For every 1,000 Nigerian university graduates in science and technology disciplines yearly, over 600 usually migrate to big cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja in search of well-paid science and technology-related jobs and other satisfactory forms of career developments. This discovery is according to a poll conducted by an independent research team to know how many fresh Nigerian university graduates relocate to major cities to seek jobs and why they do so.
You may have noticed this trend before now or maybe been directly affected. The essence of this post is to examine why Nigeria’s young and learned university graduates look up to these big cities alone for jobs, industrial and career advancements.
It is true that the world has gone digital and now runs on the wheels of science and technology. Many promising jobs and career enhancements are now technology-based. Records show that Governments currently invest heavily in the science and technology sector, which makes it one of the fastest growing sectors of global economy. Science and technology Research and Development are promoted in all segments of major economies.
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As expected, Nigeria is not an exception. Millions of fresh university graduates are pumped into the labour market every year with over 60% majoring in science and technology-related disciplines. This reflects the relevance of science and technology in human resource development in this 21st century.
What is the implication of this massive university graduation and geographical exodus? Insufficient jobs, skeletal career development, lack of concentrated and developed expertise especially in science and technology trail the polity. The few available jobs are heavily scampered for. This is one big reason for the massive exodus of job seekers to Lagos and Abuja every year in Nigeria.
Every now and then, new jobs are advertised in the mobile technology industry, cable and satellite technology industry, health and chemical technology industry, computer technology, engineering and other science and technology fields. Unfortunately, these jobs are only available in big cities such as Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja.
It is believed that most states of Nigeria are low on science and technology jobs and career developments. There are no lucrative avenues that could enable fresh science and technology university graduates practice in their disciplines. Most white-collar jobs which are also scarce are less challenging and almost makes one redundant. Nigerian university graduates believe that the real jobs and career pursuits are found in Lagos, Abuja and more recently, Port Harcourt.
Could this assumption be wrong? Is it only in Abuja, PH and Lagos that well-paid science and technology jobs and careers can be found in Nigeria? Could this be responsible for the massive migration of Nigerian university graduates to these big cities?
I am not advising young Nigerian university graduates to resort to this same fate. Entrepreneurship has come to break the jinx. Nigerians need to think more of adding value to the already-existing products and services from science and technology by way of research and development. Small and medium scale enterprises are currently the big movers of the global economy. It has the potential to transform a job-seeking university graduate to a job-creating Chief Executive.
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The truth is that global key performance indicators reflect entrepreneurship as favoring mostly the science and technology-driven sectors and sub-sectors of the economy. Like I said before, Nigeria has never been an exception.
Instead of running to the big cities, Nigerian graduates searching for jobs should learn to develop entrepreneurial skills in line with their trained discipline and consolidate on it constructively. The Nigerian economy can only become significantly transformed when the rate of newly-produced university graduates equate the rate of self-entrepreneurial development especially in the area of science and technology.
