What could motivate a PhD student to carry a placard asking for a job?

Systemic frustration and desperation, says 26 year old Ibubeleye MacDonald, who has a Bachelors Degree in Education, Guidance and Counselling; Masters in Education Psychology, and is currently working on her PhD in Education Psychology at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

But MacDonald isn’t interested in just any job.

“I want to lecture, that’s what I want. I don’t want oil company work, I want to teach,” MacDonald told YNaija in a telephone chat. She insisted that she wrote the names of President Muhammadu Buhari and Nyesom Wike, the Governor of her state, because both men have influences in the different institutions in Rivers state

“Everyone has a dream, has a passion, has their calling. My drive, my passion, my love is for lecturing. I can decide to do something and fail woefully cause that’s not where I belong, please I am not looking for money, Some people said I am calling Buhari to give me NNPC job… If I am offered that I will turn it down! I have a focus! I know what I want,” MacDonald had written on her facebook wall a day after she carried the job placard.

She had, in the past, applied for a lecturing position at the different higher institutions in Rivers state but she wasn’t employed.

MacDonald graduated from UNIPORT with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.49, just a single point shy of a 4.50 CGPA which would have propelled her into first class and guaranteed her an automatic employment at her Alma Mata, sadly that it wasn’t so.

“I remembered how I struggled in school to make first class so that the university would retain me but unfortunately instead of 4.5 my CGPA was 4.49 and that was the first time I felt my dream drifting away. My Late supervisor advised me to come back for my Masters that the department needs people like me, I told him I didn’t have money, he said I should apply that God was going to make a way, i did!”

Speaking on her job search efforts, MacDonald wrote on her wall: “I went to uniport they sent me back, I went to ust, they said who do u know?, I went to college of arts and science, they threw my application out. I went to different schools they said they will pay me 10k with my masters and my transportation monthly is more than that.”

Taking to the streets was her last option, as “I have gone through all the channels. I’m desperate to get the job that’s why I went on the street.”

On the rising trend for self employment and entrepreneurship, the rather ambitious job seeker said that she has received numerous suggestions from well meaning Nigerians to learn a skill but “I did not decide to get a Masters degree to drop it and start making beads or sewing clothes. If we all acquire skills who will patronise who? who will teach our children? why don’t we tell lawyers or doctors to pick up a skill when they don’t get jobs Everyone has a dream, has a passion, has their calling.”

Has there been any positive response

“Yes,” MacDonald says, but not from government or any of the higher institutions.

“None of the schools have reached across, only private secondary and primary schools. I have sent my CV to them but I’m still waiting for their response.”

MacDonald insists that she wasn’t interested in too much money, she just wants to follow her dream of lecturing.

“Give me work! I want to lecture! I don’t need big salary. . 80k is ok for me,” she had written on her Facebook page.

On a more somber note, MacDonald had written about her father, whom she said borrowed to fund her education. And her project supervisor who “gave me his books for free, he supervised my project.”

“I thought of my late grandma who will always say that I will wipe away her tears, I thought of my dad who borrowed money and did all he could to make sure I got the best, I thought of how he would wish I were a boy, so I won’t have to get married.”