QUALITY EDUCATION AS THE PANACEA TO OUR LONG-CHAIN PROBLEMS: A WAKE-UP CALL TO ALL AFRICAN LEADERS Total self emancipation is always a long process, and even when a captor is no longer physically present, the already disfigured mindset of the victim takes long time to heal. Africa has had a checkered history – from being forced to sell many of its best into slavery to colonial rule – both spanning into several hundreds of years. Being that the long last colonization was dictatorial in nature, it is not therefore a surprise that many of the African leaders who took over from the colonial masters exhibit even greater measure of dictatorship – a perfect corroboration of George Orwell’s view in his Animal Farm. Today, even on the face of purported democracy, an average leader in the global South, in whatever position is only but a dictator – Rule of Law is strange to him, after all where did he practically learn that? However, at the individual level, you all know that it is possible for someone with a history of failure to rewrite it and become successful through hard work. This is usually the main point of most motivational speakers that you know of. In the same manner, it is improper for the South to continue to bemoan its history, when it can henceforth decide to write a new one, to give future generations some good reasons to be proud of their ancestors. The South inherited many things that are not original to them – religion, culture, politics, etc, and hence, are struggling with these receptions that continue to leave ugly footprints here and there – chief among which is – religious conflicts that have ravaged the continent. Our problems are so multifaceted that a thought for solutions puts one into the proverbial dilemma of the egg versus the chicken, as to which should come first. However, the panacea to all these problems lies in compulsory QUALITY education to every single person. Each country in the South has enough resources to give quality education to every of its citizen free of charge. When majority of the population is educated, the issues of insurgencies, religious intolerance, high birth rate, etc, will fizzle out of the system. An educated mind is one that can tolerate others who do not share looks and opinions with them – the lack of this, was the core reason for the Rwandan genocide in 1994, and still a major reason for many conflicts in the South. When people are well educated, they will teach themselves many things on their own –they will know that they need to control their birth rate, tolerate their neighbors’ views and beliefs, empower their children, plan well for a collective good, and hardly buy the idea of insurgency whether or not rooted to religion – that way, we solve all the problems that bedevil us right now. Currently, some miscreants in Nigeria, Kenya, Central African Republic, and many other African countries are currently murdering others due to intolerance of views and beliefs and this is highly worrisome. The hard question is what do we want differently in the next 30 years? – from the way things are going, we will either be in the same position or will have retrogressed if we do not embark seriously on educating every child out there. African leaders should concentrate resources in building quality education, enough to compulsorily educate every citizen for free. When quality education is free, parents who refuse to send their children to school will have no good reason, and therefore should be punished for it – because if not, we will only be incubating problems in the future through our uneducated population. When the environment is made unpalatable because some uneducated ones who have no skills but must feed, have been used to cause havoc due to the frequent ease with which they are convinced to commit wrongs, those who are educated and skilled will not resist any good opportunity outside their countries – thereby leading to brain drain, a situation that is highly problematic for African countries. Therefore, everyone is better off when everyone is educated and skilled – that way everyone is meaningfully engaged in production and can think out solutions on how to collectively move forward. Make it a duty to ensure that you sensitize others to educate and continuously educate themselves – that way, you not only serve their interest, but equally yours. If you are sad, it is very easy to become happy if your environment is happy because happiness is infectious. But it is difficult to remain happy for long in an unhappy environment because somehow we all are connected. We all therefore have a lot of work to do – to sensitize everyone you can lay eyes upon. The greatness of any country resides in the education of its people, most especially the female folks due to their special role in the formation of families that has macro effects. But now, many people have forestalled the education and empowerment of women, on account of many things including religion and patriarchal foolishness. This is very wrong! Leaders of the continent must henceforth wake up from their slumbers and do the needful if we hope to attain any meaningful height in the next 30 years. by Williams Iheme, May 28, 2014.
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 07:25:44 +0000
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