The most perturbing question that is always running in my mind is how some of our graduates are sitting idle waiting for the government to employ them. This is so unfortunate. It’s high time we woke up from our deep slumber and faced reality.
Recent statistics establish that 25 million graduates are unemployed in Nigeria, showing that the government cannot employ the gargantuan population of graduates.
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Although the government has its fault for not creating job opportunities, but we cannot deny the fact that there is no single country in the world that is employing 100 per cent of its graduates, rather they are teaching students how to invest and become entrepreneurs.
Sadly, here in Nigeria, our graduates are always after white-collar jobs and buying luxury phones. This is very unfortunate and we are always blaming the government for not providing job opportunities.
I feel very sad when I see some of our graduates buying phones with the money they are collecting from the N-power programme that is initiated to reduce the level of unemployment among our youths.
There is, therefore, the need for all graduates to think and rethink and find a way out of the problems we are facing in the country.
In a nutshell, we should all learn some skills to become self-reliant as it is obvious the level of unemployment is always going high in the country.
The government too should try everything humanly possible in providing job opportunities for our youths.
Grace Abena Fosu, Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri
