FOR THE SAKE OF PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHER Celebrating birthday parties in our nursery and primary school have become a very regular feature. Rich children and their parents use this medium to compete for attention among fellow classmates and teachers alike. A close study of these private institutions will reveal considerable numbers of these parties organized in the various classes on weekly basis. And to an extent, these parties have become part of the unofficial curriculum of these private schools. Children look forward to them with the passion and eagerness the Mohammedans look forward to the coming of the new moon; signaling the end of Ramadan fast. They provide assorted snacks and soft drinks of all kinds and types, in which innocent and unguided little children savour with great delight. They also provide gift items like books, pencil, rulers, bags among others, depending on the caliber and size of pockets of the parent involved. The class teacher, whom I consider as the grand beneficiary of these festivities, is not left out in this high expectation. To an extent, I would not be far from the truth if I directly accuse them of staging and instigating the coup of birthdays against the parents of their pupils. Even if this accusation is true, I don’t think the teachers are to be blamed. For me, it is part of the recipe and strategy for survival in which shortchanged and hapless workers of this country are adopting to support their fast diminishing income and the depleted quality of their lives. These birthdays’ foods and drinks augment and support their poorly balanced menu. So it’s natural that they will be more inclined to patronize these children from rich homes, with potentials to organize these parties as frequent as possible, and tend to give them better attention in the class than others. We are quite aware of the several complains of poor wages and benefits from teachers of public schools, but I feel that the true picture of the slave worker of the 21st century in the Nigerian society is the private school teacher. He is loaded with more than two times the work load of a public school teacher, yet receives peanuts in terms of salary and other benefits. He is the most likely to trek a long distance to and from work, and also goes to work with empty stomach if he lacks alternative support from spouse or parents. So, I want us to have a picture of what such a debilitating and traumatic body and mind could give to the children in terms of teaching and learning. There is no way that bitterness could beget kindness. While I wouldn’t out rightly adduce complete reasons for their precarious conditions, I would without fear or prejudice describes them as victims of exploitative and shylock proprietors that we have. For there is ample evidence of financial growth of these private schools to warrant a more dignifying condition of service for their staff. The proprietors could afford to exhibit such unseemly attitude towards their workers because of the poor value in which our society attaches to a workman. Even the over-bloated population of the unemployed in the street could be another factor since employers can easily recruit alternative hands if the ones in their employ feel dissatisfied with what they are being paid. Another reason is that government on his part is nonchalant towards the welfare of its citizen. Government will rather fight the proprietors for tax, to oil big government, than dissipating energy to protect the rights and interest of thevoiceless private school teachers. Those in government do not need to be worried about these groups; they are neither Boko Haram nor MEND. As such, they cannot constitute a threat to the leaders’ flamboyant, easy life style and self indulgence. Such attitude is wrong. For me, the present terrorist activities and other vices we are experiencing cannot be completely extricated from the wrong cultural values inculcated by a faulty educational foundation. There is no way the society will recruit hungry, bitter and sizeable members of its population to lay the foundation of our future leaders and hope to get the desired result. The fact remains that the hopeless situation of the private school teacher will certainly have its negative marks on the innocent mind of children. We have been told severally that private schools are the ones with the wherewithal to take our education to the promise land, but I personally disagree with such assertion. What I can’t deny them are these colourful, loud, aesthetic values that only expose our entrenched inclination to make-belief and vanity, without the real substance for total education. They could only advertise the few naturally gifted children in their fold as evidence of their teaching and learning ingenuity, but they can’t deceive us all the time. Let us not confuse ourselves. We can only give what we have, and there is no way that the private school teacher can give more than the hopelessness that his condition of service provides him. Occasionally, he is bound to consciously or unconsciously vent up his pent up anger on the innocent children. In an attempt to survive his situation, he might be forced to manoeuvre and instigate so many things, including the celebration of birthdays. He will favour those who could and disdainfully treat those who could not organize their birthdays in the class. At that early stage, the poor and intelligent child in the class must have come to the realization that his high score on test and examination does not excite the teacher like the piece of cake and the can of coke she takes home on the day one of the rich pupils in the class celebrates her birthday. With this experience, the child might come to down-play the virtue of hard-work and the importance of knowledge, while seeking ways of acceptance by looking for money including unconventional ways of making it. One of the negative aspects of organizing these birthday parties is that the innocent children are regularly provided these heavily fortified sugar-content foods which might pose a threat to their lives in the long run. We can’t also rule out the possibility of initiation into witchcraft and cult through these foods as evident in several experiences. To alleviate the problems of private school teachers, the government has to be responsible. It should put in place, a mechanism to check the excesses of the proprietors and formulate a living wage, base on the audited knowledge of the incomes of these private schools. It should also ensure that they adhere strictly to this. The public school teacher could also assist their private counter-part by using their coercive instrument of strike to compel government to action. This could be done in the spirit of empathy, away from our heavily embedded “my”, “my” spirit which emphasize self and discard our communal existence. If it concerns doctors, their colleagues are ready to remain on strike for eternity, even if the whole pregnant women are going to die. But when a similar thing befalls a teacher, no one is ready to come to their rescue despite the fact that they are all registered as members of Teachers