THE PAINFUL REALITY OF A NIGERIAN GRADUATE

On Friday July 18th, I boarded a night bus for the first time in my life. I was very apprehensive given the bad state of our roads and the activities of men of the underworld. The risk associated with travelling by road for 10 long hours and the resources I would expend in the process made the choice a very difficult decision to arrive at, especially when I considered the fact that the result of the exam which I was billed to write could go either way. Just last two weeks, the Petroleum trust development Fund (PTDF), released the list of successful candidates for their oversee scholarship after about 8months of endless waiting. I became worried that some powerful Nigerians may take advantage of the long wait to rig the selection process. My suspicion heightened when a friend called me and asked me to send my particulars, so that his sister who works with the government, can help increase my result score. I regretted not sending my particulars to this friend when last week, a former school mate called me to inform me that he had passed the PTDF exam. Knowing that I did not see him during the exams, I asked him which center he wrote his own exam, he laughed and told me flatly that he didn’t sit for the exams. His name miraculously appeared on the successful candidates list because he has a powerful Uncle who pulled some strings on his behalf.

Now you understand why going to Lagos for the exams was a big deal for me. I went anyway; I took the risk to travel to Lagos from Port Harcourt for the Seplat recruitment exam because I needed the job. I have a job, but the opportunity of landing a better job will always be appealing. Luckily, I arrived at the venue of the exams in ample time to brush my teeth and change my shirt. As I readied myself for the test, I met a guy who also came from Port Harcourt for the recruitment exercise and we got talking. He told me how he was invited for a Halliburton interview and I was thinking to myself, ‘this guy must be very intelligent’. I was crestfallen when he told me that he did not even apply for the job in the first place, to talk of sitting for the exams. He was merely invited for the interview at the instance of his highly connected brother who was part of the system. He must have seen the shock on my face because I could barely talk, when he started telling me that he wished he had brought someone to sit for the exam on his behalf.

Few months ago, 21 graduates lost their lives in the NIS recruitment exam. Till today, the Minister under whose watch this recruitment heist was pulled off is still at the helms of affair in the Ministry of Interior. Hundreds of thousands of graduates were subjected to an exam when most of the slots have been taken by politicians and top ranking civil servants. We have moved on from that debacle and the millions of naira creamed off from jobless Nigerians are yet to be refunded even after Mr. President’s directive. The government which seems overwhelmed by the present security challenges is barely doing enough to arrest unemployment and the major opposition party seems too busy with insulting the ruling party, that it can hardly find the time to tell Nigerians how they intend to create jobs if elected. Recruitment agencies are cashing in on the misfortune of graduates to rip them off by hoodwinking them with different kinds of graduate programs and fees to help them search for non-existent jobs. Companies on the other hand are making it very difficult for fresh graduates by introducing obnoxious recruitment criteria. If companies are not asking for impossible years of experience (as if you can have an experience without working), they will be calling for age brackets that will disqualify many graduates because of the time wasting NYSC program.

This country is becoming increasingly difficult for young Nigerians who do not have connections or are unwilling to soil their integrity. It is a sad reality that in today’s Nigeria, who you know is better than what you read or graduated with. Hard work and competence count for nothing in a nation where nepotism has been elevated mediocrity above excellence. Graduates are becoming desperate as their patience wanes with each passing day, even as they see the opulence displayed by our greedy politicians. My worry is that one day, this critical mass of our population may revolt and its consequences will be worse than the present crisis in the North East. What worries me even more is that more youths are ready to do whatever it takes to become gainfully employed, including selling their conscience. The future of this country will be in dire straits if her future leaders are brought up to believe that honesty, hard work and competence, do not pay. Something urgent needs to be done about the ugly reality of Nigeria graduates.

I can only hope for the best as I await the result of the Seplat recruitment exam, since I do not have any big man to plead my case.
Offor honest is an active Nigerian Youth. Please follow me on Twitter @honest4change.

This may sound funny but it's the reality on ground in this entity called Nigeria today.

Please fellow Nairalanders, I am a graduate of microbiology from one of the prestigious universities here in Nigeria, I am result oriented and can work under any condition.
I would like to get informations about job alerts, advice and constructive criticisms to my mails.
Iro18emma@yahoo.com or 88Natzy@gmail.com
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Wow! I fell in love with this write up. All the @op said is the truth.

This is the truth. @ op, nice job. Is there any way slots can be cancelled ?

Op has said d reality. Cum to delta state u will see wth ur eye. It's very tough here.

