How Yahoo Yahoo steers youths away from apprenticeship

The apprenticeship culture that once shaped generations of Nigerian youths with requisite skills for self-reliance is fast fading. While the culture is still vibrant among the Igbo, it is fast losing steam among youths in some other parts of the country, with many young people now abandoning trades for the lure of “Yahoo-Yahoo” and other […]

The apprenticeship culture that once shaped generations of Nigerian youths with requisite skills for self-reliance is fast fading. While the culture is still vibrant among the Igbo, it is fast losing steam among youths in some other parts of the country, with many young people now abandoning trades for the lure of “Yahoo-Yahoo” and other quick-money making ventures, leaving parents, masters and trainers worried, Weekend Trust reports.

Apprenticeship is a programme run by entrepreneurs or intending business owners in various trades like hairdressing, tailoring, bakery, automobile repairs etc to help train and equip trainees or participants of the programme, which most times runs for months into years, with the required knowledge and skills to set up and begin a successful business organisation for themselves in today’s ever changing economic environment, thereby making them independent and self-reliant.

Apprenticeship, mostly mistaken to be for educationally backward individuals, is a misconception the society has formed, which in reality is not. Being an apprentice does not in any way suggest that the individual is a dullard; rather, apprenticeship equipped with a university degree is an added advantage in life. Apprenticeship culture or training does not discourage educational pursuit but rather works hand-in-hand with it. 

 

‘Internet fraud reason for decline’

The apprenticeship system is declining in Edo State as youths are not willing to learn any skill in trade, mechanic, tailoring, hairdressing, carpentry, among others. In the state, youths have quit their apprenticeship and taken to internet fraud, popularly known as Yahoo-Yahoo.

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Speaking on the development, Udoka Orji, a resident said that in the past, apprenticeship was very vibrant, but the same cannot be said in today’s world as the youth are not interested in learning any trade again.

“All the youth are interested in now is money and making it big without working. They are now into yahoo, rituals and stealing. They don’t want to start small; they want to make it big immediately.

Orji, an electronic seller said, “It is a bit better in the South-East because youths who are on apprenticeship in a trade are ‘settled’ after graduation.”

He said that generally, youths are after quick money and learning a trade would not give them that.

“This dwindling apprenticeship is everywhere because the society now worships money and no longer cares about the source of people’s wealth,” he said.

Also speaking Abdulaziz Suleiman, a tailor, noted that youths are no longer interested in hard work because of the emphasis and crave for wealth and affluence in the society. “Apprenticeship takes about a year to three years before one would graduate and start working and earning money, but now, the get-rich- quick syndrome has taken over the youth. They want to ride expensive cars without working for it,” he said.

He said he had four apprentices under him but two of them left because of their crave for quick wealth.

“Many youths who were undergoing apprenticeship left to join their friends who are into yahoo-yahoo. They want to ride big cars as soon as possible and being an apprentice would not guarantee that easily,” he added.

On his part, Mr Simon Ese lamented that today’s youths are no longer interested in apprenticeship as a result of the desire for quick wealth. He noted that very few youths were interested in apprenticeship. He also lamented that the society is not helping by recognising wealth above hard work, saying, “As a result of this, the youth now chase money.”

Ese, a mechanic, explained that some parents discouraged their wards from learning a trade or skill but rather put them in places where they now learn internet fraud due to the crave for wealth in the society today.

Wisdom Agbe, a barber, described the development as worrisome, saying, “These days, the youth do not want to learn any handwork because of peer influence. Most of them that want to learn do it half way and abscond to join yahoo-yahoo or embark on trips to Libya en-route Europe.

“Just last week, an apprentice with me, after some months, left to join his peers who he believes have made it in life.”

Mr Kingsley Agharase, an electronic repairer in Benin City, believes that parents, government and the society share the blame in the dwindling apprenticeship system in the country.

For him, some parents now prefer quick money over every other thing as some even sell their property to enroll their wards in yahoo school. He noted that today’s society, which places money above hard work, is also responsible for the current dwindling apprenticeship practice. 

An apprentice who identified himself as Abdullahi, a senior secondary school student, said he didn’t have the intention to read Mechanical Engineering, but his interest in the course began to grow when his father sent him to learn at a mechanic workshop.

“I go to the mechanic workshop during holidays and after the close of school when in session,” he said.

 

Apprenticeship gaining root in Kano

At the Gandu area, near the Kano State International Trade Fair Complex is a furniture-making hub where hundreds eke a living. Carpenters, upholstery makers, showrooms attendants and apprentices can be found there.

Five teenagers, including Saidu Abdu, are learning carpentry at a furniture workshop behind the trade fair complex. Keen on acquiring a skill in carpentry, Abdu focuses on learning chair-making, just as others prefer to focus on bed-making techniques, among others.

