I spent years going to school. Practically all my life! Phew! I mean, I just acquired my B.sc from one of the prestigious Universities here in Nigeria.
I spent years, time, money, and energy going to school, as I was told, “for a bright future”. It was not until my final year at the University that it dawned on me! After this, what next?
Should I say, it’s a flaw in society that we bring children into the world, only to bundle them off to school, just when they begin to understand the world around them? Some will even put them in boarding schools, locked away. They stay there, learning profusely, studying “for a bright future”. And after those years of studying, those years of burning midnight candles, they finally graduate to find that the so-called light they thought was at the end of the tunnel has been put out. It’s a big flaw!
Why educate children? Why spend all that money if there was no light at the end of the tunnel? Why not let them be? Let them grow and understand life the way they see fit. At least that will help them start early to fan the embers. Frankly speaking, it’s not at all worth it.
If, after years of immense studying, one starts afresh. No jobs, no opportunities, no platforms! Just layers and layers of advice here and there. Hopeless encouragements and empty promises. I mean, where is the “bright future” you promised us? Where?
I sadly came face to face with this reality a few months after graduation. It was already too late! Too late to refuse all that reading and start a business instead. Too late to leave those classes and learn a trade! Just too late! I spent nights wondering. Trying to make sense of it all. Because it doesn’t make sense that after 3 years in nursery school, 6 years in primary school, 6 years in secondary school, and 4 years at the University, someone is saying that there are no jobs. I spent 19 years of my life just being told to go start over.
What happened to the educational system? These questions and more, burned in my heart all night. By morning, I realized I’ve been lied to. Should we stop going to school? The answer is no! Is education useless? The answer is no! So what then happened?
I realized rather too late that education was not designed to put money in my pocket. No! Education was not designed to make me rich. Education was designed for self-development (nobody told me that). What happens to you after that is entirely left to you.
I have been lied to, I went to school with the mindset of getting rich after graduation. It was with this realization that I wrote my final exams.
Society should right these wrongs. Let’s get the right mindset into our children. So they don’t discard self-development in search of riches or vice versa. They’re all important for our overall well-being, as an individual and as a society.
I call on the government to contribute its quota in providing employment, opportunities, and platforms for young individuals to build up themselves and help their families. I call on all well-meaning Nigerians to contribute to securing the future of the coming generation.
I entreat all fresh graduates not to give up hope. But to strive to leave a mark while showing the younger generation, the right way to go. I entreat all parents to teach their children the ways of the world, so they don’t wake up one morning and scream like me, “I’ve been lied to!” Finally, to people like me, don’t relent in seeking self-development but don’t forget to make money (in the right way of course).
