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I get the whole prosperity thing, I really do. But whatever happened to contentment?
Whatever happened to being thankful and grateful for what you have right now instead of perpetually clamoring for more?
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When is enough enough? When do you say, okay, I’m rich enough now. Lemme start to be content and start to help the less privileged?
It does not exist! That time…not for everyone at least.
A very small percentage of the world’s population controls half the wealth in the whole world. Truth is, nobody hands it to them and they know the price they paid to get there. But you, yes you! You want a private jet and you still want to sleep for 8 hours a day, and then spend 5 hours praying. Pray tell, how much time is left for you to work?
But you, yes you! You want a private jet and you still want to sleep for 8 hours a day, and then spend 5 hours praying. Pray tell, how much time is left for you to work?You want to graduate with 1st class and you spend 6 hours at the prayer garden, and then 2 hours studying. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t underestimate the power of prayer. But for me, the meaning of that word is a sincere and truly needed call for help…Help will always come. God has never failed. But He knows our needs abi? What if he has answered your prayer before you even opened your mouth? What if you were just supposed to study more, play less and just work a bit more?
We all want to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. Please tell me, how are you planning to get there? We want electricity, but no one wants to pay light bill according to how they consume electricity. Yeah, they introduced the cards, but we’ve all found ways to cheat anyway. We want better education but yet we pay peanuts for university education.
Our Federal University fees are basically what my 2 year old niece pays for a month in kindergarten. There are only 14 people in her class and so she learns quite well. Now, me, a 19 year old engineering student pays N45,000 a year. Pray tell, what kind of education do you think I’m getting?
My mates at Private Universities are worse off in my opinion. Exorbitant fees for the barest minimum!
When will we strike the balance Nigeria?
When will we stop short changing ourselves?
This semester, I did really badly in an exam. The lecturer is uninspiring and I don’t think he knows what he’s teaching to be frank. And I know that because I don’t struggle as much with other courses. Truth be told, because of the fact that I had no idea about what was going on in the course, I just accepted my faith and I didn’t even bother to study. And when the exam came, I really didn’t write anything.
But in my school, these lecturers who are usually very busy doing God knows what don’t mark the scripts themselves, so there’s a chance that you can bribe those markers to upgrade your score. For this course the cost for that service was 10K. I wanted to block, God knows I did, but I didn’t have 10K to give anyone so I didn’t.
My biggest fear, is that I think I would have paid if I had that money.
And that’s our problem right there. Us.
We refuse to clamor for change sometimes because the status-quo suits us in some way, it helps us not do our best. Maybe if we paid more on our light bills we might have electricity? Oh yeah, there’s corruption, so we can’t pay taxes, the government officials will “chop” it, but have you ever paid? No!
We complain about the situation of our higher institutions and yet still want to pay 20K fees. Why? People’s designer glasses cost more than 20K, why should that be the tuition at a federal university for a professional course for a year? Yes, we have oil money, so what?
The schools are underfunded, and the teachers are uninspiring. I see my classmates and I know it would take the grace of God for us not to continue this cycle our parents started. God and some hurtful truths…truth that if we are allowed to taste the bitter pill of failure we would not allow it to happen again.
Is it too much to ask for an educational system that I don’t have to struggle with my conscience to decide if I should pay to pass or not? That maybe if we sweated and paid tax, and knew that those “leaders” out there are stealing our sweats, we wouldn’t let them get away with it. Because now they steal oil money, that isn’t anyone’s really, so it doesn’t really hurt, its called the “national” cake. Well, in case you haven’t heard, the cake will soon finish. Should we wait for it to finish and then start to scramble madly for alternatives or should we make sure that the little that’s left is used correctly and we play our individual roles too? Each of us has a role to play, me too.
Maybe failing that course and re-writing the exam will be my own sacrifice, my first step. Because Nigeria is us. She won’t change if we don’t.
