Deprivation In The Midst Of Plenty

By Akunna Ejim

How shall we label this madness? Young people set forth from their residences with desperate hope -the hope of snagging a secure job to keep body and soul together. Instead, they suffered a separation of the soul from the body. At least 15 people lost their lives as result of the ineptitude of the organizers of the recruitment exercise by the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS. That is the official account. The Nigeria Labour Congress puts the number of the dead at 20. Even the loss of one life is one too many.

The Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service has a lot to answer for the incompetence that led to the loss of lives. Our Minister of Interior went as far as trying to put the blame on the applicants, calling them “impatient.” Well, sir, of course they were impatient; some of them even had to borrow the money for transportation to the various recruitment venues. Some of those who showed up for the exercise had never been employed since they graduated from the tertiary institutions. Others might have had jobs they were dissatisfied with, and saw the immigration jobs as an improvement in their lot.

The burning question at this point would be why the organisers of this debacle felt it was expedient to shortlist the officially admitted 522,650 applicants for the advertised 4,556 open job slots. Why did they feel it was necessary to charge the already disenfranchised applicants N1,000 just to apply for a government job? The claim that the money was used for “processing” the applications is a self-evident untruth since not much “processing” went on from the way the recruitment was handled. The sheer number of people that were allowed to apply for the handful of positions makes this look more like a scheme to make money from the hopeful applicants. Let us do the math: 522,650 (that they admit to) X N1000 = N 522,650,000. What the people involved in this drive are trying to tell Nigerians is that with the money they realized from the application fees, they couldn’t come up with a better plan?

So what happens to the applicants who did not even get to take the test because of the mammoth crowd? Will their money be returned to them or is this “fee” non-refundable? Since the organizers knew that so many job seekers had applied for the position, why did they not better anticipate the large crowd that would show up and take proactive measures to forestall the ugliness that happened during the exercise?

In order to control the recruitment process, they could have sensibly called the applicants to come for further testing in controllable batches. The stadium in Abuja is a 60-000 capacity venue, yet more than 100,000 people showed up, according to reports. Only one of the entrances was open, ensuring that the people who were inside as the stampede broke out were trapped, and the uncontrolled rush to make it out of the one entrance/exit further compounded the matter.

Unemployment is rife in Nigeria, as most of the young people languish away after graduation, or get menial jobs that have no bearing on their majors in school, and also pay less than peanuts. While the problem of unemployment is quite high in Nigeria, it is by no means peculiar to the country since it is also present in industrialised countries, to a lesser degree. At least, they have social welfare to cater to the needs of the unemployed and poor in the society. The creation of jobs and the empowerment of the youth to develop themselves are important to help alleviate the joblessness of graduates.

One way to overcome the overwhelmingly high rate of unemployment in the country is for the young people and other job seekers to rethink their focus. Rather than having the mindset of becoming an employee after graduation, why not consider the benefits of entrepreneurship? Some businesses might require a period of hands-on learning to get acquainted with the inner workings of the venture, but eventually, anyone interested enough will understand more than the fundamentals of the business. Since the number of jobseekers clearly outweighs the number of available jobs by far, the best way to cut down on unemployment is for people to think about how they can set up a business of their own.

It is unacceptable for someone to be unemployed for years on end. That is wasted time that could have been utilized much differently. While it is true that the lack of infrastructure makes it doubly harder to start anything, that shouldn’t be a barrier for the truly determined. This is the season for online startups, genuine online business models based on creative and solid ideas. Right now there is an emerging phenomenon with the potential to be a game changer in the form of 3D-printing. This is a truly fascinating technology with the potential to completely revolutionize manufacturing as we know it today. Think. Use your imagination and grow. There is nothing wrong with working in a chosen sector when the jobs are available, but where there are no jobs, think constructively.

Right now, the agriculture sector is moribund in the country, think of a product or service that people need from that sector and supply it to them. Some people have made quite a lot of money from starting something as simple as a snail farm. People always search for some vegetables and fruit that are hard to find in the country. How about partnering with others to set up a specialty farm that caters to those who need these fresh fruit and vegetables? People always want to know where to find these hard-to-get items, and such a farm could quickly grow to be a major supplier.

In industrialized countries, like the US, organic farming is big business because consumers are clamoring for non-pesticide, non-GMO (genetically modified) food. Organic food is easily up to three times more expensive than their counterparts. Draw up a solid business plan and work toward your goal. Start small; most of the online based businesses do not require that much capital. You can also start with a modest outlay for the physical ones and expand as the business grows.

The idea is to look for a need in the market and to fill that need, rather than looking for jobs that do not exist. You have so much to offer to waste your life in the type of purposeless tragedy that occurred during the NIS recruitment drive. The government must, as a matter of urgency, tackle the problem of lack of infrastructure. Constant power supply, good transportation network, good roads and other services are the framework for a thriving economy and will encourage more people to set up their own businesses.

—Akunna  Ejim, akunnaya 25 @yahoo.com

…Published in TheNEWS magazine