Too much emphasis on a university degree in a developing country like Nigeria signifies post-colonial mentality and a misplaced priority that the country must do away with if we are to get out of our current worrisome unemployment status, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah has observed.
The clergyman cum social commentator also stated that a good number of the universities in the West have hit gold in Nigeria because of the rising desperation for a university degree in the country.
Bishop Kukah, who lamented that a consumer country like Nigeria does not have to accord too much priority to university degrees, further observed that Nigerians should take a cue from their fellow countrymen, the Igbo, who have achieved a considerable degree of self-sufficiency as well as comfort arising from their entrepreneurial prowess and not necessarily university degrees.
While stressing that everybody does not necessarily have to go to the university before he or she is considered functional, Bishop Kukah submitted that there was disarray in the educational policy being operated in the country, hence, the polytechnics offering courses such as mass communication and a host of others, straying from their original intent.
Speaking exclusively with LEADERSHIP Weekend, Bishop Kukah said, “We lost the script somewhere along the line, and the idea of a university degree smacks of post-colonial mentality and it is only in Nigeria that you find a man with seven children who believes that all the seven children must become graduates.”
Source: Leadership
