How I Ended a Career in Information Technology
By: Deji Yesufu
I saw a video yesterday that brought back a flood of memories to me. The video was obviously a make-believe to pass the lesson that society should be founded on truth and that when lies become endemic among a people, we have a really big problem on our hands. The lady introduces herself as laboratory personnel in a DNA testing centre. She explains that many women cannot be trusted because on so many occasions she had had to change the results of DNA testing to read something other than what it truly says so as to save a marriage. She concludes the narration by saying that her own world has come crashing because she made the mistake of checking the DNA of herself and those of her siblings, and has now found out that their loving Dad is not their biological father. She ended the video with a lamentation: “Fear women!”
My position on DNA testing is that it puts women in an uneven position with men. I hold the theory that if women are ten-fold unfaithful in their marriages, it is because men are 70-fold unfaithful to their marriage vows. If men were the ones who get pregnant when there is infidelity in a marriage, marital scandals would be more pronounced than they are now. The second point I usually propound for this DNA matter is this: children are too precious to be put into the stigma and trouble of DNA testing. While a man may have donated the sperm that made the child, the real father is the one the child calls “Daddy” and the debate should end there. Now, I understand that the issue has become more pronounced now with embassies requesting the true identity of children before they leave the country with the man or the woman. The question that you and I should ask is this: which other country in the world demands this kind of dehumanizing thing from their people? Does Nigeria conduct DNA testing on Americans before they bring their children into our country? If we make our country great, the international world will respect us. The whole idea of asking Nigerians for DNA tests on their children is part of the servile state the world has relegated Nigeria to. That is what should concern us – not infidelity in marriages. Having made this point, I now come to the subject of how I ended a career in information technology. I hope to be able to tie it to the question of truth and lies in our society.
Between 2006 and 2010, the only job I could lay my hands on to do was teaching. Even as a graduate with a degree in Electrical Engineering, I taught in a primary school and then a secondary school, before I went to teach Physics in an A-level institution. In this four-year period, I was looking for every way to find a way out of the teaching profession because teachers are generally poorly paid in Nigeria. Someone introduced me to the whole idea of becoming a Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA). I bought the books, attended some classes, and got myself ready to write the examinations. There was a beginner’s module I was meant to cross, and then I could move up to higher qualifications – all in CCNA. I dreamed of getting the qualification then getting a good job, and then becoming rich. It was not easy to find the money to pay for my examinations but I eventually eked out the sum and went to write the exam.
The centre I used was a facility run by one gentleman who had his office in one of the buildings in the Agbowo shopping complex – opposite the University of Ibadan. I remembered walking up to the place situated on one of the topmost floors, through a dingy dark and scary staircase. The elevator in the building was not functional. When I entered the office, it was agog with activities. The exam centre looked like a business office that people would go to browse the internet in the early days when internet facilities arrived in Nigeria. I gave my exam details to the guys in charge and I was asked to take a seat with a computer. I had the opportunity also to do some practice questions – while waiting for the examination to commence. I had studied hard, and I was confident that I would pass the examination – which was going to be an e-examination. I had taken examinations like these before with the American SATs and GRE college examinations – so nothing was new to me here. But I noticed that while I was focused on practising the questions, the other people who came for the examination were very carefree. There was a lot of talking; there was no external invigilator; the whole place was like a marketplace.
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Eventually, we were told that the exam was about to start. Everyone manned their system, and then we commenced. The moment we started, I did not pay much attention to happenings around me anymore. The paper was to last an hour; the exam questions were multiple choices; and I simply sped through it all, as I tried to beat the allotted time for the test. As I was concluding, I noticed that every other person in that hall with me was receiving assistance from the guys running the place. I could not understand; I thought we were in an examination centre. The moment I pressed submit, my result was posted back to me. I failed; falling just a few marks below the cut-off. I had the opportunity to retake the examination though in another week or so. So, I immediately set my mind to reseat the whole thing. But when I reported my scores to the owner of the place, he appeared shocked. He told me that every other person in the examination centre passed. He then said that he thought I knew what I was doing and that was why they did not volunteer to offer me any help. He said everyone had support. Now, when I heard that news, I became depressed.
The problem was not failing the CCNA examination; the problem was that I knew that in no time CCNA certifications from Nigeria would be rendered useless and that it is people like these that would spoil the market for all of us. There was no point retaking the exams; there was no future for CCNA examinations in Nigeria. That was 2009. A few years later, when a friend was going to take a similar examination, his examination centre was scheduled to be in Ghana. He said that at that time no one did any serious professional examination in Nigeria again. The CCNA course is a very practical profession. The stage one exam is the least practical and thus the reason why we could write the examination on the computer. How will you prove to an employer that you are a certified CCNA professional, if people wrote your exams for you? Will they also do your job for you? I remember walking out of that place and heading to my fiancé’s house (now my wife). I told her point-blank: I am no longer pursuing a career in information technology. The fact that fraud had invaded that profession will render it useless in Nigeria with time. As I write this, which is sixteen years after that event, I have yet to meet one CCNA-qualified person who got his qualification in this country and now works here. Most people who will get any of these professional certifications must leave the shores of this country to get it.
It brings me back to the point the lady in the video was making: truth and lies. Eventually, I switched my focus in life from becoming an IT professional to helping our society revamp its moral fabric by adopting religion. Of course, with time, I will realize that the tendency towards lies and falsehood is not just in the Nigerian IT market alone. Wives lie to their husbands about the fatherhood of their children; husbands lie to their wives about the relationships they keep outside the home; pastors lie to congregants about church finances, while the congregations have devised means to give to the churches without running into debt. Politicians lie to the people at campaigns; the people lie to the politicians – they collect money from them and do not vote for them; etc. The country is built almost entirely on falsehood.
Nigeria cannot be the only country in the world where sinners reside. Why is it that corruption is rife in this country, but we do not have it to the same degree as in Ghana, the United States of America, or Saudi Arabia? I think it might boil down to law enforcement and the general motivation of the civil populace. In many countries, lies and corruption are heavily clamped down on and this discourages its occurrences. Besides, many people have devised ways of enacting contracts and agreements before they embark on businesses between persons. And there are systems that blacklist individuals that are known to be fraudulent. So, when people realize that they can make it via the straight path of truth, they do not need to cut corners with lies. And generally, the motivation within many people in these countries is a lot more than just immediate riches and success. Some people are concerned about helping others; others are concerned with establishing a legacy; while others just take joy from seeing society get better. When money is the only motivation for people in a society, we usually end up with lies and fraudulent practices.
Today, whenever I pass by Agbowo Shopping Complex, I remember the experience I had with that CCNA examination centre. Their main office which was very close to Adamisingba has since closed down. The building is even being reconstructed. I am sure the guys behind that business have since moved on to other deals – still defrauding Nigerians. Such people can not live well; neither will they end well – and that is not a curse.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected]
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