Brova welcome to. Nigeria wer a yahoo boy has a brighter future dan an educated dude its verydis-heartenin

As a young graduate, I can relate with this.
Very true and factual. A lot of jobs, posts, opportunities in Nigeria are gotten as a result of 'man know man'
I was part of the last NDDC post graduate scholarship applicants. My experience made me know that even before putting up the advert 80% of the chances have been 'pre-occupied' the remaining 20% will be randomly picked from the best. This is a decay in the system. But bro/sis that's the way it is. You gotta know someone or perform extremely GREAT to stand a chance.
It all good though. God bless us all.

@Op. Why did u defy the help when ur friend asked u to send the document? God might decide to help u thru that means in the first place. Corruption and tribalism are the banes of umemployement in this country untill we learn the way of righteousness.

I woke up this morning feeling very depressed,I was screaming in my head,'I am tired of staying at home,I am tired of pausing my dreams because I hav e no rich God father that can sponsor me.just yesterday,a girlfriend of mine, told me she is to start training next month with an airline,without even going through the recruitment process,her aunty 'on the top' just sent her a message that she included her name to the successful candidates,and she should start getting ready for the training.I was happy for her,and at the same time wished I had someone too..but this morning,after saying my morning prayers,I realised that we have the greatest 'connector' on earth by our side,we have God and with him everything is possible.so my fellow job seekers,have faith cause God will make all things right in his appointed time.it is well!!

.

It's a really sad situation. You virtually find any firm willing to invest in training fresh graduates and even the few that have entry level opportunities have been contaminated to the bone marrows with nepotism. I weep for the upcoming generation. Companies complain that Nigerian graduates lack skills and are unemployable. What are they doing to change this? This situation is really getting out of hand and could escalate into something ugly in the near future. I think the government should come up with policies that binds medium and large enterprises to employ and train a minimum number of fresh graduates annually to curb this menace.

it is a sad reality. the graduates are more than the jobs. wrote more dan 10 job tests and 3 interview. no job jst time wasted. later got a job wen i least expected. as for the govt jobs i blame the pple who buy the forms because dey also aid corruption. immigration job alone over 6billion was made. this scenario will end up in a violent revolution because lots of graduates are being frustrated. i weep for nigeria but if d op got a job thru connect will u see it as bad or reject it hehehe

Wen did PTDF release results for der succesful candidates for der 2013/2014 scholarship exams? Havnt sent result like dat yet oh.

Na wah oo.

Painful truth..... God help us

God help us !!!! I have been at home since last year june when I finished service. Even Yahoo Yahoo guys has a better standard of living than us...


Give me job and we will share my first six months salary by 50:50..



God help us !!!! I have been at home since last year june when I finished service. Even Yahoo Yahoo guys has a better standard of living than us...


Give me job and we will share my first six months salary by 50:50..

Op u ve got a bit of writing skills sha. Well even our constitution support mediocrity or hw do u explain d constitution placing federal character ahead of merit in federal jobs. Also hw do u explain d puttin of catchment area, quota system in uni admission n job placement.
D system is no more supportive of merit, a lot of other things lik ima mmadu (connection) is a big factor.

Nepotism has crippled our society. Who cares about credibility these days when after all, if you get one of these fresh graduate jobs you would be given a proper training and you are not going to be doing dy/dx. Majority of the people that are employed have an insider working in that company. The most painful part of it are the advertised jobs that you waste your time and resources and unknown to you that most of the vacant positions have been preoccupied. @ op but on a much serious note you would have sent your document to that your guy o. There is no point shying away from reality when we know that this is how things work. Imagine if your brother works in Chevron and he has the connection to help you, would you tell him not to bother? The answer is obvious. Some of the jobs are not even advertised, if you know someone there you will just send your CV and an interview will be arranged for you and before you know it, you have become a staff. My own pain is that they should not compromise advertised jobs that people will sit for aptitude test and interview cos it's really heart breaking. If you want to help your own people, why not arrange for them a separate interview. Many of us have spent more money on aptitude tests and interview than our parents even spent training us to school(just exaggerating though). There are a lot of things to write on this bizarre experience called unemployment but we just hope that our hardwork gets rewarded someday for those of us who do not know anybody and are just hoping for credibility to have a fair play and becomes the order of the day when we sit for aptitude tests and interviews.

let me hear any half baked hr say graduates are unemployable again..


mtcheeew!!

