•A brutal truth from my heart to every Nigerian student, parent, lecturer and leader
By Adesola Adefemi Ojuolape
Let me tell you the bitter, naked and raw truth that nobody in government, nobody in the National Universities Commission (NUC), no Vice Chancellor and no Professor has the courage to tell you.
Most of the courses being taught in Nigeria’s universities have expired. I mean totally expired. They are dead on arrival. They died many years ago, but we are still embalming the corpse and forcing our children to carry it.
Not only have they expired, they are completely irrelevant to Nigeria’s development, irrelevant to our economy, irrelevant to our industries, irrelevant to the labour market, and totally irrelevant to the 21st-century world that is now driven by technology, skills, innovation, productivity and entrepreneurship.
They are a monumental waste of time, a waste of money, a waste of energy, a waste of mental strength and a complete waste of youthful destiny. Every year, we are producing millions of graduates, but we are not producing solutions. We are producing certificate holders, but we are not producing problem solvers. We are producing job seekers, but we are not producing job creators.
And that is why the country is sinking deeper.
THE SAD REALITY ON OUR STREETS
If we do not modernize our educational system, if we do not completely overhaul our curriculum, if we do not burn down this outdated, colonial, certificate-based, theory-only, cram-and-pour system and build a new skill-based, value-based, innovation-based, technology-driven and productivity-based system, Nigeria will never become a modern, progressive, competitive and prosperous nation.
We will continue to produce millions of frustrated, angry, depressed, confused and unemployable graduates roaming the streets of Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano with beautiful certificates inside expensive files but with zero practical skills, zero relevance, zero capacity and zero employability.
That is why you see a First Class graduate of a dead course begging for a 40,000 Naira job from a school dropout who learnt a relevant skill. That is why a graduate who spent 5 years in the university is now learning how to make cakes, how to do barbing, how to drive Uber, after graduation. The university failed him. The system betrayed him.
THE 4-YEAR WASTE VS THE 6-MONTH WISDOM
Think deeply about this painful reality:
If you study a 4-year course that will have absolutely no bearing on your future job, your future business, your future survival and your future relevance – which is the sad reality of over 60% of courses in our universities today – you are better off not wasting those 4 precious, golden, energetic years at all.
You are better off learning a relevant, powerful, highly marketable and highly profitable skill in just 6 months.
Whether it is Coding, Software Development, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, UI/UX Design, Mobile App Development, Cloud Computing, Nursing, Medical Lab Technology, Pharmacy Technology, Solar Installation and Renewable Energy, Electrical Engineering, Plumbing, Welding, POP Installation, Tiling, Furniture Making, Fashion Design, Leather Works, Shoe Making, Digital Marketing, Copywriting, Public Relations and Advertising, Content Creation, Videography, Professional Photography, Graphics Design, Video Editing, Agribusiness, Poultry Farming, Fishery, Snail Farming, Catering, Baking, Pastries, or any serious handwork that solves real problems and puts money in your pocket daily.
Because in the 4 years you would have wasted inside the university studying an expired course that nobody needs and no company is ready to pay for, the person who went to learn a relevant skill would have already mastered it, built a solid client base, built a powerful brand, built a strong social media presence, started a thriving and profitable business, become financially stable, bought his own car, built his own house, and progressed to the level where he can now employ one of those irrelevant graduates with a big certificate as his Personal Assistant, as his Secretary, as his Front Desk Officer, as his Messenger.
That is the painful truth. That is the bitter truth. Certificate without skill is poverty in disguise. Certificate without value is frustration in uniform.
WHY ARE OUR UNIVERSITIES STILL KEEPING DEAD COURSES?
The answer is simple and shameful.
Our universities keep retaining these dead and expired courses because they bring in huge school fees and huge allocation, because they are very cheap to run, because they require no standard laboratories, no modern workshops, no modern equipment, no innovation hubs, no research grants, no industrial partnership. They just need a classroom, a chalk, a blackboard, a lecturer reading a 40-year-old note, and an outdated textbook written in 1970 by a colonial master.
And innocent students keep rushing to study them just because they want admission at all costs, just to answer “I am a graduate,” just to please their parents, just to avoid staying at home.
This is not education. This is educational fraud. This is future destruction. This is destiny manipulation. This is national suicide. We are killing the future of our children with our own hands.
A university that cannot produce employable graduates is not a university, it is a glorified secondary school. An education that cannot put food on your table is not education, it is decoration. It is a scam.
THE WAY FORWARD WHAT WE MUST DO NOW
1. FOR THE GOVERNMENT AND NUC: Scrap, merge or completely modernize all expired courses. Compel every university to have functional skill acquisition centres, tech hubs, and entrepreneurship labs. Link every course to industry. No more theory without practical.
2. FOR VICE CHANCELLORS AND LECTURERS: Stop teaching what you were taught in 1985. Upgrade yourself. Go for modern training. The world has left you behind.
3. FOR PARENTS: Stop forcing your children to study dead courses because of family pride. Ask one question before you pay that school fee: “Can this course feed my child after graduation?” If the answer is NO, you are investing in poverty.
4. FOR STUDENTS: Be wise! Stop chasing admission at all costs. It is better to stay one year at home to find a relevant course or learn a powerful skill than to waste 4 years studying a course that will make you a professional unemployed person. Your future is more important than your admission.
We must wake up! The Federal Government must wake up! The NUC must wake up! Parents must wake up! Students must wake up!
Stop studying courses that expired 20 years ago. Stop studying courses that cannot feed you in this wicked economy. Stop studying courses that will turn you into a professional job seeker, a certified beggar, and a frustrated applicant writing endless application letters that nobody will ever read.
Study what the nation needs. Study what the world needs. Study what the market needs. Study what can put food on your table, money in your pocket, and value in your hands.
The era of going to university just to be called a graduate is over. Nobody cares about your title anymore. Nobody cares about your B.A., B.Sc., or B.Ed. The world only cares about what problem you can solve and what value you can offer.
This is the era of skills. This is the era of value. This is the era of relevance. This is the era of productivity.
If your certificate cannot solve a single real-life problem, if it cannot create a job, if it cannot start a business, if it cannot attract income, then it is nothing but useless paper inside a beautiful file.
The choice is yours. Choose wisdom. Choose skill. Choose relevance.
Adesola Adefemi Ojuolape is an Author, Public Affairs Analyst & Human Capital Development Advocate
