NIGERIA AND OUR PRESENT STATE: WHAT DO YOU PRAY FOR?

Times without number, a lot of people have embarked on turning great business ideas into reality with a mindset of succeeding at all costs, believing that with a  large circle of friends and family members, the business will definitely succeed.

Alas they are disappointed 70% of the time because the same circle of family and friends would rarely patronize them and even when some of them do at all, a large number of that group will either want it for free or for a token and also  many a times give the attitude that they are just doing you a big favour for even attempting to buy into your idea.

Alright, let’s assume the business eventually sees the light of day, you would be shocked to realize in the long run that your loyal customers are people you never knew or thought would even give your business a thought or two at the time you conceived the idea.

Apart from the human factor, the many other necessities such as unavailability of constant electricity  supply, lack of good road, insecurity and most importantly the many stringent and unfriendly business Government policies on the other all add up to frustrate businesses in this county.

What is responsible for the above scenario?

 Life is complicated! Really complicated therefore, it is impossible to get all the answers to the countless “whats, hows and whys”.

Sadly, it is the same “we” who make the life as complicated as it is. We need no ‘rocket science’ to hit that hard-truth nail in.

Just yesterday, I watched on one of the local stations as a 37 year old man from the eastern part of Nigeria who now lives in Doha was being interviewed about his life in Doha and why he left Nigeria in the first place. I was totally disappointed and deeply hurt to hear the first statement from him was “Nigeria is a killer of destiny”. Those words cut really deep.

I wasn’t disappointed at the man who is now doing so well in Doha that he said those words without any apologies, I was disappointed because our government pushed the young man, a Nigerian University Engineering graduate to that point and I was hurt because the man reminds me of the reality once again that I’m also a Nigerian thus makes me scared that I may one day, if care is not taken, be pushed to that same level of saying “Nigeria is a killer of destiny”. Gosh! May God not let it get to that level for the rest of us even as we pray for a better Nigeria.

We pray for a better Nigeria where the gap between the rich and the poor will get so short by just an arm’s length.

We pray for a better Nigeria where our leaders will think about led positively before policies are made and actualized.

We pray for a better Nigeria where entrepreneurs will be encouraged and not be frustrated out of the country  seeking  greener pastures only to die in the desert, at sea, sold as slaves or killed in places such as Libya amongst others.

We pray for a better Nigeria where every family would not need to toil so hard to put food on their tables, clothes on their backs or shelter over their heads.

We pray for a better Nigeria where the era of “brain drain” will be over thus our great and excellent professional doctors, teachers, scientists, lawyers, sportsmen/women, engineers and more will be well taken care of so that they would not need to leave home to go work in other countries thus leaving Nigeria as wrecked as it is right now.

We pray for a better Nigeria where immorality will gradually become unfashionable, eventually fading out completely as every Nigerian becomes comfortable hence they would be no need for so much atrocities.

I could go on and on as the list is endless!

What do you pray for? Yes, I mean you, dear reader!

STELLA ENE-INYANG

Pray! Pray!! Pray!!!

Nigeria must get better!

THE LEFT-OVER GRADUATES OF NIGERIA

Nigeria is and has been a hard place to live in, and there is no doubt about this. For artisans who are self-employed or people running their businesses and are doing well, kudos to you! You guys are the real magicians. For the rest of us who are employed, we should count ourselves lucky. Many gainfully employed Nigerians have no idea how bad it is out there. Hmmm, it is baaaaad! I am a Human Resource Generalist; Recruitment and Selection is my area of specialisation. So, I know what I am taking about.

Over the years, I have seen different and diverse applicants. One common trend among applicants is “reduction/falsification of age”. Applicants can reduce anything from 1 year to 15 years off their real age! Shocking, but it is true. It is so rampart that I would say around 60% to 68% do this act. Even the Generation Millennial; you will see someone with true Date of Birth (DOB) of 1992 giving a false DOB of 1994 or 1995. At first, I got irked over this and tended to view such applicants with skepticism. In Human Resource, falsification of any record is a sound no-no and the act already puts a dent on the applicant's integrity.

While not condoning this practice, over time, I have come to realise that they are only doing this because our society has conditioned them to adopt such strategy for survival. They are nothing but the “leftovers” of their generations, and I do not mean the leftover as a derogatory label but as an understanding for their plight. From secondary schools, Nigerian youths have been struggling to survive in a society that deliberately makes things hard for them. They struggle to pass JAMB; struggle to gain admission to limited spaces in our higher institutions; struggle to graduate from their schools (specifically government-owned as many average families cannot afford privately owned institutions) with school-calendar years filled with incessant strikes and upheavals; struggle to go for National Youth Service Year, etc. For years, all they know how to do is to struggle for things the government cannot easily provide, thereby losing years in the process. And when they are through with their education and NYSC, and go into the labour market, they come across age barrier set up to block their attempts at finding jobs. All hail the Human Resource Practitioners (HR) as they would smugly declare, “Vacancies for graduates, must not be above than 23 year old with at least 3 years working experience". Kindly tell me, where is the experience going to come from? From the time they spend in their mother's wombs or from their years of struggling to get half-baked education, or is it the one year they spend in serving their Father's land that will multiply into three years? I don't know if I can trust figures quoted online without well-known references but months back, I read an article about Nigeria having over five million graduates that are not employed. Note this, these five million Nigerians are not underemployed or self-employed in their businesses; they are simply not employed at all. And these are all HND and BSc degree holders, with a larger number of them having higher degrees such as MSc and PhD. Imagine the figure if we add lower qualifications (NCE, ND, other Diplomas and WAEC)?  It is simply mind boggling and enough to fry one's brain if one thinks too much about it. It is really crazy!

