•Marketing firms exploit youths, subject them to extreme cruelty
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The desperation for riches has exposed some youths to the sermon or enchantment that has led to their exploitation by some marketing firms in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
These companies come up with all manner of tales to induce young people into working in a harsh economic conditions.
Their victims, who parade as marketers, are not entitled to basic salaries or allowances. In fact, they have been made to believe that they do not need to be subjected to paid employment, but to live off commission.
Their job description is to hawk seemingly expensive items from morning to night, non-stop, with the assurance that within about five years or even less, they could make millions of dollars from selling supplements and sexual enhancement pills.
These people are mostly between 17 and 26. While the majority of them parade the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) results, others did not attend or complete primary school.
And because of the depth of indoctrination, most of them align with their paymasters and talk down on the function of education. They are quick to ask the popular Nigerian phrase: “Na who school help?”
In fact, these brainwashed fellows even cite instances of Mark Zuckerberg, Joe Lewis, David Karp, David Murdock and other prominent billionaires, who dropped out of school at some point in life, to justify their disrespect for education.
Surprisingly, they have coined their own abbreviations for anything that has to do with education to suit their fancy. For instance, the National Youth Service Scheme NYSC means ‘Now Your Struggle Begins. Job means ‘Journey of a Borrower. For Staff, it is ‘Stay There and Forget your Future.’ Then the Bachelor’s Degree (B.Sc) is Bachelor of Senseless Confusion.
They are easily recognisable; their insignia is a shuttle bag or hand bag loaded with supplements and other pills. They trek long distances looking for clients. When exhausted they beg for free ride and food.
There are hundreds of them in Abuja. They mill around hotels, eateries, recreational parks, garages, gates of churches and schools, wooing buyers. They memorize what they have been told about the functions and usage of different pills.
But their best pick-up line is how their pills will boost one’s immune system and grow beards.
They are known for begging for handouts when a potential customer fails to patronize them. They concoct sorrowful tales of how they get their transportation and feeding allowance from the sales to hoodwink Abuja residents.
Certain appendages like prosper, fortune, success and goodluck are attached to their biological names, at least to live up their aspirations or beliefs. For the ladies, they mix business with pleasure. They hide under the guise of marketing these products to sell their body to augment sales.
Yusrah ‘Success’ Ibrahim, a 20-year-old indigene of Osun State, is a marketer for a firm that deals in supplements. She explained that she paid N24,500 to be registered as a marketer. She ruled out the possibility of paid employment regardless of the monthly renumeration.
She said her firm promised to get a visa for her after she must have spent some years and grown through the ranks to become a director: “I paid N24,500 to register as a member of the marketing firm and I was given two products. Also, my company promised to give me a visa when I get to the position of a director so that I can use it to travel around the world.
“There is no salary. We depend on sales and commission. The main target of this business is people. The more people you bring, the more money you make.
“We make money by selling the product and the company gives us point value. Through it, you make your money at the end of the month if you meet your target.
“We do not deal in naira but dollars. I determine when to resume and when to close. I have a very big dream. I do not want to work for anybody.
“Even if you give me a job of N500,000, I will not accept it. I will not drop my job and go back to school. How many graduates have jobs? Every year, the universities churn out graduates without jobs.
“The real meaning of the NYSC scheme means, Now your struggle continues. The meaning of job is journey of a borrower. For Staff, it is stay there and forget your Future (STAFF). B.Sc is Bachelor of senseless confusion.
“One of the negativity of working for someone is that you lose your freedom. It takes away your energy while working for someone else.”
Franklin Chigozie, 18, who is from Imo State, is optimistic of making it big in the next five years and even enrolling his children into the business. He ruled out formal education because of marketing.
“My name is Franklin Chigozie. I am 18 years old. We don’t have fixed payment. There is what is called residual payment.
“If you start now, the way you work and your efforts will determine your salary. In the next five years, I should have made enough money.
“The way it is now, even if you offer me a good paying job, let’s say N200,000 to N300,000 monthly payment, I will not accept it. Since I started looking for a job, I did not see.
“It is now that I am with my company that offers started coming. I can’t work for somebody. Even if I get a scholarship to go to school now, I will not accept it. I want to make money through what I am doing. In terms of transport fare, I get free lift,” he said.
But Rebecca Emmanuel had a terrible experience. According to her, she forfeited her university education because of promises she got from her employers.
She said her parents have vowed never to sponsor her to school because she disobeyed them and decided to be a street hawker.
She added that she moved from Abuja to Niger and then finally settled in Lagos State just to eke a living. But nothing came out from the business.
The indigene of Okpella in Edo State said her fiance, who studied mechanical engineering at a time, abandoned his job as a contractor to follow her line of business.
According to her, her man got so engrossed in the business and was unwilling to quit. despite dwindling financial fortunes. She had to let go of the relationship and the business when there was no improvement in her finances.
She said: “I wrote JAMB and I eventually got admission at Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State. I was just waiting to go and pay acceptance fees and that was when this firm came in.
“The money my dad gave me to register was what I invested in this company. Because of that, I did not go to school.
“I bought a product for N29,000. If you sell, the gain is yours. If you do not make up to that amount in a month you will never get anything.
“Before you can earn a salary you will have about 500 people registered under you. If I make the N29,000 whatever is remaining I get 5% from it. Even at that, they will not give me cash.
“They will save it for me. Then if I bring someone, I will get 0.5% from the money the person used in registering. The more I bring people, the more the money increases.
“The way they will brainwash you, nobody can change your mind. They will make you believe that the business is the best. I trekked to the point that I emaciated.
“Before then, I was doing well. I was not lacking; my mother and father provided everything I needed in life. But I just felt that I needed to make my own money.
“I told my mother that, after six months, when I must have made enough money, I would write the JAMB. If I ask my mother for money now, she will look at me with disdain.
“It was when I left the company that I became independent after accepting a paid job. There is more to it.
“I broke up with the guy that I had been dating since SS2. He was at the Federal Polytechnic, Bida.
“When he finished school, he got a job immediately because his uncle was a lawyer working in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“If you see him now, he is doing badly because of this marketing business. I left him. I slept under the bridge in Lagos.”
