THE OTHER SIDES OF EDUCATION

The quest for knowledge has attained a very high dimension more than ever before, the super rich, the rich and the poor are in quest for it.

It is pertinent to note that the quality of education one receives is a function of how much he could afford or effort invested into it - we can therefore conclude that ones level of education is directly proportional to how much an individual could pay for it (mentally, morally and financially).

The upsurge in knowledge in the last three centuries-namely, nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century testifies to this fact, no one irrespective of his or her background or religious affiliation desires to play the backdoor of mediocrity rather everyone wants to be relevant in the present day reality, hence the need to seek knowledge or rather be educated.

Education is a way of enlightenment which could either be formal or informal, going to school to acquire formal education is not the only legitimate or ultimate source of knowledge.

Education aside from being earned formally could also be earned informally without stepping into the four wall of the school.

Some of the great mind we read about today do not literally posses formal education nor do they have an instructor, they were personal tutor to themselves and most were able to rose to prominence during their time.

A lots of effort, energy and time had been invested, and is still being invest to ensure that knowledge is preserved, and transferrable to the next generation flawlessly.

There are stockpiles of trillions of information readily available online for a sincere seeker of knowledge which explains the inexcusability of not duly or well informed and for those unfamiliar with the use of the internet, textbooks, journals, novels etc etc, are readily available in their billions if not trillions.

So the ball is now set rolling for those ready to run after it.

In Nigeria, and in most other African countries especially sub-saharan african nation, the pursuit of formal education began shortly after the European and the American conquest of the region.

At the initial, the pursuit of knowledge was basically to help bridge the gap of illiteracy by raising armies of intellectualism, improve the standard of living of our people, foster inter-relationship between Nigeria and the western world and be self reliance.

Which prove so successful due to many academic giant that were raised and which are still being raise.

Unfortunately, the beautiful birth of formal education in our country is now being soil by the dare dragon called corruption.

Corruption has being a major challenge in the fabrics of Nigerian system even before i was born, infact history as i read told me that it was one of the major factor which later prepare the stage for the bloody Biafran-Nigerian civil war.

Today, virtually every sphere of our society is engross with this monster called corruption, from public to private settings and even in the religious settings where it is least expected right under the watch of the "so called men and women of God".

Sadly enough, the mindset of an average Nigeria is 'corruptly oriented' and most of the perpetrator of this menace are no others than the educated class in the society.

There is hardly a day you open the pages of the news paper that you won't find one case of corruption or the other level against the elite class, from politician to bank manager to states and national assembly and even to some renown clergy men and women.

Corruption in Nigeria has passed the alarming stage and entered the fatal stage, about 400 billion dollars has been siphoned right from the period of independence till date - 400 billions dollars is approximately the GDP of Norway and Sweden combined.

Unfortunately the people responsible to put a check and balance to this ugly trend are themselves the 'ambassadors of corruption', i mean no other people than the intellectual class, the lawyer, police, state security service to mention but a few.

It's being my fear for sometime now that if corruption is not urgently address, Nigeria may become history come 2015 has postulated by the US intelligent.

We need a state of emergency on corruption more than ever before and every hand must be on deck if the goal of nipping the monster by the bud must be achieved.

Today, we talk of terrorism threatening our common existence and our unity as a nation, we need to understand that there cannot be terrorism without a breeding ground for it and one of the factor leading to terrorism is corruption.

So for us to win the war against terrorism, we must first win the war against corruption.

It is an undeniable fact that corruption has made us lost our place of pride in the committee of nations and if we don't know it, we should know now that we are like a laughing stock to many disciplined nations of the world.

It is high time we all stands up and put our intellectual prowess to positive use, Nigeria should be great and must be great again.

Temitope Samuel(08134442675)

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Articles by Temitope Samuel