 Hassan Naiya, the owner of the business where various people learn different skills, said he was a product of apprenticeship; and therefore, committed to teaching the young ones the trade.

However, unlike the system operated in the South-East, apprentices in Kano are not given capital to start their independent businesses after they graduate.

According to Naiya, they impart skills and encourage apprentice with a stipend. He said, “We only train them on the skills. They grow from here and set up their own workshops, sometimes with support from the business. As you can see, the business employs many people, thereby making a modest contribution towards addressing unemployment in Kano.”

He believes that if the apprenticeship system is replicated in other trades, youth restiveness, which is fueled by unemployment, would be addressed.

Both Saidu and Abdu told Weekend Trust that they were working hard to acquire the skills to become independent furniture makers to enable them employ others.

A student of Aliko Dangote University of Science and technology, Wudil, Kano, Sadiq, who is an apprentice at the workshop, said he decided to learn carpentry to support his pursuit of a higher education.

He said, “University degrees are important, but skills are also very critical.   I am learning carpentry to be able to at least finance my higher education because jobs are not readily available for people who obtained higher degrees alone. With this skill, I can survive.”

At a mechanic workshop located by Gyadi-Gyadi Court Road, Baba Gyalleji, a panel beater, is training three teenagers who were brought by their parents to.

He said that at the end of their training, they would be equipped with certificates of apprenticeship while their parents are expected to buy working tools to enable them set up their own workshops.

Malam Sirajo Karkasara, a tailor, charges between N5,000 and N10,000 to train young men interested in being tailors, a practice that is common in Kano.

Karkasara said, “Parents always send their children to me to acquire tailoring skills. When they come here, they observe what we do. We sometimes send them on errands, and at other times, ask them to do some simple tailoring tasks like putting buttons on sewn clothes etc.”

Malam Sirajo said he learnt tailoring from a friend for free, noting that the situation is different now with tailors commercialising the skill for those interested.

Shehu Babura, a resident who deals in textile materials at the famous Kantin Kwari market, said the culture of apprenticeship should be supported to encourage shop owners to train young people.

Babura lamented that young people employed as sales boys at Kwari market end up not becoming shop owners because they spend productive part of their lives as salesmen without getting enough money to set up their own businesses.

 

Students, parents embrace apprenticeship in Taraba, Borno

In response to the growing number of unemployment among the youth, in Taraba and Borno states, parents now encourage their children to learn skills.

Weekend Trust observed some youths undergoing apprenticeship in various skills, such as automobile mechanics, electricians, painters, bricklayers, electricians, amongst other skills.

Some of the youths, who are of different ages, are primary school pupils, secondary and university students using different skills to earn money to be able to sponsor their education, while those who have completed school and apprenticeship have opened workshops and are now training others .

A visit to a mechanic village in Jalingo showed youths learning various skills, which include motor mechanic, automobile electrical wiring, welding, car painting and motor building work, among others.

A mechanic in Jalingo, Mallam Sabo Makaniki, said he had trained hundreds of youths in automobile works, noting that some of them have opened their own workshops at different locations in Jalingo and outside the state. 

Makaniki said parents now realised the importance of skill acquisition; hence many youths are being brought for apprenticeship in different aspects of car repair, including general car maintenance, electrical work and painting.

He said the mechanic village had become a training hub for the practical aspect of general car maintenance.

“Hundreds of youths have been trained here; and today, they are masters in various skills, training many others also,” he said. 

In Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, Sani Musa, a mechanic, said his children started apprenticeship under him when they were young.

“One of them trained as a painter and the other trained as an electrician. They are now grown ups, taking care of themselves and my family,” he said.

Musa said they both enrolled into higher institutions with the earnings they make from the workshop.

“One of them is studying engineering and the other one Computer Science. And they are doing very well, combining schooling with the workshop,” he added.

He said his children won’t need any government job after graduating from school.

“I doubt if any government job can give them what they are earning from the workshop. Besides, they have more freedom being self-reliant,” he said.

Baana Ali, an electrician with 15 years of experience in the business, said he had trained more than 20 young men in Maiduguri.

“They are now on their own, making a living from the skills they learnt from me. Currently, I have graduates from Ramat Polytechnic learning the skill,” he noted.

Giving reasons why skill acquisition is more important than a white-collar job, he said, “More people are realising the importance of venturing into vocational skills because white-collar jobs are not available. So, I can say that apprenticeship is on the increase, not only in Maiduguri but the entire North-East.”

