Youth unemployment in Nigeria has become one of
the most serious socio-economic problems confronting the country. The magnitude of this problem can be appreciated if an accurate data on the number of jobless young people roaming the streets of Nigerian cities, towns and villages is available. Unfortunately, accurate statistics on youth unemployment are lacking. Nevertheless, estimates by the International Labour Organisation (ILO 1999) in Sub-Saharan Africa show that unemployment affects between 15-20 per cent of the work force, and out of these estimates, young people comprise 40 to 75 percent of the total number of the unemployed.
Unemployment has affected youths in Nigeria from a broad spectrum of socio-economic groups. Both the well and less educated are affected, but more especially those with low income backgrounds and limited education. Given the lack of employment opportunities and consequently uncertain future, young Nigerians are forced to engage in unorthodox sources of livelihood  while others engage in casual work which highlights the causes of youth unemployment problem and the effectiveness of the response. It also surveys the future of Nigerian youth.
An indepth analysis of the jurisdiction of unemployment in Nigeria will reveal with crystal clarity that unemployment is a multi dimensional phenomenon that has successfully defied precise solution by successive governments. A brief insight into the historical fact will support this assertion.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, unemployment rate rose from 4.3 per cent in 1970 to 6.4 per cent in 1980. The increase noted in the 1980 statistics was attributed to the depression in the Nigerian economy of the late 1970s. Between this period and 1986, the rate of unemployment fluctuated around 6.0 per cent. The implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986, led to a decline in unemployment rate from 7.1 per cent in 1987 to as low as 1.8 per cent in 1995. Between 1986 and 2000, it fluctuated between 3.4 per cent and 4.7 per cent.
Current information from the CIA World reveal that unemployment rate in 2003 stood at 28 per cent while a great decline was noticed in 2006 (2.9 per cent). From 2008 to this present day, the country has enjoyed a relatively stable rate of 4.9 per cent. Different facts from the National Bureau of Statistics reveal that during 2000 and 2008, the unemployment rate fluctuated between 13 per cent and 14 per cent. As at 2009, the national rate of unemployment stood at 19-17 per cent. These statistics may, however, not be definite as stakeholders have continuously reiterated that the practical reality of unemployment is higher than what statistics suggest.
Without deliberately under estimating the influence of other factors, the principal causes of unemployment are legion. Bad leadership encapsulates  quite a sufficient parameter, ranging from corruption and its endemic effects, have no doubt greatly impacted positively the rate of unemployment. Many government functionaries in purporting to carry out their duties divert huge sums of money to their personal accounts; some inflate the true naira value of contracts in order to conveniently secure their own share of the national cake. In essence, resources which should be deployed towards the creation of more job opportunities for the mass unemployed are mismanaged and embezzled.
Lack of visionary leadership is also a convenient cause. The perfect example is the Nigerian experience in the agricultural sector. No sane man would doubt the innate ability of the sector to provide mass employment opportunities for the teeming Nigerian populace.
Unfortunately, and in most pathetic manner, Nigeria has in recent times not had true leaders who would bring this vision home to the people by translating it into practical reality. All they do is paper work which at the end has little or no practical utility. Successive governments in Nigeria have failed to successfully ultilise the enormous potentials wasting away in the agricultural sector.
Another fallout from the problem of bad leadership is the failure of successive governments in Nigeria to find a lasting solution to the problem of erratic power supply. The percentage of budget spending  allocated for that purpose in successive years now seem unquantifiable with little or no improvement. Any attempt at showing the huge funds pumped yearly into the resuscitation of that area of the Nigerian economy will reveal that it is totally infra dig for a country like ours to be this deep down the fathomless pit of darkness. Without sounding cynical, perhaps a few of these governments have performed fairly. The consequences of the erratic power supply include the comatose state of the manufacturing sub-sector. Hundreds of factories that hitherto provided employment to graduates and artisans alike have folded up (Kudos must, however, be given to the recent efforts of the present government at bailing out the textile industry, amongst others). The few surviving ones are at the mercy of generating sets (and fuel) and the resultant high cost of production.
Masi is of the Linguistics and Communications Department of the University of Port Harcourt, Choba.

