From Taiwo Oluwadare, Ibadan
The get-rich-quick syndrome has been described as a major factor impeding economic development in Nigeria.
A lecturer and professor of physics from Augustine University, Ilara-Epe (AUI), Prof. Abiola Ogunde, stated this while speaking as lecturer on “Get-Rich-Quick Syndrome,” at the eighth matriculation of the institution recently.
According to him, the get-rich-quick syndrome was one of the contemporary social problems of Nigerian society and could be described as culture of quick fixes or shortcuts that is prevalent among youths, which is unlawful, unreasonable, untenable and even ungodly.
He added that Nigerian youths were no longer interested in earning money through the legitimate and honourable way, which is one of the major reasons for present economic decline.
Ogunde mentioned illegitimate acts like armed robbery, political thuggery, kidnapping, Internet fraud, ritual killings and others, adding that teenagers and university undergraduates who believe education is a scam are mostly found in these illegal acts.
He said: “The society that ought to query the source of their wealth ends up celebrating them. We live in a time where a child can afford to buy houses or cars for parents without the moral stand of those parents to query the sources of the stupendous wealth.
“This desperation by our youths to survive at all costs is dangerous, devastating and pathetic. It poses a serious threat to the Nigerian society, particularly the upcoming generation, if the trend is not urgently addressed,” Ogunde said.
Earlier in his address, the vice-chancellor of the institution, Professor Christopher Odetunde, noted that the present group of matriculating students was the largest since the establishment of AUI.
According to him, the institution has grown in the number of students, as the institution has 255 undergraduate students and 28 students who have enrolled for the Joint Universities Preliminary Examination Board (JUPEB) programme.
The VC added that the institution would be introducing more programmes, saying AUI awaits the resource verification visit of the National Universities Commission (NUC) for programmes like Nursing, Computer Engineering and postgraduate programme in Computer Science.
“We requested for other programmes such as Medical Laboratory Science, Human Anatomy and Physiology,” he added.