THE PROMISE OF A GENERATION: THE BURDEN OF THEIR OPPORUNITY

“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” – James 1:12

 It is they who are quick and eager to do good works to outdo others and it is they who are the foremost of these (virtues and shall win the race) Q23: 61

 Say, ‘ O my people! Go on working according to (the utmost of) your capacities and positions. Surely, I am doing (my best)! Soon you shall come to know for whom I (best) reward of this abode.’ Anyhow, the wrongdoers never attain their goal. Q6: 135

 Let me first express my humble gratitude to the editor and pioneer of this publication, Sadiq Waziri. He’s a friend and brother, a true gentleman and a purposeful person. He also remains the only person to make football interesting to even those that are not fans.

 A little over two weeks ago he asked me to one day write a piece about youth and our relation to success. At first it sounded easy enough but my impression soon changed when I began to think of the content of the piece; the magnitude that I soon realized the challenges had. I am not a successful person, I have little money in my bank account, I have no business, I have not been able to deceive a beautiful girl to date me talk more of marrying me. I don’t own an Aston Martin or a Benz or a BMW. HECK, I don’t own a car. What makes me then, a struggling undergraduate qualified to write on success. I found comfort in the words of Albert Einstein, “try not to become a man of success rather become a man of value.”

 The Nigerian youth today do not have hope of a better tomorrow. The declining conditions of schools have for too long been ignored, the lack of qualified teachers not been addressed, the fundamental reforms to allow for graduates to become entrepreneurs and job creators are not being implemented. This clearly spells doom for our nation, as it has been clearly understood by generations before that a country that doesn’t build its youths for the future has no future. In the face of this what can the Nigerian youth do? Should we pack up and move to neighbouring countries? Or leave our non-performing schools, return home and live out our despair? No! For I see out of this gloom a trail of light, I have hope for the future and faith in the Nigerian child, here is why and here is what we can do.

 God in his infinite wisdom has blessed a few percentage of the Nigerian youth with the resources to become successful and help lead a nation to greatness but we must first overcome the impediments in our way.

 The Nigerian child that has the opportunity to go to school, is being brought up with very limited principles: go to school, get a degree, graduate, get a job and find your way in the system. How wrong this is!

 For a society to exist and progress to be made there must be a mixture of the thinkers and entertainers, the leaders and followers, the job creators and the skilled labour. We cannot all be government workers or employees of oil multinationals, construction companies or banks.

 What then is our hope if we are not taught to explore our skills to their true God given potential? What is our hope when we have a system that offers no fall back mechanisms? No social net for those who fail. I answer that our hope should come from a belief in our abilities, a vision for a country we see and a dream for a future for our children, it should come from an unrelenting belief in a better Nigeria.

 So in plain English what can we do?

 We must first learn compassion; learn that riches do not determine success; that happiness comes from a fulfillment of dreams and living a purposeful life, not from owning the latest money can buy.

 For those of us who have an unbelievable talent in the arts or music, push to develop it, take a chance on yourself but also get the education that will allow you invest the fruits of that labor; we can clearly remember the stories of Don Jazzy who from nothing took a chance with music and was able to build a business empire for himself. Or that of Kanu, who dazzled us with his legwork and used riches earned to bring free medical care to those who never thought they could have any.

 We can all attest to how Fella, Lagbaja and many others used the medium available to them to shock the conscience of a nation and call for social change. How Idris was even able to get a reply from the President. I hear Charles Nkanga (SwaggKid) has an album out. I will be looking to buy copies of the CD’sm even though I don’t listen to music, he might be the next Wizkid and needs our support.

 We are all taught and told to be Bankers and Lawyers; Engineers and Doctors; clearly we can’t all be those things, but some of us have to be, so I ask my friends who are studying to be professionals in the universities of the world and that of Nigeria, to study with their damn best, earn your qualification, know your job, come back home and help lift a generation from poverty. If you’re a software engineer or IT student, don’t wait till you finish school, write an application or start making websites for people, resolve to make your way and not finish school to look for a job, little things done today can accumulate into the giant leaps that move us forward.

