Tackle unemployment with Igbo apprenticeship system, The downside of the Igbo apprenticeship system

Tackle unemployment with Igbo apprenticeship system, The downside of the Igbo apprenticeship system

By Chisom Juanita Mefor After the Biafra-Nigeria war saw an increase among the Igbos attempting to remake what they had lost in a severe and crushing three years which asserted almost around 50% of her populace. Faced with the test of beginning life without any preparation, it was during this time that Ndigbo saw a spike in the Igbo apprenticeship system (IAS) otherwise called Igba boi or Imu oluaka.

The Igbo apprenticeship system is a neglected business apprenticeship/hatchery model that lets young men gain business techniques from an expert for a specific number of years (typically between five to eight years) and toward the finish of their apprenticeship residency, gets cash mixture and backing to go into business. The design works in a way where a more seasoned "uncle" in exchange educates and lays out his more youthful kinfolk in the said exchange who turn shows other youthful people.

The Biafra war might not have birthed the Igba boi system however it incontestably advocated it. The BBC in May 2017 alluded to the IAS as "a Nigerian plan fashioned in war that makes tycoons". Recently, there's been a lot of ado for the Igba boi practice particularly following its underwriting by Harvard as a school course comparable to a BSc declaration and as per Forbes (2017), Anambra in southeast Nigeria either by favorable luck or difficult work has reared more naira tycoons than some other town in Nigeria.

I don't intend to pamper the show yet license me to acquaint with you my companion, Chiejina, whom I met through a common companion, Obiora (Obi for short).

Early years

As done in Igbo naming ceremonies, children are named following the conditions of their introduction to the world. In the wake of losing her father at the youthful age of seven and later on her mother and spouse as a youthful grown-up and troubled with the undertaking of bringing up her young children alone, Mama Chiejina settled with the name Chiejjinarum which freely interprets in most Igbo lingos to "Let the dim not as yet come" or "Let the unhappiness not as yet come".

Chiejina may not actually have been the "prize youngster", however he was an excellent and brilliant kid and maybe would've turned out better whenever directed appropriately and cherished a touch all the more calmly. He was the sort of kid that everybody grumbled about; generally excessively energetic and never approached his tutoring in a serious way.

In the early stages of Chiejina's life, he assisted his mother with selling bread and lodge rolls at the famous Oyeagu market. After school hours, he would travel down around three miles to her slow down, jumping all through traffic in the middle between paths to offer bread to approaching vehicles, it was in this way that he was seen by a well off brother locally (name withheld). "Chiejina na ba mbo", his mother's more youthful brother would agree, further suggesting things like "he has an innovative soul, permit him to remain with somebody who will prep him appropriately for business". How would you take a gander at a nine-year-old who was essentially attempting to help his mother and say he has an "innovative soul"?

Months passed, Chiejina was diminished just to a modest worker, from washing heaps of clothes to scouring the floors, doing the dishes, and tending the poultry. He was right here, thinking he had quite recently got a superior opportunity at life - a decent school, great clothes yet above all, some great food. Each day while approaching his home errands, little Chiejina would look as his lord's youngsters, Okwy and Omelebele, dressed for school in their white shirts and rosy earthy colored shorts, he envisioned that some time or another he also would go to class and figure out how to talk appropriately like Okwy, without blending his "was" and "were" up.

As years went on, Chiejina trusted, some of the time he lost hope, yet the vast majority of the times he cried, he cried to associate with his mother by and by, a similar mother who had battered him seriously for basic things like playing out late with companions or taking bread from the container when he was eager. Essentially Satan he knew was way better compared to the expert he didn't have the foggiest idea. Or on the other hand, would he say he was essentially only an unfortunate kid? Might it be said that he was the laziest kid on earth as his lord often called him? For what reason would he say he was so continually conflicted between needing to gain proficiency with the exchange and abandoning life at such a youthful age?

