Unemployment Versus Unemployability (The Case of Nigerian Graduates) -By Nwogboji Emmanuel Usulor

Nwogboji Emmanuel Usulor

Unemployment is one of the issues that are hindering the growth of the Nigeria’s economy. In determining the proximate cause of this hydraheaded grotesque that is dragging the integrity of our nation to mud, it behooves me to consider if the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria is basically due to unavailability of jobs or could be attributed to the fact that majority of the Nigerian graduates lack the basic erudition needed by employers of labour and are therefore unemployable.

To be unemployed and being unemployable are entirely two different phenomena. The unemployed people are basically the individuals that are employable without a paying job. These people are involuntarily out of work due to unavailability of jobs. On the other hand, the unemployable persons are not able or likely to get paid employment because they lack the skills and qualifications that are required for a given job. In simple terms, unemployment is the lack of job opportunity for the employable individuals to work and generate income whereas unemployability is the lack of necessary skills required for a given job opportunity.

In Nigeria, as the prospective employees are clamoring there are no jobs, so also the employers of labour are ululating there are no competent employees for their jobs. This limns the fact that Nigerians are totally confused on what constitute the root cause of unemployment in Nigeria.

It is only in Nigeria that a highly competent prospective employees are denied chances to take up jobs simply because they don’t have certificates issued by Nigerian universities. Some other creative individuals are rendered jobless because they were not issued certificate with upper grades by these universities that are specialized in producing half-baked graduates and derelicts. Various scholars have also suggested that the syllabus used in the Nigerian universities and other high institutions are highly blemished and cannot produce graduates that can be engaged conveniently in the Nigerian labour market. What most of the employers do is to recruit these paper-qualified graduates and proceed in giving them additional training as to be able to work efficiently and effectively.

As a result, the whole confusion and contradictions in the Nigerian labour market today is caused by the failure of Nigerian education system. The Nigerian academic system is totally responsible for the unemployability of the graduates due to nonexistence of adequate quality and relevant contents. This indecorous academic system practiced in Nigeria is highly theoretical rather than being tailored to equip students technically.

Graduates of Nigerian high institutions are not adequately trained in the relevant fields to impact positively on the present day economy. Some relevant fields are filled up with courses that have no real life applications considering the convulsive and dynamic nature of Nigeria economy.

In that case, this article hereby suggests that Nigerian education system should be restructured so that the graduates from Nigerian universities and other high institutions will not be regarded as unemployable in the labour market.

Department of Accountancy,
Alex Ekwueme Federal University of Ndufu Alike Ikwo (AE-FUNAI).

Nwogboji20@gmail.com