A Nigerian-based IT expert, Ridwan Lawal, got a shocker when he applied for the position of a Project Manager in the United Kingdom (UK) but got a response from the company, ENGIE, offering him a cleaning job instead.

Lawal had applied for the Project Manager role at ENGIE, and within 24hours, he got an offer from the company, informing him of the cleaning job. ENGIE seemed to have ignored his initial application, and this didn’t sit well with Lawal, who shared the mail he received from the company on Twitter.

About ENGIE

It is a multinational electric utility company which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. The company is headquartered in France.

Discrimination by ENGIE? 

Lawal was of the opinion that the company gave him such offer because he applied from Africa. He criticised the move by the company, questioning its motive for sending him such an offer rather than his preferred Project Manager role.

The response of ENGIE is shocking as there’s no similarity between Lawal’s qualification and the offer. Lawal specialises in Information technology & Energy. According to his LinkedIn profile, he works as a Billing Administrator at Rensource Energy.

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Lawal viewed the response as discrimination against his root – Nigeria and Africa. He made reference to a section in the offer that states the company doesn’t discriminate age, gender, race and colour.

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He further stated that, “How would you create a profile on a company’s recruitment portal and link your LinkedIn profile as a project manager & get a job ad less than 24hrs later for a cleaner position?” Lawal tweeted in disbelief.

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He added that, “It’s either them having a terrible sense of humour or a bad implementation of their AI. I posted this here for laughs and to expose the insults we get as Africans. I already got a good offer in the States. So good riddance.”

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Should ENGIE be criticised?

Some Nigerians defended the company, stating that the response Lawal received could have been sent by a robot fixed to respond to emails on behalf of the company. It was argued that personnel of ENGIE could not have offered Lawal a cleaning job after he applied for the role of Project Manager.

Robot’s response is usually automated and respond to keywords or certain mail address that receives certain messages.

Reactions trail Lawal’s outburst

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Fakoyejo Olalekan
Olalekan is a certified media practitioner from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ). In the era of media convergence, Olalekan is a valuable asset, with ability to curate and broadcast news. His zeal to write was developed out of passion to shape people’s thought and opinion; serving as a guideline for their daily lives. Contact for tips: fakoyejo.olalekan@nairametrics.com.

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