Op-Ed

STRIKER: Dead Education And The Directive Principle

ByOnline Editor

PublishedMay 10, 2024

NIGERIA is at a time when we are fully witnessing the impact of the sustained and apparently successful destruction of its education system. It did not start with Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, but he distinguished himself among dictators who are at the service of foreign powers that wanted the country destroyed.

Once education is destroyed, the destruction of any country, especially one that has not even forged itself into a nation, is guaranteed; only a matter of time. As reportedly posted for contemplation at the entrance of a South African University – “Destroying any nation does not require the use of atomic bombs or the use of long-range missiles. It only requires lowering the quality of education and allowing cheating in the examinations by the students. Patients die at the hands of such doctors. Buildings and bridges collapse at the hands of such engineers. Money is lost in the hands of such economists and accountants, humanity dies at the hands of such religious scholars, justice is lost in the hands of such judges… The collapse of education is the collapse of the nation.” One can add that “suffering, miseries, and tribulation is loosed on the people by such rouge political and public administrators!”

It is clear that the administrators of Nigeria today do not even bother to ask themselves why the government is instituted among men. They probably know but simply do not give a damn, confident and pompously gallivanting around in the sure knowledge that the majority of citizens are sufficiently dehumanised, impoverished, and disempowered to think and act in their collective self-interest as demanded of EDUCATED and PATRIOTIC citizens.

Even at its onset of nationhood, with all its internal foibles, the founding fathers of America recognised and penned down the reasons why government is necessary at all; the conditions for tolerating it or fighting to bring it down and change it. They stated that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

As conservative and rigid on liberal economy as Margaret Thatcher was, she said “Prosperity won’t come by inventing more and more lavish public expenditure programmes. You don’t grow richer by ordering another cheque book from the bank and no nation ever grew more prosperous by taxing its citizens beyond their capacity to pay. We have a duty to make sure that every penny piece we raise in taxation is spent wisely and well.” Similarly, Winston Churchill said “For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” All these are great persons and an imperialising nation that we try to copy by at the same time disobeying their wise counsels to themselves but obeying their malevolent instructions to us! Why?

We fancy that the Nigerian Constitution (as amended) stated our own reason for government in its Part II, which we term the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State; as being the guarantee of the welfare and security of all citizens. How well does that tally with the latest analysis of the Cadre Harmonise (CH) published by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and more than a dozen international organisations that “at least 32 million Nigerians are likely to face catastrophic, famine-like, conditions between June and August 2024 (going forwards) if no urgent action is taken.” And we know the urgent actions that are being taken: tax them more; in the midst of unprecedented cost of living crises and escalating insecurity!

Of course, an ignorant, traumatised, impoverished citizens going through brutal exploitation and oppression are disempowered from critical thinking much else meaningful liberation action; as they wallow in sectarian divide-and-rule manipulations but are united in pervasive corruption, selfishness, vanity and hypocrisy. Such setting, however, is merely a time bomb both for the exploiter and the exploited, the oppressor and the oppressed. History has shown, like the Avatar, Obafemi Awolowo said, that except the miraculous happens or some dialectical efforts at work for decades come to blessed fruition, calamity of unimaginable proportion is the usual end. May Nigeria be blessed.

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not represent the opinions or views of OSUN DEFENDER.