There is this expectation which the
society has instilled in us, this blueprint which we’ve been condition to
follow, and it’s this: “go to school, get a good education then you’ll get a
good job and you’ll be successful”.
But the truth is, it doesn’t happen
that way. Look around you, you’ll see a lot of young people, they’ve finish
school and they’ve got no hope. All over the country, we’re struggling with
high unemployment figure, graduates are struggling with being told they’re not
good enough, they’re “half-baked graduates” and so many are just lost.
The few that manage to get a job
are dissatisfied, they feel overworked and frustrated. Many are going to jobs
that are making them sick and they are never paid enough to meet their needs
talk less of satisfying their wants.
As a matter of fact all
post-colonial countries have exactly the same scenario. They go through the
transition from being oppressed to being delivered – mind you I didn’t say
free. We confuse deliverance with freedom. As a matter of fact Independence
doesn’t mean you are free, independence simply means you’ve chosen to chat your
own course, your own destiny. Whether you make it or not is up to you.
To solve a problem you have to
understand its root cause. So let me try, based on the little knowledge and
experience I have gathered, shed light on the root cause of unemployment and
under-employment.
Before the advent of colonization,
each family is known by the work they do. “Alagbede” or “Agbede” is the
Blacksmith, “Alaro” is the dyer, “Alagbe” or “Onigangan” is the Entertainer
“Elemu” is the Winery “Apeja” is the fishery “Darandaran” is the livestock
farmer and majority are farmers. They cultivate the land and the family feed
from what it produces. The little you cannot produce and you need, is obtained
by exchanging what you have for what you needed (I.e. trade by barter)
Then the colonial master came first
to carry away people to work as SLAVE
on their plantations in faraway land. Their economic systems, political systems
and socio-cultural systems grew. People begin to question slavery and then it
was abolished.
But the industries still needed the
raw materials and resources from the colonies. So they came a second time – not
to promote our culture, develop our trade or products but - to gather natural
resources and raw materials from here to feed their industries, produce
products, sell to us and thereby grow their markets and economy. However, they
face a major obstacle, they cannot speak our language, so they face
communication barrier with the local chiefs, in terms of getting the consent to
mine the natural resources. They face communication barriers in terms of
organizing, controlling and directing the labourer etc.
So to solve this problem. They
crafted a very ingenious solution. They said “let us take some of their own
people and trained them, we will call this training “education”. We will
educate this few to speak our language (English) and to imbibe our culture.
After they complete this period of education, will give them cars to ride and accommodation
to live in and pay them salaries so that they will appear very distinguished,
very respectable. Being of their sort, their people will listen to them and
respect them. They will liaise between us and their chiefs to secure rights for
us to natural resources. They will organize labourers to work for us, they will
pass our instruction to the labourer to do our bidding”. And so the “Civil Servant” or “Educated Slave” is born.
So the purpose of this system of
education is to trained persons that will graduate and be employed by the colonial masters. The person being so trained have
a right to expect the colonial master to employ him/her. They cannot work
anywhere else except for the colonial master. You don’t need this education to
be a palm-wine tapper or an entertainer or a blacksmith, you have to work for
the colonial masters as a civil servant. The education trains you to be fit for employment as administrator for
the masters.
When the colonial masters left, our
system of government and everything else including educational system was
mirrored after what we received from them. Because the people that took over
the mantle of leadership are the administrators trained by the departing colonial
masters. So, naturally, they continue to do things the way they’ve seen their
master do it, the way they’ve been trained by the masters.
At first, this system was working.
The first sets of graduates are gainfully employed by the government and they
have a higher standard of living. This attracts many people to the educational
system. Because our culture, skills, local knowledge, trade, products have not
been developed, have been neglected and the government worker glamorized, many
started leaving their traditional crafts or trades and flocking into the educational system. Parents will tell their children to go to school, get a
good education so that they can get a good job and be successful. That is why
today, everybody expects government
to provide job for the people! It is a colonial mentality, it is the colonial
system of education. In the traditional system, do you expect the Oba to
provide job for the people? The Oba only provides security and an enabling
environment – and each person goes about creating and doing his own work. But
this system of education, inherited from the colonial masters, trains people to
become job seekers “I beg to apply”…. not to discover or create their work.
