The state of joblessness in Nigeria today will make a graduate seek any kind of employment as long as he/she can be sustained by same.
When Olamide Lawal graduated from the university with a second class upper degree in Accounting two years ago, his parents threw a big party for him and prayed that he would soon get a “lucrative bank job” or one in an oil company that will set his financial future on the right path.
But three years later, Mr Lawal did not get any kind of job. The bank jobs were too competitive and he never got past an aptitude test. The oil companies seemed to elude him and didn’t respond to any of his applications. After chasing his dreams for three years, he settled for a job in the Nigerian Immigrations Service and now wears a uniform to work everyday.
“I just had to stop chasing that bank dream job,” Mr Lawal said. “I applied to countless banks, wrote several tests but it got me nowhere. It wasn’t until two of my friends who were unemployed like me at that time got jobs in the Nigerian Air Force that I began to take these ‘uniform jobs’ seriously. I didn’t want to apply before, but l was forced to and thank God, I now have a job.”
It’s a jungle out there
Mr Lawal’s story is similar to that of many Nigerian graduates who have been pushed to the wall by the unemployment situation in the country. Year after year, tertiary institutions churn out hundreds of thousands of graduates who jostle for the few available jobs, while the rest roam the streets looking for non-existent jobs.
This high rate of unemployment has made such ‘uniform jobs’ offered by government agencies more attractive to graduates. In the past, such jobs were often left for those who either had the passion and strength to serve their country or those who grew up in such an environment and had older relatives encourage them to follow in their career paths. The story is much different now as a recruitment call by the Nigerian Immigration Service or the Nigerian Navy is treated with as much gusto as one made by a bank or an oil firm.
Kennedy Uchechukwu, a graduate of Biochemistry from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, has also stopped chasing jobs in oil companies and other corporate institutions and is now optimistic he would get a job in the Nigerian Navy soon.
“I graduated from the university in 2010 with good results,” he said. “Since I completed my NYSC, the kind of jobs I’ve been getting are not befitting for a graduate. I’ve even worked as a marketer where I earned just N25,000. It’s only when I started applying for jobs in government agencies that I started having hope. I am sure I’d get a job in the Nigerian Navy because I’ve passed most of the recruitment stages now.”
In Nigeria, agencies which offer jobs categorised as ‘uniform jobs’ include the Nigerian Police, Nigerian Customs Service, Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigerian Society and Civil Defence Corps, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Airforce and Nigerian Navy. These agencies employ people with qualifications even as low as O’Level but with different ranks and positions from entry level graduates.
Graduates with a first degree or Higher National Diploma, after successfully completing the duration of training, are usually placed on the rank of a Junior Officer or otherwise depending on the agency. In the Nigerian Army, a graduate who successfully passed through the Short Service Commission will be placed in the rank of a Second Lieutenant while a graduate that completes the training of the Nigerian Police will be placed in the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP).
The recruitment process and training is often rigorous and passes through different stages. In the Nigerian Airforce Direct Short Service, interested candidates, after successfully completing the online registration, will be invited for zonal enlistment where credentials will be checked and medicals. After this, about thirty candidates will be shortlisted from each state for another round of screening at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Kaduna. Here the candidates will undergo a six-month training after which the successful ones will be commissioned as Flying Officers.
Aside from the attraction of a regular and competitive monthly salary, most of these agencies provide other benefits for their staff such as free accommodation, free health care, discounted school fees for their children and other allowances.
Gabriel Ituah, a recruitment consultant, attested to this shift in graduates’ interest blaming the reason on the high unemployment rates in the country. “Graduates are beginning to look for jobs in unusual places,” he said. “Gone are the days when graduates only concerned themselves with bank jobs and other white collar jobs. Now, even when we make an advertisement on behalf of a night club for job openings, the applications just pour in. It is so bad that even if the minimum requirement is clearly stated as SSCE or OND, graduates still apply.”
Credits: Telegraph
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