By Dele Sobowale

“An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher [PHD holder]. A society which scorns excellence in plumbing, because it is humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy, because it is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” John Gardener, US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

I was living and studying, in the USA, in the late 1960s when Gardener rendered this piece of good advice to graduating students at Harvard University. His aim was to warn the students not to think that their degrees made them superior to others who might not have university education but who were contributing greatly to society.

I also worked at Polaroid Corporation, founded by Dr(Honorary) Edwin Land, the university drop-out who started the revolution in photography by inventing the first instant camera – which all professors of Physics said could not be done. Dr Land eventually employed nothing less than 345 Ph.D holders in various departments of Polaroid Corporation. Some of those who came in with B.Sc received doctorate degrees based on experience and research they conducted at Polaroid.

This is important because Professor Wale Oladipo, National Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party had been wasting everybody’s time comparing Jonathan, a Ph.D holder with Buhari – who he described as a semi-illiterate. Oladipo, naturally, failed to define semi-illiteracy in his bid to score cheap political points. That is standard practice for Nigerian professors once they enter the murky waters of politics – they invariably fail the minimum test of scholarship which calls for the definition of terms used in their presentations.

But, let me now take Oladipo up on his own terms by acknowledging that Jonathan holds a doctorate in Zoology. To begin with few, if any applicants for admission to university apply for Botany or Zoology. Their first preferences are often Medicine or Pharmacy. It is when their cut-off marks fall below the requirements for those two highly exalted professions that they are offered Zoology or Botany as a condition for admission to university. It would be interesting to know if Jonathan, ab initio, opted for Zoology or was shunted into that course.

More to the point, my questions are: what had he done with it? In what way had the Nigerian society benefited from his work as a Zoologist? How many papers had he got published in reputable academic journals of Zoology? In what ways had he advanced knowledge in Zoology? Those are the minimum requirements for excellence in academic work and not just the mere possession of a degree – which is a personal thing. There are millions of people all over the world with doctorate degrees who do nothing with them; they are just contented to hold the certificates. Meanwhile, there are technicians who have invented millions of useful equipment, household items, medical and diagnostic materials without the benefit of doctorate degrees. Professor Oladipo will surely agree with me, if he is not too far gone for redemption, that a Bill Gates or Edwin Land, both without Ph.Ds, had benefited the world far more than a million Jonathans and Oladipos who have nothing comparative to their credit but their certificates.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/jonathans-ph-d-versus-buharis-semi-illiteracy-1/

Talk. As in true talk.

Op, please don't insult our president. Jonathan is VERY intelligent and he is even planning ahead by alocating millions to buy fuel in generator sets at the presidential villa so that Nigeria can be run smoothly and an increase in power generation can be achieved.

Vote Goodluck Jonathan for president!

And don't forget your jerry cans

I still don't see how GEJ and PhD relate. The Man looks to dense for HND sef. His countenance is just too Poor.