BACK TO THE SOIL: CURBING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT THROUGH AGRICULTURE
There is an Igbo proverb that says, ‘a man needs to consider the size of his anus before swallowing udala seed’. Prior to the discovery of oil in Nigeria, unemployment was not a major macroeconomic threat to the Country as anyone who was agile had no reason to be idle . Food was sufficient and youths were gainfully employed. After the oil boom comes an era plagued with decline in Agriculture's share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as everyone abandoned farming in order to benefit from the national cake. However, while Nigeria as a Nation was busy relishing the crude oil largess, she failed to take into cognizance the end results and ripple effects of oil on the other sectors of the economy. This was the Genesis of unemployment in Nigeria. The National Bureau of Statistics recently reported that 58.3 percent of Nigerians in the labour force, aged 15‐24 were either unemployed or underemployed in the second quarter of 2016, compared to 56.1 percent in the first quarter. Similarly, o