Midlife

Life as a student for Chiejina was simply about endurance, ahead of schedule as 5am he would depend on wash his lord's vehicle, after which he would set out about a mile to the shop to open it before 6am and show the products. His most memorable dinner for every day relied entirely upon the initial not many deals usually brought in Igbo lingua Osoafia, a circumstance where one would go around and persuade clients/clients to belittle their store, thereafter, the profit got is parted between the retailer and whoever brought the client.

Chiejina was just sure of his supper, albeit not excessively certain on the grounds that his lord's better half could adjust her perspective assuming he neglected to wash Okwy's socks for school, even following a difficult day slaving at the shop, the distribution center, and at home, he would hit the hay hungry and crying.

At the point when I consider Chiejina, I say a quiet petition for various little youngsters caught in individuals' homes, exposed to a wide range of abuse, without admittance to freedoms and a voice. Indeed, I realize no good thing comes simple and the way to progress is restricted and must be employed with perseverance however is this actually the cost it takes to be an Odogwu like Coscharis?

Conclusion/settlement

Ike agwu go mmoo

In my modest accommodation, I accept the Igbo apprenticeship system took more than it gave, for example, it killed male-youngster training in the southeast, an encounter which the previous legislative leader of Anambra state (southeast Nigeria), Willie Obiano battled meticulously through mass sensitisation, preparation and continued even to start the yearly festival of an International Mass Literacy Day.

A distribution of Tansian University (An African Journal of Arts and Humanities, July 2019) says: "The Igbo apprenticeship system has delivered a greater number of moguls and tycoons than the whole Nigerian college monetary system has created". Neuwirth (2018) further sees that various Igbo multi-extremely rich people were the results of this business hatchery stage: Innoson, Coscharis, Ibeto, Chikason, Ekenedilichukwu, are all from our incredible city of Nnewi in Anambra. None of these men wandered remotely close to the doors of an auxiliary school, some didn't complete grade school, yet control multibillion-dollar domains".

Schooling to the side, we're discussing huge number of young men detracted from their homes, without admittance to decisions and parental consideration. Research shows that youngsters that grow up with missing guardians are bound to be discouraged as grown-ups. I realize a ton of tycoons like Ifeanyi Ubah, Cubana Chief Priest, Omemma na Ojoto are contemporary items and residing confirmations of the IAS, however what might be said about young men like Chiejina that got gulped in the system because of the strain set in the Igbo society for everybody to succeed, you might murmur softly that Chiejina is only one individual, yet I tell you, that one individual, is truth be told, enough motivation to recount this story.

Maybe we might have to recognize "help" and "abuse", why in the world did Chiejina burn through 10 offensive years because of his lord, even Ifeanyi Osilo spent less in quest for his physician certification in UNEC. A youngster who was horribly battered, abused, and essentially utilized by a more established person for his own profit and self-satisfaction.

When do we understand there are various ways to progress? There is this unnecessary strain in Igbo society to find success and throughout the long term we have empowered and powered this culture. This nonsense of needing to "make it" and "be it", is the reason a typical Igbo individual sees life as a battle where he should put all he has to carry on with an effective life. In the event that the Igbos are viewed as really buckling down, contending, and being tough, it is just a result of the unreasonable strain put by society on their eschatological predetermination.

Settled by his lord at age 24, Chiejina was still a kid, meriting adoration, direction, and persistence rather than the excessive strain by his close family to assume the weight of sending his three more youthful kin to school.

Whenever I told the full story to a dear companion, she posed me an inquiry, in her standard delicate nature and that consoling grin generally confident, looking out for me to break the grass-to-effortlessness story. "All things considered, what befell Chiejina later"? she inquired. "Nne m, chi e ji go, the dull in the long run came, yet I trust that any place he is currently, that he, Chiejina, discovers a lasting sense of harmony, the sort of harmony that we were unable to give him on the planet".

Everyone's abruptly worried about the business of the Igbo man, But they will not request Seaport in the East so that the same igbo man can import merchandise without going to Lagos.