The Job of Nations!

Thank you Gbenga for this post,most of the comments made are critical and I hope we have garnered a thing or two like I have. First, like many have asserted, our educational curriculum needs to be revamped,often times, most of the courses/subjects we took through secondary school and the University are grossly irrelevant vis-a-vis the state of the country. Also, the malicious stereotyping of Universities V Polytechnics V Colleges needs to stop while a proper structure should be established for these Institutions of learning. Also, employment justification should be based less on grades and more on acquired skills and innate abilities as its now a known fact that being brilliant is not the same as getting the desired results on the job. Although, I do not support faulting the government for everything but the mistakes of our past leaders has contributed immensely to shifting focus from economic sustenance metrics to a full dependency on crude-oil which has brought the nation into a conundrum today. Unemployment rate is used to measure any nation's growth and it is so sad a country like ours blessed with human, man-made and God's given resources is still crawling. Everyone has potentials but we all need help however small, I think if Government can resolve the quagmire bedevilling the Power sector, the manufacturing industry would be revived which in return can absorb some of our unemployed youths. Agriculture should be fully supported on all frontiers with advanced technologies, infrastructures for processing and transportation network to aid distribution,policies should be enacted to stop importation of food and this would help create massive jobs and conversely boost the economy. Sectors like mining, tourism, sports, entertainment should be made more attractive to encourage private organisations and entrepreneurs Finally, the change we all desire begins with us, lets start something and one day we would have a Nation we all can be proud of...

In addition I think there's a huge untapped space in Mining. I understand every state in Nigeria has one mineral resource or the other. I agree that the education system, especially at tertiary level needs to be overhauled for relevant skills for the 21st century. Not everyone needs a 'University' Certificate and we don't even have many people who are into Research and Development which is what the Universities are there for ab initio. We can also look at the manufacturing efforts in the South-East and develop that area to meet world-class standards. We really have a lot of potentials and a huge human capital base which we need to exploit in order to dominate.

Thanks guys, and like Oludare Shobajo said, the responsibility doesn't rest solely with government but, with all of us as individuals taking out time to find out niche areas and creating products/services to solve National and Global problems that stare us in the face on a daily basis.

Gbenga thank you for this post. I think you nailed it. Let's find our nitch area and dominate it like the Indians do with IT and Health industris. I strongly believe in the Tech revolution taking place in Nigeria today.

Thank you for this reawakening post. Our school curriculum or curricula needs to be rejig to meet the present demands of industries and world economic challenge. Gone are the days of civil service and big corporations that were providing jobs. There are no jobs. It is through innovation and creativity in providing service that can provide jobs.Everything is moving fast. India invested in their education and Information technology and they are have been reaping and also ultimately, reaping those investments. They are now the CEO of two top tech companies. It is a success and amazing story. It is through entrepreneurial and vocational education that Africa can ameliorate problems bedeviling it. When a society has youth that are taking risk orientated, that wants to know and understand, that wants to innovate, that wants to solve social problems and that wants change, then they would build companies, companies will need people that will power it and chain of jobs and opportunities would be created. Our schools should to turn to the use of education for solving problems not the present one of "just understand and pass". Academic success isn't total success but it becomes total success when someone can apply what he or she has learnt in solving problems.