When TikTokers Interview Graduates: A Sad Reflection of Nigeria’s Unemployment Crisis

In a recent viral video circulating on social media, a popular Nigerian TikToker known as Peller was seen calling on university graduates — including those with Master's degrees — to attend a job interview for the role of holding his camera. The job, he claimed, would pay ₦500,000 monthly. The situation, while seemingly humorous to some online, paints a disturbing picture of the realities facing educated Nigerians today.

For many, the video was not entertainment. It was a painful reminder of what years of schooling in Nigeria have become — a journey of sacrifice and dedication, often ending in mockery and helplessness.

The Humiliation of the Educated

To see graduates, some with advanced degrees, lining up for an interview to simply follow someone around with a camera is both humiliating and heartbreaking. This is not just about a TikToker making content. It’s about a system that has failed its most hardworking citizens. It's about a society that now values clout over competence and mockery over merit.

How did we get here?

Education No Longer Guarantees Opportunity

In Nigeria today, education is no longer the ticket to success it once was. Gone are the days when a degree guaranteed a good job, dignity, and financial stability. Instead, we now live in a country where thousands of graduates roam the streets, unemployed and underutilised, while jobs are offered based on who you know rather than what you know.

Sadly, many young people go through the rigours of tertiary education without proper guidance. Some choose courses that, in today’s Nigeria, offer little to no economic advantage — especially if one lacks the right political or social connections. This mismatch between education and employability has become a silent crisis.

Vocational Skills: A Necessary Backup

In the face of this bleak job market, graduates must begin to think beyond certificates. Vocational skills, trades, and entrepreneurship must no longer be treated as last-resort options. Instead, they should be integrated into the academic journey. From tailoring to photography, coding to carpentry, having a skill can be the difference between surviving and struggling in today’s Nigeria.

If many of these graduates had sustainable side skills, they would not be standing before a TikToker, hoping to get paid to hold a camera — only to be turned into content for the internet's amusement.

Government’s Role: Stop the Job-for-Connection Culture

The government must take the issue of youth unemployment seriously. The current culture of "jobs by connection" must end. A functional country does not rely on favouritism to fill its civil service or parastatals. Jobs should go to the most qualified candidates, not to the children of politicians and the well-connected elite.

We need strategic investments in job creation, technology hubs, vocational centres, and a restructuring of the NYSC and education system to link learning with employability. Without these, we will continue to churn out graduates only to have them humiliated by those who barely understand what it takes to survive the Nigerian academic system.

A Wake-Up Call for All

Peller's interview might have been a joke to him, but it reflects a serious issue in Nigeria: the devaluation of education and the deepening unemployment crisis. It's time for a national conversation — among students, educators, parents, employers, and policymakers — about the future of our youth.

The dignity of Nigeria’s educated class must be restored. But that begins with action — not only from the government but also from every Nigerian willing to invest in their own growth beyond the classroom.