Since he was appointed the Minister of Illiteracy, sorry I meant illiteracy, Tahir Mamman has been eerily silent. His radio silence overshadows matters affecting his portfolio but was presumed wise. After all, his predecessor slept so much on duty that the gates to the nation’s ivory towers were locked under his watch, stunting academic growth and the desired inputs to the principles of governance.
A few weeks ago, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, set its university entrance examination and probably invited the minister for inspection. After all, the minister had spent most of his working life in the university sector as a glorified babysitter. Nigerians are known to take any jobs outside their shores, not within. It could be sad to see a man with a PhD in Law relegated to the status of a nanny and minister Tahir must have sworn to do something about it.
So, rather than simply walk round the exam halls taking notes, he succumbed to the temptation of letting the media poke him. The result is why we are here today instead of joining the manhunt for wanted Yahaya Bello.
Malam Tahir, says he plans to peg university admissions at 18 years. Oluwafemi Ositade’s parents must be thanking their stars that their child-prodigy escaped the noose by the skin of his teeth. Why? The 17-year-old has just shattered admission records to 18 Ivy League universities across the globe. The schools have invested $3.5 million on the teenager’s future. Ositade is set to beat the minister by poles and that’s not fair. Our minister earned his first degree at 29 while this boy stands to earn his PhD before that age. It’s unfair.
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If the Ivy League institutions asked Minister Tahir, he’d tell them to keep the scholarships in their kitty until Ositade turns 18. At 17, the boy hardly knows how to do calculus. In the eyes of Malam Tahir, he is a baby in diapers who must stay home and be spoon-fed by his parents until he is of the voting age.
Malam Tahir is not your run-of-the-mill minister. He did not stunt his educational trajectory herding cows across the Gashaka Gumti Park. He pursued his masters and doctorate degrees in the damp English town of Warwick. When it was all over, he chose a career in the ivory tower instead of grazing but alas he lately realised he was a glorified babysitter. Kudos to Bola Ahmed Tinubu who weaned him from that thankless job and put him in charge of education or the lack of it.
With his outbursts, in other climes, there’d be enquiries into how he performed his baby-sitting job in those universities. Suggesting that in Nigeria would drive one straight into the nest of ethnic and regional defenders with downward-facing placards. Besides, those who should know better have given him their support.
Emmanuel Osodeke, the man whose leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) locked the gates of universities for most of the last decade signs in with this retrograde policy believing it is an antidote to ending strikes at universities. Here we were thinking that the reason ASUU dropped their chalk was because universities were run down and the salary of its academic staff no longer took them on that bus ride home.
This gang-up against teenagers in universities is bae. For dinosaurs, that translates as – before anything else. I am wondering why nobody thought about this. The Nigerian university landscape is filled with the badly potty-trained youths that given the right environment outshine their teachers.
Universities should not serve as nurseries changing children’s diapers or moulding young characters. They should never admit underage pupils for the simple reason that young prodigies bring nothing to the table except bad manners.
Lev Landau mastered calculus at the age of 13, Norbert Wiener earned a BA in Mathematics at the age of 14. Terence Tao started university education at the age of nine. Erik Demaine, a Canadian professor of computer science attained prodigy status at seven. Mozart became the music maestro at the age of four. Then there is Kairan Quazi, the Bangladeshi brainiac with an IQ of 180, born in 2009 and now works for Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Tanishq Abraham graduated summa cum laude from UCLA at 14 years old and earned his doctorate at 19. Under Mamman Tahir and JAMB, he’d still be working on his catchment area.
Alia Sabur became a student of the SBU at the age of 10, studying applied mathematics. She obtained her Masters in Materials Science and Engineering at 17. In Nigeria, these stand no chance even if the Tahir law was applied, ASUU would have stunted their stars with permanent university closures or outdated handouts.
At 12 years, Colin Carlson became a student of the University of Connecticut, majoring in environmental studies, ecology and evolutionary biology. Jeremy Schuler became a student at 12 years old graduating summa cum laude at Cornell at just 16 years.
Nigeria raised Joshua Agboola founded his own tech company at 11 years of age. At that age, he had mastered the entire gamut of computer language. The Imafidon’s were ordinary migrants until their twins, Peter and Paula became the youngest wonder twins to attend high school. They went ahead to smash the Cambridge advanced mathematics examination. They passed their A/AS-level mathematics exams. Peter adds athletics to his educational prodigy while sister Paula plays rugby. Their elder sister, Anne-Marie obtained her Master’s degree from Oxford University and the middle child of the family has written herself into genius records. In 2020, the Imafidon clan were classified the smartest family in the United Kingdom. If they remained in Nigeria, they’d be hawking or looking for a passport to Idia Renaissance Centre.
Every other day on TikTok or YouTube, unsung Nigerian prodigies are featured doing the impossible. They showcase cars manufactured from scraps, excel in coding, make drones and flying helicopters with their country barely looking their way. One Nigerian by the name of Samuel Aboki wastes his time on LinkedIn exhuming and celebrating these stars as if they really matter to a country that imports what it has the capacity to manufacture.
We must agree with Minister Tahir, that children in pampers have no place in Nigerian universities. If you know a child prodigy, do not encourage them to go to the university where their talents would be sunk into the sea of mediocrity. There is another simple reason – once they pass through the Nigerian ivory tower sans allowing the ivory tower to pass through them, they become useless and uncontrollable.
An educated mind is a largely a free mind. Free minds are not assets to Nigerian politicians and their ways. Looking at the rot within, they refuse to vote. They cannot be used as thugs to disrupt the democratic process. Without sounding prude, what is the purpose of university education in itself when millions are roaming the streets unemployed and unemployable? If Minister Tahir’s predecessor killed education, what’s the crime if he has found the casket for finally burying it? After all, he’s luckier than Adamu Adamu. He has the support of ASUU.
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