By Hauwa Abba Abdullahi
Unemployment has become a cankerworm that refuses to go, and it is a big problem in Nigeria. It connotes a situation whereby a person who is actively searching for a job is unable to get one. The level of unemployment in the country is a serious one, and so alarming nowadays. People are suffering and living a kind of life of hand-to-mouth, especially the youths.
Paraphrasing the words of Aaron O’Neil, there is a steady increase of unemployment in Nigeria. Based on his statistics, in 2020, the unemployment rate in Nigeria was at approximately 9.01 percent. Apparently, both personal and social cost of unemployment include: severe financial hardship and penury, debt, homelessness, family tensions and breakdown, boredom, alienation, shame and stigma, increase social isolation, among others.
The effort put forward by the Nigerian government in fighting the scourge of unemployment in the country is commendable. However, enough still needs to be done in order to rectify or solve this problem permanently. The fight against unemployment in Nigeria is a fight for all, and there is a need for collective efforts by Nigerians to drive this ugly situation to an end. All hands must be on deck if the fight against unemployment is to be won in Nigeria.
This is so because a hungry man is an angry man so says an adage. Therefore, metaphorically, once a person is unemployed, he becomes more depressed and he tries to do things which are unimaginable. There are many reasons that accentuate unemployment in this country, i.e. fall of cottage and small industries, increase in population, to mention a few. The dangers of unemployment in the country are enormous, which could be attributed to kidnapping, hired assassination, among others.
Imagine in a big family and only one person has a job, and the rest of the family are depending on him. What do you think will happen? Or in a case where in a whole family, there is no one with a job; things become more difficult. This is the situation in some homes today, and it is really disheartening, which could lead to depression and in turn metamorphose to dubious activities that could drive the name of the country into the mud.
Thus, the menace of unemployment needs to be addressed in this country. The effort by the government is commendable, but more still needs to be done, especially by providing job opportunities for the teeming youths who are willing to work. People should also encourage themselves in the area of entrepreneurship by creating jobs for themselves. With all these put in place, the scourge of unemployment will be defeated. There is no problem without a solution, and unemployment too has its solution. Fighting the scourge of unemployment in Nigeria is a collective responsibility for all.
Hauwa Abba Abdullahi
Department of Mass Communication, Skyline University Nigeria
