Lifestyle

“How government made me become okada rider” – UNN Graduate narrates

Published

2 years ago

May 20, 2023

A 38-year-old Bachelors degree holder, Temitope Aladesanwa, has said the difficulty in getting government jobs influenced his decision to become a commercial motorcyclist.

The 2014 graduate of political science from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said he wanted to work with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and Nigeria Immigration Service, but his applications were denied on different occasions as a result of the age requirement.

Aladesanwa, who is married with two kids, noted that after several trials and failure to secure employment with a government agency, he resorted to riding bike to provide for his family.

He said,

“The first problem I had after my youth service was that companies were requesting five to 10 years of job experience. Over the years, it became the issue of age because I was around 30 when I completed my youth service but now, I am 38. Most of the jobs out there now are requesting a lower age.

“In the past, I applied to the NSCDC, immigration and the police. In fact, I wanted to apply for the immigration recruitment that was done last year, but having seen the age limit, I couldn’t because it would just be another wasted effort. It is painful that I spent a lot of money schooling and ended up doing this work; this was not the reason I went to school to obtain my degree.”

Similarly, Omotoso Ajiboye, a Higher National Diploma holder in Accounting from the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, narrated how he was forced to give up on their dreams and settled for menial jobs.

He said that he completed his National Youth Service Corps, NYSC programme at age 30, but several attempts to get a job failed, he had to face reality.

According to the 43-year-old man, he wanted to be an Accountant but the situation of things changed his trajectory.

He said;

“This was not what I planned for myself. My aspiration was to become an accountant and that was why I did my National Diploma and Higher National Diploma in Accounting, but as you can see, this is what I found myself doing.

“I was already 30 years old when I graduated and many of the companies I applied to were looking for graduates between 25 and 28 years old. After some time, I got tired of looking for a job. A few years ago, my elder brother bought me this Okada; that’s how I joined this business.”