Seyi Vodi and Pantami’s Skills Rather Than Just Degrees

By Zayd Ibn Isah

I recently watched a video conversation between ace comedian Mark Angel and celebrity tailor Seyi Adekunle, also known as Seyi Vodi. Their discussion centered on their humble beginnings and inspiring stories of rising from grass to grace.

Seyi Vodi fondly reminisced about Aba in Abia State, where he began his trade. He recounted many nights spent sleeping in the market with tailors to complete customers’ orders and the long journeys by road to Abuja to deliver clothes to clients. His story is a quintessential example of “from rags to riches”—behind the “steeze and composure” were years of hard work and sleepless nights.

What is particularly remarkable about Seyi Vodi’s journey is that he learned tailoring through friends he made as a youth corps member in Akwa Ibom. I can imagine how his fellow corps members might have ridiculed him for choosing to learn tailoring after four years in university. In our society, many graduates aspire to secure white-collar jobs, anything outside of that is demeaning to them.

Even more intriguing is the fact that Seyi Vodi left a stable career as a professional banker to pursue his passion in fashion. I can only imagine how his banking colleagues must have thought about this strange pivot. No doubt he must have come across as irrational to them after abandoning a secure job, and launching himself headfirst into the uncertainties of the fashion world. And yet, Seyi Vodiʼs success story is a testament to the value of following one’s passion and the rewards it can bring.

Seyi Vodi’s journey serves as a powerful inspiration for our youth. It also brings to my mind Professor Isa Ali Pantami’s book, Skills Rather Than Just Degrees. Despite the controversy it has sparked, particularly among readers from Northern Nigeria, the book emphasizes a crucial point: in a time when graduate unemployment rates are alarmingly high, students should be encouraged to acquire practical skills. This approach will help not only prevent them from becoming burdens to their families and the government, but enable them to create value as members of society.

As of 2024, the unemployment rate among Nigerian graduates remains high. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and other reports estimate the national unemployment rate at around 33%. Among graduates, the rate is even higher, with approximately 50% struggling to find employment shortly after completing their education. There is only so much the government can do in this regard, even though promises have been made to create jobs for the youths. The solution, however, lies in skills development and vocational training, which can better equip graduates for the fast evolving job market.

Seyi Vodi’s story teaches us several valuable lessons. One of the most significant is the importance of stepping out of your comfort zone. Find your passion and commit to it fully. As Canadian writer Robin Sharma stated in his magnum opus, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: “The secret of happiness is simple: find out what you truly love to do and then direct all of your energy towards doing it. Once you do this, abundance flows into your life and all your desires are fulfilled with ease and grace.” If Seyi Vodi had not left his career as a banker, he might not have achieved the fulfillment and self-actualization he enjoys today.

The second lesson is for our students: we should not put all our eggs in one basket. It is not written anywhere in the world that a degree certificate guarantees a white-collar job. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying that going to school is a scam. And neither is Prof. Pantami, who states in the introduction of his book that nowadays, “even if a degree may help someone obtain a job, it won’t necessarily help someone do a job.”

Even in developed countries, education is not solely for securing white-collar jobs but to acquire knowledge and be able to think outside of the box. According to recent statistics from University World News, 600,000 graduates are produced each academic year by universities in Nigeria, even as about 2 million are enrolled as freshers. There is now a pandemic of joblessness in Nigeria due to the fact that so many graduates cannot boast of employable skills which can help them compete with their peers in other countries. Frustrated, many Nigerian youths dismiss education totally. The worst amongst them even devolve into criminal pursuits like internet fraud, and the best are forced to migrate abroad in search of greener pastures.

At this point, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is enough to be described as an economic emergency. Therefore, to the powers that be: instead of creating more tertiary institutions, it is high time we start creating technical schools and even convert some of the tertiary institutions into vocational schools where students can learn valuable skills and become entrepreneurs.

If we fail to take action collectively, we will be left behind by the rest of the world. In Skills Rather Than Just Degrees, Pantami reminds us of President Donald Trump’s executive order in June 2020, which directed the US government, America’s largest employer, to take the emphasis off college degrees and rather focus on the skills of applicants. Through this order, skills and competency-based hiring began to replace degree-based hiring. Pantami states that this allowed the government to hire a more inclusive workforce by ensuring that individuals with the most competent skills are prioritized for hiring into key positions.

To illustrate how crucial the skills-based shift has become, Pantami sets the Finnish government as an example. The Finnish have restructured their education system to equip students with incremental life skills. Finland’s national curriculum, which emphasizes the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to education, enables young students to begin applying their skills in solving real-world problems, preparing them for the worldʼs evolving pace.

What are we actually doing to prepare our young ones for the future, especially the future of work and jobs? If the digital surge of the COVID-19 pandemic did not already increase the urgent need to bridge global tech skills gaps, the rise of artificial intelligence (which has led to high instances of job automation & job loss for humans) further drives the need to stay a few steps ahead of and adapt seamlessly to innovation. The education we have been used to is no longer enough. Even the curriculum we use to teach young students now is grossly outdated! It’s high time the educational system of this country undergoes a restructuring, the sort that will leverage tech advancements to keep our youths ahead.

All of this is not to say that Nigerian youths are not striving on their own. I know a lot of them who sign up for digital training and skills certification programmes, moving away from their university degrees to learn coding, programming, cybersecurity, UI/UX design, animation, software development and cloud computing, etc. Think of any tech skill in this world and by God, you will discover that a sufficient number of Nigerian youths are either learning it or earning cool cash from it. The fact of Nigerians, the youths specifically, being an energetic and ambitious force, is undoubtedly true. As a people, we excel in fields from sports to literature. It is just unfortunate that our creativity and resilience is often geared towards negative pursuits.

But we are still very much a force, and with the right strategic policies, as well as private sector support, we can position our youths, and future generations, to be at the forefront of an African domination at the frontiers of technology, innovation and career success.

Ultimately, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami’s Skills Rather Than Just Degrees is more than just a book. It is a revolutionary manifesto fit for our times, and as such, it is highly recommended for the students, their teachers, parents, leaders and progressive minds from every tribe and religion. And most importantly, it is a source of inspiration and hope for anyone who believes in the Nigerian Dream.

We will get there, as a country and a force for good.

Zayd Ibn Isah can be contacted at [email protected]