A Regime Of Illiterates, By Illiterates, For Illiterates, And The Rest Of US (2) by Prof Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

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Professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò
Has the transportation minister ever travelled outside Nigeria? Have those trips ever included stops in any major airport in the United States of America? I use the United States because we pretend that our present system of government draws inspiration from and is modelled upon that of the United States.
What is more, one can only marvel at how much of our scarce foreign exchange continues to be frittered away on earning American credentials for those who govern us at all levels. And outside of government, as I have said in the past, [See “Of Intellectuals, Politics and Public Policy-Making in Nigeria” West Africa Review: Issue 5, 2004],
Nigeria must have the most active alumni associations of elite schools in the United States and the United Kingdom with minimum, if any, value added to the lives of ordinary Nigerians. What the latter get from them are the occasional low-paying jobs that the elite alumni and alumnae have them do at the regular shindigs hosted by the likes of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association and the OxBridge Club.
Let us go back to our functionaries and their regular visits to the United States. Many of them own property in the United States.
Do they make it their business to observe—forget study—how things are done in that country? If they do, is it the case that what they see does not register with them or they are convinced that such things as make life more livable in the United States are beyond their ken or beyond what they themselves, not to talk of ordinary Nigerian humanity, deserve to have?
A disclaimer is in order here. What follows is not written to score points. What I say here is so ordinary, all it takes …Read More

Source:: PM Newspaper