A lot has been written in the media regarding the recent tragedy of 19 reported deaths and scores of injuries which resulted from the mass recruitment exercise of the Nigerian immigration service (NIS). This post attempts to situate the discourse within the broader context of government’s responsibility, recruitment practices and the morality of charging unemployed …
Continue reading Jobs for sale: The Commodification of Youth Unemployment in Nigeria
Late last year, I sent out a single question ‘why did you choose to study in South Africa?’ to a network of South African students. What I found was quite interesting, and something I might want to pursue once I complete my degree. See abstract below. ... Narratives of African students studying internationally often focus on …
Continue reading What took them there? Educational aspirations and intra-African scholarship
African Union (AU) Heads of State decided at their meeting in January 2014 to review their commitments to employment as enshrined in the Ouagadougou declaration and plan of action by holding an extraordinary summit this September. One hopes that youth employment will be central to the discussions during the review process. This is important because …
Continue reading Youth in Ouagadougou +10 and the post 2015 development agenda
This post was originally published in April 2010. African Union Youth Ministers will be meeting, under the auspices of the Conference of Ministers in charge of youth (COMY), in Victoria Falls next week, precisely April 12-16, to discuss issues of youth development on the continent. Top on the agenda are the creation of a continental …
Continue reading African Youth Ministers: Gathering for What?
In my previous post I indicated that I believed shunting was a big national challenge. My main thesis was that many people didn’t want to stay on the queue and this was contributor to corruption in our country. This weekend, I had an interesting exchange with two colleagues over breakfast which brought this subject to the …
Continue reading Shunting, the ‘Nigerian factor’ and tackling Corruption
