Of Jobs and Satellites

Sorry that I have not been consistent. Well, consistent wouldn’t be the word now, would it? I posted only once, with my worries and ruminations, and then I stopped posting. Now, I am posting again. I think I should say, with a measure of sureness, that I will do more of this as from now on.

Well, let me take it up from where I left it. I am now in Nigeria, no job yet, but I am managing to survive. I just finished designing a programme in Development Studies by distance learning for the Distance Learning Centre of the University of Ibadan, where I did my B.A. That got me some money, although I haven’t got paid yet… the Nigerian bureaucratic problem. Ok, I am also doing transcriptions of some videos for a professor in the university. There was a series of TV programmes on Getting the University System in Nigeria Back on Track. It is a mighty boring job, trying to get exactly what people said on paper is not the easiest thing to do. It isn’t like I haven’t had any job offers at all; I have. If you remember, I did an M.A. in Development Studies at Uppsala, Sweden, and I am not interested in doing anything apart from a development-related job, and that limits my options to government and NGOs. Well, one NGO offered me a job, offering a pay of 30,000 naira per month (just a little over 200 dollars). Even in Nigeria, that is pretty low. It was an offer I couldn’t accept. I told the Director of the NGO that I couldn’t accept that kind of salary but she says that since I don’t have much of working experience they would have to put me on probation, with that much, and after a year they would review my position with them. Sounds considerate, doesn’t it? But it beats me to think that I might have to live on that kind of salary, which is pretty low, and would probable take care of only my feeding and accommodation. That same thing about working experience would also come up when I went for an interview with Catholic Relief Services on January 24. The post I was interviewed for was Programme Assistant, under their Peace Building, Emergency Response and Governance Programme. What struck me was the emphasis on working experience. How much working experience do you expect from a 25 year-old masters degree holder? I have done a bit during my university days, but I went, almost directly, from my BA to the MA programme, and that means that I couldn’t have had much of experience. What I thought, at the end of the interview, was that if they wanted someone who is fresh from the university, bright, honest, trainable and ready to learn, I would get the job; but if they want someone who has already had some form of training, like every other person who was invited for the interview – a little older – it seemed that the person who was next to me in age was about 30 –I simply did not stand a chance. I have since done a mail to ask how I fared at the interview and I still haven’t heard from them. I just saw an advert in the papers by the Society for Family Health, an NGO that works on reproductive health issues, for Communications Officer. I am simply over-qualified for the job, since they want someone with a BA in Communications – which I do – and with practically no experience. There was no mention of an MA. Also, reproductive health and HIV are simply not my kind of thing. But I think I will apply for the position. I am getting worried about not having a job.

OK, to something more positive. I went with my friend, Adebayo – we call him Sunshine, he is one of my closest friends; you’ll hear of him often – and his Masters in Geographical Information Systems classmates to the National Space Research Development Agency. Oh yea, Nigeria has a space programme, and we even have a disaster monitoring satellite in space, one of four of such. Pretty cool, isn’t it? We were at the ground station of the NigeriaSat-1, and I was really wowed at how efficient the people who run the place looked and spoke. I had never really thought much of satellites but I started thinking more about it when I heard that Nigeria is sending a new satellite, NIGCOMSAT-1, a communication satellite, into space later this year. This means that broadcasting, telephony, internet and other communication stuffs would become more accessible. I don’t think I should say much about satellites and their use so I’ll leave it at this.

OK, people, I will let you know when something new happens in my life.