• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Rethinking functional education in Nigeria and fearless enterprise

Educational-System

The link between education and the prosperity of nations has long been established by authorities that can hardly be faulted. In like manner, personal prosperity is no longer as detached from education, as it were during the time of our forefathers. It has therefore become a regular pastime, even for uneducated parents, to admonish their children on the importance and usefulness of education. However, such admonitions no longer carry as much weight as they did in the past because education is fast losing its value in Nigeria. One does not seem to need it, or much of it, to get into the most lucrative industry in the country – politics. Nor does one get hired for one’s great grades nowadays. Connections are better than education these days, it seems.

So, what do the youth do? What should the youth believe? Should they continue to believe their parents and guardians that education, especially higher education is another name for regular meal tickets, or follow their peers who have alternative theories of success? This is part of the dilemma Nigerian youth, who are of school age, are facing.

Some of our youths have also 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 every day- how they should take schooling very seriously, so as to make good grades and thereafter, get good jobs. Having got good jobs, the kids are told to conduct themselves very nicely, being prim and proper, so as 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 our university graduates, including those with first class degrees, while school drop outs are making it in politics and sundry occupation. Is there more that we can teach the youth? Yes. It is the difference between hard work and smart work; entrepreneurship and the place and nature of money in society.

The current and persisting top priority challenge of every youth in Nigeria is to win their financial freedom and gain economic independence from their parents, and these who have played guardian to them over time. That those who bore the burden of their education are continuing, years after higher education in Nigeria is a national disaster of immense proportions. Unfortunately, we seem to have spent more time, and for too long, trading blames, leaders and followers, as to who and what is responsible for the disastrous fate of most Nigerian youth of today. They leave school and face perennial difficulties getting employment, and when they do, they are treated like beggars and paid peanuts, even after the so-called minimum wage gets implemented, if it will be paid. As if that is not bad enough some half-educated leaders and commentators keep singing the song of declining educational standards, as though they had better education than these young people.

 We must refocus our teaching in schools to give more economic and financial education to our children, even if they study Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Even with STEM education, such knowledge will produce more prosperity if laced with an understanding of money, its biology and habitat.

For one, Nigeria tends to blame the educational system for the rising unemployment of the youth. Granted that there is a large room for improvement in the educational system, with regard to the need to match output with industry needs, the failure of successive governments to expand the economy is a 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 in the decade of the 1990s.

Almost every graduating youth, especially those with financial education and some experience, took the plunge to set up businesses, even if they were mostly financial businesses. The reforms of those years, implemented by Babangida, gave tonic to the entrepreneurial spirit of the youth. The Nigerian economy has now expanded only into the pockets of our leaders, many of whom should be ashamed of the kind of money they have creamed out of the blood of their labouring compatriots.

We must refocus our teaching in schools to give more economic and financial education to our children, even if they study Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Even with STEM education, such knowledge will produce more prosperity if laced with an understanding of money, its biology and habitat.

Actually, Richard Kiyosaki began his story by telling us that he had 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), while the rich dad was the father of his friend, Mike. Richard’s two father taught him the art of success but each of them had his own prescription as to the route he should follow to success. For sure, their approaches were not only different but completely and diametrically opposed. Further down into the book however, Richard revealed which of the two fathers was a better one, or the one who taught him the better lessons of life, with regard to the business of prosperity, especially the lessons on money and investment – his rich dad.

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 a good one but it cannot compare to the idea of smart business acumen. Indeed, it is old fashioned. Those with that kind of mindset are the children of a poor dad. Their dad is usually highly educated and professionally schooled. He is however, poor in the sense that he and his offspring are the leading members of the world team of Rat Racers – they have jobs and work for their pay cheques. Before the pay cheques come, bills are already waiting and once settled, they 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. Of course, they get the grades and the great jobs but may end up working for drop outs who have training on money and lack business acumen.

On the other hand, 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. It begins with the importance of financial literacy. In Nigeria, the Igbo are the most financially literate. They understand money and its workings. They know the pathology and medical history of money. They work for it. This is why, despite their obvious disadvantages in the country, they survive better than most of their compatriots, when conditions get difficult. They make money from dust and can fish it out from any hole. Those who want prosperity must get to know money and the traps that catch it. We must redirect our youth to learn how the Igbo make money out of nothing by being creative, inventive and painstaking. We must nationalize the can-do attitude of the Igbo and their fearless enterprise.

Taken mostly form my new book: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development