PAINS AND GAINS PART 1

Look around you for a moment, and see how many people are suffering or rather don’t have what you have in excess, look at how many people are homeless, look at how many people are hungry and thirsty, look at how many people are naked, how many young kids are unable to afford education, how many youths are unemployed. This is a reflection of a mirror called Nigeria. We harmonize even in pains. We live in a delusion that needs a sacred hand to possibly alleviate us from this menace. We are multilingual, multiethnic, multi religious and multi problematic in nature.

I abide in this delusional state as well, because I’m also a citizen of this populous nation whose leaders have misplaced the map which could help us sojourn to the Promised Land. The stories are getting worse as we grow older. Everything was better before now, but suddenly: suburbs are trying to take over cities, tenants conflicting with landlords, the rich being kidnapped, corrupt individuals embezzling on constant basis, leaders are careless and heartless, strikes every day, religious crises, hike in fuel price and all commodities and most especially the greatest raw material the nation has which is human resource is left to fallow.

 Everyone wants to be better than the next person, so whichever way it comes they don’t care. Once I can show off to my neighbor I’m better off, I’m good to go. We have become unemployable. We have been left to face a future unprepared for, and the agony we experience is tagged our “fault”.

Let us compare the following living conditions and we would see the irregularities in the things that are supposed to be regular. Imagine some don’t have clean water to drink, while some use bore hole water to wash their cars, while some don’t have transport fare, some roll in convoy, while some can’t find a place to lay their heads, others build bungalows for dogs, while some are looking for food to eat, we most organize buffet and at the end wasting these foods, while some don’t have clothes to wear, others fill their wardrobes with what they will never wear.  All these are stages many climb to get to the top, and now stomp on the grasses that voted the day the jungle was suppose to mature.

I’m Peter Jumbo and I’m a frustrated unemployed youth. The justice I demand today could lead to either my freedom or my death but I don’t care if I would have to pay this way, because I’m sure the blood that is about to be shed would go a long way in helping to cleanse the society we live in. The crime I’m being arrested for is as a result of some people’s negligence when it comes to their responsibility. I have done this for a change to erupt, and I tell you my lord; many more are still to come. 

BARR OSAZE:283ACBAE

I struggled so hard in the university to graduate in the top five in my department. And without any bribery, I was posted to Abuja to serve my nation. The three weeks in camp was made successful by uncles and aunties. I saved like an ant, to show some level of responsibilities to my aged parents in the village. My whole thought was that I can make some money, so I take care of them at least before they die. 

The place of my primary assignment was NBS (national bureau of statistics); the only office where focus is a lost course. They don’t even know how many staffs they have, not to talk of how many students are in secondary school in Nigeria, or how many unemployed youth we have. All records were 1999 or so. And we live in 2005.

 The twelve months was like a blessing in disguise, with promises from many uncles and aunties for job after service; From Asokoro, through Maitama, Wuse 2 , Utako, Jabi, Gwarinpa. Lifecamp, Wuse zones, Garki Areas Idu, Apo, Nyanya, Kubwa, Lugbe to even the unknown factories in Mpape, I submitted my CV in anticipation for a job to spin me out of the lingering poverty in the federal capital.

It got so bad my uncle had to explain how its best I leave his house and get myself a place to stay. He used his daughters as excuse.

Uncle: my daughters are getting too matured for me to be leaving a grown up man like you with them alone every day. The devil is powerful, but has no salvation he said

That meant pack your little belongings and find your bearing. I started moving from one friend’s house to the other. All these in a belief that I would soon be employed.

I slowly became a nuisance and the filings in my shoe were becoming more obvious. My friends and I owed in everything around us: from cabmen to keke NAPEP, from meruwa(water seller) to indomie seller(Aboki). There was no place we didn’t owe for survival to be made possible.

Whenever the hopes seem too deep to cope with, and we pack our things to leave the town; one office would just send a mail, we should come for an interview, and suddenly our hopes are raised again. Not knowing the jobs were fully shared within the elites, before the publicity is made to us the poor.

We suffered to be a graduate, and now we are suffering more being a graduate. I am of this opinion that our parents lied to us that education was our best legacy. If it’s true why are professors not the richest? Is Obasanjo or Dangote an educationist? Or Kanu, or Okocha? Even Tuface dropped out of school when he saw it was disturbing his career, and here we are after wasting our time, acquiring a knowledge we would never use. It seems we are compelled to suffer for it. 

It was after one year in Abuja looking for a job that I decided to join the civil defense. Maybe one of these days I will be an oga at the top. We were demanded to bring along 3500 naira, to purchase a form that doesn't guarantee employment. We tried to seek if it was a foul play, but it seems the more we looked, the less we see. We tried our best after selling some things to pay for the form. The first problem was, it was a photocopied form. And the officer was always telling us he was helping. Desperate moves by desperate people. It was later we discovered the so called officer was doing that to survive. The day for the interview came and we went to the stadium where the test was holding, and when they called our numbers some people came out with original forms and thus ours was the counterfeit. We saw the so called officer and rushed to a police nearby to report.

The officer moved towards him and grabbed him. In our presence he dipped his hands inside his pocket, and gave the police 5000 naira, and the allegation changed from fraud to defamation of character. The officer was about arresting us instead of the person that committed the offense and then I knew there was a skill of survival, and that skill is called lawlessness…….