FG laments absence of indigenous technical expertise in Nigeria

The minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has expressed worry over the high emphasises placed on paper qualification in Nigeria, noting that the trend had further discouraged youths from  undertaking skills training, creating a vacuum for indigenous technical manpower in the country.

Speaking at the National Skills Summit in Abuja, the Minister called for the re-orientation of youths in the country as a means of imbibing the values and opportunities of technical expertise in job and worth creation.

Represented by his Special Advisor, Engr. Adewale Adenaike, Adamu noted that “it is not compulsory that all of us must have degrees, I think Nigeria is going the wrong direction putting so much emphasizes on paper qualification.”

He also decried the mass migration of academias into politics leaving a huge vacuum in the teaching profession. “Our Professors are now politicians, so who is impacting the knowledge? he questioned.

Similarly, the Special Advisor to the President on Political Affairs, Babafemi Ojudu, also lamented that as simple as house roof repair, ‘if you want a quality job done, you will have to go outside the country to look for who will repair the roof of your house.”

He said the non-availability of indigenous manpower in technical areas in the country was worrisome, adding that Nigerian youths have little or no interest in skills acquisition.

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Meanwhile, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) is seeking collaborations among stakeholders including the private sector in skills acquisition training particularly in technical areas where vacancies exist but are filled by foreigners.

In his opening remarks at the Summit, the Director-General of ITF, Sir Joseph Ari, noted that despite the high unemployment rate in Nigeria, vacancies still exist in six (6) areas of the economy that the country’s citizens lack the technical know-how to occupy, leaving such opening to foreigners that have the requisite skills.

The areas Nigeria lack indigenous manpower are Agro-allied, Construction, Oil and gas, Mental and Solid Minerals, Light manufacturing and Services.

Ari explained that the absence of clear policies on technical skills acquisition as a vehicle for job creation and poverty reduction as well as the lack of synergy and co-operation between Agencies with a mandate for skills development for job creation has lead to disparate efforts that are yielding little results.

“Another important obstacle is our perception of skills acquisition. Till date, many Nigerians still believe that hands-on skills are a preserve of the poor and the disadvantaged in our society as they are viewed as dirty, dreaded and dangerous. This perception has led to skills shortages in trades and vocational areas that Nigerians should be well equipped to perform.

“My opinion finds support from a Skills Gap Survey in Six Priority Sectors of the Nigerian Economy that was conducted by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in liaison with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), which showed that despite rising unemployment, vacancies still existed in several sectors of the economy that are still reliant on foreign labour to be filled.

“My understanding of this is that if over 20 million Nigerians are not employed and yet technicians are imported, the answer can only be that Nigerians have not fully embraced skills acquisition as a sustainable alternative to white-collar jobs. This mindset and the perception that hands-on skills are for a certain group of Nigerians has to change.”

Ari said “another factor could be the disconnection between the schools and the needs of the industries, leading to a situation where it is not uncommon to hear employers lament the unemployability of graduates of our tertiary institutions.

“This formed the subject of a presentation by the Human Capital Group at the Financial System Strategy (FSS) 2020 International Conference on the state of the Nigerian educational system. According to the presentation, the emphasis in Nigerian institutions has been on verbal activity rather than skill acquisition and problem-solving activities,” adding that “the educational system has not been tailored to meet developmental needs of the nation”.

He also stated that the “absence of a reliable Labour Market Information (LMI) that would have guided Nigerians in career choices and institutions of learning on industry needs. Consequently, institutions of learning and human capacity development institutions work on a whim, in the dark and without any form of guidance. The effect of this is that institutions train potential workers in skills that are not needed by the labour market.”