THE SCHOOL LIBRARY: A DOORWAY TO SOCIETAL LIBERTY OR CEMETERY

Since February 14th, 2022 when ASUU went on strike and students go to sleep. I wonder what could be going on in the minds of people in Nigerian society! For me when the school library is opened, it shows the way to societal liberty but he who locks it shows the way to the cemetery or mortuary. Strike actions have become a culture and a mind control system in Nigeria Universities.

There is no doubt that culture and belief systems are the two pillars upon which the foundation of every society stands. Technically speaking, the sustainability of every society largely depends on the culture and belief system. These two variables are veritable instruments for mind control systems and behavioural modification in any clan.

The Nigeria Society is it was in the pre-independent era and all through the period of slave trade and colonialism in Africa and till today, subtly laid a solid foundation for Slavery and Slave Mindset. Subconsciously, Nigerian society for so many years has produced a generation of people who were subjugated to horrible hardship and a total loss of Self-esteem, inferiority complex and loss of human dignity.

The political hegemony and the philosophy of Colonialism created a societal framework for a Master and Slave Relationship, First-Class and Second-Class Citizens, the Have and the Have-not, Government Reserve Area (GRA) and Government Rejected Area(GRA), the Colony and the Crown, Principal and Labourers, Landlords and Tenants, and Boss and subordinate, to mention but a few. All those appendices were a derivative of the philosophy of the imperialistic culture of the Colonial Masters adopted for exploration, exploitation and extermination of the esteemed cultural values and belief system of the Africans, to the infamous imposition of a culture and belief system that is alien and foreign to our Fatherland.

Fundamentally, an average African person (Nigerians) carries a Slavery Mentality. The concept of "Civil Servants, Civil Societies and the civilization of a Blackman is a subtle definition of the slave Mentality imposed by our enemies who came to milkshake our society what they came to do was not a service but a disservice. For obvious reasons, Service is not the same as Slavery. Any service that makes the recipient reduce his self-esteem is a criminal offence. Hence, a service to my country doesn't connote slavery. This is Mindset.

At a time like this, when an average person in a country with equal constitutional rights lives as though he or she was destined to be a slave, serve Nigeria with all his strength, suffer and settled for a stipend. We need Mental Liberty

Mental Liberty is a liberation that occurs to a person when he or she awakes into a superior version of himself or herself through the power of classified information that brings transformation about his perception of things, possession, position, power, personality and Possibilities in life. To attain this level of liberty, one must get into the Library. If you don't get a library for your life, you will end up getting to build a mortuary or a cemetery for your life. Materialism will not change the Mentality of a people. Only a library can change its mentality.

The reason Public Library is not popular as Beer Parlors are is that a library will liberate people but a beer parlour will get them into bondage. J.F. Kennedy said, "The development of America as a country is not swifter than the development of its human minds."

The National Policy on Education in Nigeria stated unequivocally that, “Education is an Instrument per Excellent, that no education of any country can rise above the quality of it, Teachers."

For only yesterday, the 14th day of July 2022, Nigerians celebrated a total shutdown of Public Universities for Six (6) months. Students and teachers wasting away at home. School libraries are Locked. Hence, the destiny of a nation is at stake. How will the people be Liberated?

Liberty starts from the mind. There is no military might that can conquer a militant mind. Those who feel comfortable that our classrooms are locked, Lecturers are mentally mute and students stray in ignorance, are not Fools. They know what they are doing. It's a mind control system. They are following the footsteps of their forefathers- The Imperialists. They are in the business of Neo-colonialism. The exploitation of the human minds for total subjugation, slavery and systemic sabotage of the future of the sons and daughters of the second-class or Civil Servants' Children who have the potential to challenge the slave master for a better society.

Nelson Mandela once said, ' it’s only through Education that the son of a peasant can become the president of a country, it's through education, to the son of a farmer can become the foreman of a factory."

Those who failed to build Classrooms and Libraries for their citizens to learn should save enough money to feed them tomorrow in Correctional Centres where they will lock them.

For the love of my country, l write. Not just for fun but for fact and posterity's sake.

Remember, the school library is the doorway to Societal Liberty but if you lock it, it becomes a cemetery!

Destiny Uwagboe