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.
God help Nigerians!
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