For almost six months now, public universities have been shut down due to the ongoing strike action because of trade disputes between the workers and the government. Over the years, Nigerian youths have always been at the receiving end in terms of the blame game that they throw at them when national discourse is concerned. Examination malpractice, drug abuse, rape, restiveness, armed robbery, and fraud are the common offences our youths are accused of partaking in. However, some of these allegations against the youth came up for discussion in a bid to tackle examination malpractice in the Nigerian educational system, stakeholders have been called upon to work together to either reduce or permanently get rid of the menace.
At a workshop, university don, Prof. Olufemi Onifade has identified important education stakeholders to include examination bodies, parents, teachers, students, government, non-governmental organisations, and religious and traditional leaders. He stated, “I want to urge them to be alive to their responsibilities and work together as a team to end the menace of examination malpractice”. Another speaker, Prof. Ademola Osipitan has described examination malpractice as a war that must be fought by everyone. He called on the government to establish a special commission to fight examination malpractice and misconduct. Prof. Osipitan argued that examination malpractice was more damaging than corruption in economic terms.
The Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, who was represented by the Director of Education Support Service in the ministry, Mrs. J. A. Onayiga, said finding a solution to examination malpractice was key to development, stating that remedies identified would be effectively worked on by the state government. Dr. Adefunke Ayinde equally charged the government and stakeholders in Nigeria to help engage and guide the youth profitably. According to her, Nigeria is a country where most able-bodied people are unemployed, saying that the nation had a booming economy in the 1960s because of the attention given to agriculture.
On his part, Prof. Onyekwere Nwaorgu said there were many cases of under-employment and unemployment in the country. He disclosed that the limited contributions from agriculture had been hindered by sectarian clashes that the country was currently experiencing, making the farming economy critically disrupted and stressed the need for the government at all levels to have the political will to take agriculture to the next level. According to him, “We cannot say because something has overwhelmed us. We should now sit down; we should continue to make efforts towards getting the best result”. The Professor also called for an increase in the level of literacy among Nigerians, maintaining that “We need to improve education through literacy and skills acquisition”.
Adding to the debate, Nigerians have been charged to take up the responsibility of empowering the youths to enable them to contribute their quota to nation building. A student leader, Mr. Abdulkareem Bamigbade, stressed that members of society needed to first build the youths before they can be made to contribute to nation building. He said individual members of society have a role to play rather than leave everything in the hands of the government to do. The union leader added that Nigerians should concentrate and do more to make the country better by changing their orientation positively, noting that “A young man that was not trained on how to think critically will not add value to society”. Meanwhile, Mr. Irebami Soyinka, while contributing to the discourse said, “For us to get things done, we need to go back to the foundation, which is the constitution”.
Mr. Soyinka argued that the 1999 constitution should be amended to suit the commonality of everybody, stressing that Nigerian youths needed to acquire the required skills during their sojourn in life through tertiary education. Therefore, to get the best from our youths, we need more employment opportunities, mentorship, and more importantly, the collective responsibility on the part of all stakeholders to wake up and do the needful. Furthermore, Mr. Yemi Ajala said the breakdown of communal living and wrong use of technology were responsible for the ugly trend, adding that people get all manners of information from the Internet, just as Mr. Bamigbade charged parents and guardians to take proper care of their children and wards.
Mr. Olalekan Sotunde believes that the cost of producing goods, presently in Nigeria was very high, noting that the profit margin would not be able to take care of the expenses incurred in production because of the lack of capacity to buy. On the problem of youth unemployment, lack of parental care and upsurge in ritual killings in the country can be curtailed with good parenting, respect for cultural values, communal living, avoid taking of unproductive loans and proper use of technology to ensure that people are routed to right path to economic prosperity in the country. In conclusion, our youths are simply product of society. Hence, what they become is a function of the foundation laid by their parents, elders and people they look up to and certainly not vice versa.
