Education and the Paradox of Graduate Unemployment: The Dilemma of Development in Nigeria

The paper is an assessment of education, graduate unemployment and the dilemma of development in Nigeria. Formal education is universallyacknowledged as a legitimized vehicle for self and societal advancement. The educational curricula, especially that of a university, imparts knowledge, relevant skills and competencies on the individual. It is through these knowledge and skills that education in its manifest function makes provision for social placement. However the paper maintains that distressingly, there exists lack of synergy between the number of graduates turned out annually and existing job opportunities. As a result of this mismatch, university graduates wander hopelessly for years in search of jobs. The problem of graduate unemployment is attributable to corruption in governance, population explosion, expansion of university enrolment and lack of entrepreneurship education in the university curricula. The high rate of graduate unemployment is indicative of deteriorating economy and it jeopardizes Nigeria’s chances of achieving its development aspirations. The paper therefore recommends among others that there should be radical curriculum and pedagogical reforms, upgrading existing facilities to match international standard, the emergence of visionary leaders that can build an economy that has the capacity to generate employment for the nation’s teeming unemployed graduates