EDUCATION IS KEY, BUT NOT THE NEEDED KEY FOR PROSPERITY IN NIGERIA

Over time I have argued with many who believed that good education is the key to progress, prosperity and the moving forward of Nigeria and Africa as a whole, I do not believe this, but we all agreed on one thing which was “a change in mindset” has to happen for us to progress. Education is good, necessary even and every one should have it, but education helps to maintain prosperity and progress not bring change, what can bring about prosperity and progress in Nigeria are events that would force a change in mindset, events that will leave us all as one with no choice, volition is something that when giving to human rarely brings about unified purpose and the need for good education will not bring about that. Some would argue that the level of poverty in Nigeria should be enough to forced our hands to progress but not all of us are affected by the poverty and sadly those that are not affected are those in charge of our progress, so the need for progress caused by poverty is not strong enough to bring about the progress itself as it doesn’t affect all of us, other developed countries, U.S, Britain, China, Russia, France, Germany etc. can throw banters at us as they like but most of them developed because their hands and mindsets were forced to change for the better.

The incident of Ebola in Nigeria was a typical example of an event that forced our hands because it affected us all, and look at how we dealt with it the virus within months. Now I do not know the kind of events that will happen and would force our hands to prosper but I will give and explain how three events that have forced a change in mindset in great countries to prosper- Religion, Wars, and Apartheid, again note the event that should occur in Nigeria doesn’t necessarily have to fall under these three examples, but should have the similar effects these events had.

1. Religion: Maybe rightly so, many people have criticized religion in Nigeria on the basis of over relying on God for provision, which has led to decrease in creativity, doggedness and increase in laziness because these people are “expectants” of “miracles”. But an event that resulted from religion led to capitalism and industrialization in Britain and as an extension the whole world. Zooming in on England as a country, John Calvin a priest back then in the 16th century, is the father of Calvinism a doctrine that preached predestination, that is everyone on earth has been destined to either go to hell or heaven by God, regardless of what you do on earth and given the general belief that God is omnipotent, then it is not hard to prove, because he knows all things.

But the main point here is the other doctrine preached by Calvin, which posited that the amount of wealth those destined to go to heaven will have there is in the same ratio as the amount of wealth they amass on earth, popular believe in this doctrine “in part” led to capitalism, because as expected everyone assumed that they are one of the chosen, what was left was the wealth they wanted to have in heaven, so people increased investment drastically and reduced vanity spending, people started to look for ways to get improved productivity, more investments, more assets. Innovation skyrocketed, machines could increase productivity and reduce cost, so rich people invested in machines (industrialization), jobs became available too. But it is to be noted that the less privileged suffered because the rich sought wealth aggressively, working hours was increased, wages were reduced to cut spending.

When the doctrine faded away what was left was developed country with industrialization, schools (which led to better education), companies and whatnot had been established in large quantity by the rich who wanted to amass wealth for heaven, now with better education, being a resultant of the doctrine, these establishments were better managed, standard of living was raised because the reliance on the government reduced as people were creating their own businesses and these change in mindset lingered on. The doctrine of John Calvin changed the mindset of people about investing and vanity spending which paid off later on, this unknowingly forced their hands to prosper.

2. Wars: If you look around yourself, rarely would you find a product of modernization like techs, internet, automobiles, aircrafts, ships, military weapons and gadgets etc. that is not directly or indirectly linked with either WW1 or WW2, survival during the WWs led to the need for innovation. During the Great War (WW1) depletion caused on Russia led to the creation of the soviet society, led to the end of Ottoman Empire (now turkey), after the WW1 Germany having lost was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles on 28th of June 1919, this treaty imposed a lot of restrictions on Germany, they were made to forfeit their colonies, heavy international restrictions were placed on them, they were to compensate allied powers, stripped them of territories and about 7 million people.

This forced the mindset of Germany to change and forced their hands to improve, as international trade became hard for Germany, so it was forced to be self-sufficient, their ammunitions were seized during the WW1.\, Germany was forced to make better and improved arms which they used in the second world war, Germany dominated the WW2 with better techs, and weapons because they had been forced to invest in it.

America languished in the great depression between 1929 through the 1930s, though it was recorded that it ended in 1933, its negative effect lasted till the beginning of WW2. This was because by the start of WW2 the government of America was forced to spend and release money into economy in preparation for the war, they had something to spend on, jobs were created, standard of living was raised because money has been injected into the economy, these ended the effect of the great depression. Now after WW2 it got better, one of the effect of the war was that when soldiers returned they didn’t return to their parents because they saw themselves as adults now, they wanted to marry and start something on their own, but no jobs for them most of the available jobs were war related and the war had ended, majority of the youths were affected by this same situation, the government were forced to reduce the interest rate to the lowest ever (0.3%) people both poor and rich could take large loans and not fear their inability to pay back because of the almost negligible interest rate, as a result between 1950-1970 there was little that could differentiate the rich from the poor, their children attended the same school which led to better education, the “poor” could afford the what the rich people could, the line between the rich and the poor became thin, as result more businesses were created and standard of living improved drastically.

3. War against Apartheid: I will not talk a lot about this but we all know that need for equality as an event was strong enough to make need for change occur in South Africa led by the great Nelson Mandela, because it affected the majority of the South African (non-white majority) this led to better economy and better standard of living for the Blacks in South Africa owing to all-encompassing leadership that was a result of the war against Apartheid.

Reiterating again for the sake of emphasis I am in no way or manner saying the events that need to happen in Nigeria for it to progress are any of the above, but what I standby is that just as hangover is to drunkenness so also is good education to progress, good education will be as a result of positive change in Nigeria and not the cause of a positive change. Education –formal or informal- could change your mindset but the downside to this is that it still gives you the choice to make your decisions and with that volition little can be done. Education may not bring about good leadership Late President Mugabe was the most knowledgeable President to ever live and he presided over Zimbabwe, a country that were once regarded as the “starving billionaires” because of the state of its economy.

Again I repeat, I for one do not know the kind event that should occur to bring about these change but I know an event that will have the similar effects that those examples that I have listed had on those countries need to occur in Nigeria for the desired progress to occur, corruption is not something you can snap your educational finger at and its will poof disappear but for survival anything can be changed, it doesn’t necessarily have to have the same level of gruesomeness like others, it can be political, economic, social, racial, military related and whatnots but it must be enough to force our hands to develop for the better. I hear whispers that this Pandemic saga could be start of a revolution in Nigeria. Education is either formal or informal, the former can measured and gauged, the latter not so much, little can be done when it comes to giving education to an illiterate adult whose mindset has been impacted by experience. Fortunately for us if these events occur then we can rely on education to improve and sustain any change or progress we make.