Few days ago, Thankgodeboh posted an article titled "Of Ambode 50,000 Ngn, Idleness And One Night Stand" where he advised Lagos graduates to swallow their pride so they can swallow the 50,000 naira the state government wishes to pay them for working as bus conductors. He was right but there are some underlying issues that need to be looked into. The major problem with Nigerian graduates in general is pride. They believe they are semi gods that should be worshipped because they spent four, five or six years in an higher institution. To them, anyone that had not been to an higher institution, either a University of a Polytechnic, is an illiterate, even if they made their SSCE in flying colours.

The first problem many graduates have with the graduate bus conductor scheme is that it existence was not officially announced by the Lagos state governor. It was announced by Comrade Israel Ade, the national president of the Bus Conductors Association of Nigeria (BCAN), through the Lagos State Ministry of Transport. In other words, a serving or former bus conductor told Lagos graduates that they would soon be employed as bus conductors. Abomination! Many graduates would see this as demeaning due to their over bloated ego and high expectations. They would have preferred the state governor to announce it himself so they can at least brag that their job was so important the state governor took his time to personally announce it.

The second is packaging. Graduate and conductors are two words that should not even appear in the same sentence and even when they do, they should be separated with as many filler words as possible. Comrade Ade broke this rule when he separated “graduands” and “conductors” with only five words. According to him, “…graduands would be employed as bus conductors”. Comrade, just like that?

“Graduands who have been to the University or Polytechnic and completed their National Youth Service Corps service year and have nothing doing at present apart from maybe, having one night stands as Toke Makinwa said the other day would be employed as bus conductors” would have been more appropriate. There are forty-two words between “graduands” and “conductors” which is very okay. The words are unnecessary but they serve a purpose. Yet, someone (I won’t reveal his name for security reasons) even had the guts to refer to these new breed of upcoming conductors as “graduate conductors”.

If Lagos BRT drivers are called “pilots”, LAWMA waste disposers are called “sanitation officers” and Lagos street cleaners are called “highway managers”, why then should graduate conductors be called graduate conductors. Lagos state really needs to take a cue from Aregebesola Osun state’s O-YES scheme, whose members are called “cadets” irrespective of the fact that many of them sweep roads and pack waste. The cadets are in different units we like to think are called “battalions”.

There is the Green Gang, which beautifies the state; the Sanitation Czars who are the Osun state equivalent of LAWMA; the Sheriffs, who are glorified security men; the Teacher Corps, which is self explanatory and the Public Works Gang, which maintains public buildings and facilities. Many of these cadets are graduates and they are doing the work happily since the packaging is very okay. It makes more sense to say you work as a sanitation czar than as a waster packer. Before whoever you spoke to can guess what czar means, you are off.

As an end note, I would advise Ambode, the Lagos state Minister of Transportation and Comrade Israel Ade to put together the same heads they used to come up with the scheme, to come up with a classy name for it. I would have advised them to use “bus coordinators” or more preferably, “mobility supervisors” but they know better. Comrade Ade himself should be ready to change the name of the association to suit the new graduates who would be members, else the graduates would form a rival association. Meanwhile, other Lagos graduates like me who are not interested in taking up the graduate conductor jobs, irrespective of what it is called, can continue having one night stands as Toke Makinwa advised.

https://moshbakare..com.ng/2016/11/in-defence-of-nigerian-graduates.html

1st. It was Entrepreneurship

2nd. It was Masquerade

Now. Bus conductor