The United States of America continues to show why it is a global leader. In all aspects of life and living, the country inspires the young and creative to put their energy into research and development. She also spreads her tentacles to other countries with a view to spotting talent, inviting them over and harvesting their energies for development of their society. This manifested recently when a young boy who built a replica of the famous Kano Overhead Bridge was offered scholarship to study in an American university.
The offer was not from the government of the US, but a construction company that believes in the American dream and decided to hone the boy’s abilities and harvest it for advancement of their society. Towards the end, the mother has been offered one million Naira grant to help her trading business, while the father is to reap the benefit of having such a brilliant boy by the offer of employment. The family is to relocate to Maiduguri where a three-bedroom flat is being provided.
IT is unfortunate that the federal and sub-national governments are oblivious of these opportunities. Our politicians, rather than create the environment for creative energies of the youth to be channelled to progressive pursuit. While the American government leads the way in this, other levels of government, institutions and institutes, as well as private companies have taken up the challenge.
While the United States goes across the world talent hunting, brilliant Nigerians are frustrated by lack of opportunities in the system. Such is the fate of Mercy Grace Christopher who, having completed her secondary education in 2020, could not enrol for the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) as her mother, a widow could not afford the fee, It took the intervention of Hameed Alabi to further enrol her in a tutorial class that prepared her for the examination that she eventually passed with distinction in all eight papers she sat for. Having played her part, the circumstances of her poor background is standing in her way.
Her benefactor has since taken to the social media to appeal for support for the brilliant girl. Neither the state nor the federal government, nor the numerous Foundations in the country have been able to pull up the girl by offering her scholarship to study in Nigeria’s public and private universities. In other countries, even the universities would be too happy to nurture such a girl. Nigeria has to turn around the education and social welfare systems to support the brilliant and talented, irrespective of their social status.
The United States that makes provision for sponsoring the dreams of the indigent and brilliant has no plan to release them for Nigeria that needs them more. This is one of the areas that the political elite has failed the country. They are not so integrated to the constituencies that produced them that they could easily pick up the needy and creative. It is one reason why the young ones got so enraged in 2020 that they unleashed their fury on the society, even though it was anchored on police brutality. Frustration continues to grow in the system. Those who managed to raise funds to attend the tertiary institutions are greeted with unemployment that now stands at almost 40 per cent. Some are forced to drop out of school at various levels because the parents lack the means to feed them, while companies are folding up because of the inclement environment.
In 2019, a 22-year-old young engineer caught the attention of the world when he built a drone that could provide solutions to challenges in the agriculture sector. Nigeria saw no need to encourage the boy to hone his skills until another company in Finland took him up, offered him employment with a view to exploring and using his capacity. Today, the young man, Ignatius Asobor, is in Helsinki availing them of his potentials. The products of his ingenuity would thereafter be exported to Nigeria.
It is time for Nigerian professionals and the middle class to take this up with politicians as they take to the soapbox in preparation for the next general election. If Nigeria must change for the better, it must start with building the human capital. During the Nigerian Civil war, potential was so unleashed that many things considered impossible were produced. The popular ogbunigwe was the scourge of the Nigerian side of the war. The crude refiner that dot the landscape in the Niger Delta now started then. But, no sooner was the war over than we decided to discard the inventions to depend on imports. Legislators should come up with sessions where these deficiencies would be addressed and come up with a financial plan to support them. It is the only way to a prosperous future.