The Irony of Life

Facebook reminded me of this post that I wrote about 9 years ago today. The truth of it resonates even at this moment!!!

It was William Shakespeare who said that “all the world, is a stage”. He was right! In different roles and under different platforms, we all are, in some situations, actors; and in another, audience. The strange part of it is that the script is already written and we are just the cast and crew.

In trying to identify and fulfil my purpose in life, I'd begun to take more than a passing interest in whichever theatre I find myself, the role(s) I play, and my fellow cast and crew. My faith becomes my teacher. For whether I appear as actor, crew or audience, the Scriptures place before me, the irrefutable words of the living God.

Every October, as we commemorate the anniversary of the independence of our great country, Nigeria, I find myself participating actively in different social media platforms to discuss the way-forward for Project Nigeria and I’ve come to see the Nigerian situation as one of those unfathomable ironies of life.

The other day, I visited one of Nigeria’s reputable private universities. It wasn’t my first visit but this one sent me into a poignant over-drive. Within the premises of the university sits an ultra-modern secondary school, the products of which, can compete favourably in any global arena. But right across the road, in front of the campus, is a terribly dilapidated public school.

The differences between the two schools are more visible than the obvious surroundings. But let us take the surroundings first. The university’s secondary school is situated inside the beautifully landscaped campus. The storey buildings, fenced in, are solidly built, well maintained and tastefully aligned, whether classrooms, offices, or dormitories.

The public school, on the other hand, is located in a less than savoury environment. In what could pass for a concern for aesthetics, beautiful trees planted in a row many years back, have now grown wild and definitely untended, probably fit only as shade. With no fence at all to cover the spectacle, the classrooms and offices look defective, worn and in desperate need of, at the very least, a coat of paint.

The windows are made of wood and left ajar even when the school is not in session. The grounds are sparsely-laced with over-grown grass and signs of destructive vehicle tyre marks and uncontrolled erosion.

Then, I considered the physical and mental dispositions of the promoters and faculty of both schools. The university’s secondary school is founded, developed and maintained by a faith-based organization. In partnership with parents and teachers of the students, the school deploys a unique spiritual philosophy and the quest for academic excellence to teach and train the students, breaking mental and intellectual barriers and providing varied opportunities for them in future.

The parents of the students can be perceived as upper-middle class, considering the exorbitant fees paid and the teachers definitely receive more than the minimum wage. They are attired in neat, smart and formal dressing; polite and helpful; seemingly committed and contented.

The public school, on the other hand, was established many decades ago by an exceptional leader, who believed, very strongly, that education is a human right and the vehicle to progress for all mankind. And to this end, he, relentlessly and unapologetically, made mass education a pivot policy of his administration. As a result, millions of children who would, otherwise, have been denied, had access to good public education. After his tenure, no other government, whether military or civilian, has given education in the South-West region any concerted attention.

The parents of children in this public school, who are mostly from the masses cadre, are either barely literate or bogged down with the rigours of daily living, such that even getting the resources for their children’s education is an ordeal. The teachers are so poorly paid and hardly appreciated that they spend the better part of school hours on their private enterprise which consequently, subjects the children to unpardonable neglect, physically and intellectually. Dedication and commitment, for them, must be a foreign language.

I now considered the condition and outlook of the wards of both schools. The students of the university secondary school turn out in their clean and starched uniforms, complete with long black socks and sandals. Looking at them, they exude confidence, healthy self-esteem, positive attitude, and hope for the future. As they advance in their schooling, they probably, already know how they’ll fulfil their destiny.

Hmmm… what can I say about the students of the public school? You can easily identify them strolling to school, hours after they were supposed to have settled in their classes. Their dressing can be described in very uncomplimentary terms – filthy, unkempt, rough, torn, etc. Socks and shoes seem to be sparsely and unevenly distributed. Oozing from their pores include low self-esteem, negativity, and hopelessness. Even at the end of their sojourn in the school, they are clueless about their future.

Now here’s the irony. The students from the university’s secondary school have high and serious plans for their future. They see themselves mainly in careers in the corporate world and in various fields of entrepreneurship. When they declare that they want to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, etc, they speak from the point of certainty, knowing that their parents can readily bankroll their ambitions and the opportunities are just waiting for them to tap into. And all over Nigeria today, the products of private schools, secondary and university, are making their mark in the boardrooms. In our own estimation, they are better and smarter than those in the public schools.

The products of the public school view the future as a function of happenstance. Even if they were to think about any ambition at all, the plan is regarded as far-fetched, considering the lack of resources and support to execute them. The see any career available in the civil service, sole proprietorships, also known as one-man-show, and enterprise opportunities at the informal level, not to add any economic value but to put ‘body and soul together’.

In the end, the products of public schools hold sway in the civil service and in politics, controlling public service administration and political power over the private ‘scholar’ who is active in the ‘private sector’.

The political arena is where the laws and policies that affect the ‘private sector’ are made and the civil service implements. Those who attended dilapidated schools with a bare semblance of education, now become lords over their ‘more endowed’ colleagues.

The civil servants and politicians now carry the nomenclature ‘Hon’ before their names while those they serve virtually ‘lick their boots’. As students, they were unworthy of the slightest interest but in power, they enjoy limitless attention and patronage. With their ‘scanty’ education and mostly interrupted tenure as students, they get invited to sophisticated fora and exclusive podia to deliver speeches to fawning intelligentsia.

In order to stay in power at all cost, they are very hesitant to play the merit card but not averse to obnoxious methods such as violence, blackmail, hysteria, slander, libel, voodoo, electoral crimes, etc, but guess who gets to represent their legal interests – SANs!

In spite of their poor performance in political office, they get to be celebrated and no matter how shameful their conduct while in office, they get to ‘white-wash’ their past and re-invent themselves back into reckoning. How? By media experts!

Those in the civil service have perfected the art of certificate forgery and age falsification. Their competence is forever in doubt and god-fatherism is their only ‘anchor’ in the workplace, not hard work, commitment, dedication and patriotism. They are extremely corrupt and lack any service culture. But should there be any ‘threat’ to their ‘gari’, they call out a strike or resist any positive change, ably supported by … human rights advocates!

They are ever-ready to fight ‘dirty’; no weapon too sacred for them to use including felony kidnapping of loved ones of their ‘victim’, having made politics too ugly and violent for gentlemen. Perhaps, this behaviour they learnt while schooling in those appalling environments as teenagers and young adults.

Now, if these are the people holding the rein of affairs in Nigeria, with such behaviour and mindset, how did we expect Nigeria to fare?