Any one in our country who has had any need to build any structure or repair things that require the expertise of some professionals or artisans will agree with me that there is an urgent need for our governments to pay special attention to the training of some special crop of people we need for building this nation to become a giant.
Right now, all our focus seems to be on recruiting politicians who, in the end, badly administer us. Great sums of money are voted for the conduct of elections and no expense seems too great to achieve this goal. At the same time nobody seems to care very much about the training of persons we need to design, build and decorate standard houses, roads and streets; to take care of the sick; to repair our mostly imported electronics, cars and other automobiles and technologies.
Those who say that Nigeria is dying and in urgent need of serious efforts and determination to revive and restore her to glory are right. This is not the country we inherited from Britain in 1960. It does not sound patriotic enough for any one to say this. But sixty two years after Independence, this nation is hardy being built. Everyday, it seems we have been moving away from the good old days. We had masons who were well trained and will refuse to follow the instruction of a patron who wanted him to do an unprofessional thing in order to save cost. Buildings were not falling down and killing people as they do now. You did not go to hospital to see doctors who were so unconcerned about the health and well being of the sick or unwell as we have now. Many went to hospital and became well without the administration of drugs just because of the mere encounter with the friendliness of doctors and nurses. These days some doctors and paramedics worsen the ill-health of some patients with their hostilities.
Have you, in recent times, had need to engage the services of artisans such as builders, tillers, carpenters, block moulders, painters, mechanics, electricians, etc? Was your experience with most of them pleasant and satisfactory? The answer, of course, is no. Many of them, you can confess, were not well trained. The few who are, are thoroughly dishonest and very unreliable. It looks like most, if not all of our artisans, are trained to be thieves. Their masters are thieves and their apprentices are all thieves. When your car is in need of some replacements of some vital parts, both the oga and their trainees will surface with those parts you need. And they are not spare parts sellers. When you bring in an electrician to give you estimates, he will tell you he has wires, bulbs, out-boxes and other things you need? How come they acquire those parts and why are they not ashamed of advertising and selling those parts when they know they were dishonestly obtained? Is there no ethical training in part of the over all training they receive to become professionals? Why have things broken down almost irretrievably in our country and no one seems to be interested in arresting the rot?
More importantly, we have a country to build so that all can live well and prosperous in it. We cannot build a great Nigeria with the type of mediocre professionals and artisans we have now. Nations are built by men and women of character and competence.
While our politicians seem not to have received any training to serve the people and the polity, we cannot not afford to have persons who fix things or build structures untrained as well. Small West African countries like Togo, Ghana and Benin are proud of the artisans they export to Nigeria but we cannot say the same of our own who seem to be in the trade to undo as many people as they possibly can. Service is not the theme of their trade. Rather, it is a tool for their personal advancement to the detriment of the nation. If they can collect money from clients without offering any service, they will be quite willing to do so without any iota of conscience.
Clearly, the new President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a major task on his hand. I do not know yet his plan for education for Nigeria. But if he cannot do anything else for Nigeria in terms of preparing the citizens for nation building, let him pay especial attention to the training of professionals and artisans who are the major props of most modern nations. If he does that whatever fumbling we experience in the hands of politicians, we will have a cadre who will go ahead to build things and repair things so that Nigeria can run smoothly.
