I believe I was taught by the best lecturers,
most of whom were first class graduates, and I
studied in a university that focused on
excellence. But despite the best efforts of my
university, I was not well-equipped for life
after school. I was taught to look for a job,
not to create jobs. The society then taught me
that if I wanted to move ahead in life, I needed
degrees and more degrees.
I lived with my friend, Nonso Onuba, in Lagos
during my one-year National Youth Service
Corps scheme. I started searching for a job
during my NYSC. As the one-year programme
drew to an end, my fear about getting a job
heightened. Graduating and still begging for
money from parents and friends is not good
for anybody with a sense of worth.
If a job did not come fast, I had no Plan B.
The only plan was to get a job and earn a
salary to take care of my needs. I desperately
searched for vacancies in the newspapers. My
university result was good, and at 24-25
years, my age was still within what many
companies required for their management
trainees. I photocopied my credentials, wrote
many applications, both solicited and
unsolicited, and went from office to office and
from post office to post office posting them.
As the months rolled by, I began to despair.
Finally, I received a letter from a company
that had tested and interviewed me. When I
opened the envelope and saw that it was an
employment letter, I danced and sang in
jubilation, kneeling down and raising my
hands skywards in thanksgiving.
But I was luckier than many of my classmates,
for I got the job six months after my NYSC,
when many of my colleagues were still writing
application letters. I went to work in a suit
and a tie. I am sure some neighbours who saw
me go out in the morning and return in the
evening envied me. To top it up, once in a
while, the company’s branded car brought me
home to take something, or I just took the
driver home on our way from a client’s office
just for the neighbours to see that life was
rosy for me. But was it? Not really. My salary
just kept me away from hunger from month to
month. It could not solve any other problem
except feeding and clothing me. By the
goodwill of my friend, I did not pay rent in
Lagos until two years after I began to work.
Meanwhile, there was a young man in the
neighbourhood that had searched for a job
but could not get any. So, he started teaching
young boys and girls who were preparing for
the University Matriculation Examination and
General Certificate of Education. I am sure
many of us laughed at him when he started.
But soon after, the joke was on us, for some
years later, the young man founded a
secondary school in the neighbourhood.
Maybe, some became his employees. A few
years later, he established a primary school. I
saw him some months ago in that same
neighbourhood inspecting a plot of land that
was being fenced and he told me that he just
acquired the property.
I have seen fellow graduates who have
degrees in mechanical engineering but have to
depend on a mechanic that did not complete
his primary school education to repair minor
things in their cars. I have seen graduates of
electrical and electronics engineering who
have to depend on some guy with only a
secondary school education to repair their TV
or solve some electrical problems in their
home.
Ours has been a warped type of education that
teaches you the theory of everything but little
or no practicals, with the ultimate aim of
getting you a job. And when the job does not
come, we stay at home for five years
lamenting that there are no jobs. Even when
we get that job and work at it with pride or
dissatisfaction, if we suddenly lose that job,
we find ourselves in a hole. If we are lucky to
retire rather than being fired, we soon discover
that we have no skills to do any other thing
except that job we worked at for 35 years,
which is no longer available. Soon, we start
another round of whining about the nation
using us and dumping us.
It was therefore heart-warming when I visited
the American University of Nigeria, Yola,
recently and saw the development-driven-
university model in practice: an educational
system developed to make students creators of
jobs, rather than job seekers, as well as make
the students imbibe the spirit of community
service. Every student, irrespective of course of
study, must create a business, run it and give
a clearly defined plan of succession, in case
they travel back to their country or go for
further studies. Community service is also
compulsory. I was amazed to see young men
and women teaching members of the illiterate
Yola community how to read and write, as
well teaching others computer science,
mathematics, chemistry, economics, and so
on. Students painted buildings, kept the
streets clean, etc.
Interestingly, the students are not given such
laws as: Don’t use a mobile phone; don’t wear
trousers; don’t braid your hair, etc. On the
contrary, they are allowed to live like normal
human beings cognisant of acceptable
behaviour. And they are kept so busy with
activities that they have little or no time to be
involved in negative acts. They all know that
even within that freedom, anyone who crosses
the line of acceptable behaviour faces stiff
penalty, including rustication, no matter the
status of the student’s parents.
With students and lecturers from over 25
nations of the world, the AUN is like a mini
United Nations. Interestingly, the lecturers and
students all eat in the university’s refectory. It
was humbling to see the President of the
University – the equivalent of a vice-
chancellor – Dr. Margee Ensign, driving
herself, walking around the campus, and
mingling with students, lecturers and the
locals like colleagues.
When I got to the library, I thought I would
see books, but what I saw were e-books.
Searching for some books for research, I got
access to some books that will be published in
2014 in the hard copy form. So, one is always
ahead of others in terms of access to
information.
Then, the university’s green policy tripped me.
All trash is recycled and re-used. Plastics,
especially, is recycled: while PET bottles are
used to build houses, the cellophane bags are
processed and used to make handbags by
Yola women, who sell these bags and use the
proceeds to support their families.
Then, there is the peace initiative. Contrary to
stories about tensed situation in Yola and
Adamawa State in general, I saw a city that
was living a normal life, with a bubbling night
life. Even though the university has good
security led by a former member of the US
Marines, it has started a proactive policy to
ensure peace in the community by setting up
the Adamawa Peace Council, made up of
members of the university and different
categories of the community: Yola locals,
Igbo, Yoruba, Muslims, Christians, etc. In
addition to meetings and other plans to
ensure peace, a Peace Day is held in the
university annually. This year, the
ambassadors of Ireland and Columbia – two
countries that have experienced conflicts –
were invited to speak and share experiences
from their countries.
One of the selling points of Mr. Barack Obama
between 2007 and 2008, when he campaigned
for the US presidency, was the community
service he rendered to his Chicago community
after graduation. Service to the people is one
thing that has made the US what it is. It is
that spirit of service that makes an American
think first about the US rather than asking:
What is in it for me? That spirit needs to be
inculcated in our people if indeed we want a
great nation.

Nigerian universities are grossly underfunded and the lecturers grossly underpaid..... Heard in AUN..... The student to teacher ratio is 17:1......That's effective learning...... Well ASUU is fighting for some of these to be corrected