Scapegoats From Benin Republic And Togo -By Kene Obiezu

Sated and tired of scapegoats bred in Nigeria, the country is visiting its neighbours searching for foreign-bread scapegoats

There is always the danger of misdirection when a road is not traced from the beginning. When there is no obeisance to provenance, the chances of getting lost are infinitely higher. It is why history is so important, and also the reason countries who have failed to reckon with their painful history walk on eggshells and remain skittish over possible skeletons in their cupboards.

The recent history of education in Nigeria is one of shambles and more shambles. It has not at all been a tale of a gradual, quite slide. Rather, it has been frightening, painfully so. Like a train hurtling out of control, it has been screeching and chaotic.

It has started from the bottom, the roots, the foundation. In many parts of the country, primary schools lie in ruins. The dilapidated buildings are a signage to the state of primary education itself.

With windows torn open, building on the brink of collapse and pupils forced to sit on the floor because there are no chairs, children from a very young age are introduced to the chaos that underpins public education in Nigeria.

The story continues through secondary school weaving its way to tertiary institutions where years upon years of government dereliction and neglect of the education sector has deprived a country of its lifeline and life wire. The effect has been a slow but extremely painful death.

As the education sector in Nigeria has crumbled under the eyes of the generation that benefited from free, quality and public education, Nigerians have sought alternatives. Private universities have stepped in to fill the gap and have been mostly excellent at least by Nigerian standards. But their extortionate fees mean they remain the preserve of the exclusive few that can afford them in a country where soaring costs of living has left many on the brink.

Many of those who have not lifted a finger to correct the malaise in the education sector steal just about enough public funds to spin their children to expensive schools abroad, leaving the mess behind for the great unwashed to swim in.

To survive a mortal threat to their future, Nigerians have had to adopt. With the slow death of the education sector has come a disintegration of values Nigerians hold dear. With no heed paid to integrity, forgeries have become rampant and shortcuts viable and attractive.

Many Nigerians, in their haste to escape a system that spells doom and death here, have sought degrees from foreign universities in countries that border Nigeria. Benin and Togo have been favourite destinations and as it stands fraudulent destinations, too.

Now, following an inquiry launched by sacked former Minister of Education Tahir Mamman himself a victim of his success during his short term in office, the federal government has reportedly sacked some workers who were employed based on those fake degrees.
Yet, they appear to be no more than scapegoats for a system that has roundly failed. In a country where judges forge documents to extend their stay in office, anything is possible.

It is also entire possible that they snuck into the employment of the Federal Government in the basis of the bias Nigerian employers show towards degrees obtained from foreign universities over local ones.

Were the system here not such a resounding failure, Nigerians would not be flocking to Benin Republic and Togo, two countries whose citizens used to drool over the prospects of schooling in Nigeria, to purchase fake degrees.

Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com