Unemployment: Ganduje calls for educational reforms in Nigeria

…As APC launches enterprise skills development programme in Lagos

Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has called for the urgent reforms of the educational curriculum to give priority to skills development and entrepreneurship rather than theory.

Ganduje lamented that unlike some Asian and Western countries, Nigeria’s education curriculum lacks the skills to empower graduates to be self-reliant and aid development that would service the country, thereby creating wealth.

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The APC chairman, who was represented by the deputy national chairman southwest, Emma Enoku, made the call at the launch of the Enterprise Skills Development (EDET) programme on Monday in Maryland, Lagos.

“This initiative, EDET, aims to empower young Nigerians and promote social justice by fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation,” he said.

He bemoaned the high unemployment rate in the country, especially among young Nigerians, stating that the current priority on theory instead of skills acquisition was a contributing factor to the social-economic problems bedevilling the country.

“Our curriculum is theoretically focused that lacks the skills needed for graduates for the service of the country, creativity for themselves when they leave school and you can link that to the high unemployment rate and social vice in the country.

“They came out to be yahoo-yahoo boys, kidnappers, etc, this does not help development,” Ganduje said.

Speaking earlier, Cornelius Ojelabi, chairman of APC in Lagos State, said it was becoming obvious that youths must embrace entrepreneurship as a way out of the high unemployment rate in Nigeria, adding that governments at all levels could not provide the needy employment.

Also speaking, former national legal adviser of the APC, Babatunde Ogala said that there were enormous potentials in the country that could be tapped by youths rather than seeking greener pastures abroad.

Ogala charged young Nigerians to strive for excellence, empower themselves with the needed entrepreneurial and creative skills while in tertiary institutions.

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Declaring the event open, the national youth leader of the APC, Dayo Israel said that empowering youths in the country with entrepreneurial skills was one of the key objectives of the youth wing of the party under his leadership.

He said that the objective of the programme was to turn young people from job seekers to job creators, noting that it is becoming obvious that the government alone could not create jobs for all.

“The world is getting to a place where entrepreneurship is the way forward. In the youth wing of APC, we have identified that many of our young people lack the needed capacity and empowering them is our target. We want to make them job creators, rather than job seekers,” Israel said.