By Olajire Philip
In July 2008, I began a six months Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), popularly called Industrial Training at the Centre for Energy Research and Development (CERD), a centre of excellence in nuclear energy research in Nigeria, managed by the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority located in the premises of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
As undergraduates, my colleagues and I had limited access to many equipment in CERD because they were very expensive. We were only permitted to operate a few machines – the less expensive ones – under supervision. One of the most important facility CERD has is the 1.7Mev Tandem Accelerator (a sophisticated facility used in nuclear energy research which was commissioned by the former Minister of Science and Technology in 2008). As at 2008, the 1.7Mev Tandem Accelerator cost over one million US dollars, and there were only two in sub-Saharan Africa, i.e. one in Nigeria and the other in South Africa.
One of the officials of CERD – a professor – went to Durham University, UK, for further training on the use of the 1.7 Mev Tandem Accelerator. On his return, he held a seminar on the knowledge he had gained by demonstrating them on power-point slides. Towards the end of his presentation, he showed us a picture of three people; himself, his instructor and a young lady. He said, “The young lady is an undergraduate of chemistry department of Durham University, who had just concluded the same three months training on the use of the facility with me.” He also said that “The 1.7Mev Tandem Accelerator is located in the Chemistry Department of Durham University, so students could train with the facility.”
The seminar generated a great deal of turbulence in my brain. I asked myself, can you imagine a UK undergraduate undergoing the same kind of training with a Nigerian university professor? Great and small facilities are located in various departments of higher institutions in developed countries so that students can acquire adequate practical experiences but this is not the case here in Nigeria, as the few available are only meant for business purposes in government research institutes. So I compared what the quantum of impact the Durham University undergraduate (as well as her classmates) would add to the economy of her country when she eventually graduates with what a graduate of Nigerian tertiary institution adds to the economy of Nigeria. To be factual, the seminar was an eye opener to the problem of unemployment in Nigeria.
Moreover, when considering the extent of self-sufficiency Nigeria has in her health sector, it must be noted that Nigeria keeps doing a great job in the training of qualified doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, and pharmacists. In my opinion, the health sector – a highly skilled sector – in Nigeria is the best sector we have in the economy, because we do not have expatriates managing their field (when compared to the engineering and other skilled sectors). As terrible as the Nigerian unemployment situation is, you don’t easily come across unemployed medical doctors. In addition, a medical doctor in Nigeria can practice anywhere in the world with little or no further training, as this is not obtainable in other fields such as engineering, science and agriculture.
The self-sufficiency Nigeria has in her health sector is simply due to ‘training’ and ‘institutionalisation’ of that noble profession. What I mean by training is this, a medical student gains a university admission, learns basic sciences in the first year, begins rigorous practical training in second year. In the fourth year, he continues training in the teaching hospital section of his medical school and must be able to attend to medical cases, as this is an important condition for graduation in his sixth year. The fresh graduate doctor goes into the labour market with requisite skills as he properly attends to real life situations as a result of the adequate training he has got.
Talking about institutionalisation, I mean, medical students are specially trained (beyond the classroom settings) in specially designed hospitals called teaching hospitals, in order to give them practical training. A medical student combines his lectures with real life hospital experiences, so he doesn’t need to go for SIWES or Industrial Training like I (and other engineering students) did. So I keep asking two questions. Firstly, what would be the quality of a fresh graduate doctor if almost all the trainings were mere classroom training? I mean a training without the teaching hospital experience, but replaced with a six month medical/industrial training (a medical training in any kind of hospital/clinic/health centre). Secondly, what would be the quality of a Nigerian graduate engineer and scientist, if given adequate training (both theoretical and practical experiences)? Without mincing words, I believe we can see a major reason why most Nigerian graduates cannot create jobs as well as why they are unemployable.
I wonder why Nigerians are yet to understand the root cause of graduate unemployment. We have to know that competence, productivity and job opportunity in any part of the world is directly proportional to the extent of training acquired by the graduates of that nation. A graduate of medicine, pharmacy and nursing automatically goes into practice after graduation (though some are initially underemployed). Likewise, graduates of architecture, accounting and law are reliable professionals in their fields (though not absolutely). Graduates of professions mentioned above are able to display a high degree of competence in their fields because they often receive a much more than sixty percent of the required academic training (both theory and practical).
