₦airaland Forum

XY01:
Stop being clever by half.. the op clearly stated "Do they really place value on it the way many celebrate it in Nigeria?" And do they speak high of it

Just like Gerrad59 said, it's more of a cultural thing, but that doesn't mean they don't place value on it and speak high of it.


We literally over celebrate Matriculation and convocation/graduation regardless of the stage of Education in Nigeria. We literally have secondary school students signing out, but why then are you picking out first class graduates when we literally over celebrate any achievement no matter how small or great they are.

The question op asked wasn't if we over celebrate, it is literally if we place value and speak high of it like *western* citizens do. And the answer is yes! Whether we over do it or over hype, you can create your thread for it. But just know that we celebrate literally anything and picking out a single academic achievement out of all is a myopic view.

In a society like Nigeria where irrelevant and useless events are celebrated— speaking high of academic excellence should be encouraged, it's not as if we even produce enough intellectuals to counter the degradation of our education

AndroBlaze:
Though you did ITK and your tone was quite annoying....you mentioned something I have to grudgingly agree with, which is our culture (as it is today) overhypes everything hypeable.

I guess if I can accept MOG announcing church donations in Real Time every Sunday, and not minding whether they come from thieving politicians or kidnappers, I cannot begrudge those who have worked hard to get their results making noise like there is no tomorrow.

SixSeven:
They cannot celebrate it the way we do. I was just responding to Gerrard59's comment about the celebration being a big deal for the Anglophones but I counter that with you only being familiar with a culture you read or understand. In the videos I put there, I deliberately omitted immigrants, though there were Asians in the first and last.

If I show you Italian videos, it will be a waste because we don't understand their language and that's not the purpose of communication. In fact, some of them question the 110 e lode (1st class equivalent) today since everyone gets it. But that does not mean it is not recognized by non-English countries and speakers. The way they celebrate is cultural and you must also understand history too. Our access to western education is not the same for those who were used to it. You see how some of them made it simple while some of them wrote a story. If you asked me this question 16 years ago, I may have struggled to give you proof but thank God for Tiktok. You also need to be aware that some of these countries are more conservative than we are so they won't put their personal information on the internet, that's why I told him to go to LinkedIn, that's the website for professional people and anyone taking their career seriously. Even if you go to LinkedIn, you are likely to see only content in the language you understand.

Lastly, I don't need a validation from any white person but if I wanted to take him to the cleaners, I will tell him to list the western countries and I will give you proof that they celebrate success. People in US celebrate admission offers into top schools abroad but we do not do that here. The gaokao is China's crazy exam but we talk about JAMB or UTME or whatever it's called now. There's always difference in cultures. Maybe this topic is a learning point for some of us that our worldview is not the only view, we can always learn and broaden our horizon.


https://www.tiktok.com/video/7435730682812304673


https://www.tiktok.com/video/7640316444101627150

BTW, travel is part of education. Nice discussion

Kaczynski:
Employers value experience and projects over degrees. In the US high schoolers keep getting jobs more than degree holders.

XY01:
They worked for it, they deserve to make noise like there's no tomorrow!
The noise isn't even enough, it's not reaching the appropriate sectors it should.

You can call me whatever you want, but if you're opportune to work in our educational sector, you'll be amazed by the level of IDC attitude, education na scam attitude, school no be way attitude.

We need to encourage academic excellence and if you're truly experienced like you claim you are and your opinion is that *academic excellence* should not be making noise especially in a country like Nigeria, it really bothers me if you care about the future of this country's education or you're part of those that *as long as e no affect me* crew

Omoawoke:
Not true…

There are minimum qualifications for every jobs..

A high schooler can not apply to professional white collar jobs..

We are talking of companies on Forbes, high schooler keh? When high paying jobs require minimum of masters or MBA from top schools… some even request for PhD holders

No you got this really really wrong sir
We aren’t talking of truck driving or construction workers sir or what kind of jobs are you referring to?

