ARE WE THE STARS OF THIS NIGHT?

These are hard and suffocating times. I don't have good enough words to paint the picture of what lays in my mind but as I sit here scribbling wordings on white sheets, I begin to feel sorry for those of us who have learnt no skills. Yeah, some of us are just there after having invested the remains of our last federal allawee in printing, photocopying and posting of CVs and Application letters, we hope and pray unending for jobs to locate us in order to cater for personal and miscelanuous needs. When these jobs don't come as anticipated, we begin to feel like one whose #14,000,000 ticket was cut by just one match in sports betting.

Then our parents' case come in like breezing winds during heavy rainfalls. "When are we going to see that girl's parents?" Mummy may ask. Just when you begin to wonder where in Hell's heat will you get to cater for your needs albeit a wife's, Daddy begin to see you as a loafer. He may not necessarily utter actual words. All you need do is stay idle where he can see you so he can greet you with that askance look that says nothing enviable about you. If anything, you are just another failed project on his list. Yes! Every undergraduate is an investment. No one feels good when their investments fail to pay off and this explains why our parents feels like it is only normal that they enjoy the fruits of their labour. But when the seed they laboured so hard to cultivate fails to yeild_ that one Na seed!? You don't want to be a failed investment. You don't want to be a fruitless tree. You don't want to be seen as a weed. How will you feel if your business fails to yield expected proceeds? If you'll feel bad then I put it to you that you have no right to think your parents are being hard on you. Just so you'd know, you have no right to even harbor such thoughts.

You know, some weeks before my P.O.P I began to feel really bad about myself. Thoughts of an uncertain future began to find way into my grey matter. "What becomes of me after service?", "why are my V.I.P contacts not taking calls now?" and so on. Ok, before you begin to think those who promised to help you after your service year are 419ners, think again! I was worried sick but then I thought to myself, "they too have responsibilities and are faced by the harsh pangs of the reality of today's Nigeria.", "What if they too need help?", "what if my calls were becoming problematic distractions?" And so I began to feel like they may be doing me some sort of good for not picking my calls. You know that moment when you'd rather be silent because you don't want to hurt someone with words.

I was lost in my own thoughts_ thinking so much about an uncertain future that I became dizzy from over working the muscles of my mind. The future didn't seem so bright in my today (then). I began to feel like a spectator in the future I was promised. Most of us would hold talks that centered on vilifying government of the day for failing to do the do. While we spent hours discussing public office holders who have taken governance and government personal in ways known to be detrimental to poor masses for all time, denying us and our likes the opportunity to come through, I managed to see the fact that we've done more harm than good to ourselves despite the right to better living we've been denied.

There is a need to take a wholistic look at the self, carry out a SWAT analysis and work proactively on the things or that skill within your strength that can put food in your belly, money in the bank and smiles on your face and that of your relatives. Not everyone was born with a skill but everyone can learn one instead of fighting progovernment supporters on social media for being blind to the harsh realities beclouding you. Be useful.

There's no gain saying there are no jobs awaiting fresh graduates. More so, it is difficult to source funds from banks, friends, relatives with which to start up something. I know of someone who together with his cohorts couldn't access the NYSC foundation loan even after meeting with the requirements but these are no yardsticks to continue basking in the eauphoria of "this Government is not responsive." with a string of reasons to go with. No! These vitriolic vilifications will not dissuade the pangs of hunger from biting stomach and intestinal walls.

 These are times that should steer us as Nigerians into drawing actionably realistic plans that will enable us scale through the strangling grip of today's Nigeria. These are dark times but then again let us be the stars of this night.

Prince Jeremiah Kadiri