On the other hand, Nigerian graduates of agriculture, engineering, physical and biological sciences have contributed too little in their various fields. Instead of receiving “inside-out-training”’ (adequate training on campuses to perform after graduation) like their counterparts in other professions mentioned above, what they get is an “outside-in-training”’ (scrambling for adequate training lacking on campuses after graduation). This set of graduates received lesser than thirty percent of training required on campus which is the reason why they have been incapacitated in their fields. Despite the fact that they should be in the position to design and manufacture machines as well as add value to raw materials (with the aid of their invented, innovated or replicated machines) to become finished products that can compete with the foreign ones, unfortunately they have been made to become victims of unemployment and mere entrepreneurship.
If I may ask, where are the establishments provided for the graduates of chemical, petrochemical, mechanical, food, civil, electrical and metallurgical engineers to work? In developed countries, graduates of zoology, botany, microbiology and biochemistry don’t have the problems of getting employed or creating jobs, but here in Nigeria, there are no spaces for them to practice their profession. To be factual, typical graduates of science and engineering in Nigeria are not capable of creating job opportunities in their fields. I see it as a wasteful investment when higher institutions admit students to study courses and eventually offer them poorly trained to add little or no value to the society.
This is the why multinational companies and expatriates have become the life-line in construction, mining, telecom, oil and gas industries. It is also evident why Nigeria has turned to a dumping ground for imported products. With my four years of active engineering practice, all I can see is that unemployment will continue to ravage Nigeria unless there is a paradigm shift in our job creation approach.
My heart bleeds each time I read about governments’ effort at solving the problem of unemployment because they mostly end in a vicious cycle. Since the inception of democracy in Nigeria, government has been spending huge sums on globetrotting in the name of seeking Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), instead of investing those amount into capacity building of young ones. I have always believed we can develop adequate local investment capabilities and stop chasing the shadows of FDI, then put an end to the ”intellectual incapacitation and encapsulation”, as if those who invested in Europe and America came from other planets. The Asian Tigers have shown us that ”charity begins at home”. India, a nation that got her independence, just thirteen years before Nigeria, is no march for Nigeria when it comes to the development of her local capabilities. Today, Nigeria makes use of banking software developed in India as well as motorcycles and tricycles made by them. Moreover, India has taken over the Nigerian steel industry. When you get to an Indian managed steel industry in Nigeria, you will discover that virtually all the machines and tools in that industry are made from Indian technology. In addition, the Indians have been contracted to build a new petroleum refinery by Dangote. This is possible because they were able to ”domesticate” foreign technology. Hum, what a lofty practice to emulate!
The hullabaloo given undue attention since 1986, when the Structural Adjustment Programme, commenced is called ”entrepreneurship and vocational education”. What a “fools gold”! Imagine a typical Nigerian graduate of agriculture, is being told to start a business after school, he would prefer starting a car wash business to practising agriculture because he lacks the capacity to properly run a farm. Today, Nigeria has thousands of graduates who studied agriculture related courses, but they were never empowered to practice commercial agriculture so that they can feed the nation. Unfortunately, we have left the job of food production to the peasant farmers (who only make use of primitive means to practice farming) and untrained nomads. We can all see the effect of the neglect, it is massive food importation.
(For my article, ‘Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is a scam and a multiplier of poverty’ go through the link below. http://www.nairaland.com/2983340/entrepreneurship-nigeria-scam-multiplier-poverty)
At this juncture, I must be lucid enough to say that I am not a destructive critic, but a constructive one. I believe I can help proffer some pragmatic and proactive solutions to the protracted problem of unemployment.
Firstly, there are identified private organisations that have got massive investments in education, health, media and other socio-economic activities. They can equally be harnessed for job creation, especially in the agricultural sector. They are potentials waiting to be tapped for further exploits. I am confident that if these organisations are properly harnessed, they are capable of providing investments worth over 100 billion naira in the agricultural sector over the next ten years. The major challenge is how to sensitize them so that they can do more in the economy.
