Category: Campus Life

One of the fallout of the last gubernatorial election in Ekiti State was the introduction of a new lexicon into Nigerian politics and a new “yardstick” for measuring performance. Suddenly, we started hearing about “stomach infrastructure.” In Nigerian parlance, it simply means the art of inducing voters to get their votes. Trust Nigerians, hundreds of theories were propounded as to why citizens of Ekiti State – noted for their high level of knowledge – choose to vote for their “stomachs.”

My interest today, as always, is not politics but education, I only used the above scenario to drive home the fact that we are gradually losing – some say we have already lost – our sense of critical thinking. Most of us simply swallow hook, line and sinker whatever the government, religious, economic or business leaders say without critically interrogating them. Should we always believe what they say without subjecting same to logical reasoning? Why are we often scared to ask for the best? Why do we celebrate mediocrity? And why are our institutions of higher learning not encouraging critical thinking?

Socrates, it was who set the agenda for the tradition of critical thinking. Simply put, it is to reflectively question common beliefs and explanations, carefully distinguishing those beliefs that are reasonable and logical from those which – however appealing they may be to our native egocentrism, however much they serve our vested interests, however comfortable or comforting they may be – lack adequate evidence or rational foundation to warrant our belief.

Socrates’ practice was followed by the critical thinking of Plato (who recorded Socrates’ thought), Aristotle, and the Greek skeptics, all of whom emphasised that things are often very different from what they appear to be and that only the trained mind is prepared to see through the way things look to us on the surface (delusive appearances) to the way they really are beneath the surface (the deeper realities of life).

From this ancient Greek tradition emerged the need, for anyone who aspires to understand the deeper realities, to think systematically, to trace implications broadly and deeply, for only thinking that is comprehensive, well-reasoned, and responsive to objections can take us beyond the surface. Can anyone question the fact that we need deep thinking in Nigeria?

Francis Bacon, in England, was explicitly concerned with the way we misuse our minds in seeking knowledge. He recognised explicitly that the mind cannot safely be left to its natural tendencies. In his book “The Advancement of Learning,” he argued for the importance of studying the world empirically. He laid the foundation for modern science with his emphasis on the information-gathering processes. He also called attention to the fact that most people, if left to their own devices, develop bad habits of thought (which he called “idols”) that lead them to believe what is false or misleading.

He called attention to “Idols of the tribe” (the ways our mind naturally tends to trick itself), “Idols of the market-place” (the ways we misuse words), “Idols of the theater” (our tendency to become trapped in conventional systems of thought) and “Idols of the schools” (the problems in thinking when based on blind rules and poor instruction). His book could be considered one of the earliest texts in critical thinking, for his agenda was very much the traditional agenda of critical thinking.

By virtue of what they stand for, higher institutions are supposed to be the pillar of critical thinking, this is the major reason research is a fundamental part of all studies. But the way things are presently, you have your answer if you attempt to measures the products of our higher institutions. I don’t have to stress this as I assume we are all too familiar with the state of education in the country.

Let’s start from the area of pitching one ethnic group against another. There are stereotypes about almost all ethnic groups in Nigeria. Right from as long as we can remember, we are told to beware of certain ethnic groups because “that’s the way they behave.” We grow up not questioning these stereotypes and when we assume positions of leaderships they are already etched in our minds and difficult to ignore. But a critical thinker will judge people based on their character and not ethnic group.

What about infrastructure? Currently, government at all levels in Nigeria concerns itself with the building of infrastructure. Let me state from the onset that I’m a firm believer in world class infrastructure because they make our modern existence easy. But the big question remains: while we concentrate on infrastructure, should we continue while the moral firmament of the country is tattered? Of course, the building of infrastructure is laudable, but it is only a matter of time, of course, that children who do not understand the value of hard work will destroy whatever physical structure that we build today.

While the elite are training their children in private schools or in schools abroad, they forget that society is organic and that these well-trained children would be at the mercy of those who remain at home sometime in the future.

I consider it important therefore that government takes an emphatic and serious look at restructuring education in Nigeria. Attention needs to be paid to the quality of teachers produced in the country.  I am convinced that the preponderance of those who end up studying education as a course in Nigeria do so because they cannot get into other departments. Although I do not have statistics to back up this claim, it is evident that a lot of teachers teach without passion. The effects are glaring for all to see.

The absence of critical thinking can also be felt in the area of technical education. Government must give attention to technical education such that those who cannot stand the intellectual rigours of a university can legitimately invest their intellect, which every child is blessed with in other things. This is how the world got blessed with the likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and so many others. These entrepreneurs employ some of the brightest brains in their respective companies.

We must back out of our state of anomie and begin to embrace the virtues of hard work and diligence once again. Every great and potentially great country lives by a moral code to which everyone – ruler and the ruled – are subjected. Unless this happens, everyone, wealthy or otherwise, risk a country which might crash on our heads.

It was disheartening to hear a former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, lamenting the decay in the education sector. It was not his lamentation that was the problem to me; it was what he said next that should shock Nigerians. He insisted that no political party in the country has a framework for education!

He spoke at the 2014 Founder’s Day Lecture which was held in commemoration of the 105th anniversary of King’s College in Lagos last week. “Today, I do not think any party in Nigeria has a vision about education; that is the truth. I am a politician and I belong to a political party but I can tell you that there is none that has a plan and I can back this up with the statistics of the result of WASSCE (West African Senior School Certificate Examination).

“When Tony Blair (ex-United Kingdom Prime Minister) was campaigning, he emphasised education and when he got there, he dealt squarely with the issue of education. Here we promise one thing when we are campaigning but deliver another thing when we are in office.”

The former governor added that one of the reasons why Nigeria’s standard of education was low was not because of lack of funds but the government’s inability to effectively monitor the usage of funds which goes into the pockets of third parties instead of the schools that need them.

He boasted that he discontinued the trend in Anambra State and the state came first in WASSCE nationwide. “In Nigeria, all we talk about is minimum wage and not minimum productivity. People are paid better here than in Ghana and other countries and yet they produce more. In Anambra we did not increase funds but only increased the monitoring. The money went where we wanted it to go,” he said. These are words on marble.