‘Acquisition of artisanal skills antidote to Nigeria’s unemployment, economic challenges’

The coordinator of the Artisan Workers Union in Osun State, Comrade Adedokun Waheed, has said that the acquisition of artisanal skills by the youth remains the only antidote to unemployment and economic challenges in the country.

Towards this end, he charged parents to ensure that they expose their children to viable skills capable of making them self-employed, apart from academic pursuits, saying white collar jobs are no longer available for teeming graduates of higher institutions.

Adedokun made this disclosure during the second edition of an award programme organised by The Gold Magazine in collaboration with the Network of Professional Media Practitioners held in Osogbo, Osun State capital.

According to him, “some parents should stop believing that if their children are not employed by the government, he or she cannot make it in life. Though it is good to have basic knowledge, but apart from spending so much time and money in school, a child should have a skill to fall back on when the chips are down. 

“So many artisans are making it in their various fields, they command respect from both educated and non-educated in society because they can rub shoulders with them when it comes to finances. 

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“Too much focus on education and certificates is part of the problems our society is facing now. Youths do not believe in hard work again, they just want to sit under the air conditioner and be receiving salary, when such is not forthcoming, they turn themselves to another thing to the detriment of our society. 

One of the guest speakers at the occasion, Dr Jimoh Olorede of the Department of Mass Communication, Federal Polytechnic Offa, who spoke on the topic: “He who cherishes gold should be recipient of gold”, congratulated the award recipients who he described as the ‘finest’ of their kind. 

Also speaking, one of the organisers, Bosun Oyedele, said the award recipients were carefully selected based on their positive contributions to the society at large in their various spheres of influence.

Some of the awardees at the event include the Olowu of Kuta, Oba Hammed Adekunle Oyelude Makama; Olororuwo of Ororuwo, Oba Kamorudeen Adeyanju Adeyemi Alawode; Executive Director, Marine and Operations of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Olalekan Badmus, among others.