You better connect with that you girl friend proper, may be her sister can help you too. That is N I G E R I A for you and I.

hapiness44: I woke up this morning feeling very depressed,I was screaming in my head,'I am tired of staying at home,I am tired of pausing my dreams because I hav e no rich God father that can sponsor me.just yesterday,a girlfriend of mine, told me she is to start training next month with an airline,without even going through the recruitment process,her aunty 'on the top' just sent her a message that she included her name to the successful candidates,and she should start getting ready for the training.I was happy for her,and at the same time wished I had someone too..but this morning,after saying my morning prayers,I realised that we have the greatest 'connector' on earth by our side,we have God and with him everything is possible.so my fellow job seekers,have faith cause God will make all things right in his appointed time.it is well!!

Ajascolove: You better connect with that you girl friend proper, may be her sister can help you too. That is N I G E R I A for you and I.

pls who can give me job ? we will share my first six month salary 50:50 . You better connect to that gf or else she go soon leave you. I have spent money on aptitude test alot ,dnt even have money to go to out to write aptitude test again.

Very sad situation indeed. Every morning I wake up feeling unhappy, and I haven't even spent up to two month after nysc oo. Unhappiness is not because of no job but because people who aren't qualified got the damn job.

I pray to God I get a job very soon.

Austindark: let me any half baked hr say graduates are unemployable again..


mtcheeew!!

Don't mind them, after employing their incompetent relations, they come to nl and pour their anger and frustrations on nl job seekers..

While waiting for Nigerian youths/graduates to speak up, act or revolt against the Govt, I bet you that that one is not gonna come, we are too comfortable with managing our situation with hope, faith, and believe that God will do something someday "Suffering and smiling" in Fela's voice, as you can see, every night in our churches is for tarry nights, fasting and praying for either our enemies to die or for a miracle job so already, we've conceded that Govt is not responsible for our woes, rather we blame our enemies or sometimes you hear things like "Nigerian graduates are not employable". In fact, there are a lot excuses to justify the rising situation of unemployment in our country just to exonerate those saddle with the responsibility otherwise how can you justify spending 4/5/6yrs as the case maybe in a tertiary institution only to be trained or advice to take up a small skill acquisition program to help yourself instead of waiting for white collar jobs which are no where to be found? The question remains, why then did you go to school to spend your time and resources in the first instance instead of going straight to acquire skills with all the yrs you spent maybe you'd have become an expert in whatever skill by the time you graduated.
We are still Lil-livered Nigerian youths divided along several lines as we've chosen to justify it to be united to address common issues.

Why can't the Govt scrap NYSC or reduce its duration by half so they can give out the money eqv to eligible graduates?

I heard Yar'adua, before his demise, wanted to propose something similar where youth corps members are to be given N200K after six month of National Service.

Phew, I feel for for my fellow youth!

Desric: While waiting for Nigerian youths/graduates to speak up, act or revolt against the Govt, I bet you that that one is not gonna come, we are too comfortable with managing our situation with hope, faith, and believe that God will do something someday "Suffering and smiling" in Fela's voice, as you can see, every night in our churches is for tarry nights, fasting and praying for either our enemies to die or for a miracle job so already, we've conceded that Govt is not responsible for our woes, rather we blame our enemies or sometimes you hear things like "Nigerian graduates are not employable". In fact, there are a lot excuses to justify the rising situation of unemployment in our country just to exonerate those saddle with the responsibility otherwise how can you justify spending 4/5/6yrs as the case maybe in a tertiary institution only to be trained or advice to take up a small skill acquisition program to help yourself instead of waiting for white collar jobs which are no where to be found? The question remains, why then did you go to school to spend your time and resources in the first instance instead of going straight to acquire skills with all the yrs you spent maybe you'd have become an expert in whatever skill by the time you graduated.
We are still Lil-livered Nigerian youths divided along several lines as we've chosen to justify it to be united to address common issues.

You just hit the nail on the head. Why wasting years and burning candles to get 2.1 only to preach skill acquisition for you after school and the promoter of this skill acquisition campaign will connect his or her wards to a job through nepotism. God help us all.

2.1 is now pure water.

I M...... Ima mmadu. killing the system since the days of Herbert Macaulay

The labour market is OVER POPULATED, the number of employees, laid off staff,retrenched staff, new graduates and even sack employees in relations to the job available are Screamingly TOO MUCH....... you know the problem . find a solution to it.

Many graduates are doing jobs that pay below 10k!!!!!!!! a friend called and told me he could not even get a 10k job. it quite sad and a very pathetic situation.

Never lose hope


Be optimistic


Have faith.


You may all not have jobs


But you will smile in due time.