Interrogating Omokri’s Thesis on Bridging the Skill Gaps in Nigeria

As usual with him, Mr. Reno Omokri has thrown another jab at the Nigerian University System. This time around, his target was the Nigerian educational system. He handpicked some courses and condemned them as useless because, according to him, those courses do not offer any skills or employment value after graduation. He charged:

Instead of spending four years reading a course like sociology, philosophy, anthropology, political science, library science and so on at university! Just go and learn a high income skill like nursing, cloud computing, blockchain engineering, artificial intelligence, web design, coding, programming, ethical hacking, and analytics! Between six and eighteen months. You will earn more in a lifetime than most university graduates. The world has changed. Many university courses have expired. They belong in a museum. Maybe a few people can read them to preserve some knowledge, But when you have hundreds of thousands studying them at degree level, they will never find real life applicable jobs for those degrees. And they and their courses end up being a drain on society. Get a skill instead of a semi-useless degree! And stop looking for loopholes. Those courses are dead and gone. They are like aerial cameramen. You cannot streamline an aerial cameraperson to compete with a drone. Accept reality and make better educational choices, and stop putting good money behind lost causes. Truth is bitter, but better!

This outburst had gone viral and sparked the usual conversation around how unemployable Nigerian graduates are and the need to change the downward movement of values accorded to Nigerian tertiary education certificates. Sadly, his thesis is partially and bitterly true. What is true is the fact that those courses are not really equipping students with the in demand job skills, both soft and hard, and especially digital skills to make them relevant to the reality of the workplace and society today. However, it is equally truer that the courses he mentioned are not the only ones in trouble. Almost all the courses offered in Nigerian universities except for few are in this category. From Mass Communication to Computer Science to Economics, the story remains the same.

What is not true is that the courses are useless or dead. It is the way they are being taught or floated in Nigerian universities that has made them appear so.   For example, I checked the Department of Sociology at Harvard University, what I saw amazed me. The welcome page shows an understanding of the reality of the present era. The opening reads:

The Department of Sociology at Harvard has a rich and varied history. Its faculty are deeply committed to the development of sociological theory in the service of addressing fundamental sociological questions about the empirical world. The Harvard department of the 21^st century is characterized by unsurpassed methodological breadth and depth, with faculty and students engaged in a variety of approaches to research including surveys, ethnography, in-depth interviews, big data, social demography, causal inference, and historical archival work. Deep engagement with central social issues in the American landscape such as racial inequality, gender discrimination, violence, and mass incarceration is coupled with expertise in political, economic, and social and cultural issues in other parts of the world such as Latin America, Asia, and Europe. We invite you to explore sociology at Harvard.

I also visited the Oxford University’s Department of Philosophy’s web page. I marveled at what the university has made of philosophy, a course that Omokri pronounced completely dead in Nigeria. Oxford combined philosophy as a subject with other relevant subject matters. So, if you want to study Philosophy at Oxford, you have a range of options to select from: Computer Science and Philosophy; Mathematics and Philosophy; Philosophy and Modern Languages; Philosophy, Politics and Economics; Philosophy and Theology; Physics and Philosophy as well as Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics.

If these two universities are considered to be in the global North and are leading global institutions, what of the Department of Politics Studies in the University of Witswaterstrand. On the page, I was particularly impressed by the claim of the department that:

“The study of politics has traditionally been concerned with the relations between the state and its subjects. While these remain important, the scope of political studies has broadened to include: Associations such as business corporations; Development; Gender;Identity politics;Political parties; Power relations; Public Policy; Social movements; Trade unions and labour relations”

What my voyage to these three universities confirms is the fact that the courses listed in Omokri’s career advice are neither dead nor useless. The Nigerian universities have to change the mode, curriculum and the focus of these courses. There is an urgent need to deliver these courses in such a manner that the graduates would be equipped with skills that solve societal problems. The Nigerian University System has to find a way to manage the pool of talents on the campuses in order to stop the barrage of criticism of the Nigerian graduates are not employable. There is a list of other urgent reforms that should take place to make Nigerian universities more productive and impactful in educating the students of today.

Creative Implementation of the new CCMAS

The Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) is the new curriculum that universities in Nigeria should kick-start its operations in the 2023/2024 academic session. This new document has come to gradually replace the old Benchmark for Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS). The curriculum has a number of new features for university education in Nigeria. It has expanded the number of faculties run by the universities from 14 to 17 with the unbundling of 3 courses to make them faculties. Apart from this, the new curriculum also changes the architecture of entrepreneurship with the introduction of innovation and ventures management as well as stipulating contemporary employability skills for each faculty and department. So, it is a new dawn for the Nigerian education system. However, it is important to understand that the curriculum is just a document. We have seen its richness in content, but its success and impact is dependent on how well it is implemented. Therefore, the operators of the Nigerian universities have to find a way to creatively implement the curriculum to address the current gaps.  The challenge now is how to teach innovation and venture management to spark change. How do teachers, who are the final implementers of the curriculum, teach the courses to reflect the current employability skills as captured?

Adopt a New Approach to Entrepreneurship

For keen and concerned observers, the current entrepreneurship curriculum taught in the Nigerian University System is not reflective of the needs of the country. In the words of Prof. Lukman Raheem, a professor of Entrepreneurship, the Nigerian University System runs an entrpreneusrhip programme that is generally called Subsistence Venture Creation. According to the scholar of entrepreneurship, subsistence venture creation is “the development of entrepreneurs who primarily focus on meeting their basic needs and those of their families. Their main goal is to generate enough income to sustain their livelihoods selling Indomie Noodles and Puff-Puff, and they often operate in traditional or low-growth sectors.” On the other hand, the NUS should run a Productive High-Impact Entrepreneurship programme which aims to create innovative and scalable businesses that have a substantial impact on the economy and society. High-impact entrepreneurs often seek to address major market gaps or societal challenges and