There are some problems with the educational system in Nigeria, as probably with almost everything else in the world. However, where most people look for the problems is not where they are. Nigeria itself is still a nation in the making. That station of life, being a nation in the making, has its own add-ons and challenges. A poorly developed reward system and a criminal justice system that is incapable of delivering justice, ensure that people do what they like. Those who work the system for their own good do so in the hope that corrupt national institutions can be manipulated successfully. A thriving documents faking industry, and the traditional incompetence of most employers in the simple act of verification of certificates, makes it possible for people to work from trainee to director, with fake certificates undetected, and retire with handsome pensions. These are the reality of most people still struggling with nation building as we are. Successful reforms in the reward system continue to be urgent predecessors of those in the educational system.
The link between education and the prosperity of nations and individuals has long been established, despite overwhelming evidence of the sterling performance of some school dropouts, especially in the digital world. But we must differentiate between happenstance and the natural course of events. We must compare the chances of success for dropouts and those who complete their prescribed training.
Some blame the universities and others point to the politics of the national educational system. These may share the blame but there are more fundamental issues to address. The primary question however is, what kind of education do we really need today in our country to push forward its prosperity and development? The answer is simple. We need productive education -education that is functional and useful for our station of development. This implies that we seek education for what it can deliver not for its own sake as we currently do.
Some of our youths have luckily read the famous book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, written in 1997 by Richard Kiyosaki. The book teaches something in the manner of a rebuttal of what most parents teach their kids. Parents teach kids to take schooling very seriously, so as to make good grades and get good jobs. Having got good jobs, the kids are to climb the corporate ladder and get to the top. Many are beginning to question, and rightly so, some of the things they are taught in school, as unemployment ravages university graduates, while school dropouts are making it especially in politics. Is there more that we can learn? Yes. We need to learn more about entrepreneurship and the nature of money in the economy. We need financial literacy.
The current and persisting top priority challenge of every youth in Nigeria is to win their financial freedom and gain economic independence from those who played guardian to them over time. That those who bore the burden of their education are continuing to do so, years after higher education in Nigeria, is not just sad for the youth but a national anti-climax.
We mostly blame the educational system for the rising unemployment of the youth. Some say what the schools teach are not job-making skills. Granted that there is a large room for improvement, with regard to matching output with industry needs, the failure of successive governments to expand the economy is a bigger national shame that dwarfs the errors in the educational system. An expanding economy is always followed by a rise in entrepreneurship and private investing. Many of us witnessed the boom in entrepreneurship in Nigeria during the decade of the 1990s, when manyyouths, especially those with financial education and some experience, took the plunge to set up businesses. The reforms of those years led to expansion and gave vent to the entrepreneurial spirit of the youth. The Nigerian economy is not expanding but we are investing heavily in entrepreneurship development. We need to also create the space for them to blossom.
While a growing economy fires up the entrepreneurial spirit, there is need for us to give more economic and financial education to our children, even if they study Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Such technical education will produce more prosperity if laced up with an understanding of money, its biology and habitat – a skill presently not democratised in Nigeria.
Actually, Richard Kiyosaki told his story of his two dads from whom he had learned valuable lessons. One, the poor dad, was his own dad (but it has been established that in reality, Richard’s father was not poor), taught him to be studious and climb the corporate ladder. The rich dad was his friend’s Mike’s, taught him to get financial education and how to make money. Richard’s two fathers taught him the art of success but each of them had his own prescribed route to success. Of course he later revealed that his rich dad taught him the better lessons of life, with regard to the business of prosperity, especially the lessons on money and investment.
The gist of Richard’s story is that the idea of getting good grades in school, getting a good job and then climbing the corporate ladder is good but cannot compare to the idea of learning smart business acumen; and they are not mutually exclusive. The poor dad does not know this. His kids are highly educated and professionally schooled but may be poor because they form the leading members of the world team of Rat Racers who work from pay cheque to pay cheque. Before the pay cheques come, bills are already waiting, and once settled, more bills accrue. They have to work for the next pay day so as to settle the ever waiting bills. Life becomes a rat race. They cannot invest and saving money is hard ball because there is nothing to save. They get the good grades and the great jobs but may end up working for drop outs that have training on money and its pathology- the kids of the rich dad. The rich dad teaches his children to study to be prepared in order to understand phenomena, especially money and other economic issues, and to play the system according to its own rules. They covet financial literacy.
In Nigeria, the Igbo are probably the most financially literate. They understand money and its workings. They know the pathology and medical history of money. This is why, despite their obvious disadvantages in terms of national opportunities, they survive better than others, when conditions get difficult. They make money from dust and can fish it out from any dirt hole. They turn their disadvantages to opportunities. Like the Chinese, they see opportunity in every danger. Unfortunately, this portrays them as too aggressive. Their neighbours, often mostly out of ignorance or envy, have issues with this aggression that is born out of difficulties and innate creativity.
Those who want prosperity must get to know money and the traps that catch it as the Igbo do. We must develop the can-do attitude and fearless entrepreneurship that have taken them to all corners of the world. We must redirect our youth to learn how to make money legitimately by being creative, inventive and painstaking. We must nationalize the can-do attitude of the Igbo and their fearless enterprise that created islands of prosperity in many places they are. It should be our national heritage.
Emeka Osuji