Council. Even the parents, guardians and other stakeholders in education have a responsibility to collectively demand government intervention. The sin of silence by the society in the face of provocation may not have a hearing in the court of law, but the court of posterity will judge a silent society wrong. As a people, we are interwoven. The tragedy that befalls a section of us is non-restricted. Let us not feign ignorance or show nonchalance towards the fate of our fellows. For the sore the finger suffers will certainly affect the whole body when the finger can no longer lift the food to the mouth. The fact remains that the hopeless situation of the private school teacher will certainly have its negative marks on the innocent minds of children. BOKO HARAM OR HARASS? Whether they are Boko Haram or Boko harass is not the issue now. The issue at stake is that they drive great pleasure from harassing life out of the innocent people of this country. We are told that Boko Haram means: haters of western education. But personally, I feel that these people remind me of the chichidodo bird in AyiKweiArmah’s story, the “beautiful ones are yet born”. Whom he described as a bird who hate excrement with all its soul, but feed only on maggots that grows from the shit. If not, how could the Boko Haram claim hatred for western education when they use the frontiers of same western education like bombs, guns, cells phones and several others to actualized their terrorist goals? I sincerely wish they understand how much they contradict themselves fighting what they so much need. Their inclination to extreme Islamism and Sharia would have made them strive better in the Arabian countries with little or no dissenting voices, but they choose Nigeria – a pluralistic society with multiple religion and culture. It does not matter to them whether the egos of non-adherents are roughened. What matter is that their own super egos are pacified by the endless flows of victims’ blood. They derive extreme satisfaction from our extreme pains. We have been informed by some analyst of the situation, not to be deceived with the religious garment in which the political Boko Haram appears. In other word, they are saying that the group is not passionate about Islam as much as they want us to believe; neither are they haters of western education as portrayed for their activities are anchored so much on the products of western education for them to sound real. Their portrayal of these two instruments as object of their animosity could stem from the fact that it will find easy acceptance and weave more sentiments in the minds of their adherents, than an open political confrontation against the federal government could. So, we could now see how easier it is for them to recruit these gullible, impoverish and uneducated young men whom they are indoctrinating for their heinous terrorist acts. Again, let look at it this other way round: even if these blood-shed and destruction is all about the group inclination to Islamism and bitterness towards western education as they want us to believe, how comes these strong agitation and extremism seems to raise its head most only when Christian and southern presidents are in power, even though we have had several of northern and Muslim leaders, without these strong and bitter agitations? It is record that one of the most heated debate on sharia law in this country, happened when the present baby loving senator Yerima, was the chief security officer of his state and coincidentally when chief OlusegunObasanjo a southerner and a Christian was the president of the country. He promoted with passion this brand of sharia law. Even against the background of our diversity and the supremacy of the federal constitution. He went about harking the limbs of the vulnerable citizens of this nation in the name of violating the law, when in reality, it was a smokescreen and veil to cover the political battle targeted at the presidency whom they thought had reneged on his promise and abandon the scripts handed him by the powerful northern originated political godfathers that created him. Nigerian’s had it so bad then, but thank God, we were able to navigate through the stormy water unscathed. Now again that the southern president has emerge in the person of Goodluck Jonathan, there appeared again this brand of extremism with it’s fire spitting venoms. It may be that the political Godfathers who had kept this nation hostage since independence through their corrupt and ill conceived economic policies cannot come to terms with the fact that a man of such humble beginning from such remote community of Otuoke, in one of the least considered state with least infrastructures, could be imposed on them by divine nature to saddle the mantle of leadership that was once their “exclusive birth right”. He has even been described as the most educationally certified president Nigeria has ever gotten since independent, and certainly seen as one with the most potential to succeed where others have failed and make a mess of their long history of blind foraging for power. That’s why they feel that Boko Haram must stop him; stop him from succeeding and paint his name in gold. It does not matter to them, whether in an attempt at stopping him, it’s the Nigerian people that suffer. It’s Nigerian that forced several years backward. Anyway, they owe nobody any explanation for their bloody actions. Nigeria means nothing to them when they are without power, just as it meansnothing to me as a hapless applicant. Nigeria has never been our idea in the first place, she was a contraption forced down our throat since 1994 by the imperialists who wish us nothing but decay. Now that this contraption has been battered and strangled this far, with no respite on sight, I feel we should clear the debris that had long beclouded our minds and tell ourselves the truth: that this concept of unity forced down our throat since the white man’s has refused to yield result. It reminds me of the adage of the horse that was drag to the well, who refused to drink from it. Truly, a federation whose existence is predicated on these divergent views and interest; tensed and bitter rivalry for supremacy; suspicion and animosity for constituent part, is only buying time to reach the morgue, I feel that our assignment as Nigerian’s today is to critically assess the benefits of our huge amalgamation, minus the various interest clashes and the blood that flows with it; only then can we be in a position to know if there is anything left of these huge entity to take us through as a nation. I bet if there will be anything left. Nigeria is a formless formation. The only thing that makes us think there is a Nigeria is that sticky liquid called oil-underneath the earth surface of the coastal region of the South-south. There is no Nigeria! There has never been a Nigeria!! We have the Hausa, Yoruba’s, Igbo’s and the Minorities. Let the national conference say so in clear terms or allow the Boko Haram tragically hand us over to the undertakers.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 11:41:08 +0000
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