Chieftain regrets jobs Nigerian graduates do in Dubai

The exodus of Nigerian graduates from Nigeria to anywhere else does not look like it is going to abate anytime soon. The worry heightens when it is realized that the emigration lands the graduates in positions far less than what they deserved if Nigeria had provided them jobs or the conducive environment for creating jobs for themselves.

Picture credit: abujavoice.com

In an interview with Punch, the national Chairman of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Chief Olu Okunriboye, regretted that many Nigerian graduates had turned to drivers and cooks in Dubai.

The newspaper quotes Okunriboye as saying: “Many Nigerians now go to Malaysia, Singapore, China and Japan for greener pastures. Dubai was not a strong country, but a small island before. They don’t have oil but today they have too much money. Everybody go to Dubai and when you get there, we don’t pay in Naira.

“Now, many Nigerians have turned to drivers and cooks in Dubai to the extent that the advertisement was placed in the newspapers. I am not saying that driving or cooking is not good. We have a grade and level. They are all graduates and they were pushed to that level because of unemployment. There is nothing wrong with that. If Nigerians now could go to become drivers and cooks, tomorrow, they will become conditions lesser.”

Menre Ayes, writing on gamji.com, tries to analyse the handicap faced by the Nigerian graduate.
In his piece titled, “Nigeria: The Insanity of a Nation”, Ayes wrote: “Millions of Nigeria's graduates are unemployed in Nigeria while secondary school dropouts from foreign countries come to Nigeria with bogus certificate to take up employment in the name of expatriate. Nigeria has no affinity with any of these foreign countries exporting their citizens to our land for economic gains.

“The reasonable questions to ask here are: if the Nigerian political leaders have completely lost faith in Nigeria's universities and their products, what about other Africans who have the skills? Another question is if the Nigerian political leaders feel that the Nigerian graduate is not fully qualified to do the job and that is why they allow foreigners into Nigeria for job's sake, many of these so-called political leaders are also products of these universities, are they fit to be leaders?”

Okunriboye then concludes: “What we need to do is proper planning; good and qualitative education and good medical facilities. Nigeria has a lot to do”.

His suggestion comes in the wake of the heating up political climate in the country ahead of the 2015 general elections when Nigerians have the chance to decide the kind of governors, lawmakers and President they want.