Abuja — The trouble with Nigerian youths has been highlighted by the death of a dozen or more applicants for jobs at the Nigeria Immigration Service last Saturday.

Many jobseekers died from exhaustion during a 3-4km marathon race to determine their physical fitness before they could take part in a written test. Others were victims of stampedes at the venues where millions of unemployed youths were chasing a few hundreds of jobs. The deaths were reported in Kaduna, Enugu, Bauchi, Kwara and Abia states. Hundreds of others were injured at the centres nationwide. At the end, there were claims that the exercise was anything but transparent: Those without godfathers had no hope of getting the job for which they passed through hell.

This Tuesday, the minister of youth development, Mr Akinlabi Olasukanmi, spoke about the despairing millions of frustrated and desperate youths. He said more than 80% of Nigerian youths have no source of livelihood and 10% are underemployed. No nation, he continued at the workshop, "can witness political and economic stability and development if its teeming youth are unproductive and not contributing to national development". We agree with him.