Sunray, July 23, 1993

 After the National Youth Service, what next? From here, where next? How long have you been fantasizing and dreaming of your next port of call after putting most of your life in academic pursuit? Would you further your studies, look for an employment or get married? Would your dreams come true?

Where next after the service year? I wonder if furthering education in a chaotic atmosphere when an academic calendar is no more stable, is advisable! Our graduation in the face of ASUU/government imbroglio really calls for celebration. I still wonder if we, the present set of corps members, would get successors this year.

And if you have made up your mind to get married immediately after the service, make sure you are saving enough from your monthly allowance for the honeymoon.

I still wonder what our fate will be after the service to our fatherland. With the situation in the country where a university degree does not guarantee an automatic employment, one has to make one’s resolution before the service year runs out. Thousands of graduates are roaming the streets in search of non available jobs. Not that those unemployed graduates do not possess the necessary qualifications but lack indispensable connections in Nigerian context.

Gone were the days when, with a secondary school certificate, one could get a decent job in a flourishing establishment. But today, armed with a good degree certificate, the heels of your shoes will wear out and your clothes get tattered as you keep on searching for non -vacant jobs.

From the foregoing, it becomes necessary, as it is advisable before the hammer of unemployment and frustration slams on us, to wake up from our slumber and face the reality of existence by planning ahead of time for a brighter future, while we are still serving.

If you want to be retained in your establishment, work hard and contribute to its development and that of your host community. Read the dailies; there are vacancies if you are interested, send to the organisation your prepared Curriculum Vitae (CV) attached with an application. No matter how odd the job that comes your way, take the offer and be grateful. Remember God can provide you with a better place in future.