What’s Happening to Excellence?

Josef Omorotionmwan

NOTHING in this world can be totally and absolutely wrong because even a dead clock is correct twice every day, and we agree too that there are spices of goodness even in things evil. This is one narrow way of appreciating, without lending total credence to, the past military administrations in Nigeria, which we might have condemned at one point or the other.

Our purpose here is not to write a testimonial for the dead, but to make at least a passing mention of the fact that they provided some solid infrastructure which successive civilian administrations were unable to maintain.

Realising the circumstances of their birth, the military juntas worked hard in the area of national unity. We are not in a hurry to forget that the binding glue they provided still subsists to this day. Here, we must remember the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), the Unity Schools all over the country; and above all, the Federal Government Academy, Suleija. That is the subject for today.

We remember a patriotic Nigerian, Jubril Aminu, 85, a profound Professor of Cardiology, who early enough in his life, was exposed to the good things of life in foreign lands. He prayed that if in the future, God gave him the opportunity, he would provide the same things to his people back home in Nigeria. He did and he did.

In the USA and Britain, he saw how well the Academies of Excellence for gifted children worked. These were Centre of Excellence meant to catch extraordinarily gifted children young, and help them to develop along those lines of excellence. It is from there that the advanced world harness some of their renowned scientists, investors, and profound Administrators.

The required opportunity came during the Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida regime when Jubril Aminu was Minister of Education (1985-1989), and true to his promise, he immediately set in motion the mechanism for the establishment of the Federal Government Academy for Gifted Children. That was how the Federal Government Academy came into being in 1986.

The Suleija Academy is tucked away in a serene environment on the Northern flank of the town, far removed from the hurley-burley of city life. It occupies a large expanse of land intended to accommodate future expansion. Originally, the Academy was proposed to grow into a university of its own.

In the beginning, the Academy enjoyed full environmental justice. The environment was clean, with the trees and plants in the place properly manicured and maintained. You could breathe fresh air and drink clean water. There was an air of freedom everywhere.

The atmosphere in the Academy was totally reminiscent of some of the places in the most developed world. While there, it was easy to think of yourself being somewhere in Dobbs Ferry, Westchester County, Up State, New York.

The Academy was a piece of excellence. The students were the very best in the Common Entrance examinations conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO). You could be the child of the President, or the child of any Minister, but if you did not make the cut-off mark in the common entrance examination, you could not get into the Academy. 

The Academy’s principals were picked from among the best in the country – they were the principals’ special grade. The teachers and administrators were from the very best in their various disciplines. All the people who worked in the Academy were comfortably accommodated within the premises. The Academy was a Centre of Excellence and everything about it was excellent. Originally, the foreign exchange earning potential of the Academy would have been enormous. 

For the first time, the wealthy and the affluent in society ran into a commodity that was worth buying, but that commodity was marked “NOT FOR SALE”. They, therefore, helped to quicken the death of that commodity.

Again, once regional politics set in, the very fabric of the Academy was hopelessly weakened. This is an Academy situated in Niger State, the very heart of Northern Nigeria. But because of the very stringent admission standard, year after year, intakes into the Academy were predominantly, and sometimes entirely, from the South.

Since 2002, I have taken an active interest in the affairs of the Academy. That was the year my daughter was admitted into the Academy. That year, we observed that Edo State had 6 students on the list. Some states in the South, like Oyo and Imo, contributed between 40 and 50 students. There was virtually no one from the entire North. We heaved a sigh of relief, however, when we sighted one name in Sokoto, but on close perusal, we realized that student had a Bini name. It was clear that he was the son of a Bini man working in Sokoto. So, year after year, for the North, the local content on the admission into the Academy was near zero.

For Northerners, the desire to sniff life out of the Academy has remained very high over the years. Meanwhile, the terrible economic and security situations in the country today are not helping matters either. Let no one seek further the explanations for why the Academy and other government institutions are on their way to death. 

In the particular case of the Academy, it died long ago. It died the very day they departed from the stringent admission standard. Anyone can now walk in and have his or her ward admitted. Excellence is gone. The Academy is now virtually in a comatose state. The environment that was once very friendly has since died, and yielded way to big bushes and dangerous reptiles. 

When the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, paid an unscheduled visit to the Academy recently, his verdict was sharp and unambiguous – pathetic! He rued the general rot of the entire Nigerian system. Who wants to live in an environment of that nature? Any wonder, then, that those excellent teaching and non-teaching staff the school once had have taken flight? What is now left? 

There is really no better way to understand the debilitating effect of insecurity in the nation today than to look at it in the confined pulldown of the Academy. We commend the members of the alumni association who now struggle to sustain the school on a respirator. But how far can that go?

When we were considering the issue, my daughter asked me a question and demanded an honest answer: If things were like this in our days, would you have sent me to that school? As requested, my answer was honest: Considering the comatose state of the school; in view of its potential for a double enactment of the Chibok situation; and in view of the location of the school on a major corridor on the Abuja-Kaduna railroad where anything is possible, I would not send you to the school.

We cannot escape the inevitable conclusion that Nigeria does not exist in an Island of its own. It exists within the context of a global village. That makes it incumbent on us to constantly listen to what is happening elsewhere, particularly in the more advanced democracies. 

In America for instance, there is truly a woman for every man; there is also a man for every woman; there is a school for everyone; but the Ivy League schools maintain standards below which they can never go. The same applies to the numerous schools for the gifted and talented people. From the myriad, we pick out just two for these discussions: St Mark’s School of Texas, which was established in 1906 and Davidson Academy Nevada, established in 2006. Whatever your situation in life, you have no business getting near the entrance gate of these schools if you possess less than 99.9 percentile Intelligence Quotient (IQ). 

Here, the authorities catch the children of excellence young and guide them jealously through the journey of life. It is instructive that among these most intelligent ones, we also have those that possess the greatest potential for the greatest evil. What a curious paradox! We are reminded that, at best, there is only a very thin line between genius and madness!

Meanwhile, Nigeria is engaged in what the political scientists call the science of dabbling through. 

In the final analysis, Nigeria and those other nations are all playing on the same world stage, and we are expecting to have the same level of performance. 

For all we know, you can only reap whatever you sow! 

Whither Nigeria?