Education and the Fiditi Proposal
Old students’ associations can be a bridge between the past and future. In several countries, academic institutions owe their survival and development to the vibrancy of these alumni bodies. But though they engender a spirit of unity necessary to surmounting difficult challenges facing our country today, we are yet to sufficiently tap into this critical opportunity. Or at least so I thought. Until January last year when I received a call from former Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Director General, Mr Sola Omole. He made what I considered a rather unusual request on behalf of Fiditi Grammar School Old Students Association (FIGSOSA) of which he is a member. To mark its 70th anniversary this February (then 13 months away), FIGSOSA wanted a commitment from me that I would write a column about the standards of education in Nigeria over the past 50 years.
Five months later, 22 May 2023 to be specific, I received a letter jointly signed by FIGSOSA national president, Professor Adesola Ogunniyi, chairman of the anniversary’s organising committee, Mr Oladapo Lagunju and Omole who chairs the publicity committee. After highlighting the theme for the 70th anniversary, ‘Sustainable Youth Development—Roles for Old Students Associations’, they formally made their request. “Our desire is that using the celebration and our theme as background, you review our education standards and perhaps proffer ways of improvement,” their letter stated. “We want this to be our contribution to the all-important debate about the place of education in Nigeria. We request that this suggested piece appear in your backpage VERDICT column on any day between the 12th and 16th of February 2024.”
I thank the leadership of FIGSOSA for their concern about education in Nigeria. I feel very humbled that they consider my intervention on the issue of any consequence. Honestly, I have found it difficult to process the amusing request. Whoever came up with the idea obviously has more faith in this column than I do. But for whatever it is worth, considering the reminder I got last week, I intend to keep my promise. First, let me say a few words about Fiditi Grammar School in Oyo State.
Founded in 1954, the late Mr Christopher Okigbo (who would become a globally renowned poet) was a teacher and later vice principal and sports master at the school. The duo of Okigbo and then principal, Chief Alex Ajayi, according to Omole, recruited Teslim ‘Thunder’ Balogun as coach for the football team that won many laurels. Other prominent products of Fiditi Grammar School include Dr. Bode Olajumoke, a prominent lawyer, businessman and former Senator who was for 20 years FIGSOSA National President, Professor Adejare Agboola of Applied Botany Department at the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Professor Olufemi Durosaro of the University of Ilorin, and Professor Samson Omotosho of the University of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. Major General Kola Ogunkoya (rtd), a one-time NYSC Director General, Naval Admiral Segun Egbedina (rtd), who commanded NNS Aradu, AIG Lanre Bankole (rtd) as well as Professors Bridget Sokan, Adekunle Akinyemi and Ogunniyi, (current FIGSOSA president and consultant Neurologist), are products of the school. Of course, there are hundreds of other prominent ex-this, ex-that who have also passed through the school. Omole himself was for several years the General Manager, Public Affairs, Chevron Nigeria Limited, before returning to NTA as DG.
Now to the issue at hand. While FIGSOSA asks that I review education in Nigeria in the past five decades, I believe it would be more productive to share my thoughts on their 70th anniversary theme
THISDAY Newspapers Limited. because it centres on the role that alumni associations can play in the development of education in our country. Indeed, the immense benefits of alumni networks have led to the establishment of global charity organisations including ‘Future First Global’, based on the findings of a research study that covered countries in Asia, East and West Africa, Latin America, North America, Europe and the
Middle East.
The study, sponsored by the Open Society Foundations, reveals how former students can engage with their alma mater as role models, mentors, work experience providers and trusted advisers. Former students, according to Future First Global, UK, are an incredible and largely untapped resource that every school has. “We think there are over 500 million adults globally who would give back to their old schools if they were asked, and yet we estimate only 2% are currently doing so.” Not surprisingly, while only two percent of adults polled had engaged with or gone back to their former high (secondary) schools, 52 percent of those asked said they would be willing to do so. Therefore, we have a pool of resources that can be harnessed for the development of our education sector, especially in Nigeria. And I am delighted that FIGSOSA is leading the way.
From primary school which lays the foundation, to university which prepares students for an increasingly competitive job market, all levels of education are important. But perhaps the most important is High (secondary school) that stands in the middle. In an ideal scenario, this level of education covers a broader scope of subjects with just enough depth to prepare and equip an individual with the requisite knowledge for gainful occupation and economic self-sufficiency. The fact that many of our university students are ill prepared for rigorous intellectual engagement and the graduates are unfit for the job market reflects the quality of the foundation they received in secondary schools.
This is a systemic problem. While most of us are products of public schools, we have long opted to send our children to private schools (and I also plead guilty here), without caring about those who cannot afford the huge costs. Of course, we all know what a succession of governments, at all levels, have done to public schools in Nigeria. Yet, the point we must underscore is that public schools have significant social missions they fulfill in every society. The most critical is that they guarantee equal opportunity for all children regardless of their parents’ social status. In the process, they help to unify a diverse country.
To secure the future, we must defend the integrity of our learning spaces. And beyond what government should do, meaningful interventions from alumni associations can make a world of difference. If anybody has a doubt about the crisis of education in Nigeria, the sight of fully suited-up young men and formally dressed young women (most of them graduates) distributing leaflets for housing estates should drive the point home. That some supposedly educated people believe they can build their life on, or find fulfilment in, distributing leaflets on major roads and street corners is telling. In recent years, my wife has been championing a free education scheme for indigent children in Abuja through her Not Forgotten Initiative (NFI) School. With that, I have seen the abysmal level to which our public schools have degenerated. And we cannot all just fold our hands.
Let me identify four areas in which our public secondary schools are deficient and where alumni associations can help to redress the situation. First is in the provision of adequate infrastructure and ensuring a safe and conducive learning environment. The second is in providing essential tools that include well equipped laboratories with required technical equipment, well stocked libraries, and access to computers. In many of our public schools today, students access basic tools through their imagination, which makes it difficult to comprehend most of the theories they are being taught.