Before i begin my coding tutorials for the day, i feel it is very important to share the tale of near fraud i encountered today, for what else could i term it, the exploitation of young graduates as well as gullible and poor Nigerians who are desperately seeking for jobs.
On my way to the office with my very good friend,a woman who stood by the side of the road sharing flyers caught my eyes, i discovered that she was targeting young individuals who passed her, out of the curiosity many know me to have in abundance, i crossed her path. She gave me the flyer and i proceeded to read the contents of the flyer. Mouth watering job opportunities jumped at me, written on the flyer were numerous jobs, the least of them paid 25,000 naira a month. I found it hard to believe that someone would stand by the side of the road, early in the morning on a working day promising breakthrough to all and sundry in terms of “decent” paying jobs. Oh, i almost forgot!!, the company was aptly named “ESTHER BREAKTHROUGH NIG LTD”. Upon seeing the name my curiosity was peaked and i entered into a mini argument with my friend, telling him that no decent recruitment agency would post staff to be sharing flyers on the road while bearing the breakthrough name. i decided to investigate myself and find out about the company. it wasn’t far from my office, so distance was no barrier to me.
Esther Breakthrough is located beside the fire service station in ojulegba at the top of a storey bulding, you would need to navigate to the back entrance, then climb a series of dangerous looking steps before entering their office. The first thing that struck me as i entered their office was the number of people paying three thousand naira and being told to come along with their receipts when called for a job interview. That got me confused, in my experience most recruiting agencies collect part of your salary or collect money from the companies they recruit for. if there was money to be collected before the job, it came in form of skills training.
After they had attended to the people that they were paying, i was attended to. I told them of the flier i collected and that my intention for coming was to make inquiries as to the jobs available to apply for. The woman told me that an interview was going to be conducted for me today and i would pay a fee of 100 Naira for “Writing materials”. With “shior” reverbrating in my head, my thoughts went along the path of : “the one wey MMM don do boys neva recover una wan do una own”. A quick search on the “book of life”, in other words Nairaland exposed them further.
I told her i would come back, that was when she remembered to tell me to bring my CV along the next time i came. A thought she forgot to say when she first asked me to pay 100 for writing materials.
The government has failed youths especially graduates and has made them vulnerable prey to dangerous predators. Nigeria i believe will get better, but with incidences like this, the pain of the unemployed acerbated, there is a need for us to do little things that might help to call out the predators among us. What country do we pass on to our children, the youths have suffered so much for no just cause, will our children grow up to a better or worse version of Nigeria, are we to all flee to other countries, never to come back to our beloved country until the wave of anti immigration wash over us. please help share this article, to help a brother or sister , for United we stand, divided we fall.
Special thanks to David Hundeyin, his articles on twitter about poverty and the elite bubble, inspired me to write about this experience
