Restoring The Dignity Of The Nigerian

By

John Igoli

igolij@yahoo.com

One of the greatest source or cause of unhappiness in Nigeria today is unused or untapped talents and resources available to individuals and groups. So many talents and skilled manpower abound yet there is much poverty and unhappiness in the land. Our young men go about looking for jobs to exhibit their education, talents and skills but they cannot find jobs to do. Our farmers look at fertile lands lying waste and know they could plant them to yield crops, yet no facilities to crop the available land and produce enough food for us to eat. Our parents know how to make good children of us yet the children are not available to be taught. Rather the children are disappointed with their parents who are in turn more disappointed with their children. Our teachers know how to make us good students, researchers and apply our knowledge fruitfully, yet the pupils and students are not willing as the reading and studying culture has waned. Our leaders know how to satisfy our needs (or their needs?), develop us (or themselves?) and distribute our wealth equitably (among themselves?), yet the followers are not willing to cooperate (or we don’t know who to follow?). Corruption and frustration abound every where and every one is complaining, grumbling and wishing to escape this situation, yet no one wants to address the cause i.e. the fact that we have compromised on our standards. Excellence in all areas of human endeavour has been thrown overboard and worse hit are homes, educational and the political sectors. The Nigerian has lost his dignity as typified by the madman described by Dele Momodu in his article: The madman at Charles DeGaulle (Thisday, 06/09/07). I read the article and the comments on it and feel moved to write this rejoinder. For a start, it is those who survived in the hands of herbalists or quarks that direct you to them. For them they are the owners of miracles so is abroad to those who survive there.

The greatest need in families today is education because we are in a technological age where science reigns supreme. Our family needs have become science or technology oriented needing more time and financial input. The computer has become our pen, e-mail has become our letter, the web our offices and source of information and the telephone handset our proof of being alive. The need to educate our children has far outweighed all other needs .What ever type of education or instruction we give to our children; be it formal, informal or vocational must lead them to the understanding of our environment, technological advancements, improved communication and application of our resources, skills and knowledge for the benefit of all. It must empower our nationals to maintain their dignity and respect in the face of challenges, wealth and before foreigners at home and abroad.

This is what Nigerians seek when they sojourn abroad. Nobody wants to live in a hopeless environment. The only thing we are sure of in Nigeria is corruption and thus the only hope is to be selected, elected, appointed or forced into a position where you can exploit the corrupt tendencies available and enrich yourself. The major reason Nigerians go abroad is for education either for themselves or their children. But what a great price we pay for it! This year 8,000 student visas were issued to Nigerians wishing to study in the UK out of 28,000 applications received. The average school fee in the UK is about £10,000.00 thus these 8,000 Nigerian students will be paying fees totalling £80 million or N20.8 billion. This is excluding visa application fees, flight tickets, accommodation and maintenance costs. If we just add the same amount (a gross under-estimation) to cover these, then we are paying over N40 billion. When we add this sum again for other Nigerian students going to the US and other parts of Europe, we are looking at nearly N100 billion leaving our country for a one year educational sojourn abroad. The further attraction is that after their education they can benefit from some job/residency initiatives by which they hope to recoup the monies spent. The questions to ask are how much of this money get back to Nigeria? How many of them actually graduate and get jobs befitting their status as to maintain their dignity which they left Nigeria to restore? Those who fare better get married raise children or bring family members/others over and the vicious cycle continues. Those who cannot cope drift into a state of despair and hang on surviving by all means. If these amounts of money are injected annually into our higher Institutions to provide teaching, internet and practical equipment we will be having foreigners in our schools rather than the current situation where the best you can do with a University degree from Nigeria is to take it abroad for validation.

In spite of the poor educational realities on ground, giving your children proper and full education has become a life time achievement. This is because with about 40 million children in primary schools, 18 million in secondary and only 1 million or less can be accommodated by the Universities, getting a place for your child is like the proverbial camel passing through the eye of the needle. As at present over 1 million apply for university admission each year and only 150,000 candidates can be absorbed by all the universities in Nigeria getting to over 90 now. There are over 60 % Arts students and less than 30% science students and there are less than 10,000 lecturers in all the Nigerian universities. Who will then drive the wheel of science and technology in our country?

Unemployment and loss of jobs have created more and more dependants. Unfortunately these dependants are becoming more and more enlightened, hence, they need to travel, own and use telephone handsets, wear befitting clothes thus enticing some into crimes.

Rural to urban migration has reduced the farming population, hence, less food is being produced and cost of food has increased greatly. It will seem for every good child there are ten or more bad ones. The level of delinquency has increased so much that many parents have given up on their children. ‘Area boys’ and street urchins or prostitutes have come to stay as they are readily engaged by politicians and the corrupt rich. Child labour (especially apprenticeship, trading and hawking) and trafficking have become acceptable as practical solutions to our problems.

The question now is where do we start? I dare say that it is in from our educational sector, let’s make it befitting, comparable and functional. We should imbibe the culture of promoting excellence, rewarding hard work and giving scholarship to deserving young ones and scholars who will do us proud not because they are related to us but to give them the opportunity to excel and to serve our fatherland. Who knows the “David” maybe one of these young ones who can kill, face or reduce the “Goliath” of problems listed above? No one should be considered too small or poor to be great or a pacesetter for positive changes in our society. For those of us who are educated, let us use our knowledge for the benefit of all as un-applied knowledge is like burying gold to conserve wealth! Albert Einstein said “Education is what we have left after we stop writing or taking exams” Therefore you cannot tell how much you know until you start practicing it. If Nigeria has ever come first in any thing then we can do it in other areas including the eradication of poverty and the challenges of restoring the dignity of the Nigerian.

A great leader, once said “things that will destroy us are: politics without principle, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity and worship or service without sacrifice. Worse of all is men living without dignity in their own country. Let us reward, imitate and appreciate excellence where ever or when ever we see it or have the opportunity to show it. One of our Senators is said to have employed his secondary school classmate as his driver and was paying him a monthly salary of N3, 000.00 instead of the sum of N10, 000.00 drivers are officially entitled thus embezzling the poor driver’s N7, 000.00. This is where, as in many other areas of the society and governance in Nigeria, dignity takes its flight and may never be restored hence we are still struggling to restore the dignity of the Presidency, Houses of Assembly (Federal and state), Local Government administration and our institutions of learning most especially the Universities.