By
Godwin Onyeacholem
Even as one struggles to make room for optimism in
the destiny of Nigeria in these unsettling times, without doubt in the hope
that those who now hold the levers of power will somehow
manage to begin tofind solutions to some of our lingering pains, some odd
incidents take placeand feed one’ssubconscious desire to remain an incurable
pessimist.
These random events, which occur in all areas of our
national life, often portray the monumental decay that has spread through the
society.Thus, every area you can think of, regardless of its origin and
history, stinks to high heavens.
But where it willfully breaks the heart is with the
youth, the so-called leaders of tomorrow, majority of whom are graduates of
tertiary institutions but have stubbornly stuck to ignorance and all the vices
perpetrated by errant elders and deviant peers. They are equipped with all kinds
of paper qualifications, from higher diplomas to higher degrees, yet they are
without knowledge and perception, nor any form of purposeful bearing. Little
wonder the one-time governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Charles
Soludo, according to reports, once said a good number of Nigerian graduates are
“unemployable.” Not that their younger ones in high school are any better.
There are heaps of anecdotes concerning thepathetic
level of intelligencedisplayed by our youth that should worry any one that is
passionate about Nigeria’s future. But one will recall just three, as presented
by the two illustrious Dares(Professor Olatunji Dare and Dare Babarinsa) at the
apex of Nigeria’s vibrant journalism; the one, an accomplished journalism
teacher and talented prose writer with a knack for satire, and the other a
founding member of TELL magazine, consummate newsman with a rare grasp of
history, and now editor-in-chief of Gaskia Media Limited.
Writing under the heading, Our Endangered Value
System, in his back page column in The
Nation newspaper published March 29, 2016, Professor Dare regretfully noted
that Nigerian schools have stopped teaching history as a discipline, and thus referred
to a scandalousreport which he said revealed thatstudents in high schools in
Ogun State know more about Obafemi
Martins the footballer than ObafemiAwolowo, the
politician who brought free education to western Nigeria. It’s as bad as that.
On his part, Babarinsa, during a heartfelt
discussion with a small circle of friends on the quality of present-daystudents
and graduates of Nigeria’s universities, narrated his encounter with a group of
students in the social science faculty of a state university in the south-west
who paid familiarisation visit while he was editor-in-chief of the now rested
Westerner magazine.
He said as the exchange went on, he was shocked to
learn that none of the students knew the name of the founder of their
university or who he was. When he then mentioned the name, he said some of the
students scratched their heads and replied that they had heard the name before
but they could not be sure whether the person ever served the state at the
highest political level.
Babarinsa’s second of his many tales of unimpressive
abilities on the part of contemporary university students was recorded at the
University of Lagos from where he also graduated in mass communication more
than three and a half decades ago. On that occasion not too long ago, he had returned
to the campus to deliver a lecture to a hall that was jam-packed with students.
In the middle of his talk, he asked the students to tell him the name of the
first vice chancellor of the university. At that moment a pin-drop silence
descended on the venue, with the students staring blankly as not one of them remembered
the departed erudite scholar, Professor EniNjoku.Babarinsa said he was stunned
beyond belief by this crass display of pure ignorance. In those good old days,
this was an answer any primary school pupil would easily supply.
But these days our university students and products
of related institutions would only be able to perfectly reel off names of
rappers and disc jockeys as well aspostcountless meaningless materials on Facebook,
YouTube, Instagram and the like with a disarming ease. Today, chances are there
are more university graduates from Bayelsa State, for example, who have never
heard of Isaac AdakaBoro, even though there is a park with that name in
Yenagoa, the state capital. Try asking them who AdakaBoro was, and they are
likely to tell you he was one of the early Portuguese missionaries who
journeyed through the AtlanticOcean to settle in Ekeremor.
When the youth of a country, young men and women who
are supposed to be the vanguard of change in their country evince such level of
horrendous intelligence, just know that such a country is in deep trouble. Any
development whatsoever can only be in the opposite direction.
That is why the behaviour put up by students at the
University of Lagos during a roundtable on winning the war against corruption
is not surprising; it only reduces one’s hope for the prospects of a positive
future for our country. In an era of crooked studentship, that kind of
disgusting behaviour and worse, is what we would be treated to on a regular
basis.
It is sad to say that for majority of young people,
the main purpose of seeking university education is not to acquire knowledge
that will legitimately improve their lives and equip them to help correct
societal ills. They are in the university just so they can lay their hands on a
certificate that will potentially facilitate a connivance with the wreckers of
the society who are both in government and the corporate world.
That is why students will clap, rather than stone a
man who stood before them to rubbish the ongoing, unprecedented fight against
corruption – a vice that has systematically depleted their lives through low
quality education and appalling living conditions. Yet these students are not
seeing the severe damage corruption is doing to their lives.
In a more discriminating society, where students
place great premium on their future, they would have complemented government’s
effort by taking up the front seat in the fight against corruption. They would
by now have appropriated the fight by camping out at the National Assembly and
would not leave until allegedly corrupt politicians stand down to face justice.
Students will march to the courts each time those
accused of stealing government funds and property are brought for trial,
protesting how corruption has diminished the society and calling on the judges
to promptly send looters to prison. Not in this society, where students are
anxious to graduate by any means so that they too can quickly enroll in the
club of the corrupt.
But Femi Aribisala, a pastor whose theological/political
effusions chain the soul rather than liberate it, should count himself lucky.
In the days when students’ consciousness was anchored on the right values, he would
not only be shouted down, he would be pelted with all kinds of objects until he
vacated his seat on the panel. Indeed, he would be lucky if he left without any
harm.
(Onyeacholem
is a journalist. He can be reached on gonyeacholem@gmail.com)
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