MORE than 80 per cent of Nigerian youths are unemployed, the Minister of Youth Development, Akinlabi Olasunkanmi has said. He based his assertion on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Even the 10 per cent of the entire youth population on paid jobs are under-employed, the minister declared.
Olasunkanmi said the situation had contributed to the high incidence of criminality among youths in the country.
The minister spoke yesterday in Abuja at a two-day workshop on “Entrepreneurship development for job creation among Nigerian youths.” The workshop, which ends today, is being held in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was to chart a way forward for youth employment.
The government also yesterday announced measures to address the challenges facing the public service. The steps are contained in a national strategy for the development of the public service.
Head of Service of the Federation, Ama Pepple, at the launch of the blueprint in Abuja yesterday, said the development of the Public Service Reform Strategy, which was long overdue, would help the sector fulfil its dual role as the engine of governance and an agent for national transformation.
Olasunkanmi, who painted the pathetic plight of the country’s youths, said: “According to the 2006 provisional census figure, Nigeria has a youth population of 80 million, or 60 per cent of her total population. Of this population, more than 80 per cent are unemployed while about 10 per cent are under-employed. Data made available by the National Manpower Board and the NBS indicate that only about 10 per cent of the graduates released into the labour market yearly by Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions of learning are able to get paid employment.”
He said that the implication of the situation was that the nation would contend with a frustrated youth population with the tendency towards vices such as prostitution; cult activities; armed robbery; drug and child trafficking; kidnapping and hostage-taking.
“It is therefore a fact that no nation can witness political and economic stability and development if its teeming youth are unproductive and not contributing to national development. The wealth of the nation is built on the strength of the youth,” the minister said.
The government is however not helpless about the situation as Olasunkanmi explained that his ministry had initiated the entrepreneurship scheme to create jobs for the youths.
He said that work was at an advanced stage for the production of a national action plan on youth employment to check the situation.
At a forum organised by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Pepple stated that in the preparation of the strategy document, there was need to evolve a strategy, which gives adequate coverage to the current five domains of reforms, which she identified as public expenditure and financial management, accountability, transparency, anti-corruption issues and good governance, human resource management, operations and systems and value re-orientation and ethics.
Pepple also suggested that the strategy must connect with the Vision 2020, the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS-2), and the seven-point agenda of the present administration.
She said: “It should be reinforced with a strategic plan which outlines, among others, the timelines for the accomplishment of set targets, the role of different stakeholders and the funding requirements for the translation of the vision to action.
“The strategy should provide indications of the priority interventions for moving the public service speedily out of the woods, so that the Nigerian public service can effectively respond to the current and future challenges of national development through sustained high performance.”