Orson Scott Card says, “Unemployment is capitalism’s way of getting you to plant a garden.” Though I take sides with him, I am aware that the process of planting the garden can still be herculean without necessary skills.
Bringing this home to Nigeria, a country experiencing a dramatic population explosion, and projections of 401 million people by 2050 of whom 75 percent will be between 15 and 24 years old, it’s safe to say that Nigeria is really stewing in a complex problem. A preferred name for this problem would be “youth disengagement”. Our government acknowledges it but, unfortunately, according to Kofi Annan, the late former UN Secretary-General, “very few governments think about youth unemployment when they are drawing up their national plans”.
The economic theory of demand and supply thrives when describing the nature of youth unemployment. “If demand increases and supply remains unchanged,” the Encyclopaedia Britannica posits, “then it leads to higher equilibrium price and higher quantity,” and vice versa. Essentially, we have more people than we need for existing labour. Worse yet, these “more people” lack the appropriate mind-set or skills-set to perform on the job.
The psycho-social development of our youth is slow. The shift from hard work to “soft work” seems to define what they consider “work”. There is a mental shift from being productive to being rich. Once upon a time, they believed in success by hard work and commitment. The new focus is a theme of “get rich or die trying” and quick riches by “owo gbono” (money ritual).
Our youth define themselves based on external materialism instead of their intellectual abilities, leaving little room to think in solutions; instead they zone in on their challenges and dwell there. This ‘Generation X’ emphasises money as the solution to all problems, as opposed to an intelligent mind, skilled energetic hands and a willing spirit. They don’t accept that we go to work to make a difference, and in making a difference, you get paid.
An employable mind is made up of experiences through travel, mentoring platforms, academic learning through research and theory formulations, hands-on skills to facing real life problems, and a social environment which supports “birds of the same intelligent feathers flocking together”. The many unemployed Nigerian youths do not seem to possess these qualities. Hence, they remain unemployed.
The solution lies with an inner drive or propensity for self-disciple, tutelage, endurance and ‘inquisitivity’. Our crib-style support culture doesn’t encourage young people to make career decisions on their own, let alone early. In 2017, I interviewed a 24-year-old Nigerian graduate who kept calling her father at every stage of her contract-signing process with my lawyers. She possessed no mind of her own. Obviously, she didn’t fit my business model.
In contrast to the West, numerous Nigerians consider it taboo to leave home at 18 in search of work and dutifully expect their family to support them financially, even into marriage. Our youth exhibit high levels of an “entitlement mentality” making internships, volunteering and holiday jobs unappealing. These features are the torch-bearers of an innovative economy. It means there isn’t unemployment; there are unemployable youths.
Education policies should be designed to make learning more practical than theoretical. I’m passionate about schools introducing side-dish classes and crash courses on ‘how to create wealth’. I’ll testify that nearly everything I know today about value creation, or how to make money and trap wealth, wasn’t taught in any classroom I’ve sat in. I learnt them in the real world. We can speed up the process of youth employment by teaching them the secrets of ‘work well done’; introducing the concepts of sales margins, mark-ups, unique selling points and profit generation.
Our youth must be encouraged to aspire to making an outstanding difference. I’ll elucidate this with $100,000 being awarded to the Big Brother Naija winner, as opposed to N10,000 awarded to the winner of the National Essay Writing Competition. As human nature suggests, people gravitate towards the greener grass. This is also another reason why the number of Nigerians in diaspora is increasing. The West is cherry-picking the best of what is left of Nigeria’s promising youth through emigration schemes. If the best keep leaving, then who will think for us? Who will save us?
It’s common in Nigerian universities to have students study only to pass exams and not to learn. Students barely invest time and resources on reading to understand, writing to express their thoughts, and testing out those thoughts in experiments, because their minds aren’t curious for unexplored knowledge. It’s on these actions that proper self-development hinges.
We need to change the way our youth learn; first at home and then in school. These are the places with the greatest influence on their development. We need to change their belief systems by permeating their psycho-social consciousness through community groups – where they play, fellowship or even shop. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf agrees with me when she says “there is no easy fix on youth unemployment [as] partnership between the public and private sectors can make a huge difference”.
We need to do something about social media, the internet and television. We need to change the message that it shares with our youth or remove the “messaging icon” altogether. We need a supportive environment for positive growth that can be measured physically, socially, economically, culturally, financially and spiritually. We need strong platforms for role-modelling at home, in school and at play. Change the influences on the youth, their beliefs and the impressions on their character. Work on them from the inside out.
After this phase, we’ll start an ecosystem for new knowledge and new skills, creating policies favouring entrepreneurship thus helping them develop their own incomes. With tax rebates and other trading advantages in our business space, we’ll be employing more youths. We should advertise this every day because, if we change nothing, then nothing changes.
( Written by Tracy Osokolo , a creative writer and author of ‘Red Pepper and English Tea’. Osokolo writes from Lagos)
