Nenpam Emmanuel believes that at the root of mass unemployment is injustice; she can tell because for straight 10 years after school at Federal College of Education, Katsina; she had applied for positions but was not offered: “I think something should be done about the employment system in Nigeria, from my experience, even if you pass all the interviews and the exams and you are qualified, still if you don’t know someone, you may not be employed”
Nenpam said she: “I have suffered the injustice of qualifying and passing job interviews, even having my name published but never given a job for one reason or the other”. Nenpam only had a stint of experience in teaching while in Plateau, her home State.
When she could not work in government civil service or private organisations, she opted for self-employment: “I decided to start selling shoes and children’s wear when I couldn’t get employed. I started with 30,000 naira which I had saved for my house rent; I then decided to put it into business” Nenpam sold shoes and fairly used clothing.
In 2019, she thought of expanding the business: “I got a small space near my house where I display the wear: I stocked my shop getting ready for December sale before this COVID-19 dashed all my hope” desperate to sell off her wear, Nenpam decided to hand her wears out on credit. It was a wrong decision: “Till now, people still owe me more than half of the market I bought” she points at the empty shop with dots of children’s wear hanging nailed to the wall.
“COVID-19 came to me as a shock, I am still in shock because I have never recovered from the effect of the pandemic, you can see how empty my shop is, this place use to be full but now, nothing!.” It is easy to tell how far-reaching the impact of COVID on Nempam is, she is not off the hook, her business space is evidence; her anger too.
When everything failed to work, Nenpam turned to farming: “I approached my landlord; begged him to give me a space to farm on his own farm, he gladly obliged me because he has been the one feeding me during the COVID lockdown.
So, I started farming and selling the yield of the farm and also eating from it, that was how I managed my life during the COVID period”. Nenpam begged to be helped: “Please tell the government that we are suffering, we need help, we need loan for our small business, and some of us need to start our life again after COVID” she begged.
