Occupation and Craft
Transforming into a Profession, a Case Study of Nigeria Experience
In 21st century Nigeria, there is an emergency of
an occupation and craft as “Alaga Ijoko and Alaga Iduro (Masters of Ceremonies)
especially at weddings, traditional marriages and engagements to be very
precise, founded around year 2000AD. The craft emerged powerfully and swept
across the entire nation with a period of 15 to 20 years.
The occupation and craft received the acceptance of the
general public which made school teachers join the race, brought in singing and
dancing, preparing young ladies to dance for a side show, introducing talking
drums and drummers to add color to the occasion.
With the public acceptance, members of this occupation came
together formed a powerful association and the occupation became lucrative. The
lucrativeness of the occupation and craft, made educated elites who are
university graduates of various disciplines to go into its practice and some of
them are master’s degree holders in the occupation today.
The presence of these graduates with higher education has
helped the occupation in no small ways in transforming itself into a
profession. These graduates were able to receive respect, acceptance from the
public as they promoted the occupation to the public.
As they were able to showcase creativity, innovation in
various assignments given to them, they built the needed trust with the general
public and helped to advance the occupation to a professional status.
They also repackaged and rebranded the occupation and called
themselves masters of ceremonies and their profession as speaking profession as
they also become motivational speakers.
They have also expanded the scopes to include offering
services to corporate organizations at seminars, conferences etc. as masters of
ceremonies or motivational speakers. They did not for one day relied on
government nor sort government employment; they offered what they had to the
general public and obtained the needed recognition.
We are all living witnesses of the emergence and the
transformation, as it only happen in this particular century - 21st
century.
What a wonderful experience, if an occupation or craft has
advanced to a professional status within 20 years of emergence, what is wrong
with chaplaincy and chaplains in Nigeria that they have not for close to 40
years of existence has not been able to professionalize chaplaincy?
Arise now and let us all move chaplaincy to the next level.
Chap. Prof. Mike-Jacobs
JP, AP, CPC
Certified Chaplaincy
Educator
No comments:
Post a Comment