 For those interested in public service, broaden your horizons, learn from the different schools of thought, read vastly but understand that sometimes the best change comes from outside government and not always from within it. You should strive to get yourself the most balanced and current education possible, because what we need is not politicians but educated and exposed persons that just happen to serve in government. Our future of rapid development has no place for career politicians.

 To those who seek to be business owners, please hurry up, take a chance, get a loan from your parents and start us on a journey to full employment for our people.

 Many have said they don’t give a “Fuck” about Nigeria. I have a simple message: either give a fuck or end up working in a fucked country, marry and raise children in a fucked country and do your business in a fucked country. The choice is that simple and clear.

 If however you dream about a better Nigeria then stand up, voice your opinions, work with NGO’s, use available contacts to draw attention to the needy, vote wisely, decisions are made by those who show up.

 The trust deficit of our nation allows for many things to go wrong. I hear many small and large business owners complaining of staff members and managers who steal from the business till they run it to the ground, stupidly putting themselves in unemployment. The greatest value we have is the goodness of our name, we must above all else aspire to be honest and trustworthy people, without this simple but strong commitment, all government policies will fail and many businesses will shut their doors, keeping us as always many steps behind nations of the world.

 My friends, I am placing today the future of our nation in the hands of a few: the privileged few. We must look to the blessings of God, remember His words and commands; our wealth is not ours alone. We should enable to give the poor their right. We must look to the blessings of our affluent upbringing as a call to a greater mission, as an opportunity to learn from the best schools and use our knowledge and become the best doctors and Engineers, ethical lawyers and devoted citizens that will give their all to the project of a better Nigeria. This is the promise of our generation! If we stand up, show up, take risks, dream big dreams and remember the timeless values of humility, honesty and hard work then only greatness can lie ahead.

 Friends, let us be dreamers and try to live the promise of our potential, generations of Nigerians are counting on us and God willing the spirit of our great ancestors will live to guide us.

 One final thing let us be the generation that shames the bigots in our society. Let us rise above the dogmas and let us never fail in ensuring that whatever decisions we make are not made based on religious or ethnic lines. Let us use the blessing of our exposure and realize Nigeria for what she truly is; a nation blessed with people of different cultures, ideas and religions, blessed is our diversity- a great gift from God.

A LACK OF QUALITATIVE EDUCATION: NIGERIANS NUMBER ONE PROBLEM.

I wrote these pieces two years ago when asked to write on a political or economic problem in Nigeria. while the article is dated, the issues raised are still relevant and more critical today. 

In selecting a topic for this paper I decided on a problem in the Nigerian society ( my home country) that is both an economic and political one. Thus, find what I hope is a detailed analysis of the paralyzing lack of qualitative education in Nigeria.

After independence in 1960 Nigeria hard a large number of primary and secondary schools, with an emerging number of strong public universities that will soon start not only to serve Nigeria but also the sub-saharan region wonderfully well. All appeared to be well, with Nigerian schools producing internationally acceptable Engineers and other professionals alike, that will help build and serve Nigerian's growing number of industries. With huge investments going into Education and Agriculture, all seemed to be good until OIL was first successfully explored and production began; in the blink of an eye investments in Education declined sharply; with Oil the national priority all government resources were invested in the sector alone; at that time it wasn’t a problem, Nigerian primary and secondary schools still had qualified teachers, with well equip laboratories, the baby boomer generation had not been born yet and our universities still boasted of qualified Lecturers and Professors from all over the world, with population still under control, universities could still serve their students body well. And so government kept saying everything is alright and no body bothered to ask the question, HOW ABOUT IN TH E NEXT 20 YEARS AND BEYOND?


 Today with a lack of an educated work force and lack of schools to train the populace, Nigeria is brain draining herself. For example in the oil and gas sector over 60% of the top level work force from ground level Engineers are held by foreigns. With the 80% Nigerian populace working in the sector not trained in Nigeria. So in the countries main source of income, Nigerians are left out of running it because they do not have the required skills and education. When the Ministry of Petroleum began a partnership with the petroleum companies operating in Nigeria to start employing the services of Nigerian’s in their work force, in anticipation of the passage of the petroleum industry content bill, the partnership soon failed as there were no Engineers and Tacticians with the required skills to be to employed by the companies. 


