University or Handwork: Struggle for Finance -By Anuna Jefferson Odafe

A university is said to be the final destination of education in society, but is it the only source of getting ends meet? Moving over to handwork, in Nigeria today, learning a skill goes a long way toward financial stability. Handwork is one of the most reliable means of income in today’s world economy. If you have any quality service you can render to people, you are sure to be making regular income, all year round, uninterrupted, as long as your service is good and reliable. 

While the pursuit of a university degree is to become financially stable, the individual has no interest in sitting in a classroom studying, what happens then?

Having enrolled an individual to study mathematics while his/her passion is cutting men’s hair. This individual will spend four years in the university studying a course he has no interest in, but because of the system in Nigeria a university degree is said to make one important in life.

Is this true? A university should be a place where students want to learn and put in effort fully, not being sidetracked by handwork here or there. Students end up failing exams in school and are asked why they failed. Most responses are “I was working per time”

Why waste your time in a university when you can just sharpen your skill and dive into the part of an entrepreneur?

Society should see the need to break down this system.

Choosing the part of a scholar is not a wrong path in life neither is choosing the part of a shoemaker. One shouldn’t be disturbed by the way he/she chooses to pursue income. People have been stigmatised for dropping out of school to further their handwork skills. This has made other individuals bothered by what society thinks.

The university and handwork can both be balanced if a person is dedicated to both and has enough willpower to pursue. But I urge all who don’t have the capacity or financial stability to carry on both activities, to make it known to all what he/she desires to pursue.

Rather than judging, why not encourage one another in any way possible? Isn’t this the Nigerian way? A successful person isn’t determined by the number of books he has in his bags if he doesn’t have the tools to utilize them. “Readers are leaders’ ‘ is a common phrase. But is it a must to be a reader in order to become a leader? 

Education is fundamental in human life but should it determine one’s destiny?

If learning a skill is what one wants, why not pursue it? Should the system hold you back from your true potential?

This is a question for whoever is having difficulties in finding true purpose in life.

It shouldn’t be determined by a certificate that may or may not determine one’s financial status.

Anuna Jefferson Odafe writes from Lagos State University, Department of English Language.