By Tunji Olaopa
I
t is now axiomatic that Nigeria embodies fundamental contradictions that define the extent of her predicament. This predicament is a multidimensional one that revolves around the inability of Nigeria to make developmental headway of her existence since 1960.
For sixty-one years of statehood, Nigeria is still to make headway with her development in spite of her immense natural resources. The Nigerian state is demographically youthful in a continent that is itself in its demographic stage of youthfulness.
And yet, Nigeria’s youth unemployment rate is one of the highest on the continent. And finally, Nigerians constitute one of the highest achieving ethnic groups around the world, and the most educationally distinguished, for instance, in the United States.
And yet, this does not translate into any significant human capital dynamic for the Nigerian State.
Recently, after the conclusion of the Big Brother Naija reality show, the winner of the show—Laycon—went home with a whooping N30m in cash, as well as other assorted goodies.
And the media went into a frenzy of reportage over the winner and his celebration by Ogun state as her youth ambassador. Nothing is absolutely wrong with that really, at least going by the huge budget and promotional that the sponsors put into the programme.
The issue is that if Laycon enjoyed so much social awareness, especially on social media and even in the traditional media, then the likes of Dr. Matthew Aneke, a former postdoctoral award winning researcher in carbon capture and biomass gasification, Andrew Akala, the African Awardee for research excellence in space science, or Yusuf Olalere who graduated first class and the best graduating student of the Nigerian Law School in 2020 or even Ogwubie Chikemzi Praise, who got the 2020 WAEC result, should also be celebrated in some measure.
None of these got the media coverage even in the shadow of what Laycon got. And none of them certainly went home with anything that reflect societal measure of appreciation of the value of their contributions.
With this gross disparity in human capital discrepancy, as well as the media reportage of human capital achievements, we arrive at another critical dimension of the Nigerian predicament.
Though we must give kudos to the media on the growing trend to profile first-class graduates, even if more within concerns to sell the papers than as grand narratives.
The art of celebrating achievers is however not a new one. Indeed, over the centuries, it has become a distinct mark of civilizational renewal; an act of encouraging courageous invention, unorthodox creativity and foresighted innovation.
From artists to entrepreneurs, and from scientists to writers, the society recognizes the intrinsic worth of unique achievements that breaks frontiers and move the boundaries of the society forward.
Indeed, productive innovation, ingenious research findings, scientific breakthroughs, thought-provoking bestsellers, outstanding achievements, etc. are valued by the society as the sources of the novelties and knowledge required by the society itself to keep renewing its boundaries.
No wonder Maya Angelou was very ecstatic about it: “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”
However, celebrating achievements cannot be for its own sake. Neither does it exist solely by itself in a vacuum. On the contrary, celebrating achievers is factored into a society’s and nation’s understanding of itself and its objectives.
And this is even all the more so in the case of educational and academic excellence and its relationship with a nation’s understanding of the role of human capital in national development.
Indeed, recognizing excellence becomes meaningful if it is part of grand national human capital development and knowledge capital formation value chain. In other words, any state with a purposeful and strategic development plan immediately recognizes the definitive role that human and knowledge capitals play in initiating a performance and productivity curve.
And this implies not only factoring education into national development but also factoring educational and academic excellence into such human and knowledge capital development. This implies fundamentally that reality show winner will not get more celebrated than academic A-graders.
One significant aspect of the Singaporean transformation story, as narrated by Lee Kwan Yew, involves creating a strategic socialization ecosystem within which A-graders can cultivate long-lasting relationships that is aimed at regenerating the excellence that Singapore believes plays a huge role in her national transformation hinged on an incentivized human capital made aware of the significance of the knowledge economy and the urgency of placing Singapore right within its dynamics.
Whether we like it or not, this is one of the exigencies of the 21st century that farsighted states must factor into their national reflections. This has been my reform thinking for many years—the strategic place and role of an innovative education reform in national and institutional transformation, and the need to rethink and rejuvenate human capital development through a deep reflection on Nigeria’s higher education dynamics.
Anyone old enough will understand the historical narrative behind the sociology of encouragement and incentives that attended brilliant students, and specifically the role that parents and the society placed on functional education.
When I was growing up, being a whiz kid came with certain expectations of societal recognition and assistance in all forms. However, a whole lot has happened to our sociology in ways that have occasioned the negative reevaluation of values.
Crass materialism, nepotism, and a rentier mentality has led to the emergence and establishment of a culture of “something for nothing” that undermines the spirit of deferred gratification. Nowadays, competitions for positions have become too politicized to be founded on merits.
Not even the hallowed ivory towers have been immune from the rat race. Thus, we have now found ourselves at a significant point where we have those with no demonstrated academic orientation making claim to have a doctorate, and when someone is introduced as a professor, one needs to do a forensic investigation of the person’s intellectual quotient.
For example, at a recent Edo State performance review conference, I had highlighted in my keynote presentation the need for Governor Godwin Obaseki to do an overall total strategic anticipatory view of the revolution his education reform is creating in Edo.
Governor Obaseki’s EdoBest educational initiative has deployed all manner of educational reform innovations at the primary, secondary and technical levels to achieve an all-round qualitative learning and competency objective facilitated by teacher education reform, quality assurance and an enhanced learning environment that bring out the best in the preparation of human capital development.
The problem however is that when these students graduate from their reformed learning experience, they will be forced to find places in several of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions that are not so founded on institutional reforms and sound education philosophy.
This implies that we will not arrive at a desired human capital development rehabilitation that will undergird Nigeria’s national development even if different states, like Edo and Kaduna States, are doing their utmost best to transform their education and academic spaces. How might we then begin to rejig this whole social and institutional anomie that has engulfed Nigeria’s development effort? How do we restore values and standards critical developmental culture?
Prof. Tunji Olaopa is a Public Affairs Analyst.
