I was awoken at 2 am by continuous calls from one of my cousins who wanted to inform me that he has just graduated and finished his service year and now in a mad search for employment in the formal sector of the economy.

I expressed my solidarity with him and informed him that I will put my ears to the ground to know and communicate to him whenever any of the agencies of government is doing recruitment of staff.

But deep down inside of me, knowing how Abuja works in the last two decades whereby employments are shrouded in secrecy and often characterised by the disturbing phenomenon of fake job-sellers who dupe unsuspecting members of the public, I warned my cousin not to pay anybody for any employment slot.

Well, I went back to bed but could not sleep throughout the night as my mind wandered from one point to the other on how best Nigeria can confront the monstrous developmental challenge of youth unemployment, which is a grave threat to national security.

From my introspection and reflection, I came up with the conclusion that Nigeria is not lacking in the institutional platforms that are mandated to revolutionise, capacitate and rescue our youths from despondency and joblessness to gainful employments.

Nigeria’s institutional platforms such as the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the youths and sports ministry at the centre, and the different states’ ministries of youth and sports

development are among some of the well-packaged agencies. What is lacking, however, in some of them – not all – is the will power, the energy to do what they are set up to do as to reduce the menace of youth’s joblessness. NDE, particularly, has failed to deliver.

Right away, I can give a high mark to the Sir Joe Ari-led Industrial Training Fund and the Brig-Gen Ibrahim Shuiabu-led NYSC for bringing about innovative ideas on how best to give skills of a life-time to youngsters.

Additionally, the NYSC has also started doing what I think is practicable panacea to youth unemployment by going from one relevant agency to the other to brainstorm, synergise and to work out partnerships on how they can cross-breed and deliver innovative ideas on jobs for the benefits of young Nigerians.

So, I believe that the NYSC, the ITF and the Ministry of Sports should broaden the scope of consultations and partnerships and practicalise the deployment of skills, sports, avenues and ways and strategies to economically empower millions of Nigerian youths.

Kevin Johnston wrote a fine piece on the importance of skills acquisition: I have three takeaways from the points he articulated. He said as follows: “You will find that you often do not have all the information you would like in order to make decisions. It is important to acquire the skill of being decisive even when you are taking a risk you cannot fully evaluate. Sometimes, making any decision is better than making no decision.

“You can learn to embrace the skill of making decisions in uncertain situations and greatly improve your ability to lead. Being a successful entrepreneur involves having a creative passion to establish the business that is right for you. Using creative thinking and implementing novel ideas can help you embark on a successful business venture; and having the knack for entrepreneurship involves possessing the determination and commitment to run your own business.

“An entrepreneur has organisational, marketing, sales and finance skills as well. Although some business-owners have a natural talent for entrepreneurship, completing business courses can help you develop these skills.”

I think these are profound statements of facts loaded with beneficial ideas. Now let us examine how working together, these agencies I mentioned can achieve more for our young people.

It is true as told by some experts that some research suggests that being involved in sport can equip young people with specific “core” and “soft” skills that may raise their level of employability.

“Core” skills include those that are directly associated with coaching and sport management. “Soft” skills include the skills and values that are learned through sport, such as cooperation, leadership, respect for others, knowing how to win and lose, knowing how to manage

competition, etc.

“However, it is advised to exercise caution when taking this view of sport’s contribution to economic development through job skills development, because employment opportunities must exist for these skills to be relevant and of practical use. Research shows that there is a need to identify new jobs associated with sport and to conduct an inventory of all job categories in developing countries that can use sports skills or those derived from sport."

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has highlighted the position of sports institutions as lying outside the tripartite structure of actors with whom the ILO usually works (governments, employers and workers) and therefore calls for the creation and development of joint projects and partnerships.

"For skills’ building in sport for employment, the ILO has suggested that classifications of sport and sport-related economic activities opportunities be carried out in African countries, considering that so few of them have been documented in this region. This would allow for

a better understanding of the present situation of the sport sector and to uncover any potential employment opportunities and skills that young people may find useful in the sport sector in Africa." (sportandev.org.)

On their own, the NYSC has introduced the best practical approach to create jobs for young people through its skill acquisition initiative.

