Before the Federal Government of Nigeria goes ahead to “blacklist” students allegedly involved in examination malpractice, before those who claim to know how to lead make yet another unjust plan against our youths, let them have a thorough rethink.
Before the Federal Government of Nigeria goes ahead to “blacklist” students allegedly involved in examination malpractice, before those who claim to know how to lead make yet another unjust plan against our youths, let them have a thorough rethink.
Before those who frustrate our youths with every thoughtless step they take while thinking that they are doing what is right for the education system go ahead to tighten their democratic cuffs on their perceived slaves, they should ask themselves how they got all their many proudly displayed certificates.
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Before those who accepted that the Delta state government should give out laptops to JSS1 females students in the name of female deliverance go ahead to blame the students for exam malpractice or even blunt failures in exams, they should ask themselves how they went through their own schooling.
Of course we all know. But before they claim that today’s youths are more wayward and unconcerned about their future than they ever were, they should look inward and ask themselves: “are we not the reason that students no longer read, have we not actually pushed them to the point where the ability and willingness to read and understand have become a near-impossibility.” I’m sure that this should be the beginning of solving the mountain-like challenges that Nigerian education system faces.
First, the federal government should and must take the full responsibility for the failure in the education sector. According to Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, one must “place culpability where culpability lies.” Until and unless the government of Nigeria learns how to place culpability where culpability lies, it will continue in this road of stumbling and falling which will eventually reduce it to crawling and a complete stop.
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Our politicians, those who claim to represent us mastered the art of taking much and giving nothing. They write away our money into their personal accounts and turn around to accuse us of not producing; such an idiotic irony! Why on earth would a king, whose law cannot be broken for anything, make a law and break it, and then expect his followers to adhere strictly to that same law? No! Such a king will die suddenly even through the hands of his trusted companions.
The best brains, no matter from which angle one looks at it, will be found among those from the present Nigeria; our children came to life with the curiosity for survival. The problem or challenge which has been eating off Nigerian schools did not start from the youths, and so, the solution should not be directly focused on them. Nigerians have the rare ability to make mountains out of molehills. It’s only in Nigeria that you see men “suffering and smiling.”
The reason to this is not far to seek: every Nigerian, no matter how lowly placed, still believes strongly in the hope that life offers. Our youths are not being encouraged at all; if anything, they are being chased like rats, from everywhere, into the blazing fire of frustration.
In America and other countries, when a young man lives a life of bullying and beating up everyone, he will be picked up and turned into a professional fighter. If someone is discovered with the rare ability to steal out things successfully, he will be used by the federal security agencies for security purposes. If a young man is found in the club singing always, he is immediately turned into one of the great stars that the world would enjoy their songs today through enabling environment. If they find among them a young man who has his way through securities and encryptions on the net, they quickly get him to their side, re-orientate him, and make him useful, both to himself, and to the state.
The opposite is the case in Nigeria: if a young man is found to have exceptional strength to fight, the police and the army will break all his bones and render him useless for life. If one is good with the net, they quickly arrest him, torture him, and then hand him over to the US, or worse still, hide him deep down in an unknown dungeon. If a young man is caught singing some songs, which are true, by the way, the likes of Obasanjo will throw him into the prison without any legal process.
There are people I know who, in their youths, had rare technological talents but they were simply wasted by this government. Why on earth would any sane leader turn around and think of imposing further burdens on our present-day children? Granted, there are willing bad eggs amongst them, aren’t there such people in all societies?
Before the Federal government of Nigeria ever moves towards its campaign of further “blacklisting” these already blacklisted children, the affected schools notwithstanding, let the right things be done. OBJ and IBB taunt themselves and make mockery of Nigeria for the way they embezzled our money; every Nigeria feels amused, and somewhat, entertained, while the government just mopes on, doing nothing.
I reiterate that the government should “sit up” if it expects the subjects to sit up, the teachers must teach if they expect their students to learn, and the parents must train up their children “in the way they should go” so that they will not depart from it when they grow up. To apportion acceptable blames on Nigerians students who study in Nigerian schools, those in the government must make the Nigerian schools as conducive as those schools they have shipped off all their children to.
In order to expect fair results from our youths in Nigerian schools, the government should be fair to the schools where they study. It’s not a secret that many leaders, amongst whom are some who could not sing the national anthem or even write their names properly, have come and gone in Nigeria.
A commissioner-elect was recently rejected in Ebonyi state because he could not recite the national anthem; what are you doing showing off even a secondary school certificate when you cannot recite what you claim binds us together? The irony of this whole thing is that the man was simply used as a scape goat because there are a thousand and one of them with prefixes that are too heavy on their miniature and below-level brains; yet they pose as the leaders of the great giant of Africa. It’s a poisonous shame and every Nigerian should be ashamed of such leaders.
To President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, and to Mr. Nyesom Wike, Minister of State for Education, I say: make the ground conducive for your children, for the millions of Nigerians you represent to study and practice what they have studied. Raise schools to standards. Any higher education center today without up-to-date libraries, Internet and Ethernet facilities should be upgraded or phased-out.
Classrooms should be air-conditioned and comfortable seats installed to replace all those mad-men benches in our universities. And if any of you think it too much to ask for air-conditioned classrooms, perhaps you may want to explain to Nigerians why your houses, cars, and offices have round-the-clock operational air conditioners. Better still, you may want to tell us why you have sent your personal children to the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, etc to study if it’s not for the sole reason that Nigerian schools are not conducive for learning. In these above mentioned places, one only fails by choice. Stop putting heavy loads on Nigerians if you are unwilling to lift a finger to help them.
These students will, one way or the other find their feet. This is both an advice and a prophetic warning; if you think it not enough loads that these people graduate without having works to do, and if you think that your place is to judge God’s children and condemn them to hell on earth, then I tell you this day like OBL was told before he answered his final call: you will be enchained by your many evil thoughts against Zion. God is not asleep.
Ikechukwu Enyiagu
[email protected]
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