By VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
THE Executive Director of 7UP Bottling Company Plc, Mr. Femi Mokikan, has said aptitude tests before employment has exposed the level of rot in the nation’s education, warning that if urgent steps are not taking by the government, it could take Nigeria not less than 50 years to recover.

Mokikan a human resource expert, spoke to Labour Vanguard on experiences from interaction with different individuals and employees during job interviews and on the jobs in relation to educational qualifications.

“I remember years back, when you make statements like our educational standard is falling, some will say it is not falling, that it is just that the things we were looking at in those days and the ones we are looking at today are not the same.

I remember primary six pupils in those days, some of them used to teach. Some of them could teach in secondary schools today. Today, a graduate cannot even teach. Anyway, the aptitude tests that we have administered show the kind of educational system that we have.

*Femi Mokikan

Anybody can say whatever he likes, but I have no doubt in my mind that there is a sharp decline between the qualities of students that leave our educational institutions, not just universities. I started my life as a lecturer in a polytechnic. I went to the university as a student, and to the polytechnic as a lecturer.

I know what it was then, and what it is today, because I still relate with some of my friends there. Things have changed. We had a test here (7UP), the very first question in the quantitative section was to compute mean, mode, median, of the following…. , I know that anyone who did statistics in school, even in secondary school, when they give you data you rearrange it first before you start anything.

There was a man who said he had Bsc Mathematics/Statistics, and won an award, but he failed the question. He failed the test, and I insisted they invite him for interview, because I wanted to know what exactly the problem was.”

“So, he came for the interview, and I asked him whether he could recall any of the questions especially in the quantitative. He said yes. I said how did you do that one?  He said it was okay. The way I was asking him questions, he suspecting something, so he asked; if he did not pass the test, how come he was invited for interview.

I said, I cannot beat that logic, but insisted that he failed.  I had his paper with me. So I said, if you say you had a Bsc in Mathematics/Statistics from one university up there, you do not need to prepare for just mean, mode, median.

So, I stared at him for a long time, and he said “I’m no longer interested in this job, I don’t want to continue”. I said, “you will continue my friend”. So I asked him. “Who is the owner of this result? Tell me. I do not want to hand you over to the security. Not because what you did is right. But because, I will be the one they will be telling come today, come tomorrow”. Then he said “Oga, just let me go”. The truth is that many just pay money for results.”

Personal experience.

When I wanted to go and do law, they said we should come for test, I went for the test. I went to the wrong place, and somebody agreed to show me the right place. But I said, I know where the right place is. He said he was going there, that I should give him a ride, so I gave him a ride.

On the way, the man asked me why I wanted to write the test. He said there is a way they could do it that I would not write the test. He gave me somebody’s name, that I would pay money. Then he said, somebody like you, if you enter, “for six years will you still come and be writing exams too?”

I said, if I do not write exams, how would I graduate? Then he started mentioning names of military leaders who had gone through that course. He said “do you think they wrote exams?” I said that is their business. But the truth is that our educational system is rotten. It is a reflection of the society at large. Everything today is about money.”

“The university and polytechnic people know what their problems are. Unfortunately, the students are not helping matters. Because they know they can pay money, they go into all kinds of societies and threaten lecturers. Lecturers are afraid of failing students.

I think there is one university in the middle belt where they went and killed two lecturers. Because of these, things have gone very bad. I know some of my colleagues who when they want to employ 20 persons they would call 100 people and send them to one particular university, take them through a six months program, give them exams, and pick the best 20 out of them. The solutions to our problems are not farfetched; it is just the people at the top, our leaders.”

Way  forward

I believe what is needed is honesty, transparency, believing in it, saying “once I believe in our educational system, as president, as Governor, as Head of State, as minister, why will I arrange for my children to go to school elsewhere? 70 to 80 percent of them went to school in Nigeria, and they did very well but they watched these same schools go down.

Go back to the school you attended from secondary to university, what you see will today will make you cry. Why, because in the course of running after money, getting values wrong, we abandoned those things that we ought to be promoting.

Do not make any mistakes, Nigerians are naturally very gifted. The only thing you need as proof is what they call 419, cyber crime. That is where you will know that Nigerians are extremely gifted, they just need to channel it in the right direction. Unless we make a determined effort to reverse the trend, 50 years from today we will still be talking about it. Of course, the whole world would have left us behind.

Patronising public schools

“All rich men that are sending their children abroad to study, we should insist that they must patronize public schools; whether public or private. If you insist that they must all benefit from it, the attitude will change. Why should I worry about such schools when my children are schooling in America or Japan. If you go to those places, there is no such thing as strike.

Even in our days it was not that bad. You went in there for three years. Three years you get your degree, you go. Today except in one or two universities, you get there and you do not know when you will finish. You only know when you start.

For a course that should last four or five years, someone could spend eight years and still be in 300 level. Sadly too, the parents have not helped matters as many buy all kinds of results. Even to get into the university they will pay for their children because the system promotes it. They go and buy admission and all kinds of things because everything has been reduced to naira and kobo.”

The values we used to cherish in those days, somehow we lost those values. When I was a kid, our parents used to tell us “do not spoil my name o, I know I do not have money but I have a name to protect.” These days, there is nothing like a name again.

In fact, most young children today do not answer their parents’ names. For example take all our young musicians. Which of them answers their fathers’ names? We used to hear of Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obe, Fela Anikulakpo Kuti, Sunny Okosun, Victor Uwaifo, Celestine Ugwu.

But today you hear 2face, who is his father? 9ice, Ice Prince, MI who are their parents? People have distanced themselves from their roots. That is why it has become all about money. People are saying “Whatever I must do to make this money, I must make it”. And it is affecting every aspect of our lives.