By Alagie Saidy-Barrow
Sometimes, you’ll meet people who tell you they don’t follow events in our colonial space and have no idea what’s going on. Or you’ll meet others who tell you that, because you don’t live within the colonial borders, you should mind your business and not get involved or get all worked up over issues there. On some level, I admire these people. There have been times when I, too, wished I could just forget about Gambia and mind my business. You know, focus on my family and build my life toward a peaceful retirement. But I have never been able to. And that’s because no business is as dear to my heart as seeing a better Gambia for all! For some of us, whether you live on Mars or completely erase Gambia from your mind, Gambia always finds a way to get to you. More so around university graduation time.
Every year, around graduation, I’m inundated with CVs and messages from graduates seeking jobs. I’m honestly not sure why people think I have any influence or power to help them, but I thank Seedy Njie for making it jaharrang that, left to him, people like me can never get anything from the APRC/NPP government. Thankfully, unlike them, I’m a very content man who needs or wants zero favors from sullied men and women feasting on the tired backs of poor Gambians.
Over the past few weeks, many young men and women have reached out to me for help finding a job. This morning, I woke up to the news that the government has created 163,000 jobs!!! Talk about cooking the numbers!!! I wonder who these 163,000 people are, what kinds of jobs they picked up, and where. I know every minister is dying to impress Adama Barrow, especially since it’s election time, but jeez!!! Anyway, let me get to the reality I see while the government and its agents wallow in fantasy.
Of the people contacting me, some are nurses, and others have degrees in economics, finance, etc. They all tell me they’ve applied to several jobs but haven’t found anything yet. I’m shocked that someone with a nursing degree could graduate and still be unable to find a job in The Gambia. Given the runaway degree inflation afflicting the country, I can understand why it may be hard to find jobs in other fields, but in nursing?
Anyway, when people reach out to me, I often let them know that I don’t own any enterprise in The Gambia where I can hire anyone. Sadly, I also advise them not to mention my name, even as a reference, when applying for government jobs or speaking with government officials. I am very familiar with the narrow-minded, vengeful nature of many senior officials in the Gambia Government. Many of them cannot survive without working in government or aligning with politicians. This of us who call out their greed, duplicity, incompetence, and corruption become their worst enemies. Believing that the government belongs to them and their masters, their only way of retaliating is to deny you anything that has to do with the government.
If I have any advice for you, it is to get a skill. Given the degree inflation that abounds, things will only likely get tougher unless you mortgage your soul to some politician in order to survive. Learn a skill. A degree does not guarantee you income, whereas a skill will always offer you an opportunity.
Look at the photos attached herein. One was in Lamin circa 1993. I had already graduated from high school. I learned a bit of carpentry at my brother’s carpentry/sawmill. Fast forward, a staffing agency placed me at Nashville Sash and Doors, a company that specialised in making windows and doors. After working there for about six months or so, I became a supervisor, earning more than others I found there. What helped me was the little I learned at my brother’s carpentry workshop in Lamin. So whatever you do, learn a skill. It will only provide you with more opportunities to survive. At worst, with a skill, you will not have the need to prostitute yourself to some miseducated and spineless politician. Please learn a skill.
