Why I Don’t Want To Graduate From The University

I recall vividly that very moment in Presec-Legon, the 14th of May 2012, after writing my E-Maths paper which was my last paper in my WASSCE exam; I was brimmed with endless joy, and the desire to go to the university unceasingly raced through my mind. At that point, I knew I wasn’t far from the popular mantra, “Education is the key to success.” I had the feeling that I was gradually getting hold of that key. I spontaneously began to see the shadow of my dreams to become a successful person perambulating around me. I could smell the aroma of the impact I had yearned to make on humanity. I had the feeling that I wasn’t far from my success story.

Today, I am in my final year at the university; I have just two months to graduate, and I have experienced countless array of nightmares. Under normal circumstances, I am supposed to be a happy person after successfully going through a four-year degree programme, but that is not my case. I am rather sad. The magnitude of joy I experienced the very day I gained admission to the University has totally minified. I have so much fear stirring into my wandering eyes. And the reason for all these mixed feelings is hanged around the neck of "a gentleman" called unemployment.

This gentleman called unemployment is very popular in Ghana, and could have earned the title “Oseade3yor” if he was a chief. Students know him more than their index numbers and the names of their lecturers. He has tormented the lives of many graduate students, and it is still tormenting them.

As a writer, I always take the pain to interact with my colleague final year students, and I can tell you for a fact that we all have humdrum chicken heartedness. Getting the chance to do National Service at copacetic places and securing jobs after National Service are the undistinguished challenges of every final year student.

The reality is that majority of us will do our national services at places we have never dreamt of, and may become unemployed after the National Service program. You can feel free to disagree with me on this; and I pray that your faith works for you, but that is the reality and I doubt if any fetish priest from Benin can even debunk this.

With all these fears, my Mum recently told me something interesting; It is not an Anase story as you may think. She said she has planned to buy a plot of land when I start working. She told all her friends that her son will graduate soon from the university and start working at an office. I don’t know where that office is located though, but she really meant it.

Unfortunately, she is an illiterate and probably hasn’t heard the word unemployment before; she has also forgotten that my cousin, Samuel who completed KNUST in 2012 is still at home. All his spiritual and physical attempts to get a job have proved futile. My Mum has all her hopes in me. I am her only son, and I can’t afford to disappoint her, but the system is making things steeled.

As I think about my Mum’s overrated hopes in me, I also dare not say words like “I LOVE YOU” or anything related to relationship to any lady. For this reason, I have walked in KNUST for four good years with my eyes always pointed to the sky so as to escape the attraction of those beautiful damsels who perambulate pavements practically naked.

The truth is that right after university, most of these ladies will start using people’s wedding pictures on their whatsapp dps. At the moment, many of them have started watching classic Nigerian wedding videos on Youtube, and doing secret rehearsals for their future weddings. Others are also wearing promise rings which sometimes block my view in lecture halls. I don’t know who has promised them, but even without a man proposing to them, they seemed to be ready for marriage.

Unfortunately, here I am as a young energetic man about to graduate from the university only to receive GHC350 monthly allowance for a national service job, and there is no assurance a job after my national service.

The last time I checked in August 2015, a precious wedding ring cost GHC2000; a wedding reception cost over GHC15, 000; wedding suit and gown were about GHC1, 500 each, and a rented apartment cost over GHC2000 a year. This means I need over GHC40, 000 before I could think about marriage or rather, a worthwhile wedding. And am going to receive GHC350 as national service allowance for just about ten months. No assurance of a lucrative job after national service. This is the omen of most young graduates in Ghana now.

I attended a government program dubbed “Campus Connect”; frankly speaking, Hon. Fiifi Kwatey was one minister who inspired all students present that evening. He charged us to think outside the box. In this vein, a friend of mine decided to invest into a cashew business at Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo region, and indeed, he made huge profit from the business. After the business, he decided to reinvest all the money in DKM micro finance, and unfortunately, all the money went down the drain. Another friend also decided to invest in palm oil by serving as a middleman between farmers and individuals who needed it on large scale at Asnate Juaben. Some few days after this plan, the news broke that Sudan 4 was added to palm oil thus making it dangerous to the health. His plans were shattered. As Pastor Mensah Otabil will rightly say, the environment is Sulphuric and sabotages efforts of the youth. Very pathetic! There are no jobs, and when we make attempts to create jobs, the sulphuric environment assassinates our dreams.

I must say that unemployment is not peculiar to a particular government, but I think every government must make it a priority to arrest the canker. Thousands of students will graduate from our universities soon and we are all brimmed with fear and a precarious future.

My advice to the youth is that, I know this piece may apply to many of you, but you shouldn’t give up. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We must carry on with all efforts to overcome these unpalatable circumstances.

“We are not children of a lesser god”
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Ntenhene Felix
([email protected])
KNUST