Jobs in Nigeria; a battle for inadequacy

This topic is so timely for me. An average Nigerian graduate has a lot to talk about regarding job hunting or job satisfaction in this country. I am not an exception.

Nigeria is a country with a large population of employable youths without jobs battling for getting employed into jobs with inadequate remunerations. I would like to tell the story of my life to explain the whole situation and be as detailed as possible.

Image Source

There is a popular saying in Nigeria that if you are a graduate without connection with people in high places, getting a job is very difficult. More difficult if in addition to not having a connection, you don't have a good grade. In Nigeria connection ranks ahead of good grades or what you can offer at the job. When connection fails, then you might be lucky to get a job with your good grades. The absence of the two makes it worse. Miracle may still happen though.

Immediately I rounded up my NYSC programme, a compulsory one year National service for graduates below 30 years of age, I picked my certificates and entered the streets of Abuja, Nigeria's capital city looking for a job.

Hadiru is a guy that I met during the national service programme. We dusted our shoes and started submitting applications from one hotel to the other. In a few cases, we submitted applications in High schools. We were neither trained in anything that do with hotel and hospitality management nor education. Those two sectors are the ones that can easily provide one a job. We were just out to get a job that could put food on our table.

After a long search, we couldn't get any work in such a highbrow area.

After staying at home for three months, I got invited by a school for an interview. I was subsequently offered 26000 Naira ($57 as of then) monthly payment. The school was located in a small town close to Abuja. I accepted the job and did it for two years.

Image Source

If there is any country where many employers of labor take advantage of unemployment to maltreat their employees, it's in Nigeria. My boss then would threaten you of having a pile up of application letters ready to take your position if you get sacked out of "misbehavior". The misbehavior is mostly when you demand for your right as a worker. When you keep silent to maltreatment, you are behaving properly.

I work from 8 am to 3 pm daily except Fridays that I close by 1 pm. In-between, I had about an hour break daily to take lunch. I could not afford to rent a room of mine. I stayed with my brother.

After two years, I got another teaching job in Abuja city with a pay of 80000 Naira ($177 as of then) monthly. It was like winning a jackpot for me in the beginning. Even to other guys still roaming from one organization to another searching for jobs, they saw me as someone that had a breakthrough.

It was during this period that I came across someone that promised me a job of 120000 Naira ($266 as of then) monthly. I was to pay 400000 Naira ($888 as of then) to buy the job. This is another selling venture in Nigeria. You pay a huge amount of money to buy a job slot. This happens a lot in government agencies and even private firms like the one I paid for.

I borrowed the money to pay for the job. I was paying back in installments monthly till I finished paying the debt after many months.

The transaction ended up being a scam. I was defrauded of $888.

I spent about 14 months before I got an invitation for an interview in a government institution through someone. You remember the connection I mentioned earlier? Nothing like public advertisement for the job. I went for the interview with about 15 others. It was a written interview to access our cognitive domains. At the end of the process, four of us were hired. The salary is 130000 ($162 presently) monthly. This translates to about 1.5 million ($1950) annual salary. This is my job presently.

As poor as this salary is, it is taken as a middle class income earning in Nigeria. You can imagine what the lower class is. When you take all these into consideration, you realize that survival is hard for an average Nigerian worker.

Majority of the workers have no option than dividing their attention to augment their income in other ways. The government of Nigeria allows civil servants to engage in Agriculture and that's what many are taking advantage of to help the situation.

My target presently is to grow what I eat. If I don't do that, my income can't sustain my family of three. I cultivated some lands and the progress report has been superb.

The picture is that of my farm.

By the time I have major foodstuffs that can last me a year in my kitchen, buying just perishables frequently becomes easier and affordable.

Another thing that is more convenient with the fluctuating economy is owning a business. When the currency loses value and prices of goods skyrocket, the prices of commodities in most cases follow suit. This is better than a salary that remains stagnant for a longtime. Setting up such a business is the next target for my family before any further addition to the family size.

What is obtainable in Nigeria now is nothing close to a fair wage. The cost of living of someone in a month should be considered when coming up with wages. Currently, the minimum wage in Nigeria is 30000 Naira ($39) monthly. This amount can not feed a stomach in a month. We haven't talked of Medical bills, housing, clothing, transportation and any other demands. Yet someone is being paid that amount. A fair wage should be able to provide the basic needs of man conveniently.

The poor wage is making workers demoralized on the job. This is in agreement with @tergan reported the analogy that in Nigeria, no decent paying job while in Canada no decent working candidate.

This is responsible for youths leaving Nigeria in droves for greener pastures in other countries.

Before concluding this piece, let me mention some things that I look out for when applying for a job. The summary of it is fulfillment. How fulfilling is the job? The working hours, the salary, the recurrent expenses like transportation and so on, when deducted, how satisfactory is the take-home pay? These are the questions that I ask myself before choosing a job.

However, this is an ideal situation. In reality, youths are jumping over one another to grab any available job without considering the satisfaction or derived fulfillment in most cases.

In a country where 5000 people are submitting applications for 50 available job slots, checking for these criteria becomes secondary.

All I do to cope is planning my resources effectively. Whatever my income is, I cut my clothes according the available material. Frugality plays an important role to keep going.