If it’s the working as software developer, tech analysts, finance , health care, business analyst , consulting etc … sir, you need a very good qualification to have the first chance of getting into those and they aren’t for high schoolers in any way

Kaczynski:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14688401/high-school-juniors-job-offers-companies-hire-tradespeople.html

https://restofworld.org/2026/china-tech-recruiting-teenagers-ai-shortage/



https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/technology/coding-ai-jobs-students.html

AndroBlaze:
Oga calm down, and stop making things up to push down your point.

I never claimed to be "experienced" or work in academia..... all I know is part of being educated is actually acting like you are "educated"....and I learnt this from first hand experience.

Real educated people don't need to wear "I got a first class" or "I went to Harvard" t-shirt every day of the week.

I spent the last few days arguing with someone who refused to accept that the first black African academic Nobel prize winner never earned a PhD, despite overwhelming evidence that Wole Soyinka has never claimed to.

In his myopic mind, Soyinka not earning a PhD is a problem, but funnily the whites who celebrated him and gave him the Nobel Prize did not care.

So yes ooo, more first class graduates in Nigeria is a good thing, but if you think the problems in Nigeria would be cured if everybody had a first class or strove to, then it seems that education and life experience has not helped you much either.

Wole Soyinka is great and has a lot of admirers, but so is Fela his cousin....and it is arguable that Fela has touched the same amount if not more people in a beneficial way.

BTW Soyinka got a 2:1 but for many years a rumour went around that he got a Third. Trust Kongi, he hardly bothered to correct it until recently.

There is just something silently brilliant and awe inspiring about truly educated and enlightened people, and I don't believe a school or a piece of paper can encapsulate that.

That is my experience.

Kaczynski:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14688401/high-school-juniors-job-offers-companies-hire-tradespeople.html

https://restofworld.org/2026/china-tech-recruiting-teenagers-ai-shortage/


https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/technology/coding-ai-jobs-students.html

Omoawoke:
Not true…

There are minimum qualifications for every jobs..

A high schooler can not apply to professional white collar jobs..

We are talking of companies on Forbes, high schooler keh? When high paying jobs require minimum of masters or MBA from top schools… some even request for PhD holders

No you got this really really wrong sir
We aren’t talking of truck driving or construction workers sir or what kind of jobs are you referring to?

If it’s the working as software developer, tech analysts, finance , health care, business analyst , consulting etc … sir, you need a very good qualification to have the first chance of getting into those and they aren’t for high schoolers in any way

Omoawoke:
Not true…

There are minimum qualifications for every jobs..

A high schooler can not apply to professional white collar jobs..

We are talking of companies on Forbes, high schooler keh? When high paying jobs require minimum of masters or MBA from top schools… some even request for PhD holders

No you got this really really wrong sir
We aren’t talking of truck driving or construction workers sir or what kind of jobs are you referring to?

If it’s the working as software developer, tech analysts, finance , health care, business analyst , consulting etc … sir, you need a very good qualification to have the first chance of getting into those and they aren’t for high schoolers in any way

AndroBlaze:
Oga you are the one that said White people boast about going to Harvard... please answer the question I asked, have you met one that boasted about going to an ivy league college?

XY01:
You're the one making things up to push your narrative. You have been answered by someone else,

You don't have any experience or work in academia, just sit this one out. You haven't taught before, you haven't worked in academia before but you're of the opinion that we shouldn't over celebrate academic excellence in a country like Nigeria because according to you truly and enlightened people can't be encapsulated by school or piece of paper, then proceeds to used wole Soyinka who is an outlier as example. If you understand what celebrating *academic excellence* in a country like Nigeria but since you're not even into academics, it would be difficult for you to have that basic knowledge, lol, I don't have anything else to say to you.

Have a nice day



For anyone reading this, if you're currently doing well academically, please don't relent, do better, meet with people of like minds, there are opportunities out there that you can benefit from

If you're not a first class student, please strive to be one and if you can't, make sure you take whatever you're doing serious, there's always opportunities for you too. And when you finally get it, celebrate it like there's no tomorrow, you worked for it, you earned it, no one should ever question you.

