28-11-2024.

I have dared to venture into an area that I am by no means any more better than those who may be at the receiving end of my humble advice. I mean, I am not exactly very proficient in the language of this communication, to the extent that I would advise others to ‘go back to school’. However, I represent nobody but myself, so I can be daring enough to advise those who do to do so.

Some video clips have of late been trending on the social media, causing ridicule to some highly placed government officials at state level, because of their poor mastery of the spoken and or written English.

One of the video clips referred to a governor in one of the northern states, who because of his very poor command of the English language, is derivatively called an illiterate, who needs to ‘go back to school and learn how to write, read and speak good English’. But the number one citizen in the state has claimed to be a degree holder, to which many people mused ‘from an unknown university, perhaps’.

The governor was alleged to have promoted a junior officer to the position of a permanent secretary in the government house, where his main ‘duty’ is to secretly write every assignment for the governor, who is said to be secretly studying at a university in the capital city of the state.

Another clip showed a badly written press statement signed by a ‘Director’ in one of the parastatals of another northern state. Apart from the bad language (English), used for crafting the press statement,it was disingenuously copied (CC, it was referred) to particular media organisations. The writer or signatory to press statements and public announcements, should know that such information are supposed to go to everyone. Only ‘announcements’, could the writer or signatory be choosy about, since it is not specific as to who it is meant for. 

Many of the so called well educated people are alleged to have not earned, but bought, their qualifications. This is an allegation that is also trending on the social media, and which is believable, because of the extent some Nigerians go through to obtain the qualifications that enabled them to get employment, or ‘win’ elections or just bragg in  the society for vanity.

The Federal Government not long ago dismissed from its service all holders of certificates obtained from some institutions in some countries in the last two years. There quite a number of such people, to the extent that a former comrade Senator took to his X handle to criticise the dismissal.

But many people saw the time limitation as selective. Their view on the issue is that, it should not have any timeline, given its importance to the federal civil service, and the fact that some highly placed individuals have found their way onto positions of authority with such certificates, or false claims.

Many ‘institutions of higher learning’ have sprung up in recent times to cater for the education needs of some people (mostly Nigerians), in order to forge ahead in their countries, where paper qualification is given more consideration over and above technical knowledge.

The false claim to more education than we really have, is a not long ago ‘import’ to our people, but unfortunately, has become so perversive that it is now difficult to separate the real literati from the fake ones, who bought their qualifications. It is doubly pervasive NOW, because of the extremely hardship that the country is experiencing courtesy of the ‘one chance’ vehicle that innocent Nigerians have entered.

Since English is Nigeria’s official language, may God remove ALL the educated pretenders who claimed to be what they are not, or those who purchased their high sounding qualifications, from the lofty offices they currently occupy in the country. After lying their way to reach where they are NOT supposed to be, they would keep on lying for everyone and everything, to continue with, and maintain, their undue mundane advantages.

Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.