Surviving unemployment

Thousands of people graduate from tertiary institutions of learning in Nigeria every year without jobs. Crime wave has taken a huge toll on the country with insecurity unabated as many of these unemployed graduates resort to committing crime as a way of livelihood. The high rate of poverty and unemployment in the country has impacted […]

Thousands of people graduate from tertiary institutions of learning in Nigeria every year without jobs. Crime wave has taken a huge toll on the country with insecurity unabated as many of these unemployed graduates resort to committing crime as a way of livelihood.
The high rate of poverty and unemployment in the country has impacted negatively on the socio-economic life of the nation. Many people have engaged in vandalisation of oil pipelines, terrorism, armed robbery, kidnapping, sale of hard drugs and other forms of criminal activities to earn a living.
There has been government policy failure and lack of proper investment in key areas that would create job opportunities for the teeming unemployed people. This is perhaps, occasioned by corruption which has engulfed government officials saddled with the responsibility of initiating programmes and policies aimed at helping the situation.
However, some of the causes of this excruciating scenario which is thwarting socio-economic and personal development of the Nigerian youth is the inability of government and the private sector to create jobs for the people and the zeal by which almost all educated elements want to have white collar jobs.
Also, lack of government encouragement for vocational and technical education as well as entrepreneurial development can also be part of the problem.
Many people in Nigeria who are either jobless or underemployed are living in poverty, distress, low self esteem, economic hardship, aggression, difficulty in moving with peers who have jobs, exhibit harsh parental behaviour, have inadequate food or suffer hunger and delay their marriages. Unemployment has made some people to commit suicide because they cannot provide for their families.
Nevertheless, the government cannot take the whole blame for the high rate of unemployment in the country considering the socio-economic dynamics and the rising population of job seekers.
The unemployed also have a big role to play as regards the state of jobs in the country through personal engagement in productive ventures that are either short term or long term. The very essence of engaging in personal or entrepreneurial set ups is to expand the scope of life and make lucrative gains for self sufficiency and personal development.  
There are many areas in the diverse sectors of the country’s economy which have been neglected by educated people over the years. Entrepreneurship, agriculture, small scale businesses and vocational skills are all economic areas that could be explored for self reliance. Areas like auto-mobile mechanics, carpentry, tailoring, blacksmithing are all areas that have positive prospects and promising returns for unemployed people who are serious about getting themselves engaged.
A perfume trader, popularly known as “Madam Peff” in Karu-Abuja, believes that the initial capital for starting a small scale business must not be big. She explained that she started the perfume business with only N12, 000 but it is now worth over N100, 000, just within a year.
 She urged people not to underrate whatever amount they have as initial capital for starting a business.
A trader who sells wrappers at Nyanya-Abuja, Nkiru Ike Johnson, told our reporter that she is a graduate of economics from ABU, Zaria. According to her, her parents died in a motor accident immediately after her graduation and when she went for her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in 2011 and completed in February, 2012, she needed a job urgently.
She noted that after submitting her application for job in one of the federal ministries, she was asked to pay N200, 000 to get the job but she ignored knowing it was a “crooked game.”
However, she used the money she saved during her service year to open her shop, maintaining that self-employment is the best option in Nigeria today having tested it for over a year.
“The issue of employment in Nigeria today is hot cake my brother, it is about man know man or what you have in your pocket to offer. How could you ask an applicant to pay you such a huge amount of money before you employ him or her?
“Where do you expect an applicant to get that money from? For me, I encourage unemployed people to establish small scale businesses, they will not regret it. You can see that my business is just one and a half years now but it is moving well, so people should learn how to save money especially HND and degree holders who have the opportunity of going for NYSC,” she said.
She observed that government alone will not be able to carry the burden of creating adequate job opportunities for the ever growing population of job seekers who wake up in the morning and swarm the streets in the various towns and cities in search of job vacancies.
It is imperative to note that in the 1960s and 1970s, unemployment was not pronounced because government was proactively providing jobs for graduates coming out of universities with full job security. Today, the reverse is the case despite laudable policies and programmes being put in place by government over the years.
With this scenario, many believe that the issue of jobs in Nigeria today is the survival of the fittest. With the present development, many graduates who have ambition and vision have engaged in the available menial jobs to sustain themselves and save money to enable them start small scale businesses but others still don’t want to help themselves and are waiting for government to engage them.
In Abuja, many graduates have resorted to engaging in security jobs while others have become labourers, taxi drivers, hawkers of different kinds of products including books and medicine as well as conductors of the Abuja urban mass transit buses.
In a chat with a male conductor in one of the high capacity buses in Abuja yesterday who preferred to be called Vendor, our reporter gathered that the work is hectic, delicate and requires meticulous reasoning and careful handling of money and passengers. The striking point he made was that he had used the little amount of money he had been making from that platform to open a barber’s shop. According to him, he is an expert Barber and would soon leave the vendor job for his personal business which he said would soon employ more hands.   
The Vendor who holds a Sociology degree urged unemployed graduates to be brave, industrious, resourceful and think fast in order to overcome the present challenges facing the nation.