Basé n yo só: A Metaphor For Nigeria’s Decayed Education -By Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde

Kehinde Oluwatosin

One of the tragedies that can bedevil a people ,sect and community is a poor reading of their culture; a failure to apprehend the manifold connections between the soul and fount in which the sociology of a culture devolves and it’s impact and imperative on her people. The failure to do this work of evaluation often result in a disconnection between the prophetic implications of some of the explicit and covert messages represented in a culture and the result arrived at by a people.Basé n yo só l’nyógbó is one of Yoruba’s numerous maxims which has been rendered useless because of our failure to pay close attention to the narratives and symbolisms of our culture.  Basé n yo só l’nyógbó   is a Yoruba maxim that devolves from a very complex cultural architecture and in this article I like to do an  empiricism of what  it said and that which it left unsaid.

Basé n yo só l’nyógbó crudely interpreted in English as: “Those who fart secretly should be wary and conscious of those who perceive the fart secretly”  Basé n yó só l’nyógbó agreed to the truth that answering the call of nature is not an act and art that we do with pride, however, given the Yorubas attention to politeness, Basé n yo só l’nyógbó imposes the imperative to either take an excuse  while you answer the untamed call of nature or in situations where you are inexcusable there is an alternative approach which requires you releasing the fart in piece meal without growling about it,this approach could be sometimes weird as it requires a hard glueing of the buttocks to a seat to prevent chances of escape of the fart. Everything I have hitherto explained is from the author of a fart ,there is different cultural expectation from the recipient of a fart, and this revolves around his perception and acceptance of the author’s fart.He is well aware and abreast of the cultural implication of  Basé n yo só l’nyógbó so he takes the silent fart into his nostrils silently without necessarily creating a scene.

The recipient of a fart is not expected to go haywire about something as minuscule as a fart,that the author has answered the call secretly also imposes on the recipient the imperative to perceive the smell without alerting anyone.Often in the company of nature answerers you hardly find the conversation halt,the fart  doesn’t stop the meeting ,everything go on without disruptions especially if all the parties involved are firm adherents of the Yoruba imperative of Basé n yo só l’nyógbó.Given that I am a close reader of our culture and also I have an innate ability to draw organic connections between events I found out how the maxim is a metaphor for the poor reward system of academic pursuit in Nigeria.

I have not stopped to wonder and ask questions on how and why our education has nosedived, how it has only represented a vicissitudes of patterns rather than interest.On a daily basis I ponder on how efforts of many  youths often pay the highest sum of #15,000 that is if you get a job  where I come from.The disconnect between the requirements of employers and what is learnt in schools are as wide as heaven from the earth, the incentives of being educated here in Nigeria are not just deserving.I asked how did we get here? I had thought given the astronomic rise in the number of graduates compared with what was obtained before had caused the nosedive ,but even at that I saw a bigger malaise.-The imperative of Basé n yo só l’nyógbó.

The employer knew how you runs your way through university but he wouldn’t tell you,the employer knew how he still has to teach you the applications of registers and syntax despite you applying for an English teacher’s position, the employer knew you spent ten years for a course of  five years,he knew you are no longer seeing with the 21st century lens,the employer even knew you only needed the job as a covert for your internet fraud- your main job,he knew when you hiss out of his office a thousand helpless and hapless youth are waiting outside preparing to ease in.There and there you come to the understanding of the implications of Basé n yó só l’nyógbó .While you knew in your heart despite your perceived forwardness  that your person isn’t adequately reflected in your harem of certificates, the employer knew right away but understood the implications of basé n yosó là n yogbó hence he did not budge and hence gave you the impression he does not know.Check your salary at the end of the month and you get the understanding he knew all the while but kept quite to obey the import of the maxim. You might be asking- “what of those who went through the rigours of adequately studying but are meted with the same implication of                  basé n yo só là n yogbó?”- I am sorry you are a tragic victim of a slave whose troubled attitudes result in an ill treatment of a thousand of other slaves.

Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde is a public speaker, prolific writer and a finance expert from Abeokuta Ogun- State.

E-mail: kehindeobabatunde@gmail.com

Twitter: _tqatqa