Now get this: we have millions that are unemployed but yearly, our universities and polytechnics (both government-owned and private ones) churn out around two hundred thousand graduates to add to the unemployed figure. What is the yearly forecast on job openings in Nigeria? I can’t find a valid reference but it is way lesser than two million, more like between five hundred thousand and a million (for all jobs oh!). So each year, we have more people joining the labour market that is already saturated and bulging with unemployed applicants, holding on to hope that they will eventually get jobs. Unlike the older graduates, the younger graduates have age as an advantage, as well as being recent graduates who still retain much of what they were taught in schools. It is no brainer that Recruiters will go for them. Meanwhile, the older graduates are getting older and have less chances of being picked because of their age. The private universities are not helping matters for these older graduated, as they are busy churning out 18 and 19 year old graduates with so-called First Class and Second Class Upper degrees (labeling it so-called doesn’t mean it is derogatory. It is just that I have met some disappointing First Class graduates that would not even have earned Second Class Upper in some prestigious government-owned schools). By 22 of age, some of these graduates already have their Master’s degree and are aiming higher. The children of the Rich and Powerful Nigerians are even more threatening; they school abroad and come back with Masters in their early twenties, some even having PhDs at 25 years of age. Tell me, how is the graduate “pikin” of a common Nigerian (a child who attended a government owned institution, spent 5 years for a 4 year program in a school lacking basic learning tools, graduated with a Second Class Lower) expected to compete with the savvy graduate child of the Rich, who at 23 of age, is already academically far advanced for an entry-level position?

 TO BE CONTINUED                                                                                            

Written By Edith Mokwe, an ACIPM licensed HR Practitioner residing in Lagos. She has B.A from the University of Benin (UNIBEN), and an M.A from the University of Lagos (UNILAG). She loves research, creative writing and board games. An introverted-extrovert and by every way a multi-dimensional being who is not only a lover of African Arts but one who stands up to bullies and finally an addict to sugary foods.

THE POWER OF A BRAND: WHAT BRAND ARE YOU?

Hello everyone! It’s a beautiful Monday and everyone is back to work after the good number of days off work for those in Nigeria, given the bank holidays last week not to mention the weekend that followed immediately after.

It means everyone has had a good rest no doubts, right?

Good because it definitely would bring positive vibes and results on whatever you do. Make that business and brand more profiting this week.

Aha! Speaking of brands. An encounter ‘yours sincerely’ had in the course of the weekend reminded me again on the huge effect a powerful brand can have on people especially the youths which is nearly always the biggest target market of many producers especially when it has to do with electronics, information technology, fashion and the likes. Make a good impression of your brand on our youths today and I kid you not, your business will go places without you having to ‘sweat it out’ too much like your counterparts would do.

Many of you would agree to a large extent that the youths of today, fortified with technology make the world go round. With them on your team, you will always have a boost of energy whenever the need arises as long as you give them the wherewithal to be all they can be. In line with what the team represents though!

Why did I decide on this topic?

In order not to renegade on a promise made to one of my wards which was to buy her a new phone; over the weekend I decided to fulfill that promise therefore, on my way home from work on Friday, I stopped at an outlet for phones and after going through several arrays of phones given the number of brands stands in the outlet, I was eventually convinced by the attendant at one of the stands to buy a particular brand which she said was new in the market.

Now, the phone in every way looked very good to me safe for the name. Nevertheless, even though the brand of phone didn’t ring a bell, as an outcome of good marketing by the attendant, I decided on this ‘no bell ringing’ brand as the phone and all of the accessories looked really nice to the eye so I paid and left the shop happily with a feeling of  ‘at least I have fulfilled my promise’. Yeah right, you wish!

Alright fast forward!

My predicament started when I got home and I went, “guess what, your new phone is in my laptop bag” and I continued towards the bathroom.

While in the bathroom, I was expecting someone to knock or hear some excitement coming from the sitting room having seen the phone, but alas, I got no “yippee” or even a weak “yeah”. Hence I decided to keep calm, finished all I was doing and then when I got to the dinning, she was fiddling with the phone and a look on her face told me all I needed to know. She didn’t fancy the phone one bit.

Alright, sitting next to her at the dinning, “you don’t like it right”?

She nodded unconvincingly in the affirmative but I knew she was trying not to upset me so I said, “alright just pack it up, I will get someone to buy it and get you another one”.  And to my amazement, without even giving it a second thought, she did my bidding in flash.

Later on, before bedtime, she came to me and said “please I don’t want you to be angry, the phone is very fine, but I don’t like the NAME. You can even buy me a cheaper phone than this one as long as it’s as big as this one but it has to be a Samsung”.

At that point, I was immediately reminded that you can never underestimate the power of a good BRAND.

I’m not holding forte for Samsung, rather the butterflies in my stomach right now is an upshot reminder that the little advert done here by this mere mention was not paid for *winks* but then in order to get my message across, I have to say it as it is. Who knows, I just may get a paid advert from Samsung soon. *smiles*

Now back to the main issue.

My ward insisted on having this brand because that is what most of her friends have and according to her, the picture quality is “baaaaad” hence she would have none other but the almighty Samsung.

And so the next day, we went hunting for her choice of Samsung phone and luckily I got someone to buy that my ‘no bell ringing’ brand even though I lost a few bucks.

Interestingly, after a long hunt, she eventually got another brand which of course rings many great bells as she got very confused when she was faced with too many options. The bottom line is she got exactly what she desired even though I had to end up spending more.

But then, I am still fulfilled that she made her choice and she was happy for it as the “Yippeees” and “thank you” that followed would ever remain priceless. As at this morning, I was still getting the happy “thank you”.

Well everyone is happy and my predicament ended.

Never underestimate the power of a good brand!