Graduation

In Accra, I recently attended the graduation ceremony of a friend’s son who had run through the gauntlet of education and had done his parents proud. He had succeeded. The Senatus Academicus graduated him with honours. Congratulations Subomi! As I sat through the graduation ceremony, I looked around at all the beaming faces of the proud parents that had come to witness this triumph that their child had accomplished.

 Why were all these particular parents here, so happy and why had they invested so much time and support to their children? Not every parent does this.

There is the notion that a child is the property of the state. That is why when a child is born, the birth is recorded in the form of a birth certificate and he subsequently gets a passport. The child is a citizen and the parents are only allowed to keep and raise him or her, if the state deems them fit to do so. So why do they invest so much in the child’s education and development, when they could be jollofing?

It is born of love. The raising of a child to be a responsible citizen is the greatest act of selflessness and love that is demonstrated by any loving parent. Why? Because the parent is expecting nothing back. What society gets is a responsible citizen. That reward along with the child’s success in life is enough for the parents.

This sacrifice starts from birth. The child is nurtured and monitored throughout pre-primary, primary and secondary school years. University is the great transition from childhood to adulthood, because the ability to make decisions that we are responsible for is the difference between a responsible adult and a child. For the undergraduate, suddenly academic assignments, which were previously a must, have become a matter of choice. No prep or lights out and no detention or grounding for default. It is almost too good to be true that for the first time no domestic hierarchy.  The right to choose now rests with this man-child.

What a confusing time. There are so many distractions. We all know that change is not easy. They have to go from what is familiar to forging a new beginning. They are away from home, away from monitoring. Their minds have to break down all they have known, so that they can embrace the new way. They have to learn fantastic new skills and think differently, act differently in order to get to the next level of excellence. They have to go through a period of transition filled with confusion. Some will stumble, some will get carried away with this new-found freedom but with love and support from the parents, ultimately they forge their way through; they persevere and the result is a fantastic young adult with all the world before them.

Parents, meanwhile, have the situation out of their hands for the first time. All they can do is pray that they have done the right thing and their child, despite their naiveté or youthful exuberance, will not do anything that they will live to regret. They realise really for the first time that the umbilical cord is cut and the individual, the citizen who is now exposed to all that we have been shielding them from, will conduct themselves in a way that will make us proud. It is said that wisdom is the quest for knowledge, so we should pursue her. If we are lucky enough to find her, then we should exalt her, so that she may honour us. It is this honour that the parents are celebrating as without knowledge we are nothing.

As I write, here in Nigeria both academic associations of Nigerian universities and polytechnics (ASUU and ASUP respectively) have embarked on an indefinite strike. We all are aware of the sorry state of our education system. We have students offered admission into programmes not accredited. They continue to be robbed by the university authorities for years in the forms of school fees and breach of agreement and trust. Our leaders fail us in their responsibility to these young citizens. They should focus their energies here as we are being robbed of our future. We sit by and have decided that our reality dictates that we can do nothing about it. Our fear dictates this. Doing nothing, though, is a decision. Our children here will not graduate. History will judge us all.