Today, the National Youth Service Corps is probably the only government institution that has presence (infrastructure and personnel) in all the 774 local government areas (LGAs) of the

country. This places it in a position to be reckoned with in ensuring youth empowerment, so reports The Guardian.

The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, in a reaction to the growing number of unemployed youths in the country, has called for more practical solutions to address the situation.

The Guardian recalled that in March 2012, the NYSC leadership introduced skill acquisition and entrepreneurship programmes into the orientation course content, in order to raise an army of (vocational) entrepreneurs that will drive the economy and not job-seekers that will trudge the streets in search of scarcely available jobs.

To institutionalise this, the Federal Government raised the number of departments in the NYSC from seven to eleven with Department of Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) as one of the new departments.

The introduction of SAED into the NYSC scheme had helped many fresh graduates to be self-reliant, creating employment opportunities instead of searching for non-existent jobs.

The NYSC Director of SAED, Mrs Mary Dan-Abia, in an interview with The Guardian recently, disclosed that over 500,000 corps members had been trained under the reinvigorated Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme since its inception in 2012.

“As at the end of 2013, we have been able to train over 410,000 corps members on skills acquisition and entrepreneurship, if I add the 2015 batch A, we will be looking at over 500,000 corps members who have been exposed to the message of acquiring skills and becoming entrepreneurs.

She said out of the total number of trained entrepreneurs, over 1,600 had become full-time entrepreneurs, managing businesses with varying degrees of success across the country.

The ITF has in the last five years carried out diverse skills acquisition trainings for youths to an admirable dimension. The director-general performed so excellently that he won the heart of President Muhammadu Buhari who has just reappointed him for a second term.

As captured in a news report, for the tide of insecurity to be stemmed and youths in Nigeria gainfully employment, institutions of government have to rise to the occasion and ensure the mandates of their establishments are fully actualised. This was the view of the Minister

of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Richard Adebayo who spoke in Jos, Plateau State, at the commissioning of some projects at the headquarters of the Industrial Training Fund, ITF.

He said that the Federal Government would continue to put in place policies that would support organisations whose activities have direct impact on the lives of Nigerians and make such organisations thrive.

The minister said the Industrial Training Fund, with its mandate to train Nigerian youths on various skills acquisition, will eliminate the growing trends of unemployment in the country. According to him, “It is no longer news that a huge number of Nigerians are unemployed

and in poverty; as a consequence, the country has witnessed a rise in insecurity and other social vices. In the face of the absence of white collar jobs, the only feasible alternative is for organisations like the ITF to ensure that their mandates are fully actualised.

“I want to assure that the federal government will continue to put in place policies that will ensure that organisations like the ITF whose activities have direct impact on the life of Nigerians thrive to its fullest.”

Also, the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, who acknowledged that the ITF has contributed in no small measure in raising the living conditions of Nigerians, especially in the skills acquisition and the educational sectors, through its training and corporate social

responsibility, assured of his support for more citizens of the state to be empowered.

Earlier, the Director-General of ITF, Joseph Ari, listed the projects to be commissioned to include, a modern library complex, a central store and a block of classrooms at the ITF Staff School.

He stressed: “The modern library complex will accommodate e-learning facilities for engineering, arts and humanities and social sciences, among others. It would also house a 250 computer-based test (CBT) capacity, as well as office accommodation for staff.

“The staff of the Fund are expected to be knowledgeable and that can only be achieved through constant research, which is possible with a rich modern library. In order to ensure continuous efficient and effective mandate delivery, there are several other projects in the

pipeline which include the construction of a skills centre in Enugu and an industrial skills training centre in Gombe; construction and refurbishment of area complex in Awka, Jos, Enugu, Kaduna, amongst others.”

The goal of this article is to advocate a greater synergy and partnerships between and among the above listed agencies of government. The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, which I coordinate, will be approaching these agencies with research papers on how to deepen their conversations on partnership for employment creation for the millions of Nigerian Youths.

Also, the National Assembly needs to pragmatically improve the funding capacities of these agencies so that the goal of creating jobs for youths can become realistic in a short time. This is the way out of the nation’s security nightmares.

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