In the midst of the despondency ruling the minds of many today, a young Nigerian has chosen to make the most of the situation by selling kerosene and engaging in private tutoring to eke out a living.
It’s no
longer news that the scourge of unemployment in the land is largely the
reason Nigeria is now infamously tagged the poverty capital of the
world.
For a country embarrassingly endowed with material resources and a
population that ought to provide a ready market to absorb the skills of
her citizens; Nigerians over the years have had to learn to cope with
hardship of the unusual variant due largely to maladministration dating
back to decades of military dictatorship. Not even the return to
democratic mode of governance in 1999 has succeeded in changing this
sorry narrative.
Given the difficulties occasioned by the apparent lack of job
opportunities in the land, many have resorted to seek greener pasture
abroad, sometimes using illegal routes to their dream destinations.
But things weren’t this bad some years ago. Prominent Nigerians
including literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe (of blessed memory) and
Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in their memoirs, “There
Was a Country” and “The Accidental Public Servant,” respectively painted
a glorious picture of the good old days when impressive grades upon
graduation from a university was a passport to a waiting job (s).
In their widely read accounts, both men had at least three jobs offers
awaiting them even before completing their courses of study in English
Literature and Quantity Survey at the University College (now University
of Ibadan) and the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria respectively. Those
were the good old days when merit was principally the yardstick in the
nation’s recruitment process.
In the midst of the despondency ruling the minds of many today, a young
Nigerian has chosen to make the most of the situation by selling
kerosene and engaging in private tutoring to eke out a living. Welcome
to the world of Musa Ibrahim Musa, a first-class graduate of Chemical
Engineering, University of Maiduguri.
Musa who shortly after his National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, proceeded
to the University of Lagos for his Masters says he is disappointed for
not being able to get a well-paid job despite obtaining a first class in
Chemical Engineering.
He tells Saturday Vanguard: “I wouldn’t say I am disappointed but
truth is that Nigeria is quite below where we thought it ought to be,
side by side other developing nations of the world. You take examples of
what countries like South Africa, Singapore and Malaysia have been
doing in education and job opportunities; we are far behind where we
should be as a country. I am disappointed to some extent because I
believe there are many bright minds out there who can help Nigeria. I am
an engineering graduate and I feel that Science and Technology should
be the driving force in our quest for nation building. However, this is
not the case today.
“However, I also want to say that I appreciate the Nigerian government
in one way or the other because as an undergraduate way back in
Maiduguri, I was privileged to get the Petroleum Technology Development
Fund (PTDF) Scholarship. Though the payment was slightly delayed and I
would say the delay actually helped me a lot because the last tranche of
payment of the scholarship scheme was what I used in starting the
kerosene business. I started the business in 2013 and thank God, it is
getting better but I think if we could have people come in to support
what we are doing, we can even serve more customers than we are
currently doing.”
Given the mileage the grant offered him to start off, Engineer Musa
wants government and wealthy Nigerians to come to the aide of young
Nigerian entrepreneurs by providing them with seed capital to address
the growing unemployment in the land.
With the sum of two hundred thousand naira (N200, 000) being the actual
sum he got from the PTDF, Musa started the business with the acquisition
of a storage tank which he stationed at Jikwoyi, a suburb of the
Federal Capital Territory. Today, Engineer Musa has purchased additional
three storage tanks, bringing the total to four.
So, how was this journey from the get-go?
”The actual amount I was given was N200, 000 but I actually invested
N300, 000 in the business and that was because some other incentives
were added in my final year in school. I believe government and private
individuals can come in to support young entrepreneurs because finance
is key but I also believe that some people have lofty ideas that they
have not been able to put into practice,” he says.
Before now, the young man who hails from Itsukwi in Etsako East Local
Government Area of Edo State has had his fair share of the pervasive
corruption pervading the nation’s recruitment process in his search for
job. He shares his experience this way: “I applied for the Dangote
refinery job vacancy which was advertised some years back and on two
occasions precisely. I applied, wrote the aptitude test but I wasn’t
selected. In 2018, I applied again and I scaled through the aptitude
test. I was interviewed but since then, I have not been contacted.
Thereafter, I applied to teach Engineering at the Usman Dan Fodio
University, Sokoto and the Edo State University, Iyamho but met a brick
wall too.”
In pursuit of his vision to inculcate sound education to young
Nigerians, Musa a few years ago founded Harvard Tutors, a first-grade
teaching clinic for all categories of learners. According to him, “being
a first class graduate has given me an opportunity to do many things
and I thought if the job was not forthcoming, why not test the waters?
I actually wanted to work in the oil and gas industry and like I said
earlier, I did some applications but I couldn’t get the job. I started
Harvard Tutors four years ago as a youth corps member but at that point
in time, I was just doing tutorials for students at A levels and I felt
why not take it to another level. So, I registered it as a business in
2016 and since then, we’ve been running it. It has been challenging but
the experience has been wonderful.
“Currently we have two tutoring sites, one in Karu site and another one
at Apo both in Abuja. But my plan is to expand to other places in Abuja
and to other states of the federation. I have been receiving calls from
some of my lecturers in the University of Maiduguri and some other
colleagues and they all want me to bring centres closer to them.”
Have these two ventures in a way assisted in taking anyone off the
street by way of employment? A smiling Engineer Musa says beyond his
imagination, the kerosene business and tutorial classes have been a
blessing. “We have four attendants manning our storage tanks. We pay
them a monthly salary. This is also true of our Harvard teachers
numbering 10,” he says as he struggles to curtail his excitement.
In less than three years of knowledge dissemination, the young engineer
says a lot of impact has been made in the sphere of English,
Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, French, Computer Science and
other subjects at both the ordinary and advanced levels of study.
Hear him: “We have had a lot of testimonies. I must say some of the
students we have tutored over the years have come to say sir you really
did so well for us in so many areas. The records are there for all to
see. One of them is currently studying in a foreign university and a
good number of them are in Nigerian universities as well. We bring
innovations into what we do.”
Much as government and corporations are overwhelmed with the increasing
demand for job placement; here is one Nigerian whose dream requires a
fertile ground to germinate and grow into fruition.
Source: Vanguard
So Nigeria has decayed to this extent?