LIKE ROCKY MOUNTAINS:
LIKE ROCKY MOUNTAINS:
👲Education, its Stakeholders and the Convocation Day in Nigeria?
Life isn't a straight line
curve but rocky like the rocky Mountains...
The things they don't tell us
at the ribbon-lined, wrought-iron gates, just a short walk away from the life
market. On the day, friends and a sea of strange faces look at you in your priestly
gown and say 'look at him, he's so lucky'
So what happens at the
thresholds, after the flood of accolades ebbs and you enter the life market?
You won't be out of place to
feel a little confounded. Like a new born delivered to a strange whole new
world. Then it hits you fast, the fact that nothing within those high four
walls of the varsities would be sufficient on its own to see you through life.
Nope! not even your school nor your grades.
One of my teachers, a pious
geriatric would often say - 'Boy, at some point in life, we are bound to be
checkmated. If you are checkmated early, you are in luck. You could quickly
make amendments to 'fix' life. On the other hand, it is woe to anyone
checkmated later in their lives. The odds are indeed stacked up against you real bad (but there's hope still, hang on).
My old teacher was trying to make me see
life is not a straight line curve but a real wavy, zig-zag.
To this, I imagine there are
two distinct periods after school life. Peaks and Troughs is what I call them.
I call the PEAK period, that
when life snaps into place - just the way we want it to be. Life's rewards are
unbelievably nice, favourable and blissful, and whatever dreams and aspirations
we had seem to come true.
The TROUGH however is a time for
learning; Of hard knocks and bitter lessons from personal or corporate
relationships and business. Lessons about our health and financial burdens etc.
The greatest gift any
educational institution can give to its graduands is to sincerely and earnestly
let them know that 'Hey despite all we
have given you: the Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorates. These degrees do not
guarantee a successful life'
Hmm...what I see in Nigeria is
embarrassing and shameful to say the least. And it deals a huge blow to our
institutions of learning collectively.
Let me start with what I
observe in other climes.
During commencement ceremony,
you would be lucky in your lifetime to see successful film stars, scientists,
innovators, renowned veterans, academics, business moguls among others.
And what do you have?!
In their address, these people
make the graduating students see that life indeed is not a bed of roses.
Everyone isn’t going to be as rich as ----- (fill in the gap) but you can
determine what kind of life you want but your actions and choices.
You would be shocked to see
that these public icons were once labeled failures, no-do-gooders, dumb and
stupid.
In fact, many didn't even have
a CLUE what to do with their lives after graduation but in that seemingly
insurmountable darkest hour, they made a choice and got their breaks through life. Today they can celebrate them as real stars that rose
from ideas no one ever thought would see the light of the day. They represent a
source of inspiration for the graduands. They lit the torch that will give
these students hope when they finally career on the road to greatness; when
they get to the most difficult part of the journey to a success idea (because
it would come). Where giving up is the preferred option.
In Nigeria, the unimaginable is
the norm.
HOW do mean, you must be thinking?
How does anyone explain a
situation where you have cutthroats and unscrupulous members of the society
grace such an elite occasion such as the convocations?
Have you ever been to a
typical commencement particularly during the address of the guest speaker, in
Nigeria? Most of them are uninspiring and Booooring!!! (to put it mildly). No wonder one might find
guests snoozing. Aha! maybe, you may have
seen them.
These invited celebrities usually run through the usual same old hackneyed statement 'you need to work hard to become something...'
These invited celebrities usually run through the usual same old hackneyed statement 'you need to work hard to become something...'
I have heard many thieves
(corrupt ex-leaders and academics) in Nigeria use this line and it shows the
depth of their lazy, petty minds. As uninspiring as their lives
are, from greedy and corrupt politicians, to drug barons, traditional rulers,
varsity Chancellors.
Hey, I ask myself what the
heck is going on here. Is there a paucity of positive role models in our
society?
Why won't we simply have
honest, genuine and legit members of the populace tell the students the simple
truth about life (not just to convey this do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do mentality)?
Do we ever learn about their personal
struggles to the famed positions they hold today, because truly all successful people should never be seen as gods?
...How
I was once a failure but here am I today - a success story because of
what I did. Simple, plain and transparent.
Or it's OK to fail but keep trying;
you would get there sooner than you think. That the road to success isn't
always a smooth course but a bumpy ride.
That it's alright to fall but
don't stay buried. The world has need of that great ‘something’ on the inside
of you...
Hold up now! Maybe I'm wrong
and this is just the scribbling of a hyperactive imagination.
Sometime ago I talked about
the state of education in this country . What happens in these
commencements ceremony in Nigeria is akin to putting the final nail to the coffin.
Already the issue of a
colossal failure in the educator sector can easily be extrapolated by the
category of graduates produced by the country (in relation to their
counterparts in other part of the world).
Graduates can't transfer the
knowledge they gained from four to five years in the learning centres to the
growth and development of the economy.
Isn't this provoking?!!!
It is not hard to figure out
there could be a conspiracy of some sort.
This peculiar stench from this
corpse (educational sector) is going to be difficult to hide. The signs are crystal-clear. Ain’t it?
It is disheartening when the
highly revered institutions of learning have to present their students with the
grits and scums of the society (perhaps because these scums dole their bloody
money as an act of philanthropy).
The message sent by these
institutions is clear though:
"Dear students, forget the trash we told you for five years of your
life, this guy here is the real torch bearer. Some of his accolades include:
Yahoo boy, sexual molester, anarchist, corrupt politician, cultist,
unconscionable opportunist, to mention a few. This is who we want you to be."
To this end, It shouldn’t be
shocking if Nigerian graduates (especially from public institution) are one of
the most uninspired people on the face of the planet and understandably so....
