Nigerian Diaspora as Part of the Solution
Friday 15 July 2011
Oseloka Obaze
Two
weeks hence, a bunch of old schoolmates from Christ the King College Onitsha,
one of most prominent high schools in Nigeria will gather in the Township of
Huntington in Long Island, NY, for their annual three –day reunion. They are not
alone. Across the U.S. this summer, several more similar Nigerian high school
conventions will take place, in what has become problem-solving trend and medium
by which members of the Nigerian Diaspora give back to their native country.
For the Christ the King College Onitsha, Alumni
Association in America, (CKC-AAA), this will be the fifteenth such event in
fifteen years.
And this year’s convention theme, “Being
Part of the Solution” is instructive.
For those CKC alumni who are engaged, there is a commonly
shared belief that derives from natural law: every problem has a solution. The
CKC alumni also understand fully that the inevitable challenge is to find the
right people and the enabling environment to solve the problem. Of course, one
critical tool in achieving this goal is first; to identify the problem and then
possess the will to solve it.
Apropos annual conventions, I‘ve heard it said, “Alumni
conventions are for the well-to-do- and those who are comfortable”; but more
aptly, someone else characterized alumni conventions as moments of “lighthearted
affairs. Old school mates and classmates meet, at times for the first time after
several years. They reminisce, tell old jokes, wallow in nostalgia and in
general have a good time.” Still beyond the far-from-home and faraway
circumstances Nigerian Diaspora find themselves and the light moments, alumni
conventions such as the forthcoming one, are now forums for discussing serious
public policy and nation building issues. Indeed, there is a subtext for
understanding the driving imperatives for most alumni associations.
As a people, we can lose direction, lose hope, lose
property and even friends; but an established legacy is hard to lose.
Here is the reality: Like CKC Onitsha, most
schools
in the states that constitute the former Eastern
Nigeria,
such as DMGS, Onitsha, Government College, Umuahia, Queens
College Enugu, Government Secondary School Afikpo,
St. Patrick’s College,
Calabar, Queen of the Rosary College, Onitsha and
Methodist College, Uzuakoli, to name a few, have functional alumni associations
in the United States. Most hold annual conventions, and the common goal is to
give back to their respective alma maters and thus keep the noble legacy going.
But there is also the shared and broad awareness that the absence of good feeder
secondary schools that offer qualitative education, would in years ahead,
translate to poorly educated and ill-prepared students entering Nigerian
universities, a sad reality that is already upon us.
So in the Nigerian context, one may ask; how is the nation doing in addressing
the prevailing educational challenges? And what are we as members of the
Nigerian Diaspora doing to assist the nation in reversing its educational
blight? As we, members of Christ the King College Onitsha Alumni Association in
the Americas, gather in New York for our 15th Annual Convention, we are mindful
that one of the major challenges facing Nigeria is that as a nation, we seem to
have forgotten the value of good education. Hence, we no longer accord education
the priority it deserves as a vital investment in human capital and a critical
component of national development.
Naturally, some of us are doing our utmost to be
enlightened problem solvers, distant as we are from home.
For many Nigerians resident abroad, especially
members of alumni associations like ours, aside from direct profit making
ventures and extended family obligations, education remains the highest
individual and community reinvestment initiative we undertake, with most funding
going mainly into high schools (not universities).
Alumni of CKC Onitsha resident in the Americas are
no exception to such acts of altruism and selfless response
to the clarion call to be part of the solution to the educational crisis facing
our native land. The goal now is to halt and reverse the educational blight
before it becomes irreversible.
Failure is said to be a gradual process and indeed the
educational crisis we face did not happen overnight, but gradually.
Though the problems are largely systemic, arising
essentially from bad governance and poor public policies, the fact remains that
there is no wishing away the multidimensional educational rut in which Nigeria
is mired. Where once a majority of the Nigerian population placed a high premium
on education, today, there is uncharacteristically broad unwillingness to go to
school or to learn. Nigerian parents and students it seems, are no longer
academically minded and those students who show a modicum of interest are let
down by the visibly decrepit educational system and an increasingly uncaring
society. Even if as Nigerians we set aside our collective lack of national
discipline, the educational challenges we face includes, apathy, poverty, and
student absenteeism, student disrespect for the rule of law and for the
teachers, student tardiness, cultism, and parental indifference. Naturally and
in tandem, youth unemployment, youth crime and youth violence are now
commonplace. When
the well to do ship their kids abroad, all they seem to be saying; is the rest
be damned!
