The panellists said Nigeria's education and skill system must be relevant to markets, industries, and national development.
A panel of discussants comprising politicians, academics and entrepreneurs have said Nigeria needs to adopt and implement a defined national strategy for the country's growth and development.
The panellists said Nigeria's education and skill system must be relevant to markets, industries, and national development.
The panellists spoke at a colloquium in honour of the Special Adviser on Economic Affairs in the office of Nigeria's Vice President, Tope Fasua, as part of activities to mark his 52nd birthday.
The event, which was held at the Nigerian Airforce Centre in Abuja, also featured a launching of five books authored by the celebrator. He had also previously published five other books.
The panel featured a former Minister of Youths, Bolaji Abdullahi; a former member of the House of Representatives, Dakuku Peterside; a professor of Finance and Capital Markets, Uchenna Uwaleke; an economist, Paul Alaje, and a business consultant, Titi Ojo, among others.
Abdullahi seeks overhaul of secondary education
In his submission, Mr Abdullahi, a former minister, advocated the creation of an outcome-based education system.
He said graduate unemployment is only a tiny fraction of youth unemployment in the country.
The former minister said most of Nigeria's unemployment problem was because most Nigerians ended their education at secondary school.
According to him, the secondary school curriculum doesn't make young people employable as it only prepares them to sit for the Senior School Certificate Exams and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
He said: "When I was Minister of Youth Development, I was confronted with the biggest issue; youth unemployment. That was the biggest issue. We were enrolling about 250,000 young people into the NYSC. And we have two batches. That's half a million into the job market every single year. Then we did an analysis and they brought back the disaggregated data. And I looked at it. I was shocked to find that 80 per cent of the population in Nigeria actually don't have more than a secondary school certificate.
"So when you talk of graduates, employment is actually a very tiny fraction of youth unemployment in Nigeria. More than 80 per cent of people below 35 in this country don't have a secondary education. That changed what we thought we knew. And it has severe implications for everything, especially education and job creation."
The former minister said the way out is to overhaul secondary education in a way that would make secondary school leavers armed with employable skills and seen as economic agents.
"If 80 per cent of your young people don't have more than secondary education, what does that tell you? Whereas your secondary education more or less prepared children only to sit WASSCE," he said.
"So if you see secondary escape as a terminal point in education and you are confronted with this massive employment crisis, shouldn't you, therefore overhaul your secondary education, so the majority of them are going to terminate that secondary level, they can be functional economic agents."
Reforming higher education
Meanwhile, Mr Uwaleke, a professor of finance and capital markets, advocated a restructured education system.
Mr Uwaleke said if he was Nigeria's president, he would merge the Ministry of Higher Education with the Ministry of Science and Technology while another independent ministry anchors basic education.
"The issue of education --my quick recommendation; if I were the president today, what I would do is to ensure that there is free education from primary to secondary school level up to senior secondary school 3, including ensuring that people register for WASSCE and NECO free of charge.
"Then for university education, first I'll have the ministry of education and ministry of higher education. Then I'll merge the Ministry of Higher Education with the Ministry of Science and Technology. And then I'll ensure and deliberately promote pillar courses."
He said the government can then provide scholarships to students who decide to study the pillar courses like Agricultural Science, Medicine, Engineering and Information Communication Technology (ICT).
He said the government trying to provide student loans to all fields of studies might not be the best approach.
He added that the major things the government is expected to pursue in education are access, quality and relevance.
Book Launch
Speaking about one of the books titled; "The Madness in the Heart of Man", Mr Fasua said it explores how economic models and policies ultimately depend on the people to produce the desired result.
He said: "It's something that captures some of my sociological, socio-psychological write-ups in recent times. In the year 1720 when Isaac Newton lost 20,000 pounds in what they call the South Sea Bubble. The South Sea Bubble was a scenario where some guys were going to South America and they wanted to go and colonise the place. What they didn't know was that the Spanish people had already colonised the whole of South America. So, the whole idea flopped.
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"Isaac Newton lost £20,000 to the endeavour...he said from where I sit I can tell the movement of the stars but not the madness in the heart of man. So, no matter the economics you are arguing, it is the human beings that determine what happens."
The author added that "You Better Tell Your Own Side of the Story" is an autobiography of himself.
"I think it's good for us to document our lives as a way of showing praise to Almighty God," he said.
The other books are "What They Won't Teach You About Nigeria's Economy", "A World War By Another Means: COVID-19", and "10 Reasons Why Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy has Failed Nigeria".
Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe
