By Kola Odepeju
Sir: The gift of N10 million by the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to Aminat Yusuf, the young lady who recently graduated with first class degree at the Lagos State University (LASU) with an unprecedented 5.0 CGPA, is highly commendable and deserves to be applauded by all lovers of education. If our society must move forward and find its rightful place amongst the comity of nations, all and sundry must take issue of education seriously.
Gone are the days when students who did well in their final examinations were bombarded with scholarships from different angles. Many highly placed people today were able to secure the education that got them to where they are today by virtue of the scholarships they enjoyed either from governments, organizations or individuals. It is very unfortunate that such privileges are no longer available. This has undoubtedly affected the standard of our education negatively as lack of it doesn’t encourage the pursuit of academic excellence amongst students.
Governments at all levels need to wake up to their responsibility of ensuring that education is well funded. The federal government especially must henceforth ensure that it meets its budgetary threshold as recommended by UNESCO. As against what obtained in the past when successive governments brushed aside this recommendation, the new administration of President Bola Tinubu should push to make a difference. Thankfully, Tinubu promised this in his presidential manifesto. He must not renege on this promise.
Our society must go back to the good old days when not only academic excellence but the good and virtuous conducts were recognized and rewarded. This is the way to go if we are to rid our society of laziness, dishonesty, cutting corners and other forms of negative behaviour that have gained attraction in our society today especially amongst the youths. Hard work, honesty and discipline must be rewarded with a view to promoting positive behaviours in our society; as against what currently obtains where negative deeds have become the order of the day.
However, rewarding academic excellence shouldn’t be limited to monetary reward alone. There are other ways to encourage the pursuit of excellence. In 2013 or so, the wife of then Ogun State governor, Olufunso Amosun, did something which attracted applause from the public. She took some students who performed excellently in their West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on a foreign trip to the United Kingdom as a way of saying well done to those students.
The New Era Foundation (NEF) Spelling B competition, an initiative of Mrs Remi Tinubu when she was First Lady in Lagos State through which winner served as One Day Governor and the runners up served as One Day Deputy Governor, is also worth mentioning here. Commendable initiatives like the aforementioned are welcome developments that can encourage pursuit of academic excellence amongst students. Thus, governments, corporate organizations and well-to-do individuals in our society should emulate them.
Finally, our youths should take a cue from Aminat Yusuf. She has been able to show our youths that hard work pays and it could be very rewarding.
- Kola Odepeju, kolaodepeju@gmail.com