Nigeria Economic Slide Leaves Youths Jobless : Positions in Government Frozen So School Graduates Must Be Idle or Use Ingenuity

This nation’s economic slump has left many young high school and college graduates without the government jobs they thought would be waiting for them when they finished school.

Some have given up the job hunt. A few have committed suicide. But others, like Chukwuemeka Ogadi, have resorted to ingenuity to start small businesses outside their fields of study.

In Ogadi’s case, he’s gone into garbage collection.

He was among 35,000 Nigerians who completed a year’s public service work with the National Youth Service Corps in August, 1982. Having already earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Lagos, he hoped to land a government teaching post.

Job Freeze

But falling oil prices and other economic disorders forced the government to impose a job freeze.

Ogadi said recently that he wore out two pairs of shoes in an eight-month job hunt.

“I got nothing but promises here and there,” he said. “Like any other thing, there is a limit to human patience. When the opportunity for a job wouldn’t come, I did what I was trained to do: I turned the search inwards.”

Ogadi noticed that government garbage collection was wholly inadequate in this sprawling capital, so he borrowed money to start his own service. Shortly afterward the government started a nationwide cleanup campaign, boosting Ogadi’s opportunities.

Growing Company

His company now has eight workers and two trucks, which pick up trash from 100 homes and 50 businesses.

A small, yellow placard on Ogadi’s desk in the middle-class Lagos district of Surulere--which means “patience pays off” in the Yoruba language--reads, “I Will Prosper.”

Seyi Ogunyika, an accountant, had a similar experience.

In his daily searches for jobs he noticed a thriving trade in street-side fast-food sales.

He bought his uncle’s van, borrowed some money from his mother and started Unique Foods.

Office, Staff of 20

After two months of working alone, he made enough to buy a second van. After 18 months he accumulated eight vans, as well as two small fast-food centers, an office and a staff of 20.

“If you want to put on a tie looking for work, I believe you are mad or stupid,” he said. “There are so many things people can do if they can only think.”

While some jobless graduates are now taking independent routes to success, Nigerians with lesser schooling learned long ago that individual ingenuity was their only chance for success.

Lagos’ streets are crowded with roadside mechanics, traders, furniture makers and food vendors. Newspapers and magazines often carry Horatio Alger stories, making the point that hard work, honesty and perseverance will be rewarded.

The country’s military government has encouraged the trend.

The Rivers state military governor started a program last year to offer high school and college graduates farm land and money to help them plant their first crops.

More than 22,000 registered for the project, but only 5,000 could be taken due to limited funds.

Food Self-Sufficiency

Several other states are starting similar programs in hope of providing work for educated young people and drawing them away from the congested cities. The country hopes to restore its food self-sufficiency, which it enjoyed 25 years ago when it won independence from Britain.

Ogadi said it isn’t easy for graduates to give up their hopes of cushy jobs, most of them with the government, even during the worst depression in the country’s history.

“The average Nigerian youth is very hard working, contrary to what others might think,” he said. “The only snag has to do with the element of pride. They see employment in terms of air-conditioned office jobs.

“My father would have nothing to do with the idea of his graduate son engaged in refuse disposal. He even promised to maintain me and pay me a full monthly salary until I get a real job somewhere.”

Survival Struggle

Even with determination and a ready market, Ogadi’s Chuksland International Corp. has had to struggle to survive. One of its two trucks is on blocks waiting for spare parts. But the parts are not available because most foreign suppliers won’t sell to Nigeria for fear that the government won’t release foreign exchange to pay them.

Two weeks ago Ogadi paid $500 for a used tire. Prices are inflated because of shortages and because many imports come through a black market.

Ogadi and his project manager, Andrew Kogolo, are single and live behind their office.

“The economy is not good enough to be married,” Kogolo said. “When the economy improves we can look for wives.”