Ironically, while most Nigerians are fixated on the
acquisition of wealth, they fail to see quality education as the vehicle for
credible and sustainable wealth creation and nation building. Today, the
processes of buying and selling, and other forms of humdrum mercantilism are
given priority over attending school. Comparatively, direct public and private
investment in educational institutions, infrastructure and emolument pales to
investments in other sectors that offer immediate and huge financial returns.
Across the board, education in Nigeria remains largely underfunded at the
federal, state and local levels. This is a national fallacy.
Neglect or ignore it as much as we wish, in Nigeria
the right to education is a basic human right.
This is also true in the context of our national
development goals. Indeed, achieving universal primary education by 2015, so
that all children -girls and boys - can complete a full course of primary
schooling, is ranked second on the Millennium Development Goals totem pole.
Various problems and their solutions are inevitable parts
of humankind and its long history.
However, just as the twenty-first century brings
with it infinite possibilities; so too, are the challenges we now face. It is
ironical that as the world becomes more educationally and technologically
sophisticated, some nations, ours included, are experiencing educational
retrogression, in every facet of that vocational endeavor.
What is more worrisome is that the general
population has become discernibly apathetic about education.
Today, little is said, if at all, about the connection
between laying a good foundation for the future generation and leaders through
education, and our long-term political and developmental aspirations as a
people. In an era, where the global emphasis is on information technology as a
right; where it is underlined that “each State should thus develop a concrete
and effective policy, in consultation with individuals from all sections of
society, including the private sector and relevant Government ministries, to
make the Internet widely available, accessible and affordable to all segments of
population”, our nation is lagging behind and some of members of the Nigerian
Diaspora who have the ideas, vision and
resources to bring about the much-needed change by
being part of the solution, are reluctant to rise to the occasion.
Presently, many Legacy Schools and leadership academies like CKC Onitsha and
Government College Umuahia are shadows of their glorious past. These schools
produced some of the best and the brightest minds in Nigeria, most of which now
reside abroad as recent statistics prove. As Migration Trends reports, “11 per
cent of Nigerians with a tertiary education live outside their country of birth.
The top destination countries for migrants from Nigeria are the United States,
the United Kingdom….” As the report also indicated, “Nigeria is by far the top
remittance recipient in Africa, accounting for an estimated US$10 billion” out
of the $21.5 billion remitted home in 2010 by African Diasporans.
As The Boston Globe
reported in its 7 September 2003 article titled, “Immigrants’
US Dollars Paying off in Homeland”, “In Onitsha,
Nigeria, the once-crumbling Christ the King College building has been modernized
and expanded… Over the last several years, Christ the King College has gone
through a massive renovation project, financed almost entirely by contributions
from alumni in the United States….”
The funds CKC-AAA remit periodically to Nigeria towards the revitalization of
their alma mater, forms part of the overall Diaspora remittance, even if a
minuscule portion. What this says, is that we are resolved to being part of the
solution; and that we seek to be guarantors of education as a basic human right
in Nigeria. If only a few more CKC alumni would join hands with us, we would
certainly accomplish more.
Here is a fact we cannot ignore.
A good school like CKC Onitsha, which is situated in
a frenetic commercial town like Onitsha, will always be an oasis. Such good
educational establishments including their boarding facilities – the type many
of us experienced—offers a shield and protects innocent and impressionable
youths from societal disorders.
If we can contribute in any way to making such an
environment available to some Nigeria youths, then, we would have succeeded in
being part of the solution to some of our prevailing national challenges. Not
much else needs to be said.
Mr. Oseloka Obaze is the Secretary of CKC-AAA, Inc. USA.
This piece is adapted from the Editorial in the most recent edition of The Amaka Gazette, the Journal of CKC-AAA.