'That annoying job advert' - Uzor Ngoladi

When I heard the advertisement over the radio, I cleared my head and ear and listened again. Dangote Cement is recruiting drivers whose qualification must not be less than Bachelor’s Degree or Higher National Diploma.

In other words, Aliko Dangote is inviting applications from graduates who will ply our dangerous roads with long trucks loaded with cements. We have suffered a lot of humiliation in this my generation but seeking graduates for employment as a cement truck drivers is the height of it.

This precarious job opening has further rubbished our educational system and demystified the significant prestige attached to academics. Who will allow his child to end up as a truck driver after spending years to acquire a University Degree?

Dangote's honest intention to reduce unemployment should not be misconstrued here. Unemployment is the highest injustice done to this generation of youths. Lawyers have turned to estate agents and doctors tell all sorts of lies to patients just to make ends meet. Jobs are scarce while entrepreneurship is preached endlessly to the suffering youths of Nigeria.

Most young Nigerians do not have the capacity to bear rigors and challenges of entrepreneurship. The legendary lazy Niger Delta youths and ex-militants are busy demanding for payments of stipends from a government they have not worked for.

Dangote should look in their direction to recruit truck drivers and leave graduates alone to nurse their wounds. Truck driving is not for persons who studied in institutions of higher learning. Militants fits into this picture.