Forgotten Dairies
Nigeria’s Abuse of Creativity and Intellectuality -By Sabo Ibrahim Hassan
Elsewhere around the world, custodians are working relentlessly to identify where the talent of its individuals lies, provide them with everything necessary and force their spirit to go along the most appropriate direction. The story is sadly different in my country. If we had utilized our manpower judiciously through doing all that is necessary to keep them, Nigeria would not have been the giant of Africa nominally, neither would it have been a superpower without power.
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. – Mahatma Gandhi
The seemingly endless abuse of creativity and Intellectuality in Nigeria is exponentially becoming pervasive, perhaps this is one of the major reasons why we are yet to be promoted from the class of developing to that of developed countries. Aside other countless resources Nigeria is blessed with, that of human can never be overemphasized. I am not more concerned about the figure, I am rather concerned about the productive aspect of the figure, capable of portraying our competing capacity as a nation. An endowed nation like Nigeria, should not have been where it is if things were managed appropriately. We are so blessed that an average Nigerian can in terms of intellectual display do the unbelievable, but because of our disregard for this special gift as well as lack of governmental support, we ended up losing our best brains to other countries.
Creativity means the use of imagination or original ideas to create something. On the other hand, Intellectuality simply refers to the state or quality of being intellectual whereas, an intellectual according to Wikipedia, is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Only a head with no brain will argue how endowed my country is in this regard. in fact, it is not hyperbolic that an average Nigerian comparatively performs excellently.
Apart from the regrettable failure of the country to identify and tap from the potentials of its citizens, the way our leaders abandon a number of talented Nigerians is quite irksome. Take for instance the report of a boy by Channels TV, who built Nigeria’s first locally made drone, another young Nigerian who built electric transformer, another young man from Delta that invented a flying mini aircraft, without a school degree, and the report of another young Nigerian by CCT, who built electric powered car. Additionally, that of a 16-year-old Nigerian who converted his bicycle to motorcycle as reported by BBC will not be left untold. These and many other examples will prove to us how blessed this nation is with brains. Does the government empower and support these talents? I will leave this as an open question. Where are these young innovative guys? Don’t be surprised to hear that they are in their various communities wrapped by idleness since the government has no spirit of willingness let alone be ready to support and promote them.
Another perspective on how the country abuses creativity and intellectuality is the way countless number of dreams have been shattered by our unfavorable, challenging, and careless system of education. Many graduates are not the very products of what they aspired to be, the system imposed most Nigerians to study what they have never dreamt of or aspired studying. This in turn has drastically affected our productivity where many passionless and zestless graduates are continually added to the already super-saturated labour market. Ask many graduates about their initial dreams and listen to the wonders that will flow out of their hearts. Albeit the issue of requirements regarding course of choice is an imperative factor contributing to this effect, but notwithstanding, since our country is not the only nation with requirements policy. Think about the creativity and enthusiasm of a person whose dream has been shattered.
Elsewhere around the world, custodians are working relentlessly to identify where the talent of its individuals lies, provide them with everything necessary and force their spirit to go along the most appropriate direction. The story is sadly different in my country. If we had utilized our manpower judiciously through doing all that is necessary to keep them, Nigeria would not have been the giant of Africa nominally, neither would it have been a superpower without power.
More lamentably is how Nigerian Doctors keep increasing the workforce of geographies like UK, USA, Canada and many more, not just that, they are found to be among the best brains over there. The ‘Women and Men report 2021’ by the National Bureau of statistics revealed that, a total of 39,912 doctors were available in Nigeria as of 2017. The number of doctors increased to 44,021 in 2018. But this number reduced drastically to 24,640 in 2019. Again, The president of the Nigerian medical association, Dr. Francis Faduyile also noted that, the high rate of insecurity, unemployment, low remuneration, bad roads, and poor healthcare system are some of the reasons why doctors are leaving the country in search of greener pastures. He noted that 75,000 Nigerian doctors were registered with the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), but over 33,000 have left the country.
It is needless to dwell on the causes of the emigration of these intellectuals, I will rather concentrate on the effects that this negligence and unwillingness by the government to support these brains through provision of a healthy environment empowered with cutting edge technology have on our development as a nation. For instance, a research report by the World Bank revealed that in the Human Capital Index, Nigeria ranks 150 out of 157 countries in the year 2020. Income inequality and disparity in economic opportunities continue to remain high and have consequently affected the government’s efforts on poverty reduction.
Where on earth will a country that is blessed like mine will remain where my country is? Therefore, the need to put a stop to this dragging attitude becomes mandatory if and only if the country is seriously serious about its development. Until our government and other authorities involved do the needful, we will keep going irreversibly directionless.
