By: Chukwudi Iwuchukwu
Obinna, a graduate from a poor home, spends 7 years in the university and comes out with nothing to start life with.
It is Obinna against the world,
In a world where there is no job waiting for Obinna after graduation, he is literally starting from the scratch and that is why many Nigerian graduates are underperforming, because the odds are heavily stacked against them.
Junior from the same poor family chose a different route as he opted to do the Nwa Boy (Igbo apprenticeship system) and was settled with 15 million after serving the master diligently for 7 years.
The same time Obinna spent reading a useless course in Unizik.
In the next 10 years from now, who do you think will be better off in life with a better outcome and in a better position to lift the family out of poverty?
Obinna, who spent 7 years at Unizik, reading a course that is not relevant in a world that is in a constant flux.
or
Junior who is starting his own life with 15 million lifeline and business grant, who even though he is not a graduate is street smart and equipped to run a proper business
The irony is that Junior will end up marrying a graduate, even though he is not one, because he is in a better financial standing to take care of any woman he desires.
He will even marry the prettiest woman over Obinna that is struggling.
If you want to understand why many graduates today are struggling and are working for traders who are not lettered, this is why.
We need to rethink and rejig our educational system.
It is not working, and rather, it is producing mass poverty on a scale that we have not seen before.
