Why Nigerians Prefer Caregiving, Warehouse Jobs Abroad — Nigerian-American
Nigerian-American real estate investor Blessing Nwachukwu has sparked controversy by claiming that many Nigerians living in Europe and America opt for caregiving and warehouse jobs because they are “intellectually lazy.”
Nwachukwu, who left Nigeria in 2009 for Russia before migrating to the United States, said this in an interview with Vanguard.
The middle-aged lady, who is now a citizen of the United State said she arrived at this conclusion in 2022 when she started a free tech programme for Nigerians.
According to her, some of the participants in the programme lacked basic computer skills, such as typing.
She said, “I arrived at that in 2022 when I started teaching Nigerians. I opened a program where I was teaching Nigerians for free. I did not collect any money to train them for 18 months. Honestly, when I started training them, I thought I would just come and teach them software and go. Then I realised Nigerians don’t even know basic things like typing on a computer or basic skills.”
Nwachukwu added that Nigerians tend to believe what they are told readily without verifying it, which, according to her, makes them susceptible to scams.
“When you try to make them know it or even research, you see the average Nigerian will ask you 20 questions instead of just going to do their research. And if you tell them (anything), they just believe. The average Nigerian believes anything. I don’t know why we are like that.
We’re very positive believers. That’s why it’s easy to scam Nigerians,” she said.
Buttressing her claim, Nwachukwu maintained that Nigerians don’t have a reading and research culture.
“We don’t like to read. We don’t have a reading culture. And so we prefer jobs that are physically demanding that we don’t have to use our brains too much.”
Nwachukwu explained that her conclusion about intellectual laziness stemmed from Nigerians’ preference for jobs that are not intellectually tasking.
Although Nwachukwu acknowledged that such jobs are the easiest to get because they “don’t even require experience,” she asserted that they are a “trap.”
“You can get a job that pays you like $15 to $20 an hour with no experience. They’re even willing to train you and they will give you a lot of overtime hours, but that’s a trap,” she said.
She explained that even though the income may be enough to cover needs and bills, the job offers limited growth and promotion.
“It can take care of your needs. It can pay your bills. It can keep your life. It can even give you enough money to send back home. If you’re smart, you can even buy a house, but you’re never really going to grow because a lot of times, these companies do not promote Nigerians to supervisor positions and for you to get to that position, you need more certifications, Nwachukwu explained.
She maintained that getting certifications to get a promotion is not easy because the nature of the jobs is exhausting. She added that many people don’t even have the time for certification because they’re always working overtime.
