ANOTHER set of National Youth Service Corps members (batch B) 2015 will be passing out on 2 July, 2015, what is the hope of employment? What can the 2015 budget do for them.
In a year, not less than 200,000 youths graduate from different universities, polytechnics, colleges of Education etc and another set are posted to different states in the country to undertake the mandatory civic responsibility, know as National Youth Service in order to be identified as an employable graduate and with the hope of getting a good job after service.
2015 is more than half way gone, what is the plan of the federal government for Nigerian Youths? Are we still going to be left in the shadow that there is no plan for youth development.
As the president mounts the seat of power, how are we sure that the new government will impact positively on the lives of the Nigerian Youths? Should parents continue to sell properties to sponsor their children through school and at the end no reward for their hardship due to lack of employment of their beloved children.
Government should revive dying industries and encourage the establishment of new ones to enable unemployed Nigerian graduates put food on their table after so many years of burning candles and sleepless nights and those that were not unopportuned to go to school provide skill acquisition centers to enable them acquire skills in the agricultural sector e.g fishing and farming etc and also grant them loans to set up theirs.
The federal government should make provision for Nigerian youths and encourage the younger ones to embrace education in it fullness and make the learning environment conducive for them. Nigeria with a population of about 170 million people is the most populous African country and among the six most populous countries globally.
The rate of youth unemployment is alarming with some sources putting it at 50 percent of the population. There is a lack of vibrant industries to absorb, competent graduates. Unemployment has become a major problem bedeviling the lives of Nigeria youths, causing increased militancy, violent crimes, kidnapping, restiveness among youths, human trafficking and socially delinquent behaviours. Youth unemployment is devastating to both the individual and the society as a whole, both psychologically and economically. The rapid rise in the country’s unemployment rate has become a major problem.
Government should enlarge the scope of capacity building in research and development with focus on assisting business development, while recognizing the peculiarities of both the urban and rural economy and they should deal with poor governance, ineffective targeting of the poor, resulting in resources being thinly spread among states. In a nutshell government at all levels must treat youth unemployment as an emergency. A nation with over 20 million youths roaming its streets unemployed is indeed sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
The good news is that it is not all gloomy for the Nigerian Youth. With the coming on board of President Muhammadu Buhari, there is indeed hope for the teeming unemployed youths in Nigeria.
The president has not left anyone in doubt of his comprehension of this problem and his preparedness to tackle the unemployment malaise plaguing the country by promising to create millions of new jobs.
There is no doubt that the high level of unemployment in the country has left the nation in a precarious socio state, ranging from prostitution to kidnapping, Armed robbery, cultism and what have you.
It is therefore imperative that to tackle the socio ills plaguing the country, government at all levels must fight the chronic state of unemployment in the nation. One would expect the new government both at state and federal levels to re-activate abandoned skills acquisition centres, as well as build new ones in a bid to empower youths unwilling to pursue formal education. Likewise government could organize Nigerian youths into co-operatives so as to empower them.
It is equally important that the federal government do a review of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), with a view to using the scheme as an empowerment scheme, beyond the present aim of national integration so as to tackle the nation’s unemployment malaise.
Corps members involved in the scheme could be trained along the line of their interest, ranging from farming to hand work such as bead making. These youths could further be organized into cooperatives and empowered so that after passing out of the scheme, these youths would  be  gainfully employed thus reducing  the rise in the nation’s unemployment rate as well as have these youths become creators of employment for the nation’s unemployed youths.
By and large, government must treat youth unemployment with the seriousness it deserves. It must do everything possible to tackle this problem plaguing the Nigerian nation and in so doing it would have succeeded in putting smiles on the faces of the teaming Nigerian youths.

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