Back in the industrial era, manual labor paid off, it could make one a billionaire; through manual labor, one could get the best life possible that one desired. In the industrial era(both the classical and technological industrial eras respectively), the aim of setting up a school was to the effect of just producing employees for all ready existing jobs. Little wonder that before our fathers graduated from school in those days, they could say with utmost certainty what would become of their lives before they graduated.
However, the world has gone past the industrial era now; but quite unfortunately, Nigeria and many African countries are yet to realize that. It is really pathetic how that in our country, Nigeria, we have failed to move our system of education from the offshoot stage. That is, we are still having problem trying to understand what it is our colonial masters really left for us. While others have gone past the industrial era, we are still having problem qualifying our era.
I welcome you to a society where more emphasis is placed on degree regardless of whether or not the bearer is qualified for it. You are indeed welcome to a society where getting looked down upon is a given if one fails to attend the university. Ironically, in spite of the number of academic professors of economics the country (Nigeria) has successfully produced, the nation's economy is continually taking a negative slope. I further welcome you to a society where there is no nexus between what one gets in the classroom and its practical application out there(the so called labor market).
If you as a Nigerian undergraduate or graduate only take pride in the fact that you are acquiring a degree or have acquired one, then something must be wrong with your life. Is it not ridiculous that while people in other countries are celebrated in their early and mid twenties for their breakthrough in business, politics, science, technology, arts et al,Nigeria only takes pride in its prowess at producing and celebrating university graduates who are in their very late twenties and early to late thirties?!
e quality of education we receive in Nigeria does not spark off curiosity. It in fact damples the last bit of curiosity one has before coming in contact with it. So, if you hope to depend on your degree for survival, you will end up doing yourself no good at all. The era has changed. This is no longer the industrial era where your mental input or contribution rarely mattered. The world has long gone past the era where the recipe for success was domiciled in one's ability to stomach and regurgitate other people's philosophies about life and the world; we are in what you can call the schizoic era(information era). In this era, your degree does not make you relevant, but your mental input does. The orientation in this era is that success is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics. That is, the yard stick for measuring how you relevant you are is the number of the solutions to the society's problems you have, which is only possible through constructive thinking. Funny enough, our system does not permit that(constructive thinking).
Your college or university degree will take you nowhere if that's all you have in this era.! Don't you think you always sound misguided whenever you open your mouth to say that there are no jobs? This is because there are more jobs than even the qualified people for the right jobs. This is because the kind of education you receive does not allow you the prerogative to think; it "hardwires" your mind to think in a restricted or controlled manner.
Funny enough, it takes 360 degrees to make one complete revolution, yet someone somewhere thinks that with just 1 degree they can become all they want to be in life. Even the thermometer, with all its 100 degrees, only ends up in the armpit.
The point is, if you must be relevant in this era, there is a need for you to look past that thing you call degree, while engaging your mind the more. If all you are leaving the university with is your academic degree, life is going to be more confusing for you than it was during your formative years.
Finally, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not against obtaining an academic degree; after all, it appears the only thing we can boast of. However, I'm simply or unequivocally against an academic degree without sense.
As a matter of fact, algebraic sum of it all is: If you must get an academic degree, becareful not lose your mind to it. In fact, I'd rather you were only informally educated, if that would eventually be the case.
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