Lost Empire: Conclusion

 Lost Empire

Lacerating Knowledge and Action

'Action without knowledge is futile,

knowledge without action is waste.'

-Confucius

Rather than challenge the system out-rightly, lecturers embark on industrial actions for more funding centred on recurrent expenditure not capital. The students too see no real reason in making the custodians know that their future is in real jeopardy due to their lackadaisical attitude and dispassionate zeal towards researches, mentoring and innovation. Students of University of Lagos trooped out en masse to protest the change of

nomenclature (from University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University) by the Federal Government, can they ever stage such against the university authority? Can they ever stage such against those who continue to sell and circumvent their future for their personal benefits? Capital NO. Misplaced mission. Teachers are cheaters.

Just like their political mentors, lecturers drive and change exotic cars at will in Nigeria. They complain of lack of funds yet they ride expensive cars creating a cycle of ostentatious competition. Same note of the 80s is given to students in 2012. No change in even the smallest alphabet. Education or Retardation? Lecturers are gods. Challenging them even when they glaringly teach inconsistently is going against one's grade for the job search after school. What a shame! Students want nothing other than money. Well, that is the worship centre of the society. Thinking otherwise is so debilitating and detrimental. Such an individual will become ostracised in a way in the family and among peers. A fact I can attest to personally.

In the other round of the game, if one goes the way of innovation or try to incite the revolutionary spirit for effervescent changes, one will die of paucity of funds and hunger. No one is ready to support the revolutionary or board the train of change. Futuristic plans and projections are anathema to many youths. The syndrome is 'make the cash now.' The system is so bad that the lecturers like the politicians are innately joyous because it brings more financial benefits than an accountable scheme where more will have to be spent on advancement and development and less for the pockets. As at 1986, Nigeria produced an African giant and Nobel Laureate in Literature, Professor Wole Soyinka with worldwide recognition. Long before then, Africa made the world view her force with Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Ngugi wa Thiongo, Peter Abrahams, Leopold Sendar Senghor, David Birago Diop among others gave Africa strength and vigour.

China just got the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000 with the emergence of Gao Xingjian. Despite this, can Africa states combined raise eyebrow where China is? What went wrong? Avarice. Why has the Nobel Prize in Physics, Medicine, Science and even Economics eluded Africa? Why has Africa not fix names in these fields? Colonial Education. The type of education meant only for slaves is ubiquitous in the continent. Education for clerks and government scribes. Africans have become Doctors and Professors in speaking and writing but toddlers and pupils in innovation and technology. Almost zero in science. Finland revolutionize her educational system and beats the United States at it. Government in Finland has no stand when the US talks but education in Finland now can shut up the US. Singapore saw the need to build the future and it does nothing than massively invest in educating the youths.

Student Unionism back is those glorious eras was to influence policies for the FUTURE. The abrogation of defence pact with Britain in 1962 by the Nigerian Government was due largely to students' objection. How about challenging the military? Students then were simply awesome. Now, students wait to share crumbs. They beg for marks and worship those who continue to make them intellectually handicapped. Those who make them job-search vultures. In Africa today, Kenya is the country with awe-inspiring prospects of fielding names in the nearest future in technology and innovation. Despite being a foremost representation of African Democracy – Politics of the Tribes – she is gradually building a future around technology and innovation. The coming of the 'Silicon Valley' to Nairobi is the gateway. Accra is coming up too.

Students in 2005 made Jacque Chirac abrogate the controversial working policy proposed by the French Prime Minister of employing fresh graduates on contract for two years by companies and they can be laid off thereafter. Cars were burnt and many destruction occurred. Even as a staunch advocate of no destruction in protests, I cannot totally say it will not occur in diehard situations. The only caveat is that all incendiary actions must be on the perverse leaders and thieves. Recently in India, students protested the killing of a teacher who is against government policies that are anti-people. All these show that they are thoughtful of the future. They are strong and determined at heart. North African revolutions as well as the Arab Spring without the youths could have been nothing but bloody lost for the people but the zeal for a better future gingered the youths.

I wonder if Professors in Agriculture Institutes know that robots now work on farms. Well, they can go to Denmark for the latest innovation in robot-driven tractors and planters. Different seed improvement techniques, pest control mechanisms as well as genetic mutation of crops not excluding scientific cross-breeding exist yet none seems to be in reflection in the society with Agriculture Institutes. When all these are mentioned, these professors should have it in mind that they are not mechanisms and methods of the 60s and 70s that are referred to because textbooks on their shelves are dusty and brownish. A signal that they are outdated and out of usage. Graduates in agriculture after years of studying still see the same field as not meant for them. Dirty occupation. Not classy. It is not the oil industry and finance corporations where monies fly around with no records. What an education!

If indeed in Nigeria, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) can consistently, continuously and constantly send students home for them to retire at age 70 and get more raw cash, I do not see reason(s) why students cannot close all gates nationwide and demand government stop their pay till they are committed to sound education. Hold them hostage today because they are holding tomorrow hostage too. They should be committed to giving the future the best and show signs of this before they can have the best too. Law of reciprocity. It is a gargantuan pity that students cannot and will not demand this. At least, they receive the patronage of these ones sometimes as well as the government.

Many of the student representatives go on bulky embezzlement spree. They sometimes do so in connivance with university authorities. Solace in personal deceit is the order. Self deceiving self. Many say they wait till they get around government circles to effect the changes. Laughable. The naked truth is that they wait impatiently to purloin funds meant for the populace. Student activists only wait for government’s employment locomotive to loot. Educated thugs. Becoming executives and representatives of students is the surest way to be in wealth and be patronised in no distant time. All the killers of education, from government to lecturers down to students who are benefiting from the rot are joyous because a decayed system ensures that some microscopic viruses continue to be enriched with unalloyed impunity. Irony is that many wait endlessly because the pen-robbers are replacing themselves with their children and loyal cronies. Foggy future.

This is the major and main reason why they are ready to deploy any and every medium to shut the caves of those genuinely interested in revolutionizing the sacred groove of learning. Nothing can secure the future than the dynamic education of the youths. These destructive elements have tenaciously held on to the instruments of violence and oppression with their corrupt wealth. Any dissenting voice or act will easily be silenced. Only collective actions with the elimination of fear can oust them. African youths wait for old men in their 50s, 60s and 70s to speak for them and their future. They wait for the frail ones whom they are meant to care for to announce protests and declare industrial actions against bad policies jettisoning their own future. Here is a continent where the youths subconsciously do not see themselves as the trustees of posterity.

I know of many a student whose calling is not to read and read, all they know are practicals and they are best at it but the only thing the system allows is theoretical digestion. Tears of pity. The practical inclination gave birth to the Bill Gate of Microsoft and the Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. South Korea closed her borders for ten years and the educational authorities taught the students an important slogan to make up and boost their morale for the temporary inconveniences: 'What we do not have, we do not need it. What we do not need, we must not have it. What we need, we must have it.' This was an anthem. Africa is the poorest yet the headquarters of worst ostentatious lifestyles. Here, youths have been fully indoctrinated in extravagance and profligacy. The victory of the 'terminators' of education are the derailed youths who now constitute the majority. All consciousness now is to swim in money. Get rich at all cost. No humanity. Where is the future? A rotten system has no accountability. Parents pay fees through their noses yet see no reasons to charge the system for efficient and durable deliveries. The submission.