Let’s be deliberate today and avoid mourning the many challenges confronting Nigeria to pay homage and salute the global academic excellence achieved by Nigerian youngsters. On the shoulders of these youths lie the hope of a renewal for our nation that is fast crumbling as a result of emerging failed leadership. It’s not only leadership that should be excoriated for our present woes; citizens should also share in the blame as they are now major drivers behind these afflictions through their pliant disposition. In shaping the future of youths that translates into that of a country, the role of parents in inspiring youths for academic greatness can’t be underestimated. As mentors of children through which the childhood years are seen by these youngsters, parents, especially mothers, remain the irreplaceable examples in guiding the kids ploughing through the plains of life.
Noise Over Age
At a time when Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education is in earnest efforts to revert to the 18-year university admission requirement, the world has long walked past that. Yes, age may be important but not absolute. The world is not bereft of young prodigies whose capacity for academic comprehension has dazzled many. While we stick to the support for the age admission requirement, we must give space to those geniuses that abound in the nooks and crannies of our villages with no voice to speak for them.
No matter what happens, the multivarious challenges militating against Nigerian are hinged on the obvious failure to encourage and promote excellence. When efforts are geared towards enthroning brilliance within and without officialdom, youths benefit. More devastating in terms of repercussions linked to the failure of education is incapacity to allow the rules. We have seen and heard of youths who walked their tortuous path to greatness through the inspiring actions and deeds of their parents. Having recognised the premium brought by education, these children rise to become better angels of their forebears.
Nobility In Manchester
The nobility of the Nigerian youth in the pursuit of brilliance was recently demonstrated when, a 21-year-old Nigerian-British citizen from Farman in Zango-Kataf LGA, Kaduna State, Noble Shimnu Sule, recorded an ineffaceable feat of academic excellence in the United Kingdom. He graduated with a first-class honour in LLB Law degree at the University of Manchester, a Russell Group institution ranked among the world’s best. Noble, who had his early education in Abuja, with his two brothers, relocated to the UK in 2009, to join his mother who then, was pursuing her PhD programme in Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London.
Blessed with beloved parents – Dr May Sule, a lecturer at Cranfield University UK, and James Sule, one of the nation’s top technocrats in the Federal Civil Service, Shimnu never looked back in the pursuit of excellence. With the presence of a mother in love with academics and an encouraging father whose devotion for excellence was never in doubt, Shimnu needed not to look elsewhere for role models.
When brilliant youths like Shimnu get transferred to a new environment governed by a rule-based system, their stars shine the brightest in the galaxies of stars in a moonless night in a world defined by best global practices without borders. Through the lens of his childhood years and the dedication of his parents for quality education, the first-class student saw in his parents the nobility and exigencies of working assiduously to realise his dream of attaining excellence in his chosen field of academic pursuit.
Setting New Frontiers
In attaining new heights better than his forebears, Shimnu only seized the opportunity offered by his parents to stride beyond the usual into a new frontier for academic excellence. In his words, “Setting new frontiers requires focus, hard work, dedication, perseverance, and willingness to challenge the status quo. I continued to take my education seriously in London, attending both primary and secondary schools. I was awarded an All-Rounder Scholarship to attend Harrow School, one of the UK’s most prestigious boarding schools, where I completed my GCSEs and A Levels, achieving A*A*A grades in the latter. Following my A Levels, I pursued an LLB Law degree at The University of Manchester, graduating with First-Class Honours. I now plan to complete a Master of Laws (LLM) at The University of Law”.
Shimnu ascribes his academic excellence to his family, especially the support from incredible parents who left nothing to chance in propelling him to be forward-looking and settle for nothing less than outstanding performance. Shimnu’s brother, Dudley, who graduated with a second-class upper in Marketing & Advertising from the University of Northampton, with the youngest sibling, Royal, currently in his second year studying Computer Science at The University of Leeds, provided added tonic for his academic strides.
Doing The Needful
Against the backdrop of Shimnu’s sterling academic dexterity in topping top of his course, the Nigerian government should see his performance as a wake-up call in reviving university education that is fast being thrown in the bottomless pit of crises. As I write this column yesterday, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) midweek issued a strike notice over a breach of agreement with the Federal Government. If nothing is done, the future may be bleak, thus giving opportunities to businessmen and women engaged in setting up private universities for profits.
It’s not enough for the government to insist on what it describes as responding to the urgent need of reverting to the mandatory age of 18-year for university education. If the youth are forced to start their university education at the age of 18, what are the assured guarantees that they will complete their studies within record time without disruption of academic activities that is presently the practice?
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