Harun Muhammad
In the past, we can recollect the story of how university graduates have access to jobs and an ocean of opportunities immediately after graduation. It was like jobs would be waiting for you as soon as you stepped out of your university gates. The sad reality today is describable. Tertiary institutions are churning out unemployable graduates.
Talking about the unplayable role this has been to dwarfing our economy must’ve been a painful experience. This is because I am one of the victims. We have lost the guiding grace of creating jobs for ourselves to being employed by an unsatisfactory salary-based system.
Today, graduates ignorantly prefer to wait for the government’s jobs than to innovatively think of creating jobs. This model is the most popular factor in the collective socio-economic and technological backwardness we are facing today and, in the years, to come.
One would want to ask, whose fault is this? For me, I think it’s a systematic problem. The model I talked about before. Students are mechanically shaped by the thoughts of not making money while in school. It’s like a taboo, sort of. The misleading fact of forcing students to concentrate on their academic career alone without exploiting their field of study business-wise.
This is how it started: Avoid distraction. Concentrate all your forces in studies alone. After you graduate, you would have a good-paying job. Parents were duped with this misleading factor. The world of today is fast-evolving and becoming more challenging than we think. Therefore, this isn’t a way to go!
According to the richest black person in the world, Aliko Dangote in the book “Dangote’s 10 Commandments of Making Money”, he said and I quoted, if you concentrate on your academic career alone, you will graduate as an academic expert. However, if you go into business while in school, you can graduate as an academic as well as a money expert. All it takes is effective time distribution and management. After all, didn’t Jesus say give to Caesar what is for Caesar and God what’s for God?
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Many students are full of body-moving innovation-driven ideas of making a difference in the business environment but are scared to start from somewhere. This is because the system has been to focus on academic career alone. They have been brainwashed to see nothing else than their academic careers and getting a job after that. Sad.
It would make more sense and financially rewarding if a student of computer science or engineering engages himself in freelancing work while being a university student. More so, students can set up a business outside school hours, like graphic designs, car wash, business center on campus, etc. The truth is: We are beautifully and individually talented in our little ways. The only thing we lack is: We don’t ask ourselves what we can do or we don’t navigate our way to where we can learn skills outside our course of study.
Most humans struggle boils down making money and if a student engages himself in business, that would instill entrepreneurialism in him and that can even go a long way after graduation. It could solve the problem of late-starting syndrome which is unfortunately very much in existence in Nigeria, the reason being that after getting the academic knowledge, people would still need to learn how to make money, which, however, isn’t taught in the academic institutions. Education without the knowledge of application and management of money or how to attain financial freedom only leads to depression in the long run.
We need to move from rhetoric to action. Imagine if business development and management is encouraged in our tertiary institutions, I honestly believe that everyone in Nigeria would have work to do because of the myriad opportunities buried in our society. As a student, you have to start from somewhere. As a graduate, you have to start from somewhere. Look inwards and outwards, there must be something that you can do. Something that you can do to make money while in school. There’s no natural law that forbids making money and studying simultaneously. It encourages one to be stronger and become financially stable before and after graduation.
The sad truth is: The government we have today cannot employ 20% of us. This is it. We can’t lie about it. How many graduates do you know are unemployable? Uncountable. How many graduates with no skills to leverage? Plenty! How many graduates do you know that are confused about what to do after graduation? Numerous. We can go on and on…
Nigeria as a developing country has uncountable business opportunities buried within. As a university student or graduate, think about something you can do about these myriad opportunities. You can make money out of it. We are good at making noise because we don’t want to be part of the solution.
Do not ever look down on yourself. There’s something you can do. All one needs to do is to sit down and think. Some of the social needs can be met through simple applications of digital skills.
I hope, through this piece, we have learnt something today. I hope, going forward, we should start thinking of starting from somewhere; starting a business; learning a skill, digital skills while pursuing our academic career. I hope we can move from rhetoric to action. The world has greatly changed. Some government jobs are like a chicken change that cannot pay your bills.
In this digital age. This is the best time to empower yourself with skills and become self-employed.
“When times are bad is when the real entrepreneurs emerge. Entrepreneurs don’t care if the market’s up or down. They’re creating better products and better processes. So when somebody says, “Oh, there’s less opportunity now,” it’s because they’re losers.” ~ 21st Business Century Book
Haruna Inuwa, is the Coordinator, Office for Innovation Driven Startups (OIDS), ENGAUSA GLOBAL TECH HUB and can be reached: diamondmuhd@yahoo.com
