Education only eradicates illiteracy, not poverty By || Aderibigbe Victor 

Let me tell you a short story… There was a particular guy who was one of my friends in primary school. His father was a bricklayer, and he would often follow him to work. He only came to school on Mondays, Tuesdays, and sometimes Wednesdays… and he always wore torn and dirty clothes. What’s more, his father sometimes handled construction work at our school. We students would be learning in class, watching him and his father build blocks. Our teachers would often use him as a bad example, praying that we would never be like him. Parents would try to keep us away from him.

I, however, was always fair-minded back then. Despite my parents, especially my dad, wanting me to cut ties with him, I still shared my lunch and pocket money with him and always got along well with him, despite his tattered uniform.

To cut the story short, he finished primary school with us but didn’t pursue further education. Instead, he became a bricklayer. We all went our separate ways.

I reconnected with him through Instagram. He found my profile, followed me, and sent a direct message introducing himself. I didn’t respond initially, but later, during my leisure time, I revisited his message and profile to confirm his identity. He had left his phone number in the message, and I reached out to him on WhatsApp. After several months of conversations, he invited me to Lagos, specifically to the Eko Hotel.

I was shocked to see my old primary school classmate in such a high and classy state. He shared his life journey, including how he joined politics, starting with AD, then moving to ACN, and finally APC. He relocated to Lagos, built connections with influential stakeholders, and secured numerous private and government contracts. He also ventured into real estate and became wealthy.

Interestingly, he later pursued academic excellence, taking GCE exams, which enabled him to enroll in LASU’s part-time program. He even earned a master’s degree from the UK, becoming academically sound. Today, he associates with high-profile individuals.

He generously gave me a large sum of money. It’s remarkable how someone our parents discouraged us from befriending became a person we all look up to. He revealed that he became a comfortable billionaire through his bricklayer trade, which metaphorically made him a construction contractor. He built and supervised many big projects in and outside Lagos, with many valuable properties in his name, even before taking GCE exams…

He’s now living a life we all wish and plan to live by taking education seriously from the start. Education ought to be a bedrock of eradicating poverty in a saner climate, but unfortunately, we’re not in a nation that rewards hard work and educational sagacity. An average classroom teacher especially in the private sector will partially takes home 50,000 naira monthly, barely 35 dollars. Alas, where does the zeal to teach vigorously come from? With today’s cost of building materials, some teachers might not be able to build a 3-bedroom apartment with their gratuity payment, despite serving for 35 years.

I could have become a victim of hard labor myself if I didn’t partially divert my total attention to education so early by paying attention to extracurricular activities that could generate income. Unfortunately, in our climate, a graduate is not assured of getting employment, and if they do, the job opportunity will most likely be totally different from their course of study, which might be like a waste of academic experience.

It’s intriguing how overcoming illiteracy seems easier than conquering poverty. Life is indeed mysterious.

ADERIBIGBE VICTOR

Political Analysts & Social Commentator