Nigeria’s First-Class Graduates & The Crisis Of Unemployment
Merit Without Reward
ON a cold morning along the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway in Ogun State, 29-year-old Gloria Agu ended a 24-hour shift as a security guard at a large church complex. Armed with a first-class degree in Computer Science from Auchi Polytechnic, she earns ₦50,000 monthly—far from the career she once envisioned.
Like many top graduates, Gloria believed academic excellence would guarantee stability. Instead, after completing her National Youth Service Corps, she sent out dozens of applications without response. “You endured strikes, hardship and sleepless nights. Then nothing comes. It feels unfair,” she said.
Her story reflects a wider national paradox: thousands of first-class graduates are produced yearly, yet many remain unemployed or underemployed.
Thousands at the Top, Few at Work
Between 2024 and 2026, leading universities collectively produced over 3,400 first-class graduates. At the University of Ibadan, 448 students graduated with first-class honours in 2025. The University of Lagos recorded 617, while Ahmadu Bello University produced 323.
Private institutions posted similar figures. Covenant University graduated 357 first-class students in 2025, and Babcock University had 243.
These graduates enter a labour market that struggles to absorb them. Official unemployment figures from the National Bureau of Statistics hover around 4–5 per cent using revised metrics, but critics argue the methodology understates reality, as working one hour a week qualifies as employment.
Structural Weaknesses
Economist Prof. Akpan Ekpo attributes the crisis to Nigeria’s weak productive base. Manufacturing contributes less than 12 per cent to GDP, power supply remains unreliable, and foreign investment is limited. “The system is not industrialised or diversified,” he notes.
Historian Prof. Olutayo Adesina traces the roots to the economic downturn of the 1980s and the Structural Adjustment Programme, which weakened industries and public sector hiring.
Some reforms are emerging. In 2022, the House of Representatives proposed automatic employment for first-class graduates. Edo State has approved such placements, and Adekunle Ajasin University recently hired 32 of its top graduates.
Skills, Survival and Reinvention
Recruitment expert Emilia Gberaese warns that while jobs are scarce, skill gaps persist. Many graduates lack digital proficiency, communication skills and workplace readiness. “First-class opens doors, but it is not a guarantee,” she says.
Some graduates are pivoting. Wisdom Onwuka, a first-class Biochemistry graduate of Covenant University, left corporate employment to build a phone accessories business in Lagos. For him, entrepreneurship is choice, not defeat.
For Gloria and thousands like her, the issue is not unwillingness to adapt—it is a system where merit alone no longer secures opportunity. Until Nigeria strengthens its productive economy and aligns education with labour demand, the nation risks wasting its brightest minds.
