Pastor Oyeleke Owolabi, president of Seventh Day Adventist Church, Western Nigerian Union Conference and pro-chancellor, Babcock University/Chairman of Governing Council, in this interview with SEYI JOHN SALAU said that spirituality, which is very important in any form of education, is lacking in Nigeria today. He also spoke on other issues. Excerpts:
As the Pro-Chancellor of the first private university in Nigeria, how would you rate private tertiary institutions in Nigeria so far?
Private education is just the right antidote to educational problem we have in Nigeria, especially at the tertiary institution level because educational project is one significant project you can ever embark upon. If you look at the countries making it in the world in the areas of petroleum sector, they invest very heavily on private education. It has come to our notice that private institution offers more qualitative, pragmatic education, so without private institution in Nigeria our educational system by now would have collapsed. And also, private university is more or less like a competitor to the federal and state owned universities. Before now, only government was involved in educational developmental project but it looked as if nobody was even investing in it, but now that we have these private universities coming onboard the level has changed and there is more seriousness in the public universities, and things are getting better. I was in Abuja at the National Universities Commission (NUC) secretariat where 8 private universities were approved and among them is Clifford University that belongs to the Seventh Day Adventist Church and by the grace of God we are taking off by January.
How can we tackle the challenges of brain-drain and the issue of having more people going out of the country to study for higher degrees?
The exodus we are experiencing now is because the government and the nation have failed to produce a standardised educational system at masters and doctoral degree level. I must tell you that in those advanced countries like US and the United Kingdom, by the time they enter the university they are very sure of the very day if not the hour you are going to graduate. It’s very disappointing and frustrating when you see somebody who applied for masters in Nigeria, a programme that is supposed to last for 18 months, he is spending four years, five years, but when you go to these advanced countries, the day you register you are very sure of the day of your graduation, and the worse is that of PhD. In Nigeria today, they say ‘Pull him Down’ that is now the definition of PhD, so some individuals with PhD seems to be monopolising the degree as if they were born with it. In advanced country where some of our students are running to, the lecturers, supervisor, project managers, internal and external examiners are all putting their best to produce the best product. But, in Nigeria nobody cares about this, so that’s why I thank God for the private universities that are coming up, it is the right antidote for the educational decadence we are experiencing in Nigeria today.
It is common place to hear people talk about Nigerian graduates not being employable, as the Pro-Chancellor of the first private university in Nigeria, do you agree with this position?
There is no need for us to be hiding the facts, our graduates are they employable? It’s very disheartening for somebody, a student who studied mechanical engineering, electrical engineering at undergraduate and graduate levels, yet he cannot repair his own vehicle at home, he has to go to the road-side mechanic to fix the car. What we are talking about here is that our approach to education is deficient, it is elitist in nature. There should be theoretical and there should be practical aspects, but look at all our Polytechnics today which are meant for technical and vocational assignments, they are now turned into theory, reading book and memorising theories and formulas which will not put food on our table. So, people are not being properly trained and when this is not done, they cannot do any other thing than to go to government and begin to speak grammar everyday in the office: whereas I expect a graduate of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering to be on their own, establish a standard workshop where people can bring their vehicles to be properly fixed, but they cannot do automation. So, many of our institutions lack the needed equipment that will enhance the performance of the grandaunds we are producing in Nigeria today.
As a pastor and academician, how can we balance the teachings on faith and reasoning?
It is unfortunate that some of the early philosophers believed that education is limited to reasoning; that is not true. There is difference between education and holistic education, like in communication; we have verbal communication and non-verbal communication. Communication is not limited to verbal or is it limited to non-verbal, so education is not limited to reasoning; education holistically, comprehensively is of four major dimensions and that impart the whole process of learning. Number one, we have physical education, there is a physical part of education that actually empowers the students to know how to use their hands, legs, their body, it is physical; then there is mental education that has to do with reasoning, the mind – that’s mental education. Then there is what we call social education, our parents, grand, great grandmothers, fathers did not go to any university but they had moral education that positively impacted the society where they lived and things were better than what we are having now. There is an aspect of social life in education and last but not the least; there is spiritual education, so the physical, mental, social and the spiritual have to come together. What am I talking about, if you have a very powerful brilliant medical doctor and he is not morally sound, you have just produced a very successful doctor arm-robber because that’s immoral, he doesn’t have conscience, he doesn’t know God, has lot of misconduct on ethics of medicine. You have a male teacher who does not have spiritual education – he will be abusing the female students in the class because there is no moral education; you have a police officer who has gone to college and there is no spiritual aspect to his training, he will be collecting bribes and becomes a uniform beggar on the streets; you have a politician who has gone to serve but steal out of it, so he becomes a political tout. So, spirituality is very important in any form of education; in fact, no education is complete without its spiritual aspect, and that is what we are lacking in Nigeria today. Can you just imagine, millions are being stolen from the treasury by highly educated politicians because spirituality is absent in their lives.
Talking about corruption in government circles, every political leader in this country identifies with one religion or the other, yet corruption is endemic, where is the place of God in Nigeria?
It is one thing to be religious; it’s another thing to be spiritual. Many of our leaders today irrespective of their religious affiliation are just only religious but are not spiritual. Where in the Bible was it said that stealing is allowed, bribery is allowed? Where do you see in the holy Quran that bribery is allowed, stealing is exonerated, even in African traditional religion it is a taboo to steal, and stealing is something that nobody wants to identify with. Stealing is anti-society, anti-moral, and therefore, it’s not welcome in the society, so all those top politicians, public office holders, people in elective positions are there not because they are spiritual, they only claim to be religious which does not affect their lifestyles. That is why we have these crises in Nigeria today.
SEYI JOHN SALAU
