INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT IS WEAK WHERE CULTURAL EDUCATION IS ABSENT

My first day ever in paid employment is one I will never forget.  I had resumed work as a young boy fresh out of high school. 

Employed as an Office Assistant,  it was my duty to handle office correspondence and errands for the CEO and other top executives. 

On this very day,  I got to the office dressed in a Ralph Lauren tailored  white shirt,  Levis Chinos and Brown Hush Puppies  Moccasins to match--(oh boy,  EMEKA "Ultimate Home Boys" at Yaba Market and Mandillas make us look great then)  and I was immediately handed the keys to the entire building, and told to ensure the computers,  printers and office equipment were in good shape for work at all times. 

No training,  no much briefing other than a tour of the offices,  the Deputy Managing Director resumed and asked me to take a file,  scan and drop at the office of the Managing Director. 

I took the documents,  moved to the scanning and photocopier machine just there looking at the machine like a man from the "gods must be crazy village". 

I couldn't operate the machine. I stood there for hours until the DMD left for a meeting.  I went to my  immediate superiors and to my amazement,  the youth Corp members and Junior  program officers couldn't help.  They simply didn't know how to operate the machine properly. 

This was a time when you had to use dial up internet system.  The type were you had a phone box supplied by Muktilinks and you will have to connect to a PC and dial it to connect to the internet. 

There were no mobile phones and computer systems were still a huge luxury.  The very machine I was asked to operate was a device that only the Senior Program Officers and top executives at the firm could use.  How will I summon courage to go to those ones?

I later figured somehow that  because they could use it and seeing  how easy it appears to be, they took it for granted  that anyone else will find it  easy to use the machines without training. 

To cut the story short,  my DMD returned insulting the hell out of me and mentioning that I dressed so well but couldn't use a scanner..... He further reigned insults on me and the other junior officers until the MD resumed to ask that everyone  excused him and me.  He spared 15 minutes to teach me how everything works in the office and even apologized for not asking that I be trained for a day. 

I was touched by his kindness and intellectual  honesty. 

This happens all the time at our homes,  offices,  communities and indeed the larger society.  

I got thinking today about how a lot of citizens,  including this writer,  responded to the trending picture of the new wife of the Ooni of Ife which  broke social media.

Many believing it was blood of an animal she was working over,  condemned the practice as archaic,  uncivil,  gross and anachronistic  in the new world.  That she is a Christian prophetess also helped raised expectations to the high heavens.

The consensus  opinion appeared to have been that it is untoward for a person who preaches the gospel of Jesus to be indulging in any kind of traditional rights that involved includes such. 

Upon seeing that it was a rose or red powdered substance known in the Yoruba culture as Osuun,  designed to signify peace,  progress and prosperity for the new bride, others who also didn't   know about the culture and as such could not speak about it,  now see it as a time to get back at the ignorance of those who spoke against the perceived  blood letting tradition. 

If we are honest,  intellectually and culturally,  we will know that the response is rooted deeply in our collective ignorance. 

1. Do we teach our citizens about the different cultural practices of our divergent people?

2. Have we sought ways to interact and engage in a way that we will learn to know each other's culture  and tradition for the expansion  of peaceful coexistence?

3. Isn't cultural education more powerful than intellectual accumulations?

So,  here is the point. 

If we have not taken time to school our citizens  on the various cultural practices and differences between our people of different nations under one country called Nigeria,  how exactly do we expect that assumptions will not be made right or wrong on very critical things?

For me,  the people criticising the images they saw on social media have done nothing wrong.  The quality and quantity of education that we have given or refused to give,  is the problem. 

Until we understand  that cultural education is more  important than building the intellect,  we will never build a nation where people are not oppressed.  If we cannot build a nation were justice reigns,  we will never know progeace and progress. To know the power of culture over the intellect,  check out how the Japanese or Chinese educate their people. 

Let us develop an educational system that ensures that the various cultures of our people's are taught to all our citizens. 

Do have a most productive,  peaceful and prosperous week ahead!

You will succeed!

A. M. O
IG: @ayoozovehe