A young writer may very well keep quiet on many
things, but never a subject of immense importance such as the Nigerian
graduates and the future that awaits them. A writer that closes his heart to
this may as well not be considered a writer, after all, if anything is worth a
writer sympathy it will be the hope and redemption of his country which, in the
case of the Giants of Africa, is being shouldered on his fresh educated young
minds: the Nigerian graduates.
Every Nigerian youth without any ado will among
favourite primary school memories have as favourite songs these favourite lines
proclaiming confidence and efficacy:
"Parents, listen to your
children.
They are the leaders of tomorrow.
Try to pay our school fees.
And give us sound education."
Of course scholars from the 70’s will still have
the courage and boldness to echo these lines aloud to themselves having the
credence of returning rewards for long years of continuous efforts in a
comfortable and endurable atmosphere of consistent perseverance. Their parents
one may be very sure will have as well the privilege of excusing their forks
and fingers from the meal of unfruitful investments which, speaking of, has
turned out to be the order of the day when it comes to the Nigerian graduates
of our days beating their chests about tomorrow and saying: “Education, my
friend, is still the best legacy.”
Perhaps by emphasizing this, our “Lead-ass” of
today may have a tint of compassion for the future of Nigeria, which in another
words is the future of each Nigerian graduates that passes through the Nigeria
education system.
A FUTURE OF COMPLETE FRUSTRATION
The
Nigeria unemployment rate if facts are right increased from a bearable 10.4% to
an unbearable 14.2% in the last quarter of 2016, leaving the country with the
record of highest history of joblessness since 2009. For a Nigerian youth that
never sets his foot in a tertiary institution this development may mean
nothing, but for a Nigerian youth that actually went through the Nigeria
education system, this will mean everything. The Nigeria education system is
structured in such a way that makes life ironically easier. Rows of lectures in
limited congested lecture theatres, academic environment starved of basic
social amenities, limited access to the internet, and rows of sadistic elements
of frustration christened as lectures. A typical Nigerian graduate has had the
honour of going to bed on empty stomachs, sleepless nights for trashy grades,
unwarranted mental harassment on the part of lecturers, and abuse of power on
the part of authorities. Enduring all these to be welcomed into a new special
kind of job hunting is a thing too much for a compensation. After all the four,
five, six years of hard work with nothing in hand but a certificate equating
another piece of creative graphic design is enough of a frustration. With the
increased unemployment rate for age range of 15-24 years (the age bracket of
most fresh Nigerian graduates) by 25.2%, complete
frustration is the only thing the future holds for a larger percentage of the
Nigerian graduates.
A TEMPTING FUTURE:
Needs
sometimes overrides the norm, and necessities compel us to do the unthinkable.
While a typical Nigerian is cut out from the heart of steel, still, there is a
limit to what the mind can take. A jobless Nigerian graduate as expected is
daily subjected to a list of insurmountable internal and external pressure,
reproach, taunts, and temptations. So unfortunately so the quicker-less-stressful-one-thousand-and-one
available ways of buying one way out of the frustration that comes with an
endless hunt and search for a job that is not available. If facts are anything
to go buy, Nigeria currently ranks 3rd in cyber crimes in the world.
In addition to this distinguished achievement, she also bags a first class
honours in drug trafficking to the most dreadful countries in the world. Fraud
and theft is MTN. And the day may as well be as dangerous as the night due to
the numbers of sophisticated weapons of destruction operated during the day by
arm robbers. A jobless Nigerian graduate in the midst of all these may in time
have none but only one available option, considering how successful and untouched
these people are.
A FUTURE OF NEW LEGACIES:
Education is the best legacy, this may very well
lose its relevance with time. What is best is certainly advantageous, and what
is advantageous is beneficial. With the sticky trend of no Ph.D. no job,
education may as well lose its advantage in the minds of the jobless Nigerian
graduates who soon, will in time have sons and daughters to entrust a legacy
to. It won’t seem unlikely that a onetime jobless Nigerian graduate who by
hustle and struggle acquire relevant independent skills won’t entrust a legacy
of skills acquisition to his children. As well, a Nigerian graduate who
transcends the realm of existence into the realm of living through musical
talents will instead of another rows of wasted years in universities rather
invest his time and wealth into the realization and actualization of whatever
talents his children may have. A drug trafficker though unlikely may entrust
the same legacy to his children, but the possibility still cannot be erased.
The implication is we may have a generation of youths singing:
"Children, listen to your
parents.
They are the victims of the past.
Don’t stake too high on schooling.
For education is nothing but a
scam."
The future that awaits the Nigerian graduates
doesn’t seem to look promising. Some will prefer the word gloomy. While
there may be at present no light at the end of the tunnel, there exist still a
hope of getting things right. Not just for the jobless Nigerian graduates, but
for the future of the Nigeria country. Because, whether it is agreed or not,
the cancer today was once a good cell. If the cell was well taken care of there
might be nothing as a cancer. If our lead-ass stop being a lead-ass and start
being leaders, the aforesaid may as well be a tomorrow that will never come.
Originally
Written by Olusanya Olaleye
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