 

Oil money, gov’t jobs discouraging youths – Technicians

Some skilled labourers and technicians in Bayelsa State have blamed the declining rate of apprenticeship in the state to the quest by youths in the state to work in oil companies and the civil service rather than suffering to learn art work.

A furniture maker at Kpanzia community, Yenagoa Local Government Area, Mr Job Perelotu, said the quest for skill acquisition was gradually dying in the state and other Niger Delta states because the youth think that oil companies and government jobs were more lucrative.

He said that before now, parents brought their children after completion of secondary school, or those who could not even get secondary education, to learn skills, but now, even if parents bring such people, they abscond.

 “Which young person in this state would want to dirty his body to learn carpentry now? Do you want their girlfriends to laugh at them?

“Early this year, I had four apprentices brought by their parents, but as I speak to you, it is only one that has been coming, others have disappeared. They don’t have interest to learn,” he said.

He said that in 2020, an apprentice was brought to him to train, but just a month after, he did not see him again. “One day, we met around the Swali market area and I asked why he wasn’t coming to the shop. He told me that he returned to the village to join politics. This is a guy who should be around 23 years and had only just finished senior secondary school.

“That is the challenge we have in Niger Delta. Our young people believe in getting fast money rather than learning a skill that will sustain them in life. You will be surprised that even those youths refusing to learn skills will be going around looking for ‘okpuaya (unskilled labour) at project sites because they believe it would give them money faster,” he said.

Similarly, a shoemaker in Amarata community, Yenagoa, who identified himself as Mr Stephen, told Weekend Trust that the urge for quick money is one of the key issues that discourage the youth of Bayelsa and Niger Delta region from learning skills.

He said most of the youth in the area preferred oil surveillance or civil service jobs to spending time to learn a skill.

He said: “When I had a shop at Sagbama town, they brought a young man to learn shoemaking. I accepted to teach him, but I was shocked when he asked how much I would be paying him. Paying him to teach him work?

“Youths in Bayelsa don’t have the patience to learn a skill for two years. If you move around shops in Yenagoa here, check how many people are technicians that are from Bayelsa. Most of the people doing skilled work are from other states.

Speaking to Weekend Trust Dr. John Bamai, a development and sustainability expert and Projects Director at the Center for skills learning has expressed alarm over the decline of Indigenous entrepreneurship in Nigeria

He said the fundamental principles of entrepreneurship, which focus on profit-making, identifying investment opportunities, and effectively utilizing available resources for national growth has eroded in Nigeria

“The situation with entrepreneurs is becoming disturbing.  Multiple taxation and high cost of power has eroded the basic principles of entrepreneurship and many people are discouraged from even starting business

“There is even a statistics that shows thay many MSMEs who start business fold after five years and fold up because the environment is too harsh,”

He encouraged artisans to leverage indigenous knowledge to produce materials that are in high demand abroad and leverage on African Continental Free Trade Area agreement to boost their skills and trade.

“The patience of learning work is no more in our youths. Everybody wants to be in the office, everybody wants to be an oil worker. Youths now prefer yahoo-yahoo to learning skills.”

However, a fashion designer, Zidafamor Ediseimokumor, said he had over 42 young apprentices across the eight local government areas of the state. He said he had successfully empowered young people, taking many of them off the streets and providing them with valuable skills.

He called for government’s patronage to help him do more because most young people prefer to learn where their kinsmen are because they understand the common language, which will boost their interest.

A paint producer, Philip Holiday, said that since he started the vocation, nobody had brought an apprentice for him. He said he had been in the vocation for two years now, and wondered why only few young persons want to learn.

An apprentice in a carpentry shop in Kpanzia, Akpos Gospel, said he had learnt the skill for the past one year. He hopes that at the duration of his learning, he would be able to have a sustainable means of livelihood.

He said that even oil companies would require the services of skilled labour, urging other youths from Bayelsa State to see vocational training as the best form of empowerment.

 

‘Apprenticeship remains best option’

In Benue State, youths and parents alike believe the culture of learning handiwork remains a lifeline in the face of rising unemployment and economic hardship.

Experts also maintain that apprenticeship, once a thriving pathway for young Nigerians to acquire skills and secure livelihoods, is still the best option in today’s society grappling with economic downturns. 

To this end, Lukman Yahaya, 28, a graduate of Political Science from the Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State, thrives in his panel-beating craft as he is yet to secure a white-collar job, six years after graduation.

He practises his trade at the mechanic village in New Garage, Wadata, a suburb of Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

Yahaya said young people like him must take up apprenticeship alongside formal education in order to become self-reliant and useful to themselves and their families in today’s economically challenging society.

“I took to apprenticeship even before going to the university. After graduation, I couldn’t find any gainful employment, so I returned to the trade I had learnt, which is the handiwork sustaining me today.

