The prevalence of literate ignoramuses in our nation has kept me in a very pensive state. It seems the value of education is jinxed and as such I find it hard to realize that education that enabled social liberation in the past cannot do same in our contemporary state. Believe it or not: we live in a nation of numerous literate ignoramuses.
As averred by John Adams above, we can deduce that most Nigerians learn how to make a living but not how to live. Hence, in the pursuit of wealth, they lose their health that is needed to enjoy the wealth. In fact, it will not be exaggeration to state that we even find it hard to pragmatically use the acquired education to make a living. Therefore, there is dire need to revamp our perception about education lest our tertiary institutions continue to churn out societal liabilities.
There is a common parlance in the Nigerian setting: professional course. Some students study with a mental ailment, that they are the only ones studying professional courses when they find themselves in fields such as Medicine, Law, Engineering, Nursing or any other course that spans for 5years or more. What a parochial perception! In God’s programme there is nothing like professional course; any course you have taken is your profession. Besides, scholars stated that a profession is a calling that requires specialized knowledge, often with long and intensive and academic preparation. It is the promulgation of this aforementioned perception that has made so many students see themselves as being unworthy. For such students, I wish to remind them that: you will only come to limelight by your potentials not your credentials. Although in Nigeria today, you need your credentials to garnish your potentials.
“There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.”
John Adams
The literate ignoramuses are really suffering from perceptual and intellectual deficit. Discarding their insular perceptions will go a long way in actualizing the collective and progressive developments we crave for as a nation. Furthermore, it is not enough for us to speak Queen English with sterling diction; all in the claim of being educated. Our education ought to stimulate intellectual growth; by promoting peaceful co-existence, especially in a multi-religious but frail nation like ours. Education broadens the mind; thereby facilitating mutual intelligibility and rapturous integration between people of varying backgrounds and religious affiliations. However, it seems the more education is being acquired in the nation the more the embers of enmity and discord are being fanned. This is pathetically worrisome and there is urgent necessity for us to look inwards and redefine ourselves based on what we have learnt in our educational processes. After all Democritus stated that
“Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.”
At this juncture, I would like to state that the escalating use of literary prowess to attack one another obnoxiously on the social media and elsewhere clearly depicts our discourse – a nation of literate ignoramuses. We never think of the negative effects of this incessant menace in the long run; it is a time bomb that can consume us all if it explodes. God forbid. It behooves us to relinquish the use of acrid statements which are often based on egocentric chauvinism and parochial jingoism. In all dealings, we should tread on the path of fairness and objectivity. In as much as we long for social liberty and developments, we must be moral. Edmud Burke opined that “Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.”
In conclusion, blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken. It may be tasking to see the good in others for now; but if we can revamp our minds and base our interactions on plainness and objectivity, we would not only surmount the prevalent misconceptions about one another, we would also develop and become great again. Therefore, I beg you to use your literary prowess to foster peaceful co-existence rather than fatal enmity. If you engage in the latter, it clearly shows you are one of the literate ignoramuses living in our nation. Remember, peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. Let us be a civilized nation because civilization is a race between disaster and education. God bless Nigeria!
BEN KHALIFA
