By Jacqui IWU
TUE, FEBRUARY 20 2018-theG&BJournal-‘Unemployment is high in Nigeria.’ That is the common theme among many Nigerians. The blame of course is squarely on the shoulders of the Federal Government. We all have the penchant to wait for the government to do everything for us. It is like an obsession.
Sometime ago I conducted a survey at a suburb outside Abuja city called Mararaba/Nyanya, Nasarawa state and I was confronted by the poor hygiene I noticed among the dwellers of these areas which happens to be labelled as one of the areas occupied by the most poor /average Nigerians/foreigners mostly from other African countries like Niger, Ghana, Cameroun. Most people who live in these areas believe they are part of Abuja residents. Do you actually blame them? Majority of them work and do business in Abuja city daily. In order words, they spend more time in Abuja than where they live.
Driving along the dirty and bad roads of these areas, agreeably, the Federal Government has a lot to do and as a matter of urgency it is imperative the government intervene to rescue the rot. But one thing stood out (in a sad way) about that environment—the people living there have very poor hygiene attitude-extremely poor hygiene! I noticed some well-built houses having litters of nylons, pure water sachets and all manner of rubbish dumped on their entrance.
During the rainy season, moving around here will be a total nightmare. The few gutters I saw were filled with garbage which of course will never allow free flow of flood water during the rains. This is where nobody should blame the government because the government do not pay people to sweep their houses for them also. The question I ask and frequently too is why can’t the residents at least keep their environment clean? I even saw people eating and smiling on top of heaps of garbage and stinking drainages which of course were generated by them.
Am relating this poor habit/attitude to today’s topic because, it is this same attitude that make most Nigerians to fold their hands and wait for the ‘government’ to provide white collar jobs to them when they can look inwards themselves and see what they can do with their skills and talents.
Coming to our topic today, our educational system is all about making Nigerians become graduates. Students are hustling for courses which they do not even enjoy but they have no choice due to the way our system works. After they graduate, the job hunting starts and you see someone who did Agricultural science searching for a bank, T.V/Radio job. What happens to your university certificate?
Most employers also make this placement of job priorities worse by not being organized themselves. Why must an employer give a lady who read accounting a T.V /radio presenter job due to personal or selfish reasons and neglecting the exact persons who applied for the same job position but read Mass communications/Journalism? Now the lady who read accounting will come on air and will be mispronouncing names and falling all over the ethics of the job. Her aim is just to earn a monthly pay and not to SERVE.
Maybe the mistake of this job misplacement started way back from our primary/high school educational system where students do not have mentors/efficient counselors to encourage them on their career path so that by the time they leave school, they will be confident of what job position they can comfortably handle and not messing themselves and the employers up.
One of the most disturbing outcome of this anomaly can be found today in most government agencies where executives cannot write good English not to talk of speak fluently co-habit. Don’t forget that English language is the widely accepted corporate language in Nigerians and, if you are serving the public and cannot communicate well in it, then you have problems at your work places.
There are hordes of front office officials/Receptionists who cannot express themselves and answer questions correctly from the clients and visitors. Most of them cannot even spell names of visitors when filling out the visitors forms. What business has someone who cannot spell correctly and write clearly with good hand writing be doing at a big establishment front office? This is the picture of a SQUARE PEG IN ROUND HOLE. I do not want to delve into the appalling customer service relationship of such workers because this is an entirely different topic of its own.
There are workers who wake up every morning, sad and feeling grumpy because they are going to work to do something they do not enjoy doing. Having a career is when you wake up every morning feeling happy and excited to go to work knowing that you are going to add value both to your life and lives of others through what you do. So those of you who hate their jobs but passionate about building a career and great business empire, have a re-think. Why you do not like what you do presently? There could be lots of reason.
In Nigeria job market, it is all about making big money, making it fast and people care less about values. If an employer employs someone knowing he/she is not trained, capable for the job position, you have yourself to blame when he/she spills the milk everywhere in your company?
When a former Nigerian Finance Minister, sometime ago, said something about our youths not being employable, lots of Nigerians never took time to check what the woman was talking about. They lashed out at her, even blaming her for the unemployment situation in Nigeria. What I understood from what she meant was that, we do not have graduates with skills and talents for specific job positions. All we have are theory graduates who roam the streets hacking/hustling for any possible job they can lay their hands on which also does not help the economy to grow because, these youths when employed will never add any value to our economy.
Not too long ago, the Kaduna Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, fired teachers in his state employ and the dust has not settled as we speak yet. This could be very painful but knowing how this man operates, he does not just go out taking such painful decisions without any good reasons or intentions of achieving something better in the long run. Most of the teachers fired are clear example of square pegs in round holes.
We want graduates that can do what graduates in countries like China, Japan and elsewhere do. Train our students in job areas that will enable them to acquire certain skills/trainings which they enjoy doing so that when they leave school, they will be productive physically, producing things people can buy and export to other countries.
Trading helps people to survive but if Nigeria is really going to grow economically/career wise, our youths must have skills that makes them productive and active in producing things we can consume and also sell to others outside Nigeria. When we do that, then the idea of placing square pegs in round holes at work places will be over.
Jacqui IWU is a Media Communications & PR strategist|A Life &Business Coach with passion for youth and women Economic/Social Empowerment.|Twitter- |@vivantjacqui|@Jacquiworld|#talkbacktobwj
