Very Pragmatic

The Future Of Nigeria - My Fears

2016-01-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

Recently I noticed I can’t stop bothering about the future of Nigeria regarding the fact that the psychological well-being of her young citizens gets practically no attention from their immediate society let alone the government. Like its reputation is of no importance - like it had not been allotted any ounce of significance - like it doesn’t matter anywhere in the world anymore.

It all became obvious when I joined my siblings at the living room some weeks ago to look at what seems like the Xmas party of one of the primary schools in Lagos. Of course it was boring - at least to a highly demanding viewer like me. Lots of activities enlisted for that event must have been aired already before I joined them.

Before long there was a choreographic display by some of the pupils. Their unsynchronized dance steps seem to suggest confusion and I got to understand why, almost immediately. “…No be you I carry come, but na you I go carry go…” was detected by my probing ears as part of the lyrics superimposed on the groovy beat been choreographed. I became disturbed amidst battling with some sort of annoyance that had precipitated within me. “Why would such a piece of music be performed by kids, to an audience significantly populated by kids?” I asked myself intrapersonally. With my eyes still drifting around the communicated portion of the event, I noticed staffs, parents, guardians and other member of the matured audience watching the performance with no form of disapproval. It was so awful that I had to go back to my room which was more of an instinctive response as against asking for a change of dial been an authoritative figure in that gathering.

Several weeks gone and I’m still troubled. I’m more troubled because a vast majority of Nigerians will not see anything wrong with kids choreographing a song with such message. It’s not about being religious as some may readily classify my concern. It’s about been pragmatic or realistic as some may readily grasp.

These kids should be respected enough not to get involved with the craze in their society sooner than sanity demands. Should they suffer the consequences of not been able to provide themselves with songs that reflect their own interests? Like they hadn’t depended on the adults for almost everything else?

Has anyone else thought for a second what this overlooked status can result to years from now when today kids will be putting on the shoe today adults would have taken off after nature’s order?

Of course nobody wants to raise an unhealthy child. In fact lots of parents toil day and night to ensure their kids well groomed. This i observe often with a praying heart. However, very few seem to cater for the psychological well-being of their children and this insinuates that they don’t understand it‘s importance well enough.

A developed country is simply a defined landmass populated by developed minds and not developed pockets. However, if this pragmatic principle is unapologetically violated even at the primary level of education, imagine the disastrous aftermath of such a generation. I rest my case.

HND vs BSC - What is exactly is the problem?

2015-12-25T13:23:00.000-08:00

I was looking up updates on the internet lately and came across talks concerning HND discrimination and motions towards equating both HND and BSC qualifications. This is indeed very infantile. It confirms my notional hypothesis that most Africans don’t fully grasp the socio-developmental activities they’ve adopted from the Europeans and this conspicuously affects the relative results for instance, they study, we also study but the education of their populace visibly affect their economy positively via inventions, innovations and research while ours seem to only increase the pressure of job creation on the government. Na wa o!

The existence of this issue shows that we don’t fully understand the purpose of tertiary education. It is expected that one apply to a polytechnic because she (or he) want to have a technical knowledge of that field of study. But what do we see in our country Nigeria? People going to polytechnics because their jamb results dictates so and they simply obeyed due to the fact that they are not getting younger. This thought process is very detrimental to the development of a country’s economy as it facilitates the generation of an antagonistic and unproductive labour force.

From a pragmatic point of view, as long as colleges of education, polytechnics and universities are all regarded as tertiary institutions, they should attract the same entry requirements. As harsh as that sounds, it’s very logical. When this is enacted, a student can now be qualified to study medicine but choose to study biology in a college of education because he had discovered he will find more fulfillment as a science teacher. No doubt such a student turns out to be a more productive teacher.

Why would a polytechnic student want to be perceived equally as a BSC student in the first place? I believe he wouldn’t if he understands that they both have their area of utility and are trained with dissimilar approaches. He would be concerned about solving technical problems in his economy, generating ideas that will lead to the construction of more effective factories rather than bother only about getting the same salary as a BSC holder. In fact if Nigerian HND students start operating with the problem solving mindset rather than the job seeking mindset, they will in no time, start seeing an advantage in their platform of study.

A BSC holder is more of a scholar who has a broader exposure to theory. On the other hand an HND holder is more of a technician who is trained to provide practical solutions in an industrial environment. Now the question is; how many of our undergraduates have this understanding? Do their career aspirations or their jamb results inspire the tertiary platform they study on?

I believe you get rewarded financially when you study to become a problem solver regardless of your platform of study.

Repent!!

Looking for a Permanent Job?

2015-09-16T04:29:00.002-07:00

Jobs are created when ideas inspire a chain of actions channeled towards meeting a specific need (want or desire as you may know it). In fact a single idea can produce a vast amount of employment opportunities. It’s my earnest desire to show you how and I seek your indulgence as I take your through this journey into an awesome discovery.

The word Idea seems to have numerous meanings so I feel it will not be inappropriate to communicate a precise definition. I define Idea as a mental picture of something - an object, event, or scene, which is being considered as a possibility.

Ideas are generated from the mind. The mind has a very broad definition though can be simply referred to as the faculty of reasoning. However we will be looking at the mind from an

uncommon perspective.

