment affecting population growth,
but it is the salient truth. As
a graduate of Sociology and Anthropology and having lived in urban and rural
areas, I have studied and noticed that idleness which results in abject boredom
pushes individuals into the cheapest form of fun activity – sex. And sex we
know, especially when done unprotected, which might be the case among
unemployed individuals, of course will lead to population growth when a child
results from it. The
direction of this article isn’t actually salient here; whether population
affects unemployment or unemployment affects population, it isn’t important, we
are already aware both variables affect themselves. What is important in this
article is the way forward. I
have realized about myself, I detest standing around and flogging a problem. So
there is unemployment and population growth problem, what is the point writing
material after material of papers quoting statistics all over the place? I
would rather we find a solution, especially one barring the involvement of
government. Which
brings me to the final year students; apart from the topic of unemployment and
the problem of population growth making a good final year project topic (see
www.iprojectmaster.com), what are your plans as you graduate? Are you planning
to augment the number of the earlier unemployed youths by doing nothing? I
suggest you rather learn from their mistakes. The government will make noises
about the problem of unemployment and might even cough about population growth,
but it is left to us to make something of ourselves. And
that brings me to marketable skills; the lectures and certificate from the
University is all well and good, but it doesn’t magically result in skills when
needed. From my experience as an unemployed youth, I plead with final year
students to seek out a skill they are good at and be trained on it; it is the
only practical solution I foresee for the problem of unemployment. As
for the problem of population growth, I really have no idea about that. I’m not
sure anybody can stop Nigerians from having sex or giving birth, those things
are almost like favorite past times in this country. But if it could be
attempted, then the government could ask for advice from the government of
China, they seem to have an ongoing process as to how to curb the issue of
population growth.
