CORPER’S DIARY

Niger state: the power state, as it’s famously called. Don’t think I’ve ever been to any state this big in Nigeria, bordered on the east by the federal capital territory, Abuja and Kaduna state. With a weather peculiar to most states in the northern part of the country-humid, hot and dry I cannot remember how many times I attempted splashing cold water on my mattress before sleeping during my stay at the orientation camp at Paiko, Paikoro local government, Minna. Minna the state’s bustling capital city is the heart of Niger state, with a number of commercial banks jostling for space in minna’s central business district not forgetting Minna central market which is akin to the popular tejuosho market in Lagos.

On my first day in Niger, I and a number of youth corps members arrived through Suleja one of the major local governments. Wisely we secured a tour guide, for the vehicle’s driver was as ignorant as were in finding our way around. However what got my attention was the tour guide was apparently no connoisseur for no sooner had we contracted him did he get off the vehicle and contractied another passenger from whom he extorted the sum of 200 hundred naira, no hard feelings because I wasn’t the fall-guy.

Life on camp was an absolute nightmare, corpers were treated like renegade kids; justifying a statement by a camp official “here, you do what you are told to do and not what you feel like or what want to do” and so it was for 21 long days. Disobedience was a costly option- the price was either “frog jump” or picking dirt with bare hands or worst still spending the night in lock-down. It all depended on how serious the case was or simply the toss of a coin.

Well if you talk about endurance then I’m game, but three days gone a thousand years would not have been any closer. Home-sweet-home never rang truer– no one ever warned me of this ‘treat’.You must be out of your room latest by 4:45a.m everyday and every form of activity operated in a similar military like fashion.

On and on we trudged painfully till the 21^st day and finally we are out of prison, out of ‘kirikiri’ and ‘sorbibor’, and back to the waldorf Astoria, even if was five metres out of the camp’s gate. The people are quite hospitable, hmm! Life as a corper-a bit intruiging and interesting – you walk on the road and you hear people cheering you “korfa, how are you? e.t.c.”

Well, if you ask me, I don’t think I want to be a corper again in the next life if I was offered a blank cheque..mmm..maybe?

Dorcas, CONNECT AFRICA.

EKEING A LIVING

Its eight p.m and quite a crowd have congregated at Ali-dada Street in okota, Lagos. Shoving, pushing and with a lot of chatter, everyone is trying to make a last minute rush for Chidima’s bean-cakes, popularly called ‘akara’ in local parlance. Her staffs patiently try to meet the growing crowd’s anxious demands; wrapping up bean cakes and stuffing them hurriedly in paper bags and into the grateful hands of the customers.  

 The whole scene looks easy on the eyes, but only four years ago, Chidima prematurely became a young widow; her husband had died leaving the welfare of four children in her care, a very gargantuan task especially when she had just the basic educational training- a primary school education. With no chance at securing a well paying job, she joined the army of young Nigerian self-starters.  ‘I began the trade four years ago with my little savings’ she said ‘I was barely able to break even, making almost no profit, once I even thought of packing up the whole thing one thing’ chidima continued.  

Fortunately she ploughed more of her resources into the business that has no become some sort of family business. Chidimma now makes a profit of three thousand naira daily and makes sales mornings and evenings.

The future appears bright for this enterprising road side caterer having set up more selling points in different locations around the area; amazingly she has also become an employer of labour. ‘So what makes your business tick?’ I asked the young entrepreneur ‘I try to find the best locations and start up very early in the morning, not forgetting my night customers, because the customers are very important’

Emeka is another self-starter, having dropped out of school as a result of his parent’s inability to pay his secondary school fees; he decided to withdraw his savings, plugging it into commercial motor-cycle transport

 Seven years on the business looks very good, at the moment he has four motor- bikes in different locations and is thinking of expanding his frontiers. ‘God has been my helper through the years’ according to Emeka.  There are also constant challenges he faces ‘sometimes armed robbers pose as passengers and abduct them to unknown locations, and there is the fear of accidents’ Emeka said as he rounded the bend to my destination.

But then it is evident the gains by far eclipse the risks involved for there is ample to cater for his children, a wife and even a concubine.

Emmafemi CONNECTAFRICA

YOUR LIFE FOR A JOB

A somber Nigerian immigration boss told a press gathering yesterday that 45 job applicants had died following an employment screening exercise into the immigration service early this month. This staggering figure is even four times higher than original reports. The only consolation in this saga was that there was no cover up by the top echelon of the Nigerian immigration service; in any case the authorities ordered an investigation be carried out to uncover the direct and remote causes of the deaths.  While waiting for the final white paper, it is important to muse over certain things we need not a white paper to uncover. The screening exercise took place in the 6 geo political zones of the country; accounts by participants in the 6 geo-political zones of Nigeria reflected in opinion polls on newspapers, blogs and the television are unsettling. It is disheartening to note that the immigration service which ought to be a signpost and bulwark in convincing the drove of Nigerians fleeing the country’s shores in the search of the Golden Fleece could be embroiled in this fiasco. The unemployment situation in Nigeria goes beyond bland rhetoric in radio and television jingles. The immigration service has a logical question to answer; how do you allow over 100, 000 people apply for a little over 1000 job slots? The examiners I conclude must have the Wisdom of biblical king Solomon to arrive at their picks in less than two hours or how do you explain applicants scheduled for an examination at 7am stood up until 2p.m and then made to do an endurance trek for 4km; how inhumane can one be to his fellow man. What could be more enduring than an eight-hour hold-up without a breakfast and then tell me its routine procedure. This a white paper would not suffice, heads have to roll right away

Today it’s the immigration yesterday it was the banks, the only difference was that there were no loss of lives. One employment exercise in the southwestern part of Nigeria nearly turned in a fiasco when 150, 000 graduates showed up for 700 job slots. The situation got out of hand and the police quelled the bedlam with batons and tear-gas canisters. Many left the examination venues with bruises and worse-off; their dignity had been rubbished. The national directorate of employment must look critically at this anomaly where universities are churning out graduates by the thousand to meet insufficient employment slots. First things first let’s get the skilled sector up and running and then tell me about any white paper.

Jennifer,CONNECTAFRICA