Tag Archives: Employment

Education, issues, Naija, Personal Development, Politics, University

Why Nigeria’s Workforce Debate Is Stuck at the Wrong Altitude

For two weeks, Nigerian commentators have argued over whether Tosin Eniolorunda is right that Moniepoint MFB cannot find 500 qualified Nigerians to fill its vacancies. I have read several commentaries, opinions, and research outputs. Each is responding to something real. But for me, the debate is being argued at the wrong altitude. The real question is not “where is the talent?” The real question is: what is the talent supposed to be for?

When a country commits to a long-term economic and industrial strategy, its education system must become the mechanism for delivering the necessary human capital. The curriculum, the skills pipeline, and the financing for training should not operate in a vacuum. They should be intentionally reverse-engineered from the ultimate goals of the national vision. That is how graduates are prepared for the future economy the country intends to build, making the education system fundamentally downstream of national vision. Three cases make the principle visible.

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issues

JOBLESS BUT NOT WORKLESS!

no job

I have watched with interest how things have taken a sudden turn for many people, including my family, over the last year. What is dominant of course has been the effect of the global recession, which a most countries are experiencing at the same time. It seems no one is spared, and those who seem to be wading through have also seen their purchasing power spiral down dramatically. But most affected are those who have lost their jobs in a market that seems to grow uncertain by the day. About two years ago many never saw this coming. The preparation for the crash was nonchalant and very little attention was paid to the volatility of the financial system, considering the fact that this is a system heavily intertwined.

Today what we see is a terrible desperation on the part of many, and some already have their lives come to a screeching halt with no idea of what next to do. I will dare to say that the reason this is so is because of life’s unspoken philosophy: ‘My job is my life’. What’s even more painful for some is not the fact that the job paid the bills, but the mere fact that it defined self-worth and determined livelihood. So now that the job is gone, life is gone. So if your job is your life, when it is taken away, so is your life. This is happening to many today, and who can blame them? It is the way the system operates anyway, and many are inextricably wrapped into it and can only imagine their living within the confines of this worldly system.
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