My father’s generation suffered a
disastrous war, and saw death of loved
ones and friends. Wars have deep
psychological effects on the people.
While most of them participated in the
war either as adults or child-soldiers,
others were too young, or, even, babies,
and bore the brunt of the war as its
unfortunate victims. This bloody war
affected mostly people of the South
Eastern Nigeria. I must respect their
courage at that time and how they were
able to pick up after that and, indeed,
recover within an impressively short
time, especially, after their wealth was
decimated and they were handed a
paltry twenty pounds by the
Government of the Federation of
Nigeria no matter the amount standing
to the credit of the Igbo holder of the
account. The story of a typical South-
Easterner is a story of inspiration and
courage in the midst of adverse
circumstances. One of my grouses with
my father’s generation is that they have
failed, either by default or design, to
teach my generation about the Nigerian
Civil War sufficiently. No effort has been
made to incorporate the War in
educational curriculums so that my
generation can learn what actually
happened, its remote and immediate
causes, the effects of the war; and how
to prevent same from recurring.
Instead, the War is covered with a
blanket. A recent example of the
authoritarian muting of the lessons of
the War is the initial refusal of the
Nigerian Film and Video Censor Board
to approve the viewing of the screen
adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie’s
novel “Half of a Yellow Sun” in Nigeria.
In Europe, people still visit major sites
of WWI to lay wreaths etc.
Remembrance Days are still observed.
But, in Nigeria, my father’s generation
made no such plans.
They did well, though, in the evolution
of meaningful highlife music which is
still the best form of music that Nigeria
can offer. Their generation saw
dedicated and responsible highlife
musicians. They had a lot of great souls
that the country might never have again
who sang about a wide range of issues:
Rex Jim Lawson. Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Sir
Victor Uwaifo, Chief Stephen Osita
Osadebe, Dr. Victor Olaiya, King Sunny
Ade, Sunny Okosun etc.
My father’s generation went to the
universities in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.
They got education of a superlative
quality. They were educated when
Nigeria’s value system and set of
morals had not gone to the dogs or
thrown out of the window. Those were
the days when you dare not bribe a
Headmaster. Most of them went to the
universities with scholarships, with
every single thing paid for. My
generation is regaled by my father’s
generation to the point of ennui of how
their daily meals in the hostels were all
of eggs and chicken parts and how their
laundries were done by members of
staff specially appointed for that
particular assignment. It is an
indictment on my father’s generation’s
lack of foresight that the first students’
riot in the history of Nigerian university
system was in the 1970s over a matter
as mundane as the reduction of chicken
ration in their meals. My father’s
generation never sorted any lecturer;
and they were taught by qualified,
sometimes expatriate, other times
foreign-trained Nigerian lecturers who
were passionate about lecturing. My
father’s peers had options of where to
work immediately after their studies.
Most of them were besieged by
companies on their graduation days,
wooing them to come and work for
them. Most had up to five choices of
where to work.
Most of the universities then were of
new facilities; they had good
classrooms, hostels; and the graduates
faced little or no competitions after the
university. Nigerian educational
institutions were so strong then, you
dare not cheat in exams etc. Today,
Nigerian Universities are suffering from
a reversal of fortunes. University of
Ibadan, for instance, then, was amongst
the best ten in Africa. The same
university today is the 35th in Africa
according to the current Webometrics
ranking of African universities. My
father’s generation never cared to
sustain the quality of education they
enjoyed for my generation. Today, they
are the big professors of today, vice-
chancellors, principals, headmasters
etc. They are in charge of all sectors of
our national polity. They never thought
of maintaining the standard of
education in these universities,
secondary schools, primary schools, all
of them. They never paused to wonder
if my generation will enjoy the privilege
of being accosted by prospective
employers for jobs the same way they
all got jobs the next day after
graduation. Most of them today are
Principals, and have their schools being
used as special centres during WASSCE,
NECO and JAMB exams. Most of them
that work in senior positions at the
bodies that administer these exams are
the ones that release these question-
papers through the backdoor to my own
generation for financial gratification.
They are the professors and lecturers
that my generation sorts today to get
better grades. Worst of all, they never
thought of population explosion and so
have no safety net to cushion its dire
consequences.