Saturday, 11 July 2015

Dangote 28,000 job creation

The Dangote group of company earlier this year announced that they will be providing 28,000 jobs for graduate all over the nation. This brought smiles to the face of a lot of unemployed graduates and some even went into praying and fasting, soaking their CV's in annoiting oil and more.

Late May 2015 the vacancies were trending on every job site that Dangote is about employing Truck Officers. According to Mr. Carlos the man in charge of the recruitment about 21,000 applications was received in 3 weeks and out of those applications a few were selected of which I happen to be one. Reading through the job requirements and specifications, it was said that the company was in need of graduates who will become truck owners after they have managed, supervise, and take care of the truck, its drivers and the goods until it had travelled 400,000km


I got a message from a MTN number on Saturday 4th of July which goes thus

" U have being selected. U are to report to dangote academy obajana kogi state on the 6th or 7th of July 2015.go wit the following documents1,birth certificate 2,any means of identification3,affidavit of residential adress4,educational qualifications 5, letters from two guarantors who are verifiable,verification of document begins by 8am after which training and a text follows"

Looking at the message I was sure it was from those scammers but then I recieved a call confirming the authencity of the message. I decided to give it a trial, all through sunday I tried to get the credentials and documents I could get ready.

I got kogi late on Monday and had to lodge in a hotel for the night. Early the next morning, I arrived at the largest cement factory in west Africa and I must say it was a good sight to behold.


We waited at the door of the academy close to the restaurant an at about past nine the facilitators arrived, before their arrival,I had a chat with some people I met there and I found out that most of us were from Lagos with few from PH and a little from abuja. A lot of those guys slept at the park and some were looking so unkept due to the stress of the journey.


Then the real issues began. We were told that Dangote was about bringing in about 7,000 new trucks and the company needs supervisor who will become truck owners after the truck had traveled about 400,000 km ( Lagos to kano for about 200 times ). We were told that drivers of the truck will have a minimum of 8 trips per month while we as truck officers will be having a minimum of 6 trips per month.

Going by the calculations, one have to travel with the truck for about 3 years to be able to complete the terms and then own the truck. We asked about the terms and conditions and we were told that " this is an entrepreneurship scheme and we have no benefit apart from the monthly allowance which will still be decided, we have no right to insurance and medical" in short we are on our own.

We we're told that we would be at the call of the company to take the cement to anywhere the company deem fit in Nigeria borno and yobe inclusive. We asked if we can choose to work in any factory of our choice but we were told we would all have to relocate to kogi as that is where the chunk of the entrepreneurs are needed.



About the 28,000 jobs that was promised, here is the breakdown there would be 7,000 trucks, then we would have 7,000 Truck officers, one driver and two motor boy for each truck . that's four people per truck for 7,000 trucks and that's the 28,000 jobs the mighty Dangote promised.


My observations about the program are as follows:

1. The recklessness of the drivers has gotten beyond limit.

2. The company needs a way to curtail the excess of their drivers

3. As a capitalist, the company was looking for a way to enslave graduates with a promise of giving them a truck which efficiency would have worn out over the years a travelling Nigerian roads.

4. The company want you to bear any risk and pay for damages hereby freeing them from excess damages paid to victim of accidents when the insurance company had failed to pay due to the negligence of the drivers.

5. The company want to determine you life and they would plan it for you, they decide when you travel, where you go, when you rest without prior knowledge.

6. The company want to appoint ADVANCED MOTORBOYS who are trackable, traceable and risk worthy.

7. The company lacks the way and manner to communicate, or what can we say about their message

8. The company should learn and hire professionals for each sector not someone who can't compose a good text message.

Finally Dangote and his coy should please spare us the insult on every graduate and please think out ever proposal before coming to the public with it. After travelling for over six hours the company couldn't deem it fit to entertain, or pay for all expenses of the trip knowing fully well where we were all invited from.
The company had an office in Lagos so I can't comprehend the reason behind inviting all us to Obajana in Kogi state for a training that would only last less than 7 hours. Its a waste o time, resources and energy. A lot of us had to miss work and our pay was deducted for those two days. I had to get to Lagos 2 am on Wednesdaycause I couldn't wait another night and probably get sacked in where man dey manage.


I heard that another batch would be called soon, please if you are on here and get the message please just ignore. They are bunch of unserious elements.


NB: this is my opinion based on my experience, emotions and way of life, at least out of all of us who had the training there was one person who saw sense in the program and did try to convince us all, but the whole room screamed on him to keep shut. So if this didn't make sense to you, find your way to obajana by Monday am sure the next batch will be having their training by then.

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