By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja

The rate of unemployment in Nigeria is arguably on the rise; hence more youths are conscious of the fact that they have to be self-employed with or without formal education. 

The steady increase of trading activities across markets in the Federal Capital City due to the influx of people from other parts of the country, has made it easier for many Nigerians, particularly youths, to seek ancillary services they could offer to both buyers and sellers in exchange for money. 

It is not uncommon in a developing world context like Nigeria to find many stories of extreme resilience of a people motivated to find a means to survive.

Using a small cart with a single wheel at the front and two supporting stands and two handles at the rear, these youths are able to sustain some living, carrying goods in marketplaces for a fee.

Findings by Saturday Vanguard indicate that nowadays a typical wheelbarrow pusher in any of the markets in Abuja smiles home with cash gains to the tune of N3,000 – N6,000 daily.

Unsurprisingly, many wheelbarrow pushers told stories of beginning work in this field as children, either because it was what the family did or because they had to find the means to live. Sadly, child labour laws are rarely enforced in the country.

For those who began pushing wheelbarrows as boys, it was either they figured it out alone or found a friend or mentor who helped.

In both instances, these were, in a sense, stories about struggle, but they framed them in a way to highlight their successes and how they came from nothing or very little and made something out of it.

For instance, Abdulmalik Idris came to Abuja in 2005 as a teenager in search of Islamic knowledge. But despite his extremely poor conditions, the youth surmounted the obstacles that could have threatened his success in life.

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Sometimes when people narrate their success stories, the credits go to people they helped or how they were helped by others in critical situations. But for Abdulmalik, his success story can be attributed to his courage and strength of character.  

After completing his Quranic education, the young man could not get a job, but with the help of a wheelbarrow, he was able to start and grow a viable business, transporting goods from one shop to another or from the point of purchase to the buyer’s car.
 
“I have always wanted a business I could do to eke a living and make good cash as a result of my limited formal education, so I can say that the wheelbarrow saved me,” he told our correspondent in Hausa language. 

He continued, “I started my business in 2012 after graduating from the Madarasatul (Quranic school). It didn’t take long for me to realise that with my qualification, getting a white-collar job would throw a lot of challenges on my path and make my life more difficult.

“I also considered that there are hardly job openings in our society for people with only Islamic knowledge. I started pushing the wheelbarrow so that I could be my own boss. Initially, I spent several days begging for alms to eat. Then one day, I stumbled on an old friend who showed me where I could hire a wheelbarrow to operate in the market with small capital.

“So, with my small money I had saved, I followed his advice and successfully hired the first wheelbarrow I pushed as an entrepreneur.
I paid N500 for the wheelbarrow and made N1,200 by sunset on my first day.

“After several months of hiring other people’s carts, I raised N10,000 and bought my first wheelbarrow. And soon, I was making cool cash on a regular basis. I used to sleep in a street mosque along Parakou Crescent in Wuse II district, but now I have moved to my own apartment ready to get married soon.”

Although this kind of story is easy to embellish by the storyteller to place himself or herself in a better light, it is nonetheless notable that such personal accounts seem to have currency amongst those who have moved from a place of grass to grace.

That was no different with Yahuza Ibrahim, another wheelbarrow pusher in his mid 30’s who plies his trade in Wuse market, telling a story about himself overcoming hardships and finding a way to get his acts together while pressing forward.

According to Yahuza, his wheelbarrow pushing business has helped him marry the love of his life, enroll his children in school, and achieve other goals.

“It (wheelbarrow pushing) is a profitable business. We are happy with it, because it was with this business I completed my (secondary) education, got married, and empowered some of my friends and relatives to start their own businesses,” he said.

Also, a Kebbi state born soft-spoken man, Bala Sule, 44, also described his journey into the business of cow head retailing as a beautiful process that began with wheelbarrow pushing.

As a young man, Sule started as a wheelbarrow pusher, transporting cow meat from the abattoir to the market each morning. In time, he secured a job as a butcher and was able to move on from pushing wheelbarrows.

No doubts, there is more business potential in processing freshly killed cows for consumption than pushing wheelbarrows as Sule’s profit earnings have increased 10-fold, from an average of N3,000 as a wheelbarrow pusher to N30,000 handling a few cows daily.

Relieving his life experiences as a wheelbarrow pusher, Sule said the business opened many doors for him.

“I started pushing wheelbarrows when I was a little over 13 years of age, but I was motivated by the desire to serve as many people as I could and I stayed motivated daily by the tons of feedbacks and comments I received from people who have been impacted by what I did.

“The journey is a very interesting one; it accorded me so many opportunities to put my people on skills they found useful and turned amazing people.

“Because I always began my daily wheelbarrow pushing operation from the abattoir, I quickly gained so much knowledge required for butchering animals by observing how they were being slaughtered. So, one day I decided to put my knowledge to practice with the rest of the youths there who were already butchers. That’s how I came to this point,” he told Saturday Vanguard. 

Powerful motivators such as pride and success which precede the sense of dignity in one’s labour are evident in how these young people talked about the successes, which have enabled them to financially support their families, rent houses for themselves, take on wives and bear children, and also send their children to school. 

Nonetheless, the stories show that religious norms and values also played a key role in the life of many of these young people from the North, which is not at all unexpected. They often cited traveling for Hajj as one of their most important goals in life. Some also cited Allah as the reason for both their safety and success in the marketplaces. 

Some State governments had, in the past, empowered their people with wheelbarrows. For instance, in 2017, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue, distributed wheelbarrows which had “Gov. Ortom for you” written on them to youths in the State.

However, when the State government’s empowerment gesture was greeted with sharp criticism, the Governor, through his former Chief Press Secretary, Tever Akase, said the wheelbarrows were donated by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, NCFRMI, for victims of armed herdsmen attacks in the state.

Unemployment situation

Chronological data show that the unemployment rate in Nigeria has been on a steady rise in the past seven years.

In 2022, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is estimated to reach 33 percent. This figure, according to statista.com, was projected to be at 32.5 percent in 2021.

Pundits speak

Meanwhile, some experts say that at a time insecurity is ravaging Nigeria, all critical stakeholders must continue to do everything possible to address youth unemployment, one of the factors aggravating the country’s security challenges.

Realising the role of the government in youth empowerment and also stating some of viable employment opportunities can also be found in menial jobs like wheelbarrow pushing, a professor of African History at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, Moses Achonu, said: “I have to admit that when I mocked Ortom, I did not recognise that his idea would have this much purchase and prove this revolutionary. I did not recognise that he saw ahead of all us that the dreams and ambitions of our youths are quite modest.

“Some of us, in our misguided elitism, thought that Nigerian youths deserved quality, challenging jobs and opportunities that would create a pathway for upward socio-economic mobility.

“We were wrong, and Governor Ortom’s empowerment vision has proven to be right, as its popularity across the North demonstrates. For this, I apologise to His Excellency for my earlier mockery.”

Also, worried by Nigeria’s unemployment figures, the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry Young Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) Forum said that in spite of the economic challenges, the country is blessed with a crop of young people, who have chosen not to be a part of the problem, but striving daily to create value and turnaround their fortunes.

The chairman of ACCI Young CEOs Forum, Mr. Fife Banks, said: “Nigeria is replete with challenges but we are not one of the challenges. In fact, we are the solution.

“Apart from the fact that Nigeria is indeed a nation of young people, majority of the non-oil income we have as a nation can be traced to the efforts of some young people somewhere.

“We are not just here to help the country make money or to make money for ourselves, or create jobs for other young people; we need to collaborate with policymakers and public office holders. This is with a view to help to make meaning of the unprecedented changes the world is experiencing.”