Another important cause of unemployment in Nigeria is the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the Nigerian educational system to produce graduate possessing all- round abilities. Majority of graduates in Nigeria have not developed their own skill. All they have are the certificates – nothing more. In plain language, most of these graduates are half-baked and ill-prepared for the challenges facing the nation. They have nothing substantial to add-nly to maintain the status quo. Educational institutions have failed alarmingly to produce graudates that are designed to meet the needs (not just vacancies in terms of job opportunities) of the Nigerian economy. Most of them never desire to be independent or self-employed  or at least create an item of value. Their dreams are mostly about getting juicy jobs with Shell, Total etc. Dearth of skill acquisition and ultilisation in the present crop of graduates is perhaps occasioned by a deficient curriculum. This has sometimes resulted in companies reserving vacancies for Nigerians with overseas qualifications.
Sometimes, the absence of sufficient imformation creates the status of being unemployed for some Nigerians. Admittedly, this would not always be so in the face of the numerous applications received in almost all advertised vacancies. Recession in the economy is another cause of unemployment. Recession leads to many companies winding up, restructuring, streamlining and consequently, disengaging workers.
The high rate of unemployment in Nigeria has negative social and economic implications on so many aspects of the life of an average Nigerian. First and foremost is the fact that unemployment leads to unnecessary waste of resources and less productivity. Brain drain and loss of purchasing power are also important effects of the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria. The Nigerian economy is losing some of the best brains available to other countries. Graduates with good and outstanding skills, after walking the streets looking for jobs, take on the journey for greener pastures abroad many of our youths now take to riding commercial motorcycles while others make do with street hawking to keep body and soul together. The economic cost of unemployment are not limited to be above. Unemployment leads to a gap between the actual Gross National Product (GNP) and the potential Gross National Product. This is known as the GNP gap – indicating a vast waste of resources and an inability to maximize the utility of both human and natural resources.
The social costs of unemployment in Nigeria include increased cyclical poverty. Personal hardships, decay of unused skills, depression, increase in self – desertification leading to an increase in crime rate as well as increase in the number of broken marriage.
A sad development occasioned by the rate of unemployment in Nigeria is the now common swindling of these poor job seekers. Private firms in purporting to help these poor job seekers to secure employment collect different sums of money from these applicants (such as application fee, registration fee, blue chip fee, amongst others). Most of these firms are only concerned about the money; at the end of the whole exercise, most of the applicants are still without a job. Even the public sector is not absolved from this ‘profitable’ venture. The not-too-long—ago recruitment exercise by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) reportedly raked in about 750million Naira for the Agency. The NDLEA recruitment was fraught with incomplete information (for instance, there was no information on the requirement of presentation of NYSC discharge certificate as a condition precedent to sitting for the test), which led to a waste of resources by a large percentage of these job seekers. The National Social Insurance Trust Fund is also recruiting, collecting at last a thousand Naira (1,000.00) for each applicant.
The way forward for Nigeria to successfully tackle the high rate of unemployment rests first on the shoulders of our leaders. Nigerian leaders must show more than enough commitment to the creation of jobs and most especially the creation and sustenance of an economic environment that fosters self-development and self actualization. Nigerian leaders must revisit the resuscitation of the manufacturing sector and ensure that it is exhumed from the grave where it currently lies. A Total solution to the problem of erratic power supply would be of utmost importance in this regard.
The faster government moves in that direction, the better as we  have seen the concomitant effect of youth unemployment manifest itself in various forms across the country. Kidnapping armed robbery and even militancy in the Niger Delta  and to some extent, the Boko Haram menace could be identified as some of the negative outcome of unemployment.
The utilized potentials in the agricultural sector must be made use of to create the desired job opportunities for the teeming unemployed Nigerians will experience a new breath of life. The educational system also needs restructuring. The various curricula in our schools should include skill acquisition course, entrepreneurship and self development programmes, deliberate efforts need to be made towards ensuring that a new enterprise culture  is entrenched in the minds of our graduates and artisans alike. This will reduce the present craze for white collar jobs and reduce unemployment in Nigeria. It is then that Nigeria will be on the road to economic success.

Mabel Masi