An Interview With Dr Benjamin Onoriode Irikefe

As the Federal Government intensifies efforts at building a nation of self-reliant youth population and citizenry in its drive to key into the new world order of a generation of vocationally empowered people through improved educational curriculum in partnership with organised private sector initiative, a renowned author, human development expert, trainer, consultant to the FG spanning over two decades, Dr Benjamin Onoriode Irikefe, has in his latest work taken the lead at charting a path in that direction. 

In this breathtaking interview, Dr Irikefe in a no-road barred analysis has broken down the ambiguities on the path to a successful graduates in Nigeria’s Tertiary institutions of learning using his book -Handbook for the Generation and Impartation of Course-Profession Derived Businesses and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises – A Guide to Raising Successful Graduate Entrepreneurs which pundits have variously described as both ground breaking and game-changing.

He described the book as a paradigm shift towards the global reenginering of youths for more productive generation as a practical step to achieving the millennial goals and objectives of the current administration and future ones. Excepts…

ASIWAJUMEDIA: Could you kindly introduce yourself for the benefit of our global audience?

Dr Irikefe: I am Dr. Benjamin Irikefe, a well-known National Authority on Skill Acquisition Matters. I am a pioneer Trainer to the Presidential Amnesty Programmess (PAP), Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs (MNDA), National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW), and the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP). Also, I am a former member of the Presidential Panel on National Security in the Presidency from October 2001 to December 2002 in the Defunct General Godwin Abbe-led Presidential Committee on Amnesty in 2010.

ASIWAJUMEDIA: What motivated you to write and publish the book?

Dr Irikefe: The answer is fourfold, viz:

To help my follow Nigerians as a citizen. 

To support the government and other relevant stakeholders at finding lasting solutions to the burgeoning rate of unemployment.

To encourage Nigerians in general to adopt a multifaceted approach to income generation.

To contribute my little quota as a citizen to national development and insecurity abatement.

ASIWAJU MEDIA: What is the book all about?

Dr Irikefe: The end-goal or purpose of the book is to ensure that all Graduands of Tertiary Institutions have multiple marketable skills/ventures/businesses/vocations/enterprises with which they can use to eke out a living after graduation. Aside from the foregoing, all graduates or every Nigerian need multiple streams or sources of income because of the unabating “cost of living crisis.”

ASIWAJU MEDIA: In the case of students, what strategy can be used to achieve that?

Dr Irikefe: For their benefit and post-graduation life, they must be made to have readily actualisable course-profession derived businesses/vocations specific ventures they have practicalised and mastered every semester or academic session. With this, they are bound to have at least eight course derived businesses they can eke a living with after graduation.

Students must also familiarize themselves with various post-graduation entities that can support their ventures, both governmental and non-governmental.

ASIWAJU MEDIA: The two books you have written on Skill Acquisition have been often voluminous, each averaging one thousand (1,000) pages. Where do you source your materials?

Dr Irikefe: The truth is that literary materials abound everywhere. I did not create them. I am just fortunate that God Almighty used some entities to provide numerous Trainees and Training opportunities to get vast practical and theoretical experiences on Skill Acquisition. Foremost amongst them are Federal Government entities like the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, (MNDA), National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW), Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

 I have also received training on capacity building trainings from USAID (United States Agency for International Development, World Bank, Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited, Nigeria Opportunities for Industrialisation Centre, NOIC, and numerous others. You can not stand on nothing. A river that forgets its source must surely dry up.

The truth is that I am like a beadmakers, I just organize existing materials and ask subject matter specialists to peer review the work before publication. No man is an island. The work took almost two decades to assemble.

ASIWAJU MEDIA: Aside from the immediate and student related goals of your book, what is the grand goal of your new book?

Dr Irikefe: In actual sense, the grand goal is driven by grand strategy that has the overarching purpose of creatively harvesting the large number of tertiary institutions’ graduates that are churned out every year, that have hitherto appeared to be a threat into viable exportable assets that can bring in foreign exchange earnings for national development.

ASIWAJU MEDIA :I have scanned through the book. Is it limited to students of Tertiary Education alone?

Dr Irikefe: The truth is that even though the book appears to be centred on students of Tertiary Institutions, it actually has a wider and general applicability.

The book has been designed in such a way that, aside students and lecturers of Tertiary Institutions, the other persons that can use/benefit from the contents of the book include: members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, persons that are already graduates of Tertiary Institutions through graduate enskillment programmes, Local, States and Federal Government Civil Servants, Prospective retirees, members of military, security and intelligence services. As well as persons or entities that are involved in Skill Acquisition Training and Empowerment Programmes.

