By Barr. (Dr.) Nurudeen Idris Marafa
A society that value education and scholarship as integral to development will do the needful to motivate and encourage the people, particularly the youth, to take seeking knowledge and continuous educational and professional advancement with all seriousness.
Mediocrity and sycophancy has dominated the polity in most of the African countries, particularly Nigeria. Scholars and people of knowledge are not commonly seen leading in politics and governance. Politics and governance had been portrayed to be exclusively for the mediocres, sycophants and crooks, while people of knowledge are portrayed not to be in politics and governance but in classrooms and lesser offices to be controlled by the so-called political class.
Can someone with knowledge be compared with an ignorant? The answer is no. Because a knowledgeable person will definitely apply his knowledge in every facet of life. The fact is that a person with knowledge will mostly not misbehave. Integrity and uprightness are the core qualities of people of knowledge.
Meanwhile, the recent graduation of His Royal Highness, Muhammadu Sanusi 2, PhD, from a London University, where he bagged a Doctorate Degree in Law, should be a lesson and an inspiration to the youth and even the old. That knowledge seeking should be a continuous process no matter your status and position.
For someone like Sanusi, a former CBN governor, a current Emir of Kano that is presumed to have achieved his life ambition of becoming an Emir, he is rich and well connected nationally and internationally. Despite all these achievements and his age, his quest for knowledge is unprecedented and should be applauded.
I have heard some people saying that they are too old, or due to their status and achievements in life, they are too big to go back to school. I remembered Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who also attended National Open University of Nigeria after his term as President of Nigeria. This is also unprecedented and a landmark for a former president to go back to the classroom to study and later earned a PhD in Theology.
Therefore, advancement in education is beyond job seeking and wealth creation but rather a self-development and fulfilment, a peace building mechanism, physical and cyber security measure, human capacity development, research, law reforms, better policy formulation, technological development, good governance and aligning with international best practices.
Moreover, the government at all levels in Nigeria should see investment in education and learning as a major duty and an obligation by budgeting more and creating an enabling environment for learning. Government can take a cue from the Nigerian Bar Association and some other professional bodies that mandated its members on continuous professional development and learning like attending workshops and seminars for efficiency and capacity building.
I therefore, hope to see a Nigeria where more knowledgeable people get involved in politics and governance in order to change the status quo of mediocrity and sycophancy that leads to corruption, mismanagement, insecurity and thuggery.
Conclusively, we need more Sanusi’s who value and cherish education as a machinery to a prosperous society, thereby leading by example.
