'‘8 wasted years.."

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8 wasted years 

In between my busy days during the week, occasionally, I have had the time to resort to catching a ’Taxify’ or an ‘Uber,’ especially when I have to juggle between a late afternoon pick-up of my children from school, rushing for a client meeting or simply trying to get to a social gathering that I have been invited to. 

So a few days ago, I ordered Taxify, this time, to get me to the Murtala Mohammed Airport on a late Friday evening.’ I got into the car, exchanged pleasantries with my driver and decided to chat as we were going to be in the car for a long, long ride (plus I endeavor to  learn a thing or two about every individual that I meet for the first time). “How is business...?” I asked. ‘It is going okay,’ he replied, and we continued to talk about the the Taxify and Uber businesses specifically and how they are impacting transportation of individuals across Lagos, a mega city that is full of trading opportunities but quite congested and stressful to live and work in. As we progressed in our conversation, I realized that my driver spoke impeccable English and as we continued to talk, he stated that ‘this is my first real job (driving a Taxify/Uber authorized vehicle) after graduating from college/the University 8 years ago

and then concluded with a statement.. ‘8 wasted years..’

I then began to think to myself as I shook my head.. Awful, isn’t it? It was ‘8 wasted years’  for this gentleman and several others or even more for some. Okay, for a second, let’s not go through the blame game of how he could have learned a trade or perhaps pursued a masters degree or how the government could have come up with a solution/system to solving the long standing unemployment problem in Nigeria, but instead, let’s ask ourselves, how can we avoid ‘8 wasted years’ for many more graduates that will graduate seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years from the moment that you are reading this... Again, how can you and I stop or prevent  another graduate from getting into the quagmire of ‘8 wasted years?’ I welcome your thoughts.

written and published by @DeeCla Publishers
The writer, Clara Ogunsemi is a consultant with DeeCla Services Limited. Clara loves to project manage, read and write. When she is not working, she enjoys travelling and spending time with her family. She can be reached at cogunsemi@yahoo.com