I am coming in contact with lots of colleagues nowadays who are dropouts from schools and are proud of it. Many of them are displaying some kind of success, which is somehow portrayed as something that has to do with them leaving school. When they talk in a gathering, they subtly boast about their decisions, letting their audience know they have never regretted it. They are fond of talking about how simple they make money that many civil servants cannot dream to earn. When truly considering the epileptic nature of education in Nigeria, they cannot be said to be wrong or at fault.
To many of us who are still in school, education is gradually becoming a side hustle. The issue is just that, such display by the so-called dropouts, coupled with the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities/Federal Government fisticuffs is getting youths frustrated, irritated, and their plans disrupted with many years. While many students are already getting tired and desperate to make it in life, any hint that will make nonsense of education find easy passage into their faculties. What those of us who are still in school simply want is not to regret the decision of not joining the dropouts from schools league.
A couple of days ago, on my faculty’s WhatsApp platform, a reliable source shared a chat of the decisions of a dozen of students who have decided that do not to resume back to school upon ASUU calling off the ongoing strike. The message related that many have already moved on and are living nice through monetisation of digital skills they have acquired. Some even have got jobs with international organisations after the completion of certification courses online in 3 month. To them, the ASUU strike is a non-issue. And such is becoming a dream life of most undergraduates theseadays.
It is now becoming non-debatable that education at the tertiary level in Nigeria is not so much a real deal with anymore, especially among those students who are the victims of this ASUU strike, most of whom are public institutions students. In Nigeria, education is lacking the needed attention while Nigerian government top officials are busy fucking around, struggling towards the acquisition of personal wealth and fulfilment of there political ambitions.
Apart from factors, lack of funds and health challenges, constant disruption in education programmes due to strike occasion a higher number of leave school in the country. In as much as these dropouts are making financial headways, the Nigerian government is still not prioritising education and is not responding to the wailings of the undergraduates, our dropout friends won’t stop using us as play game.