BY IKENNA ASOMBA

THE tragic stampede that marred the March 15, recruitment of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), may have come and gone, even buried under the carpet, but the memories of how over one million  Nigerian youths scrambled for just 4, 500 job placements, will indeed continue to reverberate in the minds of many concerned Nigerians.

In the unfortunate incident, no fewer than 19 unsuspecting young and energetic youths among whom are graduates of Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and Universities lost their lives, with many others injured at the recruitment that held in the stadia of major city centres such as Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Ilorin, Benin, Kano, Port-Harcourt, Benue, Calabar, Gombe, Kano, Borno, Sokoto among others.

Eventhough the NIS authorities placed a flat fee of N1, 000 to discourage a rowdy exercise, this played little or no role to discouraging the army of unemployed youths who thronged the various stadia, to participate in the test.

Just recently, at the inaugural housing stakeholders’ implementation summit, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, puts the number of unemployed Nigerians at 18.9 million, comprising 5.3 million unemployed people and a pool of under-employed people (those working but the job is not full time) of 13.6 million.

Against this backdrop, stakeholders who spoke to Vanguard Learning, have reiterated the urgent need for Nigerian youths, whether graduates or not, to embrace vocational skills as the way out for ending a recurrence of the tragic NIS stampede in the country.

Speaking at the 30th Anniversary/24th Graduation of the 2011/2012 set of Victory Institute of Catering and Hotel Management (VICHM), Ikeja, Lagos, where 31 students graduated with Diploma, the Managing Proprietor and Director of Studies, Dr. Christian Olaniyan said that with unemployment becoming a canker-worm of the nation’s economy, acquiring vocational skills is a way out.

He said: “We all know that unemployment is now the biggest canker-worm of our economy, which has the multiplier effect of several anti-social vices like armed robbery, kidnapping and terrorism. But with a vocational and entrepreneurial institution like ours, unemployment is reduced in our society. The products of this institution are never found roaming the unemployment market, as most of them are today seen in paid hospitality establishments like hotels, hospitals, airways and restaurants.

With most of them also standing on their own as employers of labour, it’s therefore imperative for youths to embrace the acquisition of vocational skills as a necessity of life.”

Favour Inyang, a graduate of Catering and Hotel Management said: “I believe that acquiring tertiary education is not everything. One must not go to a university before you make it in life, but you just need to take a bold step to start up something doing. We have so many graduates today, who are roaming the unemployment market hopelessly. As for me, I am yet to acquire a university education, but just less than a month after graduation, I’m already working with the vocational skill which I have acquired in catering and hotel management.”