I have watched with utter dismay the pathetic plight of Nigerian graduates. The high rate of unemployment, the harsh job eligibility- several years work experience, candidates not older than 24 years, second class upper or first class, NYSC cert- cheap graduate labour, man-know-man e.t.c are some of the challenges bedvilling Nigerian grauates.
Jobs are now so scarce and labour so cheap that an aboki wud open a kiosk and put an ad " marketer wanted" and go ahead to say 3 years experience, age 26 years for a job of N15k! Worse still, u'll see tens of thousands of grads scrambling to apply.
I've observed that Nigerian graduates don't have a union/association thru which they can channel their grieviances. Every group- pure water sellers, groundnut sellers, agberos, albinos, dwarfs- all have unions. I'm quite shocked that an elite, enlightened body as graduates don't have a union/association. If while in school we had SUG to protect us from 'draconian' laws of school authorities, i strongly believe its now more than ever that we need a union.
I read here on naija hot jobs calls for graduates to go 2 protest in Abuja. Wat they fail to understand is that govt wud deal mainly with registered groups. As notorious as MEND was, govt could engage them in dialogue and eventually accede to their demands bcos they've an organised system/network. Same cannot b said of Boko Haram or even Nigerian graduates! Hence govt aint dialoguing much with us. See folks, in naija its the baby that cries the loudest that gets the most attention. Thats y govt listens to MEND and not graduates. Govt cud pay militants and send them abroad 4 training bcos they r organised. They have a union. Their agitations r well defined and articulated.
So my fellow grads, lets get organised. Lets form a union consisting of all unemployed grads and corpers and lets identify, articulate our issues. Thats when it wud b easier 4 govt 2 listen 2 us.
guy,dont you know of NANS,they are supposed to be fighting for all u outlined,but they have been greatly compromised and are after their own stomaches.
Even if we get an association now without the entire political system reformed,it will still go the way of NANS
I think the need for a union is welcome as can be seen for current realities in this country, for instance the issue of being treated anyhow by employers of labour, inviting over 10,000pple for a job where they need only 2 or 3 persons thereby making many fly the roads risking lives and spending money when the hope is little.
I am positive that a registered body or union would address all these amongst many, another example is the reality in govt appointments, the old r jst being recycled to take away our country resources, the govt cares less about the unemployed and r satisfied with their plump positions, we need to take them by suprise, a union can decide many things and negotiate with relevant authorities.
these are my tots
The last time i checked NANS was National Association of Nigerian STUDENTS. It doesn't cater for graduates and the issues raised. Come up with something betterOriginally Posted by johndoe
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