‘You become a pest when you start depending on people’

Can you give us your name and qualification?My name is Anthony John. I have a BSc in Mass communication. I also have a certificate of proficiency from the Nigerian Institute of Management and I am a member of Biosciences for Family in Africa, an NGO based in the UK. I am also a writer.When did […]

Can you give us your name and qualification?
My name is Anthony John. I have a BSc in Mass communication. I also have a certificate of proficiency from the Nigerian Institute of Management and I am a member of Biosciences for Family in Africa, an NGO based in the UK. I am also a writer.
When did you graduate and from which school?
I graduated in 2008, did my youth service and I passed out in 2010 and since then it has been on and off when it comes to jobs.
Which  school?
I attended Benue State University
It seems you have a job already; you are working with an NGO
No, I do that part time. It is not as if I am a staff there. Whenever they have a programme they call me and I help them in the programme and that will be all until another programme comes up.
How often do they organise such programmes?
Well, this year so far, we have had only two and they gave some stipends.
So, from 2008 when you graduated till date, you have not had any steady job?
I have not had any work in the real sense of it. I have been doing freelancing and other things that will keep body and soul together. The freelancing is for an online medium.

Have you tried applying for jobs?
Of course I have. You know the Nigerian situation, it is not all about applying, it is about who you know; who writes your name on the list. That is all that matters.
Are you sure about that?
I have done a study on that. I know what I am saying. I have been a victim of that system too but I won’t mention the names of the organisations here but I know what I am saying.
Has that affected your faith in the system?
To some extent it has because it made me believe that we live in a country where hard work doesn’t pay. To be frank with you, I graduated as one of the best students in the department and I was supposed to be retained as a lecturer but because of the politics in the system, somebody that I always wrote assignments for is now a lecturer while I am not. It makes you believe that you live in a country where the system doesn’t support hard work but the short and easy way which is not the best practice.
In Nigeria today, elders and most successful people believe young people are impatient and don’t want to start small; they look down on jobs and want to start from the top.
That is not correct; I am somebody that always wants to learn new things. I believe in starting small. I have never been an apostle of the short cut to success. Great things have small beginnings. When I was in school I worked very hard because I knew there was no substitute for hard work. But the fact is that when you come out from school, you face a new reality; that it takes more than hard work to get what you want. The last one I applied for, it was a paramilitary organisation I won’t say the name, I had to go there by 4 a.m. just to get the form because of the number of people there.
After getting the form, it was filled, submitted, we wrote exams and went for the physical training and at the end of the whole thing, my name came out. After the training when they published the final list, my name was not there. I checked online, those people that did not even have exam number; those were the people I saw on the list. A friend of mine called me and told me he was at home when he was called to go join them in the camp and he did not even apply. Would such kind of situation give you the faith to believe in the country?
Apart from your degree and the proficiency in management certificate, have you acquired any other skills?
Yes, even when I was in school. At school I did electrical work; I know how to do it very well. Anything that has to do with light and wiring as well as painting, I can do very well. I have a barbing saloon that I run now.
So, how do you survive without a steady job in Abuja?
I have been doing the little hand work I just mentioned; it may not be paying much but at least I don’t have to beg for money to go to any destination in this country. This is because even the last recruitment they did in NNPC I applied, I went to Enugu State to write the exam. I financed the trip. I don’t have to rely on anybody to give me support because if you start relying on people you become a pest and in no time they get tired of you and you become irrelevant. I have vowed to be strong, resilient, and believe in myself because I know a day will come when hard work will pay.
It is a known fact that government cannot employ everybody but how do you think it will it enable those who want to start small succeed?
My call on government, that is if they will hear because so many people have called on them time without number and the situation still remain the same, is to be more humane and remember that most of them in government went to school on scholarship and enjoyed the best this country had to offer. But now, after assuming leadership positions they refuse to work for those coming up. I call on them to give more support; it may not be financial support but a way of empowerment. Nigerians are not asking for too much, they only need a little push and you see them succeed. For example, if we have stable power supply, you will see millions succeeding. People will have shelter and a consistent income and be able to save.
Recently, they stopped tricycles from plying the roads here, this becomes a contradiction. How can a government agency mandated to eradicate poverty provide a solution through tricycles and another government agency stops them? How can they survive? You have so many graduates in the tricycle business; okay, they are starting small but another government agency is saying they should stop. This is two steps forward and 10 steps backward.
What is your call to graduates who just sit at home filling applications daily while refusing to start small, with the belief that most jobs are beneath them?
Anybody with that kind of mindset is not progressive. If you are a progressive, you will know that starting small is not bad but remaining small is what is bad. If you look at the environment, you must find something that is lacking; you need to think critically and provide solutions to those things and work and money will come.