“I advise young people to learn skills because it helps to sustain them and makes youths financially independent. Apprenticeship is the best option in the face of the current economic reality in Nigeria,” Yahaya said.

At an automobile workshop in Makurdi, where several apprentices were seen learning mechanical work, the youth expressed optimism that they would not become jobless at the end of their training.

Elijah Bala, one of the apprentices who started eight years ago as a little boy but now in JSS 3 at UBE Wadata, hopes to establish his own workshop in the future after completing secondary school.

“I am learning mechanic work and going to school as well; both don’t interfere with each other. And I am doing well,” he said.

Also, Barnabas Hassan, who has been an apprentice for six years, said he took to the trade because his parents had no money to fund his secondary education after primary school.

Hassan said, “I am happy learning this mechanic work because it will help my future. I hope to graduate in another three years. I became an apprentice due to lack of job and no money to further my secondary education. I stopped after primary school.”

The owner of the automobile workshop where Hassan and Bala are apprentices, Alexander Abari, said he trained all his apprentices to master the job, which spans a period of seven years for fast learners and 10 years for those who learn slowly.

Abari admitted that although the culture of apprenticeship was fading in today’s society largely due to parental influence on their children’s career choices, learning a trade remains what would safeguard the future of the younger generation considering the country’s unstable economy.

“Apprenticeship is not as common as before. Today’s upbringing of children is different from what was obtainable in the past when parents would take their stubborn children to learn a trade or use them as apprentices for purely business purposes to raise money for the family.

“Today, apprenticeship means more than that because there are no white-collar jobs anywhere for those with only school certificates.

“Here in my workshop, I insist that my apprentices acquire formal education so that they can read, write and understand what they are doing. We also establish them with the support of some equipment on their graduation, apart from the knowledge we impart during their years of training.

“They will graduate, open their own shops and become self-reliant. I think that’s the best way to deal with the trend of things these days. Even my own children are learning handicrafts so that it will help them in the future,” Abari said.

Oche Acheme, a parent of an electrical apprentice, said he decided for his son to learn the trade while still in primary school because it was the right thing for him to do.

He said, “As we speak, my son is expecting admission into the university to read Electrical and Electronics Engineering to balance the theoretical aspect with what he already knows practically and has been earning from in bits.” 

Another parent, Memuna Hassan, said allowing one’s children to go for apprenticeship was the right step to financially secure their future.

Also speaking on the issue, Shehu Umar Ahmed, a carpenter at Kasuwar Panteka, Kaduna, said young people and children were usually brought to learn trades like his. He, however, explained that some parents would only bring their children because they are nuisances at home during holidays. “Once school resumes, you look for them and cannot find them,” he said.

But he said some other parents would bring their children out of a genuine intention of seeing them learn a trade.

“That is why we have introduced a system of issuing a form, which every child must take home for their parents to sign before we accept the child to learn a skill. 

“Parents also pay a fee to the trainer and make contributions to the association. However, there are some trainers who may decide not to collect fees but will accept that the parents contribute to the association. It all depends on the individual,” he explained.

He added that aside teaching skills, they also instill discipline in the children so that they would grow to be responsible individuals who understand the value of their vocation.

Akilu Zubairu, a fashion designer in Sabon Gari, Tudun Wada, Kaduna, said, “Skills and trades are the main support for a person because a life without a means of livelihood is full of suffering, humiliation, begging and dependence. But if you rely on a skill or trade, no matter how small it is, if you hold on to it, God will bless you and grant you success. There is no trade without some form of prosperity in it.”

Explaining reasons for the decline in apprenticeship culture he said, “The reason some people do not engage in any trade is because they look at their friends who appear to be enjoying life, perhaps because their parents are wealthy. For the one who came from a poor background, instead of learning a trade and relying on himself, he depends on his friend to keep giving him money.

“That is why I advise young people to learn a trade so they can be self-reliant, just as I learned tailoring and that is what puts food on my table.”

Haliru Adamu, another tailor, said many youths nowadays would prefer to learn welding, mechanics, trading or livestock rearing instead of tailoring.

According to him, apprenticeship is not as common as they used to be, especially in tailoring because there are now many trades to choose from. “That is how we understand the situation. These days, some youths are more interested in farming and poultry and that is where they concentrate their efforts,” he said.

 

From Hamisu Kabir Matazu, Maiduguri & Magaji lsa Hunkuyi, Jalingo, Gbenga Adebayo, Lagos,Haruna Gimba Yaya, Gombe, Mohammed Ibrahim Yaba, Kaduna, Hope Abah, Makurdi, Bassey Willie, Yenagoa, Usman A. Bello, Benin & Ahmad Datti, Kano.