This is why we need a paradigm
shift. We need to recondition our mindset from a job seeking mentality to a work
discovering mentality. Now you may say “Job” and “Work” are they not the same?
No, they are not.
Your job is what they train you to
do, your work is what you are born to do. Your job is your skill, which they
can fire you from – because there may come along someone more skillful. But
your work is your gift, no one can take that from you. It is your innate
ability, your purpose.
You can’t get rich or even
satisfaction working on a job, because, when you are on a job, somebody is
benefiting from your energy. But, when you are doing your work, it means you
are using your own energy to be productive and fruitful.
Your job is where you get
compensation for activity, your work is where you get fulfillment because you
love it so much. You can retire from your job but you can never retire from
your work because your work is you. It’s in your nature (take the example of a
magnet and a battery. A magnet will continue to attract metal forever, it never
dies, even when you break it into smaller fragments, it still continues to
attract any metal substance – that is its nature. On the other hand, a battery
has been put together (trained) to generate energy, after some time, its dies.
So when a person discover their
work, they no longer need a job because their work makes them productive.
Instead of waiting for someone to
give you a job, create your own work. Discover who you are.
A fish is created to swim, a bird
to fly, what are you meant to do? Imagine if you are to pay a fish to swim and
to breathe under water or you pay a bird to fly, they’ll become stupendously
rich without effort because they are doing what they are created to do, what
they love. Now imagine if you train a bird to swim and you put him under water,
imagine how miserable the bird will be and how poorly he will perform the job.
So, how do you know your work? You
have to search within yourself, you have to discover who you really are deep
down. One quick way to know your work is to think of those thing you complain
about, those thing that gives you concern.
It is said that man don’t complain
about any problem he cannot solve. For example, nobody complain about gravity
because we accept gravity, you cannot remove gravity. The fact that you notice
a problem may mean that you are born to solve that problem. Now that you’ve
noticed the problem, use your talents and gifts to solve it. And the bigger,
the rarer and more complex problems you solve, the more valuable you become. And
that is how you become rich, influential and successful.
I think this is what we are
lacking, we are trained to get a job, not to start a business. Instead of
seeking employment, seek deployment. Deploy your talents and gifts. What does
deployment mean? To deploy mean to organize, position, arrange, set up, use
your God given abilities, skills, talents and gifts profitably.
God is creative and he has put that
creative ability within us. So man need to sit, he makes a chair out of wood
(or tree), the weather is hot, he makes air conditional out of resources around
him, people need to keep their money, he creates a bank, people need to travel
he creates horse charts then cars, then planes.
So, look around you, every problem
in life is a business opportunity. In fact, all businesses are simply
somebody’s solution to a problem. The more problem in Nigeria or in the world,
the more businesses for you to begin. There are a thousand and one problems or
rather opportunities in manufacturing, in agriculture, in solid minerals, in
services that you can solve.
But first you have to know – who
you are.
SO,
WHO ARE YOU???
Don’t define yourself by your job,
your job is what you a trained to do. Rather use your job to develop your
talents and gifts.
Don’t just be on a job mindlessly
for years and years until retirement, or jumping from one job to another. Have
a goal, have a cutoff date in mind at which you’ll leave your job to really do
what you love. Because you have this cutoff date in mind, you’ll distinguish
yourself from the others, everything you do will be purposeful, you’ll be more
productive so much that your value will increase and when you are ready to
leave, they’ll offer to pay you more rather than let you go.
Whatever job you are doing now
shouldn’t be your final destination but a bus-stop along the journey to your
own work or business. While your employer is profiting from your output, also
use the job to gain useful experience and exposure that will become handy in
your work.
Note: the main ideas in this write
up is based on principles taught by Dr. Myles Munroe.
