Unemployment in Nigeria

Unemployment in Nigeria

Its heart aching to see a good number of Nigerian graduates unemployed. It’s one of the most critical problems the country is facing as a result of long years of corruption, bad government/leaders, military rule, civil war and mismanagement of wealth and resources. Unemployment is a state when one is unable to gain any meaningful means of living and unfortunately, this state has been nationalized in Nigeria. Unemployment in Nigeria has hindered the economic growth of the country.

Unemployment is of great harm to the society and the youth age; it drastically increases illegal activities in the society and the youth are left with no choice other than to indulge in illegal activities. Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest rate of unemployment. In Nigeria, about two-third of the working population is unemployed. This is as a result of lack of job opportunities and productivity of the government. Lack of employment has an adverse effect on the society and on youths especially. For example, it creates false employment such as militancy, theft (armed robbery), and prostitution (both in male and female). This false employment increases the crime rate in the country and contributes to the gradual crumble of the economy of the country. According to the CIA World Fact-book, in 2008 the rate of unemployment in Nigeria was about 4.90%, and in 2009 it increased to 4.90%.

Firstly, for a country like Nigeria that dwells mainly on oil as a source of income and foreign exchange, militancy does more harm than good. Militancy has become a burden in the heart of the government because of the high rate of destruction these unemployed youths indulge in. A good number of unemployed graduates and undergraduates take it upon themselves as a task to willingly vandalize the pipelines which the oil industries use in transporting crude oil from their rig’s to the refineries were there are processed. This has led to a decrease in