European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol.6, No.25, 2014 96 Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Training for Youth, a Panacea for Unemployment and Nigerian Insecurity Gbagolo, Henry Monday Oghenenyoreme * Eze, Bernard Ikechukwu Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil, P.M.B. 3474, Kano State Nigeria henmongbag2000@gmail.com Abstract Human resources is a blessing to any nation because of diverse opinions/views that will be shared on issues affecting such nation but when the able bodied youths, educated who are to take over the leadership or governance are unemployed after years of graduation looks frustrating and thus posed as security challenges to such nation. Skills acquisition and entrepreneurship training for the youths will serve as succor to ameliorate the high rate of unemployment rather than allowing the youths to roam the street and thereby engage in unwholesome practices to earn a living. In our findings, we explored the recent employment saga in Nigeria, the effect of unemployment and youth vanguard and the consequences of youth unemployment and security challenges. In conclusion, we advocated that the insecurity in Nigeria as a sectarian violence should be discarded rather it is caused majorly by unemployment. Keywords: Skills acquisition, Entrepreneurship, Youths. Unemployment and Insecurity 1.Introduction Nigeria the most populous nation in Africa and the second-largest economy in the continent is endowed with both human and material resources but years of unbridled corruption, mismanagement and sheer waste have hindered economic growth in the country. Consequently, the nation’s resources have been left under-utilized leading to unemployment and abject poverty (Bakare, 2013). The importation of foreign policies that were workable in developed economy failed to improve the economic system with soaring rate of unemployment of our able-bodied youths. Education in Nigeria is the shared responsibility of the federal, state and local governments. The federal ministry of education plays a dominant role in regulating the education sector, engaging in policy formulation and ensuring quality control. At the tertiary level, the system consists of a university sector and a non-university sector. The later is composed of polytechnics, mono-technics and colleges of education. The tertiary sector as a whole offers opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, vocational and technical education (Clark & Ausukuya, 2013). They state further that in Nigeria, there are 59 federal, 38 state and 51 private universities, polytechnics 78, mono-technics 27, and colleges of education 281. Nigeria with a population of over 160 million and 250 ethnic groups with diverse background of equally diverse individuals with youth demographic approximately 75% (Business Day, (2013) continue to witness more than 150,000 graduates churn-out annually and available jobs remain inadequate to keep pace with the ever expanding army of jobseekers (Bakare 2013). At such, the unemployment rate continues to increase, an unhealthy situation for a developing nation. Nigeria as a nation has been witnessing drastic and frantic security challenges for some years now and the insecurity situation has been partly attributed to unemployment in the country. The position was confirmed by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi (2013) in a paper he presented at the 1 st Ochendu Youth Empowerment Lecture Series held in Umuahia, Abia State. He affirmed that insecurity can be triggered and fuelled by factors such as unemployment among others. He gave the statistical rate of unemployment to be 20% in 2009 – 2011 as against 15% in 2002 – 2008 and Bakare (2013) but the recent World Bank statistics, revealed youth unemployment rate at 38 per cent. Realistically, she opined, 80 per cent of Nigerian youths are unemployed, with secondary school graduates mostly found among unemployed rural population accounting for about half of this figure. Though, the crisis surfaced in forms of communal, religious, political and social economic resulted in loss of lives and properties. Judging from the happenings it is seen as phantom sectarian violence that is responsible as it started in the regions. Today in Nigeria, we live in fears, a position corroborated by Clark & Ausukuya (2013) that we live in absolute suspicion and constant presentiment of an impending disaster as most economic activities have been grounded and crippled resulting the inability of employers to pay their employees thereby exacerbating the already tensed atmosphere of joblessness. It is against this backdrop that BusinessDay in collaboration with the ministry of industry, Trade and Investment, as well as small and medium enterprise development agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) chose the maiden edition of university entrepreneurship development programme (UNEDEP) initiative as a platform to promote entrepreneurship across Nigerian universities and to create in students the hope about the opportunities