That the youths in Nigeria constitute fifty per cent of the population is not in doubt. The fact that ninety-five per cent of this population is currently under-employed and unemployed is equally not contestable. Ironically, it is the same youths the elders believe are the leaders of tomorrow.
Even those who are employed are earning wages that cannot sustain them. What is even more alarming is that the biggest burden of this massive unemployment is borne by the youth. This segment of the populace is at the pick of their productive age and normally should be the productive base of the economy, yet in Nigeria, youths roam the streets in search of livelihood and employment. Millions of them who graduated from universities, polytechnics and other tertiary institutions cannot find anything to do. As a result also, they a large number of them cannot find outlets for their creative youthful energies.
Every day, their frustration increases against the society that seems not to care. They see the opulence exhibited in their midst by the political class while they wallow in hunger and penury. Having grown up in an information technology era with the attendant high expectations, these young Nigerians are further frustrated by the waste and mismanagement they see perpetrated daily in their midst by those in power.
There is no better way to understand the level of unemployment bedeviling the Nigerian youth than for one to imagine the number of youths that recently showed interest to participate in the just concluded TV reality show tagged 'Gulder Ultimate Search 4', which was staged on the rocky hills of Shere in Jos, Plateau State.
Fourth in the series, even though the search suffered an initial setback when one of the contestants, Anthony Mudiaga Ogadje, the first to be picked for this year's edition, died in a lake days before the airing the search began, not many Nigerians would want to forget in a hurry the message which the rush for events and competitions of that nature have on the image of the country.
No doubt, Ogadje met his untimely death in the quest to make something out of life for himself and to assist his poor family via the high risk reality show, the whole thing, right from the call for entry stage to the end simply showed that something was fundamentally wrong with the country. Imagine a record 26,000 able-bodied Nigerian youths, male and female, entered for the competition.
All the contestants that were interviewed on television said they entered for the show because of the prize, making one wonder what on earth would have prompted such an unprecedented number of youths to risk everything for such lucre. Perhaps it has a lot to do with the shift in value that now characterises the society. All the people celebrate is money and the things money can buy. The nation has left its youths stranded in a dark abyss in the pursuit of national development and advancement. Many who left the university for close to 10 years now still wander around scavenging for jobs that do not exist.
For example, two years ago, one of the big banks in the country conducted an aptitude test for recruits and a record one-point-something million unemployed and underemployed graduates reportedly sat for the test at centres across the country. The total vacancy in that bank was less than 400 and information from the bank revealed that a total of 250,000 youths between the ages of 22 and 32 applied for the less than 400 positions.
What is currently happening to the youths shows how sickening and frustrating life could be in the country. The national unemployment rate has continued to increase upward unabated. A lot of analysts have noted the country's unemployment level has moved from 4.3 per cent in 1985 to 5.3 per cent in 1986, to 7.0 per cent in 1987 and jumped to 60 per cent in 1997. And the weak economy has exacerbated the unemployment condition. The report showed that in 2003 primary school accounted for 14.7 per cent unemployment, secondary school 53.6 per cent, and tertiary schools constituted 12.4 per cent. This seems to have worsened the poverty level. The same report put the nation's poverty level at 70 per cent; and more than 91 million Nigerians live on less than one dollar per day.
In spite her huge resources and oil wealth; unemployment is wide spread in the country. The situation has worsened since the late 1990s, to the extent that the country is now considered one of the 20th poorest countries in the world. Over 70 per cent of the population is classified as poor and unemployed, with 35 per cent living in absolute poverty. Unemployment is especially severe in urban areas, where industries, social services and infrastructure are limited or non-existent. The great majorities of those who live in urban areas are poor and depend on agriculture for food and income.
Furthermore, the political elite do not seem to realise that the only way unemployment can be addressed meaningfully is to encourage local industrial production, no matter how rudimentary. These factories will then provide employment opportunities as well as business opportunities that will absorb many idle hands and feed the many hungry mouths. All they do is to loot funds and stash them away abroad with the consequence that the economy is drained of capital. In addition, disastrous government policies and the lack of infrastructure have decimated the few manufacturers left standing.
