Politics: A Negation of Entrepreneurial Mindset of Youths in Kwara State, Nigeria

The ever increasing rate of political thuggery and other vices by youths at the expense of entrepreneurial skill acquisition (E.S.A) prompted this researcher into investigating the factors militating against the entrepreneurial mindset of youths in Kwara State. The study adopted survey research type. The population consisted of all artisans in Kwara State. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 20 trades, and 40 tradesmen (artisans) from each of the three Senatorial Districts of Kwara State, giving a total of 120 trades-men. However, only 100 of them cooperated fully with the interview in this study. Two research questions were generated this study. The instruments used for this study consisted of an 8 Researcher-Designed Trades-men Questionnaire (RDTQ) for the problems facing trades-men, and also a 7 Researcher-Designed Trades-men Questionnaire on the way out (RDTQWO) that were conducted based on oral interview. The content validity of the instruments were done by two social science experts, while for the reliability of the instruments, the questionnaires were subjected to test re-test techniques of five weeks interval. The scores were correlated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Statistics which gave us 0.71 at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The two research questions were analyzed using Frequency Counts and Percentage Distribution. The findings revealed that youths’ interest in motor-bike commercial operation as well as preferring white-collar jobs to E.S.A respectively highly constitute major hindrance to E.S.A. Other problems include governments’ lukewarm attitude about youths’ E.S.A., as well as the socio-political environment of the youths that does not encourage E.S.A. Equally problematic are some youths earning their living through praise-singing the politicians, and also parents who prefer their wards to be ‘white-collar-jobly” inclined by going to school only instead of incorporating E.S.A. along side Western Education. But very relatively low is the discovery about the negative attitude of some trades-masters against any-would-be apprentice. In line with the findings and conclusions of this study it was recommended that the governments should make it as a matter of policy to encourage E.S.A. among youths if artisan gap is to be filled, as well as empowering youths to be self-reliant. As a matter of policy, it was also suggested that political thuggery among youths must be stopped by the politicians who never use their own children or family members for such an act, among other suggestions.