I PUSHED BARROW IN LONDON TO SURVIVE – EX-UNTH MEDICAL DOCTOR

I PUSHED BARROW IN LONDON TO SURVIVE – EX-UNTH MEDICAL DOCTOR

In September 2019, I arrived the UK 🇬🇧 and had to ‘push barrow’ to survive. I wasn’t just a graduate, I was a medical doctor – a Senior Registrar in UNTH – when I left to pursue a full-tuition Masters scholarship in London. Because my scholarship did not cover living expenses, I was left to figure it out.

Here I was in a strange land, with a good certificate but not yet licensed to practice. I had passed PLAB 1 in March 2018 and had scheduled PLAB 2 in October 2019. Without passing the second exams, I can’t work as a doctor in the UK.

But without finding a job – any job – I can’t survive. I had a wife and two sons at the time who were meant to join me in London the following January. My friend Surya and I applied for Care Jobs but many considered us ‘over-qualified’ for the roles.

As I watched my bank account deplete fast, I knew I had to take action. I called Surya one Saturday and told him that we must get a job that day or I am not returning home.

We set out on a busy road in East Ham and entered every single shop we saw, asking for jobs. It was puzzling for these shop owners – two doctors and MPH students willing to do any job. Many said “No.”We took every “No” on the chin and went into the next shop. And the next. And the next.

Almost at the end of the street, we entered a Grill Shop owned by a Pakistani. He liked our story and asked us certain questions. Satisfied, he employed us on the spot, me as a bartender and Surya as a Chef for one of their branches near Stratford.

It was a part-time gig and the hours were brutal. 6pm to midnight. Mostly weekends. The pay was poor but the job came with its perks – you could order anything at close of work.

I often went home with grilled half-chicken which was good dinner and good breakfast. Not to mention that tips that we all shared at the end of the day. I did quit after one month. But that job saved my life. It gave me time to think and plan.

After I left the job, I began teaching and writing jobs. I taught a wide range of students – from GCSE students (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) to doctors preparing for PLAB 2 (taught briefly at Samson’s PLAB academy).

The teaching and writing jobs paid very well and funded my family joining me in London by January 2020 and everything from then till I started fully working as a doctor.

My point is: there is dignity in all honest labour, including ‘barrow-pushing’ and other menial jobs. The problem is that the Nigerian 🇳🇬 society is caught up in aesthetics because some jobs may not ‘look dignifying’.

Tomorrow, we will complain about how over 50% of our jobless graduates are into Yahoo, ritual killings or full-blown prostitution baptised as ‘hookup’. 🙄

No job is too menial for you to do to survive.
Life is in phases. When you are down, pick anything and claw your way back up. No one pushes barrow forever, not even barrow-pushers. Survive first and worry about aesthetics later.

If you are down bad, menial jobs could be a means to an end, even for graduates. However, if you enjoy doing them and it pays your bills, do them to the best of your ability.

‘Dignifying’ regarding job is relative. The barrow-pushers may find some Care workers who clean up the faeces of service users as doing ‘undignified work’. Where do we draw the line?

Again, don’t allow internet people to fool you. You alone know your personal circumstances. If you need to get your hands dirty, just to claw out of an unfavourable position, please do.Just make sure you succeed in the end.

To live to see that end, it might be necessary to push that barrow today. Push it and don’t look back. You will laugh last. And you will laugh the best.