Nigerian pastor bemoans falling state of education in Nigeria

By Al Akhigbe


When education dies, all else collapses. That's the scenario playing out in Nigeria today. The education sector has been neglected for far too long by successive governments and what we're seeing today are fragments of the decomposition.

I dare say about 70% of our youths that went to school didn't have real education. The sector is dead...very dead.

I have been privileged to meet people that only attained the Standard Six level and could read, write and think wonderfully. I have also had the misfortune of meeting a graduate with second class upper in Law who couldn't string together a simple sentence without making Sambisa-sized errors.

I stopped chatting with a relative of mine because of the resultant headache I suffered each time we chatted. Just to write, "how is the family?" will have almost every word misspelled. And you know what? He's a graduate of computer science.

Al Akhigbe

No, I don't blame them. I blame the system that allows lecturers to sell marks to students. If one knew that no matter how much he read and wrote in exams, he will never pass until the lecturer is blocked (settled with an amount to pass), he'll not stress himself to study. He'd rather go hustling in order to block, instead of reading in order to pass exams.

At the end, he'll come out with a second class upper while the one that nearly read himself to madness will come out with a third class.

In getting employment in Nigeria, one only needs to be connected. That statement that "graduates are unemployable" is only applicable to the unconnected. If you don't have the connection, you must have the money. Some jobs cost as much as a million naira to procure.
No kidding.

That same blocking in the university is in the public sector with a more matured acronym of "settlement." Those that can't afford the cost of settling to get jobs are the ones that are not employable and will take to Yahoo.

Don't tell me you're surprised and you're a Nigerian. Have you not heard some of our leaders talk? Have you never wondered how they became leader?

Is it not a CJ that can't "drive" a plane because of technicalities in law? Is it not a minister that "spended" money that didn't belong to him?

Some days ago, my younger sister visited farmhouse. My wife took her bp test and was alarmed. It was 166/110. She told her to go and see her doctor urgently. She said she was just coming from the hospital and the doctor tested her and saw it was 160/100.

Guess what the doctor told her?

"Oh, you shouldn't sit lazily in one place. Get busy and do some exercises more often."

Through Google, my wife discovered the bp drug she was given can't work with the supplements she was taking. She told the husband to take her and seek a second opinion. A nurse in a clinic nearby also faulted the doctor's diagnosis. The following night, there was forced contraptions and by the time they rushed her to the hospital in the morning, the baby had died.

The doctor on duty couldn't hide his consternation. He protested to the midwife and asked how a doctor could let a pregnant woman with such a high bp go back home without admitting her?

Blame game notwithstanding, the quack doctor is still there at the hospital, waiting for the next victim. I've told the husband to confront the hospital management and request for the wife's file. I know it's hard. But it's possible. I've done it before. He said he thanked God that his wife was alive - our normal excuse to be passive.

Who knows? That doctor may not even have the right qualifications. Who knows? He might have "blocked" his way through the university. Who knows?

And if I talk now, they'll say farmer likes trouble.



Al Akhigbe an ex-pastor writes from Lagos