Promise Adiele
RECENTLY, the erudite Professor Hope Eghagha, former Head, Department of English, University of Lagos, playwright, poet, famed columnist, teacher, and a former commissioner for Higher Education in Delta State, recounted on his Facebook page an encounter with some students who believe that school/education is a scam. He was rightly scandalized that young people of this generation clung to such retrogressive worldview.
The Prof was so piqued with this type of materialistic predilection that he wrote an essay published in the Guardian Newspaper titled ‘If you no get money, hide your face’. In the essay, he berated the youths for repudiating education but embracing the illusions of materialism, promoting wealth to an honorific level and unconsciously worshipping at the slippery altar of mammon, the retributive god of wealth.
Prof. Eghagha’s position reminds me of the orthodox posture of parents in the years gone by who admonished their children to be of good behaviour and study hard. No doubt, the society of yore was structured in a way that hard work inevitably attracted a reward. In those days, education paid off. I heard that school certificate holders got jobs automatically while university graduates were demigods.
The motivation to go to school was enchanting. Today, many youths indulge in insidious behaviour to acquire wealth, drive flashy cars, procure expensive gadgets, and live in a posh neighbourhood. I, therefore, agree with Prof. Eghagha that it is wrong for the youths of these days to conceive school/education as a scam while pursuing the mirage of materialism. Although, I agree with the cerebral Prof to that extent, let me exercise my creative liberty to advance a different perspective on the issue.
I want to interrogate the issues responsible for this ideological shift among our youths. While not endorsing the idea that school/education is a scam, let us examine the issues that have necessitated such a mindset. First, our society has over the years degenerated in terms of morals and values, accommodating criminals and celebrating those who make money by all means. The educated ones are scorned while illiterates and semi-literates parade the corridors of our social fabric and politics, legislating and enforcing a fetid moral code for the populace. 90% of graduates are without jobs. Many of them have taken to menial duties to survive. All the lectures, assignments, projects, fieldwork, and thesis they wrote amount to nothing since they eventually revert to menial jobs, suffocating the space for those who never went to school.
Our graduates are not empowered to succeed independently or through government assistance. Therefore it seems like a scam when youths go through the rigour to acquire education, pay all the fees, and finally return to square one. It is more painful because our society does not celebrate educational achievements. While the winner of a beauty pageant is rewarded with millions of naira, a trip around the world, and a brand new car, a first-class graduate is rewarded with a paltry N50,000. In some cases, nothing is given except a hand-shake from the Vice-Chancellor. Some lawmakers, governors, and high-ranking public officers who occupy leadership positions are either half-educated or bought their degrees from obscure European universities. For this reason, the authorities will never beam their corruption searchlight to uncover such acts of criminality among the leadership class. Check some governors and their deputies, DG’s of parastatals, and some people who parade themselves as the voice of the country, they don’t have the qualifications they claim, yet our society celebrates them while shunning those who have toiled to acquire a good education.
Not too long ago, Mr. President, the occupier of the highest office in the land, was mired in controversies concerning the authenticity of his school certificate. Mind you, I am talking about school certificate, not a university degree. Many critics believe that the President does not possess a school certificate, yet a renowned Professor of Law plays second fiddle to him. It is such an illustration of contradiction that has defined our reality, giving rise to the belief that school/education is s scam. I have seen university graduates ride keke tricycles, okada, and uber. Right now, many have been thrown into the jobless market following Okada and Keke ban in some parts of the city without a corresponding alternative to ease the pain. In Nigeria, survival has become a challenging reality for young graduates in the face of government’s insensitivity. Every law in Nigeria seems to be targeted against the youths, to hound and discourage them.
When they try to make ends meet through innovations, the police and other law enforcement outfits are waiting, ready to brutalize, violate, and dehumanize them while protecting the real suspects in the country. Today in Nigeria, it has become a crime for youths to carry laptops without attracting the vile attention of the police who accuse them of internet fraud, arrest them, and rob them of their money, sometimes at gunpoint. I ask – are there no genuine things that one can do with a laptop beside internet fraud? Has the government also banned the youths from using laptops?
Youths by their nature are impressionable. They are witnesses to the existing pervasion in our society where criminals are celebrated. Those who acquire wealth through underhand means can buy the law, buy the police, and trample on established values. Within traditional societies, some people who take chieftaincy titles these days are uneducated criminals who have acquired stupendous wealth. Our society does not care or respect education, they care and respect money no matter how it is acquired. We venerate positions, titles, and inchoate accolades as long as money is attached to them.
For these reasons, our youths have lost hope in school and in acquiring education. A former course mate of mine argued in a WhatsApp platform that with my PhD, I can never aspire to become the president of this country because the office of the president does not require a PhD holder. Such a jejune and inane thought process can discourage the acquisition of education. His post was more repulsive because Abdulmalik Bulama Biu, GOC 7 Division of the Nigeria Army, recently said that a ‘repentant’ Boko Haram member can aspire to become the president of Nigeria. Yet, this former course mate of mine, in his psychotic defence of a discredited system, believes that someone who has the highest academic degree cannot aspire to the same office. It is for these reasons that the youths believe that education is a scam.
Look at our religious institutions, mostly churches. Some of them are operated by beguiling, immoral, showbiz superstars who concentrate on tithes and offerings irrespective of the source. Many church architectural wonders are built and maintained with fraudulent funds. Drug peddlers, armed robbers, kidnappers, and public funds embezzlers have all found their ways into churches where they are celebrated and given front seat because they bring in the money. Let us not live in self-denial, if our society does not change its materialistic mindset, contemporary youths and generations yet unborn will continue to see education as a scam.
Recently, the erudite Professor Hope Eghagha, former Head, Department of English, University of Lagos, playwright, poet, famed columnist, teacher, and a former commissioner for Higher Education in Delta State, recounted on his Facebook page an encounter with some students who believe that school/education is a scam. He was rightly scandalized that young people of this generation clung to such retrogressive worldview. The Prof was so piqued with this type of materialistic predilection that he wrote an essay published in the Guardian Newspaper titled ‘If you no get money, hide your face’.
Dr. Adiele teaches in the Department of English, Mountain Top University writes via [email protected]