Nigeria’s Education Wilderness And Voided Political Muchness: A Reaction To 2027 Mega Party Rallying Call

BY FEMI ONAKANREN 

I read an interview by one of the media houses with a renowned Nigerian politician and technocrat on the political positioning of the opposition 2027 presidential election. Yes, you read that well. 2027 presidential elections.

The first disturbing output from the interview was the foundation of the proposed strategic positioning. This is a clear case of medicine after death.

The strategy proposed would have worked spectacularly in 2023. It should have been easy to win against the APC judging by some of the unfortunate last-minute policies of the PMB administration (popularly alleged by some as targeted against a particular candidate from his own party) coupled with the impunitious recklessness of senior public officials.

The ship for such basic and crude political collaborations devoid of convergent political ideologies will only lead to similar losses as the previous strategy applied, which was fuelled by greed for power, ethnoreligious biases, discriminating narratives, inordinate personal ambitions, etc.

The political chess board puzzle has changed. Trying to apply a stale solution to a different board arrangement is reminiscent of the botched opportunity in 2023.

Is the opposition expecting APC and President Tinubu not to form solid political alliances before 2027? How do they think he won? Are they unaware of the ideological profile of the average Nigerian politician? Or are they equally unaware that ACN and CPC had very similar political ideologies? Do they expect to meet the same political landscape in 2027?

Quite sadly, it appears the answer appears to be a resounding YES.

This review is not about support or denigration of any particular political party or person. It is a critical indictment of the intransigence of political philosophies, ideologies, and strategies that have defined the Nigerian political ecosystem.

There has been a constant recycling of ideas but not ideologies. These are the flowery words and the empty promises, the perennial preying on the paucity of reasoning and resources that eats at the mind of the average Nigerian, the wild propositions and postulations that lack contextual comprehension but are parroted because they worked somewhere else before. A somewhere else with different history, political and economic structure, and endemic cultural profiles.

This development is a further indictment of our education system. Culturally, we are inquisitive and progressive. But we have not taken control of our educational system and imbued the same with our natural, cultural identification. We have not taken ownership of the structure of our reasoning and review of matters.

Hence, there is a prevalence of linear reasoning and cut-and-paste strategies with plug-and-play expectations. How can such a system and structure produce innovative and insightful thinking leadership to solve rampaging societal ills? Heck, we literally offer anyone with a foreign degree top positions on a platter without deference to actual competence. A sorry indictment of our education system if ever there was any.

At the core of Nigeria’s perennial leadership conundrum is the inability to take a long-term strategic approach. This stems from the underlying reasoning structure. The foundation of our much celebrated educational system and curriculum at all levels is that it venerates the ability to memorize, not innovate, or solve.

The focus is so much more on the immediacy of doing something now, fulfilling all righteousness and going through the motions rather than the sagacity of understanding the problem, its root causes, dependent factors and then subsequently planning for a sustainable solution and progression.

Thus, we have many accidental leaders whose principal objectives are self aggrandizement and lust for political power. This explains why when many of them get to power, they become intellectually convulsive and morally exposed. In a little time, they became the embodiment, reincarnation, and adopted progenies of the malaise they previously lamented and eschewed

The recent interview is a further confirmation of the doggedness of dogma in our leadership thinking and a confirmation of what is critically lacking in the development of a potential laden nation.

Opposition spokespersons have already admitted losses, and many are tactfully jumping ship to wet their beaks. It’s all becoming a much of a voided muchness.

The trope of recycling the same strategies is a sad reflection of the intellectual capacities and sagacity of political elites. Threaten or form a rudderless marriage of convenience Mega Party? Check. Promote derogatory noise on social media without offering insightful and well reasoned solutions? Check. Exploit ethnic and religious sentiments to promote biases? Check. Sponsor insecurity directly and indirectly? Check.

The hope of the average Nigerian is that this administration will do well enough for subsequent administrations to build on. The color, height, ethnicity, education, religion, age, gender, etc. of those who will facilitate this is immaterial. We just want progressive results!

If the politicians, the custodians of our governance structure and system, are thinking as they currently are from all indications and notifications, then we have a bigger concern for the future than had been previously advertised.

The problem is, our education system and curriculum prepares us for plug and play situations 99% of the time. We are organic examples of scientific laws which require specific conditions to be valid.

Thus, a Nigerian is more likely to prosper in structured environments with clearly designed and developed conditions than in situations that call for innovative solutions.

This paucity also advises why many easily turn to crime and corrupt practices when encountered with a problem. The means to an end has taken a different definition. Instead of seeing it as an opportunity to proffer solutions, since the end of the job (meams) is to earn money, why not take the easiest route (bribery, theft, forgery, etc.) to achieve that end?

Let’s extends this reasoning to our political elites, many of whom have their educational foundation in Nigeria. The reader may be able to appreciate why it seems herculean for them to come up with progressive solutions when they get the opportunity to serve or have access to power. They just don’t think that way!

The end is to have a lot of money and influence, not serve or solve problems, and they have achieved it. This might curiously explain why the vast majority of our political and opinion leaders are vibrant with solutions when on outside of government but seem to have had their mouths stuffed and their reasoning suspended when given the opportunity to serve.

There are outliers to this conundrum such as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who seems to embody and understand the power of foresight and strategic thinking along with the normative ‘pragmatic’ means to an end political philosophy. The result of his depth of understanding are clearly displayed in his political career from SDP, AD, AC, ACN, and now APC.

Nigeria needs problem solvers, not problem enumerators and plug-and-play analysts. Education is the bedrock of success; the ignorant will always be at the mercy of the informed. A drastic, holistic review and restructuring of our education curriculum is much needed for us to get to where we want to be as a country.

Onakanren is a Business Development Specialist and a Socioeconomic Analyst. He writes from Lagos.