LUPITA NYONG’O HAS A MESSAGE FOR UGANDA’S UNEMPLOYED GRADUATES

Unemployment:

Mexico born- Kenya groomed Kenyan actress Lupita Nyongo conveyed a moment of happiness among Kenyans after making history. She scooped the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the 86^th Academy Awards held in Los Angeles for her role in the movie, ‘Twelve Years a Slave’. She is the first Kenyan to be voted as well to win an Oscar.

2013 was her year. She won 27 awards out of 42 nominations. Other prizes she won includes Hollywood Film Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Image Awards, Screen Actors Guild (SAG), name them all.

When I turn my eye back to un employed graduates who have been academically trained for at least 16yrs. After, it’s a different story no jobs, don’t give up. Keep your academic documents and exploit your potentials and talents. Don’t weep for lack of capital. Live with I your financial capacity.

You will need a PhD in job seeking to get one at least. There are reasons why you must forget office jobs since public service has heard your whimpers. Few jobs which created within the public sector created are given out taking into account political orientations other than the capacity of the worker.

A study titled ‘lost opportunities’ by Action Aid International Uganda (ACAU) in late 2013 placed unemployment rate among youth in Uganda at 62%, however this percent is ever fluctuating.    

Economic develop-mentalists have it that economic growth go hand in hand with creation of jobs. However, our economy is flourishing yet we don’t see jobs. Do you think, employment prospect will be soon created?. Among others, these are reasons why you must dump away utopian thinking that you will get occupations soon.

Lupita started from a humble beginning before she proliferated to Hollywood prominence. She attended an all-girls school in Kenya and acted in school plays, with a minor role in Oliver Twist being her first play. At age 14, she made her professional acting debut as Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" in a production by the Nairobi, Kenya-based repertory company Phoenix Players. While a member of the Phoenix Players, Nyong'o also performed in the plays "On the Razzle" and "There Goes the Bride."

It is not late for unemployed graduates to exploit their potentials in different fields socially politically and economically. Lupita emerged at the age of 14; most graduates could be 10yrs older than her now averagely. If they venture, probably, they will be successful in the next 10yrs.

As you pray for God’s providence, it is imprudent to just waste time thumping stridently. You ought to know that your future is in your hands. The legal slavery period ended, we are now in a permanent state of unemployment and under employment from which we are yet to emerge. The onus belong s to you, so turn everything around.  

Let that unemployment status keep you awake thinking positively how to create your own employment(s). Interestingly, most employers imagine that being out of job can erode people’s confidence and they, often unfairly, tend to take long term unemployment as a signal that something is wrong. After one year or two, no one will be interested in utilising intellects of the last decade.