A Lost Generation: No One Is Telling Our Story

image: flickr.com

A quarter to my parents
A quarter to my siblings
The rest for my wife, son and me
Says Jide about his salary
It is the burden of the first born
Here retirement has no benefits
When your employer is the government
Jide's parents are retired unity school teachers

Three thousand Naira for statement
Ten litres of diesel
Thirty minutes wait for nearest van
Breakfast for three
Our cost of reporting a crime to Police
They have to keep the station afloat
The generator is a community donation
The furniture is older than my grandpa's
The money pipe from HQ to station is leaking

One hour daily to cut grass and pick dirt
Two teachers unavailable each day
No Music teacher; no French teacher
100 students in a class
JSS1 has all the twenty-six alphabets
When it rains the class floods
The sun slowly touches every seat
The public schools create outliers
Either you come out as a genius
Or you come out as a dullard
The luxury of average is not allowed

Five years job experience
Must have 2-1 Bachelors and Masters
Must have ACCA, PMP, ITIL
Must have worked in two different industries
Must not be older than 28 years old
Still they get 50,000 applications
Getting a job is now a job
And an almost impossible one
If you did ND, HND or technical college
No matter how unreasonable the requirements
A flood of applications is guaranteed

We are the lost Generation
Our President today was our ruler 33 years ago
The same set of people at our independence 56 years ago
Are still the ones in charge today
The dead ones replaced by their brothers, wives and children
An entire generation locked out
We are two in every three Nigerians
We bear all the pain; they take all the gain
And no one is telling our story