Youth Unemployment in Nigeria: Capacity Building for National Development.

Abstract

The present socio-economic climate, in which the Nigerian youth have been further pressed
down the labyrinth of unemployment and poverty, is the result of the failure of past and present
governments, the location and dislocation of privileges, the culture of mismanagement and
abuse, and the proclivity of successive governments to remain insensitive to issues affecting the
youth. This paper examines problems facing the youth in Nigeria, and argues that a trefoil of
education, employment, and good governance constitute the core of factors needed for
sustainable youth and national development. Because these factors are inter-dependent, an
application of one without the other will render the whole exercise moribund. Functional
education is capital intensive and requires the availability of good governance and remunerative
jobs to succeed, as well as play key role in processes that result in positive human change and
growth. Gainful employment depends on trained manpower and a friendly socio-political and
economic structure; unemployment, on the other hand, breeds social alienation and frustration,
and can become a major catalyst for criminality, even in cases where the unemployed had the
minutest inclination of doing so. Good governance is the fruit of the quality of education of the
youth and the leadership ingredients in that education. Good governance, one in which
corruption is at the nadir, requires that the youth be gainfully employed in both public and
private sectors; it also requires a cultivation of positive attitude and morals by the youth, and the
development of social structures that promote justice, peace, tolerance, mutual respect and,
ultimately, national growth.