When a graduate turns an Okada rider, then it says a lot about the future of the country.
I was commuting to the market on a motorcycle today when I had the pleasure of chatting briefly with the rider, Sanmi Ajayi.
According to him, ”I am a University graduate, but after an unsuccessful job search and ridiculous job offers, I ventured into Okada business (motorcycle).”
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Sanmi is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, with a Second Class Upper in Geology.
I can imagine the challenges many job seekers out there are going through. But the recruiters are also facing the same.
It hurts to see graduates still do odd jobs to survive. Do you know the number of fresh graduates mobilized for the national youth service scheme every year?
If you divide it into three batches, add them to the waiting list of job seekers in the country and see the unemployment rate that you will come up with. Until Nigerians start creating industries instead of buying properties in Dubai, the problems won’t go away.
According to a respondent, Macs Ezebuno, who engaged my article on LinkedIn, he shared his opinion about doing menial jobs like Okada as a graduate. He said, ”Chinedu, I do not see anything wrong in doing menial jobs.
”In fact, it doesn’t matter what anyone does as a university graduate or non-graduate. What matters is what they have in mind before venturing into the menial jobs.
- ”Did they venture just to sustain or to gather resources for better?
- ”Did they venture with the future in mind or they ventured for the now?
- ”Again, the little they got, did they reinvest in themselves or they wasted it?
”Many graduates and non-graduates have gone through a lot but are better entrepreneurs today because they learnt what they would not have learnt in classrooms. Kudos to those who became better persons through dignity of labour (the hard way).”
Another respondent also shared his own perspective too. David Ferdinand Uche said, ”I will always take my advice to the side of Nigerian graduates.
”One big mistake to make in Nigeria is to study a course that requires very sophisticated training before one will become employable. Very Sophisticated courses give little or no room for personal development in the required practical skills for employability – Geology and Petroleum Engineering for example.
”The advantage of an unsophisticated course in Nigeria is that an undergraduate, while still in school, can be personally developing himself in the required practical skills in his area of interest under the supervision of an expert – Computer Science, Chemistry and Electrical Engineering for example.
”Another problem of Nigerian graduates is that we don’t pass through school for a purpose. Example: I wanted to understand and learn Chemistry so I can formulate and develop chemical products like personal care and cosmetic products among all, and I decided to study industrial chemistry – that’s purpose!
”Undergraduates with purpose don’t think like others! They always look for a way, while still in school, to get the required practical skills for them to be employable in an area of interest.
Some labs knew I existed in my undergraduate time.”
Festus Oyewole had a different view to what Ferdinand said. Festus said, ”What Uche said is what I call human reasoning. Anyways, it is not really about the course of study. We just need to face the reality that our population is more than the available jobs like what the writer said. We need to think about Self development.
”Above all, God is what we need.”
There are pools of graduates out there and hence, it makes it very difficult to choose the right candidate. The uphill battle to filter thousands of resumes in their job portals is really overwhelming. This calls for new ways of looking at the issues, necessitating the use of technology.