UNEMPLOYMENT, POPULATION GROWTH AND FINAL YEAR STUDENTS

Unemployment and underemployment is seriously confronting the Nigerian youth in all ramifications. The increase in population of Nigerians is one of the challenges facing the labour market which the government on its part failed to provide full employment to its citizenry. Many Nigerians today are underemployed despite their intimidating credentials being possessed in high flying institutions in the world together with economic recession and inconsistent policies in the country.
It is unfortunate that Nigeria has been unable to resolve the employment debacle that has been undermining the well-being of many Nigerians for a number of years now. More depressing, still, is the fact that many youths have remained stranded outside the vortex of the nation’s economy. This situation portends disaster for any nation. No country can expect peace and progress when its youths are kept idle, angry and unfulfilled. It is a recipe for social unrest and disaster. The percentage of unemployed Nigerians is likely much higher than we have been told, and the number of youths that are unable to find jobs has already reached dangerous heights. Apart from the unemployed, Nigeria also has a high percentage of the underemployed – that is, those whose income, are so low that they cannot afford the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter.
Excerpt from Population and its Impact on Level of Unemployment in Least Developed Countries: An Appraisal of the Nigerian Economy by Imoisi Anthony Ilegbinosa, OlatunjiLekan Moses and Ubi-AbaiItoro Praise.
The overall tone and the statistics of this entire research article is ominous and truth be told, overwhelmingly scary for youths of Nigeria. At first, I stared at the topic, Unemployment and Population growth and wondered what affected what; this was before I added the ‘students’ to the topic.
My mind swirled as to how to write this topic lightly and still give out sound advice as it concerned unemployment and population growth to the students. Because, let’s face it, ominous materials aren’t really fun to read and the message is lost when people generally scroll away from reading the depressing statistics.
Despite the above excerpt postulating on the Impact of Population on the Level of Unemployment, I reasoned that it could also be vice versa – ‘The impact of Unemployment on Population Growth’.
Like I mentioned before, I aim to write this article quite lightly and you might laugh when I present the evidence of unemployment affecting population growth, but it is the salient truth.
As a graduate of Sociology and Anthropology and having lived in urban and rural areas, I have studied and noticed that idleness which results in abject boredom pushes individuals into the cheapest form of fun activity – sex. And sex we know, especially when done unprotected, which might be the case among unemployed individuals, of course will lead to population growth when a child results from it.
The direction of this article isn’t actually salient here; whether population affects unemployment or unemployment affects population, it isn’t important, we are already aware both variables affect themselves. What is important in this article is the way forward.
I have realized about myself, I detest standing around and flogging a problem. So there is unemployment and population growth problem, what is the point writing material after material of papers quoting statistics all over the place? I would rather we find a solution, especially one barring the involvement of government.
Which brings me to the final year students; apart from the topic of unemployment and the problem of population growth making a good final year project topic (see www.iprojectmaster.com), what are your plans as you graduate? Are you planning to augment the number of the earlier unemployed youths by doing nothing?
I suggest you rather learn from their mistakes. The government will make noises about the problem of unemployment and might even cough about population growth, but it is left to us to make something of ourselves.
And that brings me to marketable skills; the lectures and certificate from the University is all well and good, but it doesn’t magically result in skills when needed. From my experience as an unemployed youth, I plead with final year students to seek out a skill they are good at and be trained on it; it is the only practical solution I foresee for the problem of unemployment.
As for the problem of population growth, I really have no idea about that. I’m not sure anybody can stop Nigerians from having sex or giving birth, those things are almost like favorite past times in this country. But if it could be attempted, then the government could ask for advice from the government of China, they seem to have an ongoing process as to how to curb the issue of population growth.