telescope

TELESCOPE

When I look around, of the things that have bedeviled our schools, our families, the individual, the nation, all I do is wonder. The very fabric of society is sawn in two by unconscious misdeeds, irresponsibility and recklessness. Society is a complex entity yet exists like a jigsaw surviving or deteriorating by minute actions from various players. We are all players contributing to the success and efficiency of our team (Nigeria), we are interconnected, interdependent, interrelated and our actions and inaction have a ripple effect.

         Well, I’m not a critic, neither  am i a pessimist; am just an observer having the freedom to look deeper, unraveling salient issues and ultimately breaking them out to discerning hearts to consume. Our society is crippled by these very actors. The teachers; I would say they possess in them the ability to transform the history of the nation. I recently traveled to my former college; I hoped with dire expectation to behold that great institution of my ‘birth’. I observed my lovely teachers working assiduously to continue the work of shaping lives for the future. Maybe our founding fathers envisaged that qualitative service and efficient delivery would come from our schools: the student would be an epitome of excellence, discipline, astuteness, competence. Sadly, there is substantial if not absolute deviation from this principle. A catastrophe!

         My above narration is suddenly contrasted by my recent experience some weeks ago. While the nation basks in the euphoria of the West African Council examination, I was expectantly looking to see a picture; of zealous students studying, of burning midnight candles, of an insatiable desire to succeed, of pursuance of excellence, of……i could go on and on. But the age long monster that has crippled our hope of a better future stood in the background glancing wearyingly as the quagmire lives on. Students contribute reasonable amount to get ‘chokes’ from their teachers with no restraint, no fear, and no remorse. My nightmare is further exacerbated by the fact that these students go about these ills like it was part of the curriculum. Alas! The questions came again like water from a broken faucet; how long? Would these students be the nation’s work force saddled with nothing but good service delivery? Would they ever understand the principles of hard work and healthy intellectual competition?  Maybe the answers are obvious. We must all move with such deliberate steps and urgency to build a system that will work, bringing a turn around. Our curriculum are obsolete and need substantial alteration to suit present circumstances. Patriotism, loyalty, tolerance, unity, cooperation peace and progress must be incorporated in our curriculum; we must be deliberate in building the nation of our dreams.

        The next is the family; imagine if every dad were to teach their sons morals, virtue and integrity; if every mum taught their daughters to be chaste, pious, courteous and disciplined. Imagine these children in turn raising their children with such foundation. The family,  sociologist agree, has a direct effect on society. Kurt Cobain, the pop star who formed the famous “Nirvana” group committed suicide in his magnificent residence after weeks of drugs and alcohol. He had a very exciting childhood and showed so much promise in music, until his parents got divorced while he was seven. Later in his life he said the divorce had profound effect on his life. His mother noted that his personality changed dramatically; Cobain became defiant and withdrawn. In an interview in 1993, he had this to say:

                    “I remembered feeling ashamed, for some reason. I was ashamed of my parents. I couldn’t face some of my friends at school anymore, because I desperately wanted to have the classic, you know, typical family. Mother and father. I wanted that security, so I resented them for quite a few years because of that.”

Cobain was a child who desperately needed a family that will hold him during the turbulent moments in life, show him how to thrive and believe in him. From the legal viewpoint, in the branch of family law, most deviants come from broken homes. Divorce is the last resort when all other means of reconciliation fails. Though I am not saying that children who have unfavorable environments always will fail, but statistics put the odds squarely against them. The family possesses great ability to present to the nation the best citizens. 

         The individual; of relating to, or distinctively associated with an individual, being an individual or existing as an indivisible whole. We all are pieces of a larger picture playing interdependent roles. This individual ranges from the mechanic carrying on his trade in his workshop, the pure water hawker along the busy road, the student who sits in class to be imparted, the cobbler who waits to give help to our torn shoes, the civil servant that works in those parastatals, the politician belonging to a political party, the president who sits at the helm of affairs and the individual who is undefined. We all are a chain of active participants. The nation in recent years has been the architect of its own demise destroying the pillar of trust from its populace. Government policies are treated with great suspicion, the police is no longer our friend, and the soldiers? Intimidation will be just the appropriate depiction. The instrument of our rebirth lies in us (individuals). Our attitude goes a long way in shaping the direction of our nation’s future. Subject A is a student who understands that excellence is untenable unless by malpractice, B refuses to use the waste bin, X drives through the red light, Y only hopes to make money at all cost, Z is indifferent whether the nation plunges into the abyss. An Igbo saying goes; if one person does something bad, it can also affect his entire family and in my own words the entire nation. As they say, “the child avoids the place where his father owes a debt”.

          Justice will not be served if I do not mention the government (“our social contractors”). The responsibility bestowed on them is enormous and sadly, they do not realize it. If a nation will ever deliver on providing a road map for national transformation, they MUST keep their own part of the bargain of this social contract. There seems not to be any tangible efforts to awaken the country from it self-inflicted slumber; from the doldrums that have held sway as far as I can remember. A quote that blew the covers of my mind recently reads: “politicians prepare for the next election. Statesmen prepare for the next generation”. We merely have people who think nothing of the future of this nation except wining the next elections. Government should not just sit and organize tea parties rather plan for the future.

    Maybe I am living in dreamland, maybe these things are mere fables intended to blow our minds, to give us momentary satisfaction or maybe this is what we truly need, a nation whose citizens live with a feeling of responsibility and discipline. 

                                 

                                                                                                                    Your Friend,

                                                         othman