Who Will Save Our Generation

Who Will Save Our Generation?

Olufemi Nelson Fajolu

Speaking to the American Hispanics Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, March 10, 2009, President Barack Obama lamented the declining quality of Education in the US. Before proceeding to lay down series of educational reforms he plans to carry out, he challenged the present generation – students, teachers and parents - of Americans to join the efforts of rebuilding an education system that will provide the same or similar opportunities that the past generations had given him and of course almost every government official in the US today.

In the thirty or so minutes address, he laid out series of bold and common sense plans that he hoped will turn around the slow but consistent slide of an education system that once led the whole world in every subject but has slipped to the “eleventh position within a generation”. Titled; A Complete and Competitive American Education, the speech laid out a path that will lead every American children from “cradle to career”, it provided and opportunity of a an advanced education (college or technical) for every American and most importantly, it challenged every American never to see quitting schools as an option because doing so will not only mean quitting on one’s self but also quitting on one’s country which the president said he refused to accept from any American.

As I watched the president’s speech, my mind drifted consistently to the plight of a typical Nigerian child who is out of school today because the teachers are on strike – for the second time in less than six months – and the question I asked myself was; who will save our generation? A generation that is deprived of every opportunity that every nation is supposed to naturally provide for her citizens.

When were growing up, our parents used to tell us how great it was for Nigerian children in the 60s and 70s. Apart from the sad story of the civil war, we were told of how the then university students were being served as kings – two persons in a room, free food, free cleaning- most importantly many of them would graduate to meet jobs waiting for them while the government provided them with brand new cars to begin their new life. The generations that enjoyed all these benefits were not wiped out. No they were not. Many of them are today’s governors, members of national and states assemblies, ministers and of course present and past presidents of the entity called Nigeria. The great chief Obafemi Awolowo whom many these politicians and so called leaders deceitfully claim to be following served his generation selflessly, and provided ladders of opportunity for them in the form of free education almost at all levels and provision of basic amenities and that is why many of them could boast of an education today.

Sometimes ago, I got into an argument with a man who happened to be one of the people that enjoyed some of the benefits provided to Nigerians in those years. His excuse for the failure of Nigerian government today was population explosion – “people are too many today” he said. “How do you expect government to continue do everything government was doing in those days?” he queried me. Of course I do not and am sure no Nigerian expects government to continue to provide everything people in those generations took for granted, even though evidence shows that government income today bellies those of the 60s and 70s. What every Nigerian deserves and is asking from the government is an opportunity to realize their dreams. A situation where people struggle against all odds to graduate from the university and have to stay home another set of years long enough to get another first degree before getting a job is a shame, a situation where people who want to start their own business would have to eventually give up due to lack of electricity calls for government’s attention.

In his speech, president Obama challenged all elected leaders to join in the task of improving the welfare of the nation’s teachers saying the work they are saddled with is too important for them not to be treated well. This is a country where a teacher’s salary in one month can pay what an average Nigerian teacher earns in one year; this is a country where teachers have access to adequate training, and necessary equipments to aid their jobs and most if not all of them teach in modern buildings. Unlike in Nigeria where pupils are still using some of the buildings that were built in the first republic; some children attend classes under tree. What about teachers’ welfare? Their rewards are in the heavens is the popular saying for them. The crux of the present strike by the teachers is in the failure of the government to implement a salary scale structure which it agreed upon with the teachers’ union years ago – isn’t that funny? The problem with Nigeria’s education is not lack of money but a misplace of focus from our governments and elected leaders. If they reason that a child that is properly educated today will turn out to be tomorrow’s president, senator, governor in the country, they would do a better job concerning our education than what we are seeing today. They will rather send their children to schools in abroad – America and United Kingdom – on the bills of the public than invest in public education so that their children and those of the people they govern can benefit. Some of them will spend hundreds of millions of public money celebrating the wedding ceremonies of their children while hiring some children of the people they govern to serve as thugs and bouncers for their owambe parties.

The most heartbreaking part of Nigerian story is that most of these government officials are members of various churches and mosques across the country. They sit in the pews on Sundays to hear their pastors or the imams on Fridays. But one will wonder what they are being told or what they are doing with the messages they are receiving from their religious leaders. That is why I was not upbeat recently when I read that some of our fathers in the Lord are being given national honours. National honour? I think every Nigerian at this point should use every voice, podiums and resources they have to call on our governments to live up to the expectation of what a government should be and if they are not listening such awards should be thrown back at them. It is getting too much. There is no honour to receive from a government that let the kind of corruption and sufferings in Nigeria continue unchecked.

There is no excuse at all for our government to continue to allow Nigerian children to stay at home (due to teacher’s strike) in the 21^st century while their own children continue to have access to uninterrupted education in private schools and in foreign countries. It is wickedness of the highest order; it is injustice that God hates and a killer pill for a generation that should represent a good future for Nigeria.