Mubar Dauda

As usual, I will be very blunt!! Education in Nigeria has not lost its point. We are the ones who have lost the plot. We were told: "Go to school, get certificate, get job, pay rent and live fine". Our parents believed it because in 1985, it was true. The assured way to make it. In 2026, that equation has expired and nobody told us in school. Schools are still awarding certificates, but the market is paying for skills. For instance, you spent 4 years learning Adult Education while a 19-year-old guy on YouTube learned how to run Facebook ads and close deals in two weeks and is making your 2 year salary in one month. A graduate spent 4 years studying Computer Science by drawing parts of a computer on the board, but can't build a simple website. The lecturers are teaching us with 1992 notes they photocopied in 2005. That curriculum was designed for a civil service economy that no longer exists. What happens after convocation? You throw cap and your parents cook food, then reality slaps you. Most entry roles ask for 3 years experience, Excel, Canva, sales, and "ability to work under pressure"; none of which you were taught. Invariably, most graduates will then have go back to square one to go and learn tailoring, barbing, makeup, coding, plumbing, baking etc. That thing your mother told you was for "people who didn't go to school." 😆 Reality ya werey gaan!! Moreover, we have all mistaken schooling for education. Most Nigerians didn't get educated, we just went to school. We learned how to read, cram, copy, and pass. We never learned how to think. Real education is not the certificate. It's the ability to think clearly, argue intelligently, communicate excellently, solve problems, and learn something new in few days. If you can do that, you are educated, even if you stopped at ND. If you can't do that, you are not educated, even with a first class certificate from the best University. If you look around, you will see the skilled guy without education can make money, but he can't structure it. He makes # 3 million monthly but can't keep records, can't hire properly, can't scale, and his business dies with him. The educated guy without skill can write fine English and analyse the economy, but he is broke. He is intelligent and hungry. In this Nigeria, you need both. Certificate alone is premium hunger whilst skill alone is hustle without structure. You need to be educated AND skilled. In addition, the system is struggling with overpopulation. Nigeria produces roughly 600,000 to 700,000 graduates every year. How many decent formal jobs are being created? Maybe 10,000 if we are being generous. Where are the other applicants supposed to go? Of course, they will have to learn a skill. It's not that education is useless, it's that a BSc is no longer scarce. When everyone has it, it stops being special. Degrees na like water!! Everyone has it, so nobody pays premium for it. To cut the long writing short, Primary and secondary school are very compulsory. Don't debate it. That's your foundation for life. University?. It still has value, but only if you are smart about it. Go for three things: to learn how to think, to build a network that will feed you after school and to gain access. If your course is useless, or you hate it, you are just wasting 4 years to answer "I am a graduate". Either choose a course with market value, or use your 4 years in school to aggressively learn one high-income skill on the side. The smartest students in UNILAG and ABU right now are not just reading their books, they are running businesses from their hostel. Learning a skill is not optional anymore. This will cater for rent and daily meals. That is what will save you when your certificate is sitting in a file doing nothing. Your certificate is your long-term passport, it can open a big door in 5 years. Your skill is your short-term visa, it puts food on your table daily. In this country, if you have only one, you will suffer. Rahma cares ✍️