TOPIC: WHO ARE THE DAVIDS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GIANTS— correcting the wrong thinking pattern of IRRESPONSIBILITY—? (1)

  INTRODUCTION

It’s no news that the education system in Nigeria is in a state of jeopardy. We claim to be using the western system of education but the average Nigerian student cannot compete effectively and efficiently with an average American student. The rate of examination malpractice is so high that even a student who has “all A’s” in his WASC or NECO cannot be trusted because the schools—both the public and private— give answers to their students in the examination hall and this has led to a colossal collapse of every sector of the country’s economy since we cannot produce qualified students into the labor market. 

        Nigeria is blessed with so much RESOURCES but she has not been able to harness it because a particular viral disease has eaten deep into her system and if nothing is urgently done, Nigeria will end up a hazardous country.

         The virus has eaten so deep into our minds that we all sit back and expect a miracle to happen someday but the miracle isn’t forthcoming. Our grandfathers expected this miracle which didn’t come. Even our fathers also expected this same miracle, but it didn’t show up and it would be complete insanity if we fold our hands and sit back for this long awaited miracle to happen—because doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is insanity. Why is it that the reading culture of most students has died? Why have we raised students who are caught in the web of PASSING ON the blame? Why is it that we have consumer-minded students than producer-minded students? Why have we raised an army of job-seekers instead of job-creators with innovative and creative ideas?   Why is Nigeria with so many natural resources still rated among the third world countries? Why are we still struggling and suffering in the midst of abundance? The answers to all these questions are traceable to a virus and you might be wondering which virus is it. This is not really a physical virus even though it has physical effects. It is a mental virus called IRRESPONSIBILITY. 
 

 The disease of irresponsibility dates back to the first couple God created. Adam was given an instruction for him to eat all the trees in the garden except one—the tree of good and evil. But somehow along the line, tragedy struck as he ate the fruit and instead of accepting responsibility for eating the fruit when asked why he ate the fruit by God, he PASSED ON the blame to his wife who in turn PASSED ON the blame to the serpent. This was certainly the origin of irresponsibility which has slowly destroyed our potential for greatness.

On the 9^th of July 2015, I was in a taxi heading to Ubeji on an official assignment during which a man of God spoke on radio why men—especially in our country— have ended up as failures but just then, a young man roared angrily that the government is responsible for the present situation of the masses. This young man’s attitude has being the character of the average Nigerian—PASSING ON THE BLAME AND RESPONSIBILITY. I hear so many students PASSING ON the blame to the government for not providing standard educational infrastructures and employments. I also hear the government saying in reply that “there’s no money in the treasury” and PASSING THE BLAME to corruption among educational agencies and teachers. The parents are not left out as they PASS ON the blame to the governments and teachers. The school teachers catch the stone of blame, immediately split it into three and throw it each to the government, parents and the students. How long are we going to continue this BLAME-GAME that seems fascinating and interesting? This game killed past generations, its presently destroying our present generation and it’s surely and certainly a threat to the future generations. This problem looks similar to a story in the Holy Bible which contains nuggets that would bring us out of our problems—especially in the education sector— and give us victory over our giants. Before we dive into this trans-generational story, lets for a moment ask ourselves some few questions: What were the characters that stood a mere shepherd boy out from the crowd? What made the least and last child of Jesse gain national recognition? What made his name echo clearly centuries after his death? What made people associate our Lord Jesus to him—a man who wanted help from Jesus shouted,”SON OF DAVID HAVE MERCY ON ME”?      
  

 Centuries ago, There lived a GIANT from GATH whose name was GOLIATH that terrorized the nation of Israel. There was suppose to be a war between the Israelites and the philistines but a fully ‘armed’ man came as a representative of the philistines and asked Israel to produce ONE MAN. Goliath made matters worse by saying that the nation that wins the fight automatically makes the other nation their slave—he could say this because from all scientific and military calculations, it was certain that he would win, so it was obvious that the Israelites were going to be the slaves. These words got the KING— which could be seen as the President or Government Officials— afraid and all he could do was just to sit back waiting for a miracle to happen. The ARMIES OF ISRAEL—which could be liken to institutional heads, teachers and even students— were not left out as they also ran away in fear of this destructive giant. The armies certainly hoped for a miracle to happen as they waited for the king to do something or rather ‘bring a plan’. And for forty days, Goliath came out every morning and evening firing these words into their feeble minds but Suddenly, a young shepherd boy—who was sent by his father to deliver food to his brothers— came on stage and to the amazement of all present— and even absent, this young boy KILLED the ALL TIME WORLD CHAMPION and he delivered the nation of Israel from disgrace. Immediately, there was jubilation and celebration in the camp of the Israelites as they chased the armies of the philistines but this national victory and the motivation to chase was enhanced by a youth. It took a youth to trigger the national change that the nation of Israel was in desperate need of.  (This story can be found in 1Samuel 17).

         I perceive God asking the nation of Nigeria “WHO AND WHERE ARE THE DAVIDS among the government officials/agencies, institutional heads, teachers and students? Who are those who would break free from the crowd and take full RESPONSIBILITY to change the course of the country—especially the education system— by killing the educational Goliaths like Mediocrity, Examination Malpractice, Loss of reading habit, Indecision, Lack of vision?. From this above motivational story, we could get so many characters from the LIFE OF DAVID that would help us tackle our present GOLIATHS. If these CHARACTERS worked for David centuries ago, it would certainly work for us in the 21th century IF we would imbibe them in our lives…