I am coming in contact with lots of colleagues nowadays who are dropouts and are proud of it. Many of them are displaying some kind of success, which is somehow portrayed as something that has to do with them leaving school. When they talk in a gathering, they subtly boast about their decisions, letting their audience know they never regretted it. They are fond of talking about how easily they make money that many civil servants cannot dream of earning. When truly considering the epileptic nature of education in Nigeria, they cannot be said to be wrong or at fault.
To many of us who are still in school, education is gradually becoming a mere side hustle. The issue is just that, such display by the so-called dropouts, coupled with the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities/Federal Government fisticuffs is getting youths frustrated, irritated, and their plans disrupted. While many students are already getting tired and desperate to make it (money) in life, any hint that will make nonsense of education find easy passage into their faculties. What those of us who are still in school simply want is not to regret the decision of not joining the dropouts league.
A couple of days ago, on my faculty’s WhatsApp platform, a reliable source shared a chat of decisions of about a dozen of students who have decided not to resume back to school upon ASUU calling off the ongoing strike. The message related that many have already moved on and are living nice through monetisation of digital skills they have acquired. Some even have got jobs with international organisations after the completion of certification courses online. To them, the ASUU strike is a non-issue. And such is becoming a dream life of most undergraduates nowadays.
It is now becoming non-debatable that education at the tertiary level in Nigeria is not so much a real deal anymore, especially among those students who are the victims of this ASUU strike, most of whom are public institutions students. In Nigeria, education is lacking the needed attention while Nigerian government top officials are busy frolicking around, struggling towards the acquisition of personal wealth and fulfilment of political ambitions.
A friend of mine, Oyin, who is in her final year at the University of Ilorin, confided in me that if not that she is already in her final year, that assuming she is in her second year or thereabout, she would have dropped out as well. Being someone that so much believed in education, she is getting frustrated and her hope is waning due to incessant disruption in her studies. According to a report on Vanguard, as of the year 2020, Nigeria has spent 1,500 days on strike since 1999. What makes the matter worse is the lack of hope for a better life with guaranteed stable means of livelihood after completing these rollercoaster academic activities.
With how Nigeria is handling hers, education is losing its ground. Students are not ready to study anymore. Although the undeniable truth still remains that nothing can take the place of a standard education (not the kind in Nigeria currently). Many skills being acquired in most cases only bring financial freedom. Education is the only thing that can bring a real transformation to human society. The larger part of modern interventions and innovations are products of research and experiment which are birthed through great academic institutions.
The situation of education in Nigeria is becoming an occasion whereby those who have access to sound education are those who can afford private universities or study abroad. This is costing the country a great fortune for the talents of those students will mainly benefit the overseas countries where education is not taken as a secondary matter as it is in Nigeria. According to a report in The Guardian, “Nigeria losses N1.5 trillion per annum to overseas studies.”
Apart from factors like lack of funds and health challenges, constant disruption in education programmes due to strike occasion a higher number of dropouts in the country. In as much as these dropouts are making financial headways, the Nigerian government is still not prioritising education and is not responding to the wailings of the undergraduates, our dropout friends won’t stop using us to catch a cruise.
