Unemployed graduates and their romance with newspaper vendors in Lagos

Using his drenched handkerchief to wipe the sweat already-built up on his forehead, Kazeem Jayeoba managed to return a newspaper to Baba Oloye, the newspaper vendor from whom he had collected the copy to peruse in search of job vacancies he could apply for. Apparently, he was disappointed that none of the published vacancies however […]

Using his drenched handkerchief to wipe the sweat already-built up on his forehead, Kazeem Jayeoba managed to return a newspaper to Baba Oloye, the newspaper vendor from whom he had collected the copy to peruse in search of job vacancies he could apply for.
Apparently, he was disappointed that none of the published vacancies however met his desires. He returned the paper, brought out N20 and handed it over to the vendor as he walked away from the scene.
A 27-year-old accounting graduate of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic Abeokuta, Jayeoba said like many others, he visits the newsstand only on Tuesdays and Thursdays when they are most certain that a particular national newspaper will publish job vacancies they can apply for. But as it appears in recent time, Jayeoba said some of the published vacancies hardly meet his expectations.
 “Unlike before, most advertised job vacancies are proving too difficult to apply for. It is either you find the entire newspaper filled with employment agencies who will place vacancies for many positions at the same time and then ask you to send your applications to non-exiting P.O Box addresses or those who will ask you to call or send SMS to a particular number. When you do, you will only discover that these set of people are only trying to make ends meet on their own too. They see us as cash cows ready to be milked at any given opportunity,” Jayeoba said.

The young man who said he graduated about four years ago also lamented that the few available vacancies that even proved to be genuine do not even seem friendly to fresh graduates because of the usual-herculean demand of three to five years job experiences. He said he continuously wonder where youths who have never been given any opportunity to work at any establishment will acquire the needed experience.
Jayeoba said: “Only few organisations are willing to recruit graduate trainees. Most times, the job vacancies demand a certain years of experience but where do we get experience when no one is willing to employ us? Aren’t experience meant to be acquired on the job? Who will bail us out? It is really frustrating my brother.”
Jayeoba’s frustration is understandable. He like many unemployed youths in Lagos has turned the news stands to a bastion of hope for their joblessness. One of such newspapers stands is the one being anchored by Baba Oloye at the heart of Agege area of Lagos State. Located right within the bustling axis of Agege Pen Cinema, Baba Oloye newspapers’ stand pulls a tremendous number of buyers, free readers and commentators on daily basis.
 Remarkably, the youths especially those within the age bracket 16 and 35, some of whom are unemployed, constitute the larger percentage of the free readers group at the news stand.
These youths are in two categories. The first are the ones who come around as early as 6:45 a.m. to read the sport newspapers and engage in relentless debates which often centres on European football clubs and their players.
The second category is a bit civilized. They are mostly unemployed graduates who only come on selected days to read the news publications for available job vacancies. This is where Jayeoba and a host of others belong. Because most of them appear not to be financially buoyant enough to buy copies, the news vendor, do take aside one copy of the papers and hand it over to whosoever wants to go through it for a fee of N20.
 “When you are through, you will pay N20 as appreciation fee. That is better than for us than to buy a whole copy of the newspaper for N150 or N200. There are times you won’t even find anything meaningful in the published vacancies; will it make any sense to waste your money just like that?” Jide Fakayode, another job searcher at the newsstand, asked.
 Joe Nwachuckwu, another newspaper vendor in Ikeja under-bridge said the idea of collecting N20 token from job searchers is not restricted to one place. He said it is a phenomenon the vendors have devised on their own to assist many of the teeming youths who could not afford to buy the newspapers simply because they are looking for jobs.

“People should rather hail us for being our brothers’ keepers than rebuke us. After all, we are simply helping them (the unemployed) to achieve their objectives. They come here with pens and paper in their hands, taking notes of vacancies and addressees. Some of them have made it through that means and we know that ordinarily they ought to buy the newspapers. So we are their messiahs,” Nwachukwu said.
Yet there are  unemployed graduates who will neither like to make heroes out of Baba Oloye nor Nwachuckwu. Rather than hanging around the newspapers vendors and paying the N20 token, they seem to have found solace in the growing numbers of online job websites. This group of people register their mailing details with the online job sites and it is a matter of hours before their e-mail are bombarded with real and imaginary vacancies.

Prominent among such vacancy websites include: Jobs in Nigeria, Job Update, Nigerian Jobs Portal. There are social media platforms that also promote available jobs for the teeming youths too. Platforms such as Facebook, Linkedln, Netlog have also proved  useful online tools that attracts jobs for the youths.
Fatai Adelani, a 25-year-old Engineering graduate of Lagos State University (LASU) said although there are some non-existing vacancies that are sometimes included among the list available online, he nonetheless was able to secure a good one that has now qualified him for an oral interview with Nestle Nigeria Plc.
According to Adelani, “I can say that many of us now rely on some of the online vacancy websites. As we have the good ones we also have the bad ones who will put on notice some none existing vacancies. After about two years I have participated in such trial-and-error experience, I eventually got the right one and I am at the second stage of qualification which is the oral interview,” Adelani said.
The relationship between vendors and jobless graduates will continue to wax stronger even though the graduates would prefer to buy papers from the comfort of their own cars bought from savings from their different places of work.