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.