 The Central Bank of Nigeria recently released monies for credit to farmers in the country in other to allow them increase production, thus, creating a food security net for the country and also bringing about economic growth. In the countries North, the region that feeds the nation, an insignificant number of farmers accessed the loan; in an investigation into this, it was found that most farmers had no basic knowledge on collecting loans from banks, most had no media access that will allow them get informed about the credit scheme; in this modern age we still have people with no basic education to allow them know the principles of business expansion and how loans from banks can help with that. This is in a country that is the 6th largest producer of oil.



 When the Central Bank governor made a statement that the National assembly of the nation spends 25% of the countries budget every year as its total overhead budget, an uproar was the result of his statement in the national assembly, this was followed by threats of impeachment and in the hearings that took place in the senate with the Central Bank Governor facing questions, to the amazement of the nation, the countries Senators and members of the house had no idea what an overhead budget meant. The legislature recently proposed a budget for the country that even the countries Minister of Finance categorized as unimplementable and had no reasonable economic policy backing it.

 What a lack of education has cost Nigeria is failed leadership; with our leaders uneducated on issues and policy thus resulting in a campaign of sentiment; and a populace without the required skills, training and education to challenge the leaders of the nation in the policies they set forth. This has created a political problem, with the government of the country failing to meet is responsibilities; a result of bad government policies built by a lack of solid education.


 WHAT CAN BE DONE?


The recent result of final year secondary students released, with only 1.3% passing indicates a national emergency, that will require massive work hours and huge amounts of resources to fix.
 
 A review of the university system must be done in oder to effectively pin point the loopholes in the system, with greater funding to be provided for the countries universities; funds that will allow them expand, employ new lecturers, build new infrastructure, continue stopped research.


 A student quota number most be enforced for all universities and adherence must be maintained.


 New universities should be built to meet up with the high demand, a result of the baby boomer generation and public private partnership should be done to ensure high, quality education in quantity in the nation.
 
 A phased approach should be taken to fix both secondary and primary schools. With the responsibility for their financing and regulation given to state and local governments. New equipment most be provided for schools, with an extensive provision for materials, like textbooks, Desks and tables, class boards and modern ICT facilities. A massive program to train teachers most be started, teaching should become a National honor and teachers must be paid comfortable salaries based on student performance. In consultation with other west african countries a review most be conducted, in order to change the existing secondary school finial year testing system, which encourages students to only remember but not to understand.


 If our universities are upgraded, our primary and secondary schools reformed, the country will be able to bring about growth in its economic and political sector. When people are empowered with skills, there are bound to do great things, Agricultural production will increase; as farmers will have knowledge about new farming techniques and market demand for their products; new industries will come to life, Nigeria will finally be able to control a high stake in the oil and gas sector and our leaders will be a new generation of knowledge empowered people; with skills needed to run a country; as they have passed through an electioneering process; drilled and elected by knowledgeable people, who finally elect their leaders not based on sentiments but based on who has the brains and strength to get the job done; these will be leaders that will finally address problems of infrastructure, power and many others in the county, providing the foundation to foster growth that will be powered by a new educated and skilled workforce.


 However, the will be huddles in the match to revamp the education sector; change and progress will take time but a lack of fast and quick success rate might kill political will. A large number of the adult population will not go back into the education system but this can be fixed with the building and equipping of vocational centers to allow adults pick up marketable skills. Special adults school can also be provided. There need to fix this problem is urgent, the stake has never been higher, recently Festo automation Germany said and I quote “ we have been looking for Mechatronics Engineers to employ in Nigeria but we have found none”. 

This is a problem that much be fixed it is not only an economic problem; it is not only a political problem, it is a matter of life and death. They will be huddles, they will be challenges but the problem will have to be addressed head on; a choice must be made between a future of strong economic growth, a new middle class, an effective democratic systems; a result of a largely educated workforce; or a future filled will conflicts; a future of economic stagnation, a future of imprisonment of the human brain, a future where the world will be headed towards the 22nd century and Nigerian we still be stock in the 20th century.

Our very survival depends on this.