Who invests so much time, funds or materials to develop a gun, only to use it to shoot ants? Such a person will not only be seen as a novice, but a stupid person with a leaking investment. Some Nigerian officials have lamented that Nigerian graduates are not ready to do odd jobs in order to succeed. Some justify their claims by showing Nigerian graduates who have “adjusted” to commercial motorcycles “okada”, tricycle and other menial jobs. Even a Nigerian governor purchased several wheel-barrows as a way of employing Nigerian graduates.
Education is a process made “to give knowledge to or develop the abilities of somebody by teaching.”[1] It is a process of training people to collaborate with others in a society for productivity and sustenance. Society’s sustenance is guaranteed by the ability of citizens to produce what they consume and tools for the production.[2] So, progressive societies invest by teaching their citizens how to extract, process, distribute and use their resources.[3] But the expenses on education would be considered a leaking investment when trained citizens fail to be productive.
The Nigerian government budgets about 300-400 billion Naira[4] yearly for the education of millions of Nigerians. Yet after these costs, the Nigerian government fails to apply the knowledge and strength of youth in production from local resources. Instead, the government seizes and sells people’s resources to foreigners. The foreign companies use the resources to produce machineries and other items to be imported for Nigerian use.
It appears that the main people who practice what they studied in Nigerian universities are the doctors and nurses. Most other science graduates (pharmacists/engineers) who were trained to use mineral resources for production remain jobless and hopeless. Some of the could-have-been producers resort to counting, marketing and managing imported goods and ideas. Hence, it appears that the Nigerian system of education and productivity ends up mass-producing accountants and marketers against true industrialists for the society. This situation renders Nigerian education a leaking investment.
Without access to resources for production, education in Nigeria will remain a Greek-gift-settlement to keep the Nigerian youth busy. It remains a leaking investment instead of a real investment in citizens as agents of social development. Hence, the Nigerian youth must organize themselves according to their ethnic communities to demand possession to their resources for productivity. Then they can decide how to collaborate and partner with other people to maximize productivity.
[1] Microsoft® Encarta® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
[2] Chukwunwike Enekwechi, YouWin: government’s MMM abi lottery, obtained on 16th August 2017. http://restartnaija.com/2017/08/16/youwin-governments-mmm-abi-lottery/
[3] Chukwunwike Enekwechi, Nigeria does not need your education.
[4]Channels Television. December 22, 2015, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday presented a 2016 budget proposal of 6.07 trillion Naira. http://www.channelstv.com/2015/12/22/breakdown-of-nigerias-2016-budget/