IN DEFENSE OF OUR GRADUATES.
I have read in some recent articles that the applicants for the recruitment execise by the Nigeran Immigration Service are to blame for the stampede that led to the death of many of them. If you are one of these blamers, I plead that you take a break in such shallow criticism and villification....especially your tonge-lashing of the dead graduates....for lacking in ingenuity and creativity to be self-employed. Many persons have even quite erroneously, drawn parallels and made allusions between our graduates and the artisans.....accusing them of lacking in entrepreneural skills and courage! For whatever ideas "you" come up with in this nation of want, "you" are more unlikely to get it sold than otherwise. If over half a million persons could so beseige a recruitment venue....as to engage in such desperate stampede, does that not tell you that most of the assumed or projected or envisaged buyers of services are penniless themselves? To think that persons in the atisanry cadre are overwhelmed with patronage is a fallacious assumption.....as many of them take to Okada riding....lest they merely sleep in their sheds....and starve! The building industry which appeared to be booming is no longer so....no thanks to the antics of the Omo Oniles. So many houses nearing completion cannot be roofed as the Omo Onile levy is more than the cost of roofing....materials and pay for workmen. So the field is now left for those selling goods or providing services for the THROAT and the LOIN. Food...Hotel....totally ruling out other sectors out of the equation.....as we prioritize in our consumption and expenditure! Now that the appaling situation has led me to sharpen my skills in electrical, carpentry, computer, painting and plumbing works so as to save on costs....as many Nigerians now do, have we not taken food out of the mouths of artisans engaged specifically intheses areas? There is even no electricity anyway....like everything else....so no enabling environmemt. Most artisans and shop-keepers now sleep off the day! The blame is squarely on this irresponsible govt! Besides, a man who struggled against all odds to obtain a university degree did not expect ab initio, that he would eventually work as a janitor, a mason or porter! That is why he studied hard to obtain his degree! It is because of our dumbness as a nation that our economy can only cope with the artisanry....but has no place for bright minds, inquisitive brains, educated persons and knowledge as a whole! The factors of production still remain...land, labour, capital and the entrepreneur....put the capital in capital alphabets!
Some writers perplex me everytime I read them! They eulogize a road side mechanic for REPAIRING a car and getting handsomely paid in the brief time he worked on the car! They praise a graduate for being "resourceful" "innovative" and "creative" enough to realise that packing refuse or rearing snails can bring him money. They admonish us all to be road-side mechanics, refuse packers, carpenters, snail-rearers, cleaners and plumbers! Don't we already have enough of those? By the way, what percentage of qualified candidates can our universities admit? What fraction of those admitted eventually graduate due to endless lecturer strikes? How many students have parents capable of shouldering their school fees? How many become ad hoc barbers, hair dressers and cloth sellers in school in order to pay their fees? Are our graduates not already resouceful, innovative and creative enough...right from school? How many artisans get enough patronage when their potential customers are unemployed....as they sleep in their sheds? These commentators fail to look at the larger picture. We either invent nothing....or our inventors are never encouraged.....scientific and technological advancement into which definitive research dovetails....our reason for producing university graduates! A graduate of agriculture should not be bessotted with setting up a snail farm but involved in higher levels of research and inventions whereby agricultural processes would be more labour-productive and its bountiful produce healthier for consumption. What do we manufacture? Is it when factories run on generators that even the arisans that "you" expect us all to emulate would provide goods and services at competitive prices? I urge these writers to think of the larger picture..... Enabling environment, a govt that encourages, funds and embraces the results of deep research, science graduates motivated to build cars, trains, trams, ships, aircraft and rockets....not merely REPAIR cars!
As we look at the larger picture, what evolved nations thrive on is: export of value-added refined products....products of technology....refined farm products instead of raw produce...."Milo" and chocolates instead of raw cocoa! Automobiles, aircraft and rockets instead of iron ore and bauxite, touch-screen smart phones and tablets instead of the "rare earth" from which they are made! When he admonishes graduates to go back to artisanry, what happens to their bodies of knowledge. It is not as if the menial work they would perform would be remotely connected to their qualifications.....or that this govt would embrace any discoveries or inventions they stumble on in the process. The Western nations do not bully us around because they cast all the knowledge of their intellectuals into the dustbin! Our graduates should be motivated to kick-start our technological and industrial revolution!
Dr Tosin Akindele is a Lagos-based medical practitioner and social critic.