BRIDGING THE GAP....... By Dotun George

BRIDGING THE GAP........ By Dotun George

The Lagos State Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Babatunde Durosimi-Etti, has lamented that jobs meant for people in the country are being given to foreigners due to the absence of local skills and expertise.

He described the situation where the jobs that could be undertaken by Nigerian artisans were given to their counterparts from neighbouring countries as worrisome, adding that the trend could be reversed if the home-based artisans were equipped with qualitative skills.

He said, “Presently, about 60 to 70 per cent of skilled jobs in our country are being handled by foreign artisans. The Lekki Free Trade Zone as of today has the deficit skill gap of almost 2,000 technicians that they couldn’t get among our artisans. Contractors handling construction works in the country come into Nigeria with their workers because they don’t have confidence in our artisans.
So I keep wondering why can’t we have Nigerians who have those vocational skills and who could also bridge the gap of the over 50 per cent unemployment rate in Lagos?”..........................................................

I want to help the commissioner to answer his puzzle and questions. The dearth of vocational skill, confidence artisans, employable youths and expertise are part of the havoc our poor standard of education, outdated curriculum, obsolete teaching techniques and personnel, placing too much emphasis on classroom and certificate and laziness of Nigeria youths have caused us as a people and a country.

Except we discard and replace outdated curriculum, improve or setup a new standard that can meet up with the challenges of 21st century, intensify on practical oriented subjects and course, have qualified and quality teachers and personnel, the state and this country will continue to grope in the day as if we are in the night.

Something tangible, decisive and urgent must be done to help our students in school now to have a focus learning, relevant subjects and course that can make everyone skillful, mentally resourceful and independent. We all go to school to cram theory and definition and after graduation, such student with first class cannot put to practice what he learnt in school when the challenge comes. Are we not at a disadvantage? Are we not creating a lacuna already that future cannot fill and fix?

Mr commissioner just consult people like us and you are already with the solutions. To solve a problem, the best place to look into is the source or the cause of the problem. As long as you detect and discover the source and the root cause of the problem, you are not far away from the solution. What then need to be done, is to channel energy and resources to practical, pragmatic and effective solutions.

As a state and country, with our determination and readiness to address skills deficiency through investment in skills acquisition centres, improvement and upgrade of our school curriculum to meet up with the challenges of now, and also help our young ones choose subjects and course base on interest and passion, will help in restoring the glory of this country and  the influx of foreign artisans into the country would become a history.