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Thursday 13 June 2013
BY PROF. C.P.
ALOAMAKA
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Today,
insecurity in Nigeria has become so much that most people feel so frightened,
even in their homes. The insecurity comes in various form-much earlier than now
it was so serious in the Niger Delta region, due mainly to the activities of
militants, who feel that the nation was exploiting their resources, especially
crude petroleum oil at the expense of their well being. Recently, it has assumed more devastating forms such as
Boko Haram killings, kidnapping, armed robbery, assassination. It has become so
serious that one is no longer safe anywhere-be it at your office, on the
highway, at home.
The question is
–what is responsible for all these? The answer to these question is not far
fetched. The root cause of the threat to
peace and living is the extreme poverty prevailing in the country. A situation
were very many persons can no longer have their essential requirements of life
e.g.-decent meals, shelter, clothing, and up-keep for families is detestful and
should be rejected.
A recent
evidence for the extreme level of poverty in the country was the death of about
100 persons who were burnt to death while they were scooping petrol fuel that
spilled from a fallen truck at okogbe, 60 kilometers from Port Harcourt, in
River State. This is not the first time people were roasted in petrol fuel fire
in Nigeria. The question still remains, why, despite the ugly experience,
people still go ahead to risk their life in similar situation? It is simply because
they have been blinded by poverty. A similar situation was barely averted at
Aba, Abia State, just seven days after the okogbe calamity, when large number
of people trooped out to scoop kerosene from a fallen truck .It is not that the
people were ‘’blind’’ to the likely risk of being burnt if engulf in a likely
fire incidence. It is just that their poverty had reached a level that was
worth the risk. In such a situation, there is hardly time to think, as the act
will be spontaneous. He sees such as an opportunity to make quick money, and be
able to solve some lingering problems. Perhaps his family has not had breakfast
by 12.00 noon, and may be their children have been out of school for being able
to pay school fees.
It is rather very disturbing that such
level of poverty exists side by side with stupendous wealth among very few
corrupt persons who divert the wealth of the nation to their personal
treasuries. They deliberately mal-govern the country to create avenues to
corruptly amass wealth. The obvious consequence of such activities is denial of
our youths of employment.
THE REALITY ABOUT SECURING EMPLOYMENT IN
NIGERIA
The few jobs available in Nigeria are in
most cases taken up before the vacancies are made public.
The adverts are mere fulfillment of due
process. The ignorant prospective employees will respond to advert and if in
fact shortlisted and invited for interview will be wasting his /her time
appearing, because no matter the performance at the interview he will remain
hopeful indefinitely. What guarantees getting employed is having ones person in
very high position in the government or having sponsorship from a politician
since you may be having none, it will pay off to start thinking of some other ways of helping yourselves. If
you develop the right attitude, you may at the end regret the whole years you
wasted waiting to secure employment,as you may turn out to be a proud employer
of labour.If the experiences of others
should be the basis of one’s action, then the earlier the decision to be self
employed is made the better , especially
where there is none to guarantee your getting employed.
SELF- EMPLOYMENT
The fact here is that our unemployed
youths, despite the prevailing setting, should be able to face the reality and
change their fortune-by employing themselves. For how long should one remain
unemployed, and must you be employed by others while there is nothing wrong about
securing an employment, if one can, there is everything wrong about remaining
unemployed and idle. Since getting employed by someone else has become almost a
mirage, it should not be impossible to get employed by oneself. Unfortunately ,
and until now , the products of our
institution of higher learning are
usually not having that attitude necessary for job creation .That is why they are usually helpless
after their NYSC programme.Many are now forced to go back to school for further training ,believing that the acquisition of additional
qualification will improve
his/her chances of securing a job. At the end of the day, the story may remain
the same. Some tips may well change the situation, hence I will want to discuss
them.
1.
HAVING THE RIGHT ATTITUDE
You should commence your
journey towards self-employment by having a positive disposition towards it. It
is not an issue of giving it a trial . You have made up your mind and that’s
all . The word failure should never come to your mind. According to a
television programme director,Mo, ‘if you can think it,you can make it’ . As long
as other persons have gone
into such business ventures
successfully ,you will succeed .The success of
others should be the right
stimuli you need to start off and keep
going on. You only need to be reasonable and take the right steps .Those you know that failed in their business
venture were unreasonable and took the wrong step at some time, and were not
ready to retrace their steps promptly .Once the right
processes are followed , failure is impossible . Successful business men / women should be your mentor. Associate with them, read
their biographies and learn from their experiences.
2.
HAVING A BUSINESS VISION
A business vision is not just identifying business venture you like .There are very
many likeable business projects. You do
not just get involved in a business because of the success
story of others. It requires
more than just likeness .It has to
do with what you are happy doing. The
likeness must be associated with passion. Having identified
the area ,you extend the likeness into a
goal , which must be really big .The
goal must be big enough to incorporate what you want to do ,and where
you want to be .Do not be content with just any
level of achievement. Do not allow your fear of failure
or wish to avoid risk limit your
goal .sometimes people deceive themselves by
feigning contentment in order to
avoid too much work or for reason of avoiding risk .Note that it is the dream
you have for yourself that drives you into greater achievement .When your goal is limited in scope ,your achievement will also
be limited .See yourself as
having already achieved the height you set
for yourself , and you will be
there.
3 WASTE NO USEFUL TIME
It has always been said
that time is precious .In fact , I say
time is gold , and the earlier you realize
this , the better for you . Any one second , one minute or one hour that
is lost can never be recovered .People
who succeeded in creating wealth to the
extent that they are at the top recognized this fact , and did not play with
time. So if you must join them ,you must adopt the attitude.
It is not only good to
take the right decision , such decision
must be taken timeously .The cost of
taking decision s late is high. In short, do not procrastinate, even
in taking decision to stop
remaining unemployed . A ‘good ‘ decision taken late is no longer good . It remains good only
when the time component of the decision
is right.
One of the reasons
why the time element of decisions must be taken seriously is that
there is time for every thing . It is well known that there is time to
plant and time to harvest. If one
planted at a wrong time , the yield will
be poor, whereas the reverse
will be the case if planting was
done at the right time-the harvest will be abundant.let us then learn to appreciate time and respect it . it is supposed to be , and
it is , God’s gift for our control of circumstances. Many have been ruined in life
for just not recognizing the value of time.
3.
GET YOUR PRIORITIES RIGHT
To be continue in next
edition.
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