Secondly, I believe in the adequate training of undergraduates which is a panacea to abundant job production. I mean a training that will ensure adequate knowledge in both theory and practical. This means the government must ensure provision of adequate modern equipment in all tertiary institutions. I believe in the institutionalisation of every course of study in every tertiary institution in Nigeria, a system that will operate like the teaching hospitals of medical students. In fact, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Engineering students should have state of the art facilities in the recommended ”engineering villages” in order to replace the empty laboratories and workshops, while science students should have something similar.
We need ”centres of innovation”, not just ”centres of operation and maintenance”. We need ”Nigerian technologies” not just ”made in Nigeria products”. I do not subscribe to the Nigerian method of gaining practical experiences in which Industrial Training is meant to provide, because we have seen that medical students have adequate expertise as a result of the training they received in their specialized institutions. Institutionalisation is working in the medical field, it will work in other fields. The major goal to be achieved is self-sufficiency in every field in terms of qualified personnel, job creation and standard products. It must be noted that engineers and scientist are the major job creators in developed economies, they help provide white collar jobs in terms of modern goods and services. So Nigeria must train capable engineers and scientist that will create abundant jobs.
Thirdly, undergraduates studying agricultural courses should be empowered (both with finance and modern implements) to own farms before and after graduation. I believe funding of our agriculture student/graduates is possible since the government can pay huge sums to house officers (final year medical students). We should abhor the the practice of ”crash programs”, when there are professionals who can perform in those fields. For example, you’ll hear something like ”a three day seminar on fish production”.
A rhetorical question that comes to my heart is, why are we wasting resources on such a crash program when we have thousands of agriculture and fish production graduates in Nigeria? Billions of naira was spent on Millennium Development Goals, especially goal number one, as well as the National Youth Service Corps agriculture scheme, with little or nothing to show for the amount spent. The government must realise that youths corpers cannot be forced into farming. It is high time we empowered and utilised the right people for the right job. We need to fix educated people (the graduates of agriculture) in our agricultural sector, as in people who can access information, modern tools and techniques for abundant job production as it is done in advanced countries.
My point as touching entrepreneurship is that it is an inordinate thing to degenerate graduates into practicing entrepreneurship of making popcorn, chin-chin, frying akara, selling imported wears, operating a beer palour, laundry, salon and businesses after graduation. I believe in a graduate entrepreneurship where an electrical engineering graduate can venture into electrical equipment (such as electric motor, transformers, high tension cables, power generation turbines and so on to solve our power problem) design and manufacturing while other engineering graduates do similar things in their fields. We need to locally train scientist who will develop hi-tech products that will be developed by their small scale enterprises and will later develop into large scale businesses. We need to transform our graduates to local investors who can venture into bitumen (and other solid minerals) processing, having it in mind that Nigeria has its second largest bitumen deposit in the world after Canada. Nigeria must transform herself from mere and unsophisticated entrepreneurship to science/technology/research driven entrepreneurship.
Only very few Nigerians know that multinational oil companies such as Shell, Chevron and Agip are involved in operations far beyond oil exploration in their countries of origin. As at today, Nigeria has no reason to export crude oil as long as these oil companies can invest into oil refining, petrochemical and gas-to-power generation. What we need to do is to set out modalities that will ensure they refine our crude oil, make petrochemicals for local consumption and export whatever remains as this will help create much jobs. I advocate that the government should reverse the privatisation process of PHCN because the beneficiaries of the privatisation have no prior experience in the power sector, neither have they made marginal investment since they took charge. Despite the purported sale, the federal government is still investing billions of naira into the power sector; an anomalous situation. I believe that multinational energy giants such as General Electric and Siemens should be encouraged to take over PHCN and invest in power generation, transmission and distribution in order to fast track job creation opportunities.
Lastly, it is so easy to attract FDI when favorable conditions are put in place for investors. It is a pity to note that some Nigerian companies e.g. Dunlop Ltd, relocated their factories to Ghana as a result of a better manufacturing environment available in that country. Nigeria doesn’t need to beg for investments, what Nigeria needs is to put in place are adequate infrastructures, such as good transportation system, efficient power supply as well as incentives for prospective investors. When the right business environment is achieved, FDI will automatically flow into our nation and there will be abundant job opportunities.
Follow the author on Twitter: @oneolajire
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