We don't have enough bright minds in this country to counter the degradation currently going on in this country.

Always strive for excellence in your academics, you might not get it but whatever you achieve, be proud of it, again no one should ever question how you should celebrate your achievements

This is quite lame from you "Teacher", I expected much more from you with your high level of sophistication and academic brilliance....

Now you have me humming this song , so I beg you in the name of Fela, "Teacher, don't teach me nonsense"

CorperKola:
So why the separation and the term ivy league
You think its for fun
You cant be serious
Even the schools matter
And then our class
Obama and trump went to harvard
There is almost a rule that if you want to become PM england
You need Oxford

Have you been living under a rock all this time

AndroBlaze:
This is quite lame from you "Teacher", I expected much more from you with your high level of sophistication and academic brilliance....

Now you have me humming this song , so I beg you in the name of Fela, "Teacher, don't teach me nonsense"

CorperKola:
So why the separation and the term ivy league
You think its for fun
You cant be serious
Even the schools matter
And then our class
Obama and trump went to harvard
There is almost a rule that if you want to become PM england
You need Oxford

Have you been living under a rock all this time

AndroBlaze:
Again, we must stop acting like we know everything when we do not.

It is quite common (less now though) for people in the UK to have excellent careers without having a degree as a lot of youth (especially in the past) use to start working after GCSEs and A-levels.

The biggest financial institution in the UK is Llyods, who has a 200 or so years prestigious history. One of the greatest CEOs this bank had did not have a University education and never chased one.

A lot of us were still alive and scient when the UK had a finance minister who later became prime minister without attending University for one day!

Angela Rayner, who was recently a deputy Prime Minister never attended university for one day.

These are the people that gave us our notion of education.

A lot of people who are commenting think Nigeria is how the world works. Even in Nigeria we have some people at the top who never went to university and became financial Czars.

XY01:
One guy go soon quote you with outliers. Using the experience of one to judge many..



Lol, I talk am, he has done exactly that. Look for one outlier, use it as an example.

Forgetting that it takes a lot to achieve without education and not everyone can ever have such dream.
I'd suggest you ignore him, he'll look for one experience he had at an airport to tell you the reality of things

Forgetting that for everyone he think achieved success without education, there's are thousands more who did with education.

Omoawoke:
You people too like argument

We are talking of what’s happening you are bringing out some outliers that struck once in a lifetime ?
Then your post even said something that use to happen in the past… lmao

The other guy was right when he said I should ignore you..

And I wonder why you are quoting me, the person I was responding to has no answer and has quietly abandoned the argument… the argument is that high schoolers cannot apply to the professional jobs and that minimum qualifications of at least a BSc is required and in many cases a masters or MBA from top schools

Pls why do you have to bring out outliers and not just outliers but things that happened in generations of baby boomers?

Stephen0mozzy:
Send 5 screenshots in this year on any social media platform about any Western country, where their citizens posted a picture of their first class certificate, thanking God, thanking their parents and their "local government chairman"... let's see who has zero context-awareness.

ebubeson:
Have you seen a white person talking high about their first class degree? Do they really place value on it the way many celebrate it in Nigeria?

ebubeson:
Have you seen a white person talking high about their first class degree? Do they really place value on it the way many celebrate it in Nigeria?

ebubeson:
Have you seen a white person talking high about their first class degree? Do they really place value on it the way many celebrate it in Nigeria?

Makamatic:
You hear then say summa cum laude , magma cum laude and cum laude and yes , they do celebrate it .

AndroBlaze:
I am just seeing his churlish response now but I am not surprised as "birds of the same feather, flock together".

I just hope you are not an academic also, like he claims to be, as I have a theory about our academics in this country , and both of you have done quite a lot today to strengthen it unfortunately.

By the way, have you lived or worked in the UK to disprove what I said that you can get a job in the financial sector without a university degree?

In fact, have you worked in a financial institution at all, whether in Nigeria or the UK?

ebubeson:
Have you seen a white person talking high about their first class degree? Do they really place value on it the way many celebrate it in Nigeria?