The book has been structured in such a way that it provide pathways or templates for any interested individual to have multiple marketable skills/enterprises/ventures/businesses which can be used to generate multiple streams of income or income generating activities. The rising cost of living crisis is a reality. This has led to multiple streams or income.

ASIWAJU MEDIA : What then should be the role of government in all these?

Dr Irikefe: The government should create the enabling environment for these schemes to function through providing proper regulatory and supervisory oversights, using its existing structures and organs. It should also galvanise and optimise existing enterprise support/funding resources. Several abound for MSMES.

Do your postulations and recommendations involve building new infrastructure and structures

The templates in the new book strongly advocate the use and application of existing resources. Most research institutes and incubation centres, though well-equipped and funded, are actually under-utilized. You do not need new structures as they are already on the ground.

ASIWAJ MEDIA : In your view, what can the government do about the large number of Tertiary Education Graduates that are churned out every year?

Dr Irikefe: The large turnout of tertiary institutions’ graduates can be turned to the country’s advantage. However, they have to be enskilled and/reskilled through the generation and impartation of course derived businesses and out of whatever course-of –study they are into. Properly Organised Graduate Enskillment Programmess can also be used to train and empower National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Members and Tertiary Institutions Graduates that have left school.

ASIWAJU MEDIA : What are your views about the general state of affairs in the country?

Dr Irikefe: All that has been happening in the country will certainly end in praise, by God’s grace. The nature, dimensions, and exposition of the events in the country, the place will surely be better off for it. All stakeholders have been shaken, and what the situation dictates is that everyone have to sit up and contribute their quotas to national development. Not only elected or appointed officials. Everyone must be involved for us to move forward as a country. Enacted policies must be supported by the citizenry for these policies to work fully. Policies can not attain their full effects when they are surreptitiously or overtly undermined.

I am sure that by the time these policies fully crystalize with the co-operation and support of the citizenry, we shall be better for it.

ASIWAJU MEDIA :In your new book, you harped on a multifaceted approach to income generation. What is this concept all about?

Dr Irikefe: The concept of multifaceted approach to income generation is a varied, aggressive, and holistic genre of multiple streams of income. It implies that the approach to income generation has to be more proactive and should be from several domains as much as possible. The concept takes into consideration the continually rising “cost of living” that has now become not a national problem but a global crisis. The concept also advocates the drastic cutting down of expenditure. Another way of making money is to save it. The more money you save, the more money at your disposal.

A multifaceted approach to income generation dictates that everyone needs additional source(s) of income, whether you are employed or not. The traditional sources of income can no longer meet up with the cost of living. People should engage in-house farming and other simple economic ventures to boost up their conventional incomes. This does not mean that they should get involved in unwholesome or criminal activities. 

ASIWAJU MEDIA :How well can this book unlock the destinies of the growing youth population, particularly the graduates of Nigeria’s educational institutions?

Dr Irikefe: This book has a uniqueness, and it is synced with the current programmes and policies of the Federal Ministry of Education as it concerns the making of a full-baked graduate with the capacity to create jobs through self-reliance and it is put into use practically well by the institutions of higher learning and has the potential of unlocking the destinies of our youths, turning them to job creators and not job seekers. 

ASIWAJU MEDIA : Sir, how has your previous works fared? 

Dr Irikefe: The Handbook of Skill Acquisition Training and Empowerment Programmes across editions have impacted and still impact positively on the targeted readers. It is the bedrock of human Empowerment while the latest book is a mix of academic and Vocational training which makes it a masterpiece for national growth and development tool that can change the tide against unemployment cutting down of the desire for white-collar jobs. It impacts the sentiments of our young graduates whose orientation was hitherto tilted towards government jobs.

ASIWAJU MEDIA : In view of the labyrinth of your solutions-based analysis, you seem to have forgotten to mention those in the field of politics – practically or theoretically. Could you kindly throw light in that critical knowledge base?

Dr Irikefe :Frankly speaking, politics is a very important sector in Nigeria, it is very lucrative.There are a lot of course derived businesses and MSMEs that can be gotten out for persons that are studying political science or in International Relations e.g. preparation of political manifestos for aspirants and candidates , promoting political parties and candidates, designing political flyers and campaign organisations, blueprints, etc.

Helping to organise political debates and events for professional fees and general political consultancies.