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From: maggie anaeto <maganaeto@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 15:57:20 +0100
To: ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>
ReplyTo: maggie anaeto <maganaeto@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: FOR A CHANGE, A BURST OF EXCELLENCE
FOR A CHANGE, A BURST OF EXCELLENCE
Ayo Olukotun
Omo to ba ma je samu, lati kekere lati ma nse samu samu (A child that is destined for greatness will show unusual aptitude very early in life) – Yoruba Proverb
Distressing news, unending woes, aborted dreams and false starts are the stuff of everyday life in Nigeria and in much of the post colony. The lack of supportive infrastructure for decent work, for example, means that you have to be not just enterprising but entrepreneurial to do routine work in Nigeria. In the absence of governance, you must do for yourself what governments in other climes do for their citizens. Achievement is often, therefore an obstacle course; excellence a most rare occurrence.
In this context, the announcement last week that 24 year old Olaoluwa Oluwadara graduated in flying colours with a doctoral degree in Mathematics from the University of Lagos came as a refreshing tonic to low spirits. The report evoked at least in some quarters roughly the same excitement that the British had when Ruth Lawrence, the youngest person to graduate from Oxford with a first class degree at the age of 13 bagged a doctorate degree in Mathematics from Oxford at the age of 17.
The Nigerian version of this achievement though less impressive, is perhaps more remarkable because it occurred in unlikely circumstances. As insightful essayist, Tatalo Alamu recently quipped, 'you don't expect to see a man of letters in war-torn Somalia.' Similarly, Professor Ali Mazrui, once remarked that a first class graduate from a Nigerian university is probably more intelligent than a first class graduate from Oxford in view of the obstacles faced by the former. True, Oluwadara obtained his first and second degrees in the Central African Republic where he first distinguished himself; it is still even then remarkable that given what we know of frustratingly long years of doctorate study, with high rates of non-completion in our universities that the young academic completed his PhD in just three years. The Department of Mathematics of the University of Lagos deserves kudos for parting company at least on this occasion with the entrenched practice of unending years of postgraduate study. Will Oluwadara's case be a flash in the national pan of wildly unpredictable academic calendars or does it signal a fresh beginning?
I raise this issue in the context of the 2012 Report of the Federal Government Committee on Needs Assessment of Nigerian Public Universities which informs that only 43% of academics teaching in public universities have doctorate degrees while only 7 universities have up to 60% of academic staff with PhDs. Since this report was published, the Federal Government has established several more universities, most of them with astounding staff deficiencies.
And so, while we celebrate Oluwadara's achievement, we must focus on how to bridge the enormous resource gaps that diminish our universities as credible centres of knowledge production. Along the same lines, our universities need to broaden their purview to handle outstandingly gifted individuals who do not conform to excessive formality. For example, Ruth Lawrence spent only two years on her Bachelor's at Oxford instead of the regular three, yet obtained a starred first class degree. Celebrated American historian, Arthur Schlessinger Jnr., became a tenured professor at Harvard at 27 without a doctorate degree, on the strength of his award winning book, The Age of Roosevelt. Other academic celebrities who become tenured professors at Harvard between the ages of 26 and 28 include Jeffery Sachs famed development expert and Lawrence Summers, the 27th president of Harvard and former Chief economist of the World Bank. Should we treat Oluwadara as just one of the lot, we are unlikely to get the best out of him, or as is more likely forfeit his expertise to those societies which have developed auspices for harnessing outstanding talents.
Excellence belongs to the province of the human spirit and has universal appeal; its national occurrence is, however, a function of the value placed on it as well as investment in its sustenance by different countries. As the opening quote suggests prodigious talent sparkles early in life. Classical composer, Wolfgang Mozart, competently played the violin at the age of 5; while many famous writers cut their milk teeth in writing at very early ages.
For us as a nation, this calls for renewed attention to basic education and increased parental surveillance in the search for early mushrooming of latent geniuses. We do not know the price which Oluwadara's parents paid for situating him at the cutting edge but we can infer that it is considerable. Not every parent will do what the father of Ruth Lawrence did namely, resigning his job as a computer specialist in order to fully develop his daughter's talent through complimentary home study but obviously detailed attention is required for the full flowering of budding geniuses. It is noteworthy too that Oluwadara had the benefit of excellent secondary school education including higher school certificate before going up to university.
Regrettably, both primary and secondary schools' education in Nigeria are in tragic shambles; university teachers are expected to perform academic heart surgeries on students who are severely deformed educationally. Undoubtedly, once a child has become set in his or her ways it is extremely difficult to undo the damage. Drawing on insights from recent researches in education, we know that what students bring to the table in terms of parental nurture, native intelligence and preschool advantages constitute roughly 50% of their academic assets. A great deal of the other 50% is attributed to the role of teachers or mentors who are considered increasingly central to the development of talent and competencies. The slogan of the 1990s namely 'a quality teacher in every classroom' speaks to the importance of teachers in the building of aptitudes.
Again, it is a matter of profound regret that Nigeria has disgracefully ignored teachers especially at basic levels of education a syndrome captured in the familiar saying that the teacher's reward is in heaven. Unlike Asian countries in which teachers are among the highest paid workers Nigerian teachers are truly a segment of the populace sentenced to hard labour and poor remuneration.
That is not the only problem. The political class, with a few honourable exceptions, have shown little or no interest in the fortunes of Nigerian education much less the careful nurture of outstanding individuals like Oluwadara. Almost two weeks after his achievement hit the headlines, no politician of stature has spoken to commend the impressive effort while President Jonathan is probably too busy campaigning to notice this burst of excellence among Nigerian youths. As a nation we need to learn that excellence thrives best when it is celebrated and turned into role modelling advantage. More generally, institutions that are merit-based and goal-focused stand better chances of turning out not just a smattering but a critical mass of high flyers.
The national goal therefore ought to centre around turning out more Oluwadaras to whom belong the future of Nigeria as well as remaking our universities along more motivational and productive lines.
A good place to start would be for Jonathan to invite Oluwadara, congratulate him and offer him a postdoctoral scholarship to study in any university of his choice.
Prof Olukotun is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Entrepreneurial Studies at Lead City University, Ibadan. ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com 07055841236
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