STAY IN YOUR PLACE (A wake up call)

"You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy," he said. "When you rest your head on the pillow you don't dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state."-Culled from lazy(Intellectual) African Scum.

The article "lazy (intellectual) African scum" shared via omojuwa.com some weeks back would keep resonating in my head. It would stir different trains of thought within and even outside the purview of the writers context. Indeed the article was a nail on the head, apt and succinct description of the neo colonial african intellectual. The "once I graduate, I have arrived mind set" or "I studied to pass, the certificate can now rest" mentality. I'd take it up from there not necessarily in the same context.

Its no longer news that the educational curricula of most Nigerian universities are archaic,flawed,abstract and theory based, it is also not news that most of us studied to pass our exams and not actually understand our courses of study. Therefore most graduates would forever be handicapped in adequate knowledge of their course of study that they can not contribute in any meaningful way to that field.

Some others I suppose, would rather just go after the quick cash and drop their certificates at the bottom box to cool off while they do their drills behind the counters of various banking/financial institutions.

A minute few have enough courage to self develop and follow their initial passions to a logical conclusion.

Recently, away from the bashful nature of most of us on twitter towards government and those that make up the institution, I realise that we too are part of the national "problem".

The following questions come to mind:

Why is the young Agric major working in a bank?

How many young environmental scientists can actually deal with or profer solutions to the environmental challenges of their immediate vicinity?

Why does every psychologist want to work in the hospital or someplace similar?? What happened to the prisons??

We can ask a million and one of these questions, and yes I understand their rhetorical nature.

However, if our generation must contribute in no mean way to nation building, we must go back to our individual AREAS of CORE COMPETENCE. We would function better that way. We must subject ourselves to consistent self development (CSD) that is in line with the universal best practices of our various fields.

Thankfully majority of us are exposed to the wonders of Internet and the vast resources that abound therein.

Our generation cannot afford to be intellectually lazy like those before us. There just must be something that you as an individual can improve on in your sector. Those that developed the educational curriculum in the so called "First World" countries didn't fall from heaven. They are citizens like you and I that gave further thought and practice to what they learned in school.

This is our generation, we can not depend on expatriates. Its easier to create change and implement reform when we are working from the inside. Our Education, Health, Infrastructure, Legal, Banking and plethora of other sectors need reform. It won't happen when we are on the sidelines. If you have to work with government, go for it. We cannot afford to wait for Nigeria to change, we must CHANGE IT.

"*Aside* While we criticize on twitter and various social media fora, we must first of all make ourselves examples of what we want to see in our leaders. The writer himself not exempted."