By Orukotan Ayomikun Samuel
How can one explain the tragedy of the living, dying when he is trying to live? How can one console with the bereaved family of the victim of “Darwin’s theory”? How can one convince Nigerians that Nigeria is leverage for all common man? I ask these questions because I cannot correlate “what happened” to “why did it happen.”
Nevertheless, the ultimate search for livelihood continues. Who find it first was the situation like when the crazy search for “source of revenue” rose up once again, the usual status quo was never going to change its way of life and yet once more, he took away the lives of the “hoping” while many was made to count the cost of what this country has become over-time. The zeal was there on the part of the candidates, the enthusiasm was at its peak in orgiastic visual pleasure, the commitment was much more there for all and sundry to see and we never saw less.
Myriad youth from different ethnicity, beliefs and culture came together under one umbrella of “looking for job” with their usual “white as snow” dressing. The number of candidates in each center across the country was in thousands and the available space was just too small. a mathematician can tell you the meaning of that statistics mathematically but be it as it may, the national problem has become an individual delinquent, the society wants more from him, the family is giving her its own responsibility expecting a feedback. The test conducted across the country on Saturday (15th of March 2014) was another burning issue in a nation that is not doing well according to the scorecards of Nigerians.
However, the test conducted was just a mere formality because the ones to be picked have been picked even before the test was held. They are well aware of this charlatan act but yet the master-to- slave thing in this country will never go in a hurry. Promising Nigerians were made to face the hard way in getting a job, they queued for hours, and some were stampeded upon while others suffered from various degrees of injuries.
Funny enough, either many of the candidates who wrote the test would never be shortlisted based on merit or on performance, rather it will be the case of picking mediocrity at the expense of excellence. That has always been the usual trend for quite some time now and I don’t think it is going to change soon. This is another form of apartheid in our nation. Picking a mediocre for a job involves lobbying, bribery and even corruption. These vices are abnormalities, they will never help our productivity as a nation neither will it make us a better country, we keep killing the future of this country directly or indirectly. We cannot be dreaming of a new Nigeria with a mediocre mind. We cannot be dreaming about a new Nigeria without fairness and neutrality. We can never have a new Nigeria without changing the usual status quo. No way!
What is the fate of the masses in this country? Where is the hope of the hopeless in this country? These are categories of people that have no connection- no people in power to influence their inconveniences in life. Some have their only hope in God and others, probably what they can offer, they opted for excellence rather than mediocrity, they are not sometimes fashionable but I bet it with you, they are actually excellence personified. Who even cares about your certificate anymore? Who even cares about your grade out of school? Little out of many does. That is the situation we find ourselves in and until we as Nigerians try to take back our country on the streets of revolution, our government will keep organizing the death of myriads of Nigerian at the stadium more so that our “rulers” are no longer “leaders”.
Now that we are well aware of this bedlam in the immigration job screening test and Nigerians are waiting anxiously for its outcome. It will be common sense if we choose candidates based on merit, so that the glory of this country that has been traded with injustice, corruption, stealing and bloodshed will come back earnestly. The labor of our heroes past must never be in vain, we must uphold the integrity of this nation even in these trying times across the country. The only way to do this is to surprise Nigerians and disappoint Money who always thinks it can influence everything.
What am I bringing to the table of national development? Our ability to answer this question correctly in the context of the screening exercise that has just been concluded not minding its tragedy will be a test of unity, not tribalism and trust we acclaim to profess. Until then, I remain pessimistic as regards the outcome of Saturday’s fight for survival.
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© CC BY-NC-ND 2014
