Academic Excellence Is Overrated.

We live in a society where Academic excellence is overrated.

Students are persuaded and forced to give their all to academics to the extent that we have developed apathy to the issues that affects our livelihood as students.

Students are being exploited and oppressed on the one hand,  and on the other hand,  we are told to concentrate and focus on our studies so that we could pass,  graduate and leave campus gracefully.

This unfortunate development is responsible for the docility we see amongst students when it comes to acting on issues that best serves their interest. Not only that, but it also explains the dying dynamism in student activism on campus.

Yes,  we could graduate as the best in finance but that doesn’t mean we would have money than everybody else,  neither would we become good lawyers by graduating as the best law students.

Most of the time, successful people are students who made not, the classroom their world but rather those who made the world their classroom.

Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah noted sagely, ‘Of what use is man’s education if he cannot help his people in the hour of need? ‘

If we live in a corrupt setting,  as educated people we should strive to change it.

As students,  if our representative body is found liable of corruption, we should organize and bring an end to it and hold all those involved responsible. The era of ‘I don’t care’ attitude amongst students should be over

The country we live in is one that is faced with an economic downturn. Unemployed graduate make up over a million. Do we keep quiet, continue graduating and adding on to the numbers or we organise and fight against the system so that others including us, would get job after leaving the four corners of our campuses.

Remember,  all that governments upon governments have done and will do is to promise and keep promising to solve the situation at hand but none of them will do it for us.

It is only I, you, and us who can bring this situation to a halt.

But the test as to whether we would succeed in this regard or not, lies in our ability to hold our SRC’s responsible.

We are by no means suggesting that students abandon their books, and only involve in student politics, we just want to draw to the attention of everyone that the two are not mutually exclusive either.

Students Must Wakeup

Yussif Gariba

A Pan-Africanist, Nkrumahist And Student Activist,