He ran up to me at the exit of one of the high-end hotels in Lagos. I was half asleep from an excellent massage given to me by an East Asian girl in the hotel. My bag hung limply as I made my way to my car so I can quickly get to my bed and snooze off the massage. I could hardly walk and I was sure if I spoke, my speech would be slurred.
It was 9 p.m. and the hotel lights had been dimmed so between my half-asleep no-make up face, my lazy walk, my limp bag and the dimmed lights, I did not expect anyone to recognise me but he did. After over 17 years of reading the NTA Network News, surprises still happen in unexpected places.
“Are you Eugenia Abu?” he asked matter-of-factly, a warm smile playing up on his face. I half turned and returned the smile.
“Yes,” I said, offering a bigger smile. He jumped up and down in spite of himself and told his colleague in a loud whisper, “I guessed she was the one.”
Pleasantries exchanged. He then told me how he had watched me read the national news since he was very young. I told him that was a blessing and an opportunity and I am thankful to God and my fans like him. I also told him that his comment made me feel rather old. He chuckled uncomfortably.
Tony (false name) is a security man at this high-end hotel and when asked how he got so interested in TV, media and radio, he said quietly, “Because of people like you ma, I read Mass
Communication at degree level but see where I am.”
I was crestfallen. “The Lord will do it,” I said. Hard, but the only words I could find.
“Thank you ma,” he said. I left him my website address so I can encourage him from time to time.
Youth unemployment is a big problem and it is difficult to find a house that there is no such issue, mine inclusive. My ward, a bright 27-year-old whom we all call genius around the house has a first degree 2nd class upper in Chemical Engineering from a Nigerian university and a Masters degree with distinction in Petroleum Refining Systems Engineering from an Ivy League university in the UK. As I write, he sits at home with no job after graduating for a year and a half. He is irritable, frustrated and angry with his nation. He lives with me. Trust me, he has applied to more than twenty places and we wait still. He has started some form of business around my home but you can see that he is not very happy and has more to offer his nation. Surely a distinction candidate has more than enough to offer. If we look critically we might find people with lower degrees in plum jobs, while distinction persons sit around with no jobs. No nation can move forward with this way of doing things. Our best and brightest should be encouraged.
It is difficult to explain to a young person that after he has put in his best, got a distinction and been of good behaviour that he has no one to offer him a job. I am equally frustrated. So when I meet people like Tony, I understand and feel his pain. Many TV and radio stations have people without skills working for them and Tony speaks well and is confident but he got no offers. I have lived the journey of many relations with no jobs and I am still living it.
As a nation, as a people, we need to work round the clock to find the solution to the teeming youth unemployment plaguing the nation. Perhaps we can borrow the internship, mentoring system of the UK where a large number of youths spend a year with companies and organisations created by government to take on young people who learn and work with them while receiving a stipend shared by government/company. This must be well organised to involve small scale businesses including salons, spas, event management companies, etc, government establishments and private sector organisations. This may have been practiced in the past but it needs to be well structured to deliver results.
Young people are bright and restless. Leaving them idle for too long leads to negative social consequences and criminality begins to become attractive if they must earn a living and survive. A strategic, well-planned process has to be put in place to save our youth.
Enough said!
Eugenia Abu
