The Eastern PRIDE

Rulers and kings, not of nations and cities but of the jungle where civilization has been turned on its head and morality is foreign and perfectly unnatural. Aba, the local manufacturers’ paradise has been turned into a ghost town ruled by the barrel of guns; reduced to a land of fear, grief, immorality and sorrow. That is what happens when rulers fit only for the jungle begin ruling cities; even the greatest of cities would crumble in the embrace of sudden night. I have heard stories of despicable acts; sons forced to lie with their mothers at gun point, children having their intestines line the streets from radical, uncontrolled shooting by which these beasts in human skin assert dominance over their colonised territory.

You cruel pride of a demonic breed of blood thirsty lion-men with no hearts, I call you this day to reckon; the blood on your hands, the iniquity you have nurtured and your faulty excuses of unemployment would find you out and destroy you accordingly. Though my heart bleeds for your unborn descendants on whom you have placed an irrevocable curse, I also pray that their lives would right your wrongs and give this jungle its brighter days again. We have seen guns, we have seen kidnappings, we have seen violence, not that they are justifiable but they had a reason. In the Niger-delta, they fought for their rights and the dilapidation that embraces the source of the nation’s wealth, in the North many have fought in ignorant defense of religion; with more light and knowledge this should soon be history (because Northerners are very wonderful people), but this evil Pride, you operate in the commercial nerve centre of Abia state, the biggest indigenous manufacturers market in Nigeria, the centre of buying and selling for economic advantage and you chose to abandon both your shops and your schools to bushes where you romance wickedness and invite death and darkness to your own lands. I am amazed at your folly and I still ask you this question; to what end?

WHEN THE JOB SEARCH GOES SOUR

After school and national service

You have remained idle and unengaged

Your funds are fast depleting

As your pockets are full of tickets

From cybercafe to cybercafe

Nairalaland, naijahotjobs, career plus

Have made bank thanks to your misery

Yet without the end in sight

You gather like minds to voice old complains

For your old problem that requires new thinking.

When would this day pass?

And though you are wrinkling under the pressures

I pray you not to throw away your self assurance

Even though the job search has gone sour

Yes, Hope comes from time to time

Interview here and test there,

You imagine that this is it.

Maybe you flunk or you are exceptional

Yet the phone call never seems to come

You are looking for help;

Friends, old bosses, hiring agencies,

You seem to always be ready

But they are, for some reason, still getting set.

When you are encouraged by words

You feel the fire of possibility

So you apply more vigorously

Only to feel and see no progress

After zest and activities have run you overtime

You are lamenting and troubled

Just because the job search has gone sour

Will this nightmare ever end?

Yes it will, but I assure you;

Not in your times.

It may not be your most reassuring line

But it is the best truth I can deliver

In a nation with such a population

How do you nurse an expectation

that our little guises of industrialization

Will salvage our labour situation?

Maybe like I did, you may need to wake up.

There would never be enough jobs

Until there are enough businesses

There would never be few job seekers

Until there are many entrepreneurs.

So expect the job search to stay sour

Connect the dots if you may

And see that my words are true.

The question I then pose to you

Is: do you have the energy for this ordeal?

Which is clear to all above you

But you are still blindsided by a few miracles

Few others like you have experienced.

You may doubt your entrepreneurship abilities

Even as you are understanding my direction

But sometimes we develop abilities

Instead of expressing inherent ones.

I do not give you any suggestion today

But I lay the cards before your face;

Keep up the rat race and celebrate eventualities

Or invent a solution provider and enjoy possibilities…

Its up to you and you alone.

You may be full of dreams and handicapped for capital

But your idea is your capital

And negotiation and inventiveness are your best allies

To draw resources to you and change you life

Because, believe it or not

Most of the organizations you show up at

With your strapped resume and flawless suit (or otherwise)

Only started when the job search went sour.

Foot note: “If nobody gives you a job, make one!” - Pastor Chris Oyakhilome (PhD)