Picture your mind as a virtual laboratory, picture that of a little child as a neat, empty and well ventilated room intended for use as a laboratory. As the child grows he receives inputs from his immediate environment via his senses which he will later use in that laboratory to predict future outcome of events and actions.

Being in the midst of a busy, ever communicating environment, we are all exposed to a colossal lot of percepts, information, and other forms of inputs that occur so fast and irregularly that we can’t help but ignore a vast amount – intentionally receiving just what we ought to out of the whole lot. This instinctive act of scrutiny, sorting, storing and dissemination, points to a more structured approach which we now refer to as Education.

Education facilitates the timely dissemination of relevant inputs which enable one to equip one's mind laboratory with efficiently related tools thereby aiding a more robust thought process. One of the ways it does that is through some sort of Specialization – equipping people for distinctive purposes. For example, the subjects (input sources) undertaken by a medical student are not the same as those undertaken by an accounting student.

Obviously this insinuates that the kind of ideas that can be generated from the mind of a medical student is most likely different from those spawned from the mind of an accounting student as they don’t have the same equipment in their mind’s laboratory. This makes them sensitive to dissimilar needs in the same environment.

However, all these may remain as mere potential and that appears to be the case for a seemingly dominating set of students most unfortunately, graduates.

Now back to our idea talk. Let’s imagine a fictional but pragmatic scenario of how an idea leads to job opportunities.

Chidinma, a nutritional scientist, had got an idea while studying about cassava processing. It was about making a quick meal from the combination of Garri (a grainy product from processed Cassava), water and sugar. She communicated this idea on a forum which she convened. She demonstrated before her audience by taking a cup, adding a predetermined quantity of Garri and sugar adding water thereafter amidst stirring the entire content. She proved it was edible and a quick way of topping up ones reserved energy for the day. Another Idea came up – this time from Dele who was a 300 level marketing student. It was about the possibility of producing this Garri meal on a large scale so as to meet the resultant demands of the entire Nigerian populace. He communicates that to the Forum members and everyone became quiet almost immediately.Then Danjuma, a Process engineer broke the silence by giving a gentle explanation of how a factory can be built to facilitate the massive and continuous production of the Garri meal. He told them that the production line would contain silos where purified Garri and sugar grains will be loaded and stored. These silos will be atop conveyor Systems that will convey branded cup-like containers strategically positioned at definite intervals by a mechanical system. The bottom end of the silos containing Garri will empty into a hopper which will only discharge a pre-calculated amount of Garri when it senses one of those cup-like containers underneath its discharge end with the aid of an electronic valve. Sugar is discharged same way. Chidinma interrupted because she assumed Danjuma is about to include that water will also be discharged into the mixture. She communicated the dangers of adding water to Garri-sugar mixture before distributing as the Garri grains are bound to absorb the water thereby causing a “Nutritional Disaster” as she puts it. Everyone laughed and then Danjuma told her not to worry as a well treated water can be sealed in a polythene bag instead and placed in a partition on the cup-like container - to be emptied into the Garri-sugar mixture at the point of consumption by its consumer. He continued. This cup-like container is afterwards sealed by another electro-mechanical system and then packaged for distribution. Everyone in the room appeared to be delighted as their understanding of his explanation made them felt like process engineers themselves because it all sounded foolproof.

The members of Chidinma’s forum drafted a suitable proposal to communicate the idea to enabling agencies and potential stakeholders. They got the necessary funds required, from convinced individuals and financial bodies. The design and construction of the factory started thereafter.

The factory would need the involvement of no fewer experts than the following;

· Metal-works experts - for the silos and other metal works.
· Mechanical engineers – for the conveyor systems, design and installation of other mechanical systems.
· Electrical Engineers – for motors and power supply.
· Electronic Engineers – for installation and configuration of all required sensors
· Painters
· A Construction company – to build the factory structure.
· A Graphics design Company - packaging materials (on a contract basis).
· Garri producing firm – (on a contract basis).
· Sugar producing firm – (on a contract basis).
· Water supplying firm – (on a contract basis).
· Onboard Engineers, Lab technicians, Casual workers, Cleaners, Warehouse stewards, and other contractors who will run the factory on a shiftly basis.

Permit me to end this interesting story at this point. Can you perceive how many jobs created already? You do the maths.

Just a single idea from Chidinma that gave birth to a couple of others and then a factory needing the hands of a vast amount of experts was born. Hmm.

As you must have observed, specific ideas were spawned from minds that are equipped with the required knowledge and experience. However, what would have happen if Dele played truancy in school and only crams the content of his study materials when exam is just a week ahead only for him to forget everything taught, after the exams though having grades good enough to qualify him for next semester? What if Danjuma only reads about process engineering but have not been exposed to the real world via internship and hands-on training? Chidinma would have been stranded with her idea. Wouldn’t she?

Why be crazy about a Job when there is a possibility of you creating one? If everyone has a mindset of looking for jobs, who then employs who?

Every idea is a treasure and must be treated as such. You may be on the verge of creating jobs for a vast population whilst being a celebrated C.E.O!

Adjunct

The story communicates other morals such as – positive associations, optimism, teamwork and some others. They weren’t emphasized as they were not in line with the theme of my discussion.

Don’t hesitate to share this message with other Students and Graduates. You might rekindle a creative blaze in somebody.