NATION-BUILDING IS NOT ONE-WAY TRAFFIC_ BY KAREEM ABAYOMI ADIO

I had the opportunity last year to participate in an inclusive education innovation workshop organised by the African Engineering and Technology (AFRETEC) Network in collaboration with the University of Lagos (UNILAG). As an education student and a prospective teacher, at the time, I felt completely out of place. I had no science background. I had no tech skills. Much of what the facilitators discussed seemed unfamiliar, and I struggled to relate to it.

After the workshop, I applied for a TS Academy scholarship to study software development. I got the scholarship and began deliberately working on myself.

My exposure to AFRETEC-UNILAG workshops and boot camps, combined with my training at TS Academy, ignited an interest I never knew existed in me. Since then, I have participated in two innovation challenges organised by AFRETEC-UNILAG, winning one with my team and finishing fourth in the other. In both challenges, we were not merely discussing ideas on possible solutions to the problems we identified. We developed Proofs of Concept. 

In other words, I went from sitting in an innovation workshop feeling that I did not belong there because I had neither a science background nor tech skills to participating in innovation challenges and building solutions to real problems.

What changed? Exposure.

And that is precisely where I believe our tertiary institutions have an enormous role to play. My experience may be personal, but the uncertainty that preceded it is not. There are many students out there who are confused about what to do after school.

With the rate of unemployment in Nigeria, many young people have succumbed to the popular assumption that “education is a scam.” When you consider the number of graduates our institutions produce every year without any clear path to employment, can we entirely blame them for losing confidence in the system?

Education is definitely not a scam. But the system we have found ourselves in sometimes makes education look like it makes little difference and offers no assurance of a better future.

And while the government deserves its share of criticism, the problem with our educational system cannot be blamed solely on the government. Our schools and their managements also have important questions to answer.

My experience with AFRETEC-UNILAG offers one example of what institutions can do differently.

AFRETEC-UNILAG is using a strategic approach to encourage students to develop problem-solving skills and an innovation mindset. Rather than merely teaching students to become innovative, the initiative exposes them to problems and challenges them to think about how technology can be used to solve them.

More importantly, it demonstrates that universities do not have to wait for government intervention before taking meaningful steps towards addressing some of the problems facing society. They can collaborate with other organisations to create opportunities and develop solutions.

Beyond exposing students to ideas, the initiative also provides support for developing those ideas. For the just concluded AFRETEC Innovation Challenge 3.0, there is a ₦4.5 million prize pool for the top three innovative ideas after pitching: ₦2 million for first place, ₦1.5 million for second and ₦1 million for third. The money is intended to help the teams further develop their Proofs of Concept towards structured pilot testing. 

This brings me to the main point.

Tertiary institutions across Nigeria, and Africa at large, should make concerted efforts to expose students to meaningful, well-structured and adequately funded hands-on programmes. Students need opportunities that help them understand problems in their communities, investigate why they exist and develop practical and scalable solutions.

More importantly, these opportunities should be accessible to students across all disciplines. Innovation should not be presented as the exclusive preserve of students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) or those who can code or build machines. Students in the Arts, Humanities, Education and Social Sciences also need opportunities relevant to their disciplines. 

My experience at Lagos State University provides another example of what this can look like outside a technology-focused innovation programme.

In July this year, my department, Language, Arts and Social Science Education (LASSED), Faculty of Education, organised a Professional Entrepreneurship Exhibition under the theme, “Education Is Beyond the Classroom.”

The exhibition provided students with an opportunity to showcase entrepreneurial abilities and practical skills connected to their courses of study. Before a panel of judges, students presented spoken-word poetry, stage drama, storytelling, panel discussions and other creative literary performances.

Throughout the exhibition, one could easily identify students with remarkable potential as spoken-word artists, broadcasters, actors, educators, public speakers and storytellers. Some may never have considered those abilities particularly valuable or marketable. Yet, with the right exposure and development, those abilities could open up opportunities and even provide clear career paths for them. 

But identifying potential is not enough.

One major weakness in many of our initiatives is the lack of proper follow-up. We organise programmes, discover talented people, celebrate outstanding performances and then move on.

This is where structured mentorship becomes important. Students who distinguish themselves should be connected to professionals in their fields, given opportunities to develop their abilities and followed up over time. This could significantly improve their chances of turning those abilities into viable careers.

Funding is equally important. Some programmes in our institutions fail to achieve their goals because they are poorly funded. It is not enough to introduce a good initiative without the resources to implement it properly and sustain follow-up. Collaboration with other organisations can be helpful here.

Another weakness is that many of these initiatives are too theoretical. Many programmes organised by our universities are dominated by talks, with little or no practical demonstration of how the ideas discussed can be applied in real life. Students listen to speakers, enjoy the talk or otherwise, take notes and leave, often without a clear call to action or any follow-up that challenges them to put what they have learnt into practice. If these programmes are going to have any tangible impact on students, they must move beyond talking about what students can do to actually giving them opportunities to do it. As James Clear argues in Atomic Habits, our results are a reflection of the systems we repeatedly follow. If we keep doing things the same way, we should not expect different outcomes. With the same approach, we will end up with the same results. But with better approach, anything is possible.

These two experiences have reinforced my belief that one of the most important things a university can give a student, beyond a certificate, is exposure: exposure to problems worth solving, abilities worth developing and possibilities they may never have considered.

While some students naturally explore their potential within the university environment, others need structured initiatives that help them discover abilities they may not recognise in themselves and push them beyond their comfort zones.

When students know there are people willing to listen to their innovation or business ideas, see what they can do with their talents, offer valuable advice and provide support, their perception of education can begin to change.

Our universities should not produce students who can only identify what is wrong with Nigeria. They should also produce people who are intellectually equipped to ask, “What can I do about it? What can I do with what I have?”

Nigeria needs young people who can move from complaining about problems to studying them; from studying them to generating ideas for possible solutions; and from generating ideas to building solutions.

Problem-solving is not merely an entrepreneurial skill. It is fundamental to creating economic value. When people solve meaningful problems, they can create products, services, businesses, jobs and entirely new industries.

We also need students who can turn their talents into valuable skills, build sustainable careers around them and use those skills to improve society.

After all, people do not simply wake up one morning as entrepreneurs, innovators, authors or public speakers. These abilities are developed through learning, training, practice, experimentation, mentorship and exposure. Exposure shapes mindset, and mindset influences aspiration. 

A student who has never been exposed to opportunities to explore their abilities or develop practical skills may graduate thinking that the only possible next step is to submit CVs from one organisation to another. But expose that same student to problems worth solving, mentors, collaborators, funding opportunities and an environment that encourages experimentation, and you may completely change the trajectory of that person's life.

This is why nation-building cannot be one-way traffic.

We cannot continue looking towards the government for every solution while universities, private organisations, industries and other institutions underestimate the enormous roles they can play.

Imagine what could happen if Nigerian universities became intentional about producing not only employable graduates but also innovators, researchers, inventors and entrepreneurs capable of building globally competitive organisations.

Imagine Nigerian universities producing people capable of building companies that can compete globally with the likes of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Tesla or OpenAI. Imagine them deliberately nurturing the next generation of industrialists who can build businesses on the scale of those created by Aliko Dangote and other successful African entrepreneurs.

Now multiply that possibility across dozens of universities and thousands of students. Nigeria would not remain the same.

And as the LASU example shows, this vision goes beyond technology. Agriculture, education, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, transportation, the creative industries and other sectors of our economy are filled with problems waiting for people capable of developing better solutions. 

Universities should therefore prepare students for more than examinations, certificates and job hunting. Preparing students to become employable remains important because not everyone will or should become an entrepreneur or innovator. But in an economy where available jobs cannot absorb every graduate produced annually, employability alone cannot be the end of higher education. Some graduates must also be equipped to create the organisations that will employ others.

UNILAG and LASU, through initiatives such as the ones I have experienced, are demonstrating what is possible when universities deliberately create environments where students can explore their abilities, develop practical skills, innovate and solve problems.

The question, then, is not only: What is the government doing?

We must also ask: What are our universities doing?

Are they simply preparing students to compete for the limited jobs available after graduation?

If unemployment is going to be reduced significantly and our economy is going to experience meaningful transformation, our tertiary institutions have a major role to play.

We should continue to hold the government accountable. But while we ask what the government is doing about unemployment and national development, we should also ask what our universities, industries and private organisations are doing to equip young people to create solutions, opportunities and jobs.

Government has its responsibilities, but so do our institutions. Nation-building is not one-way traffic. 

© KAREEM ABAYOMI ADIO

-Nigeria.

WRITER'S BIO:

Kareem Abayomi is a 400-level English Education student in the Department of Language, Arts and Social Sciences Education at Lagos State University, Ojo. He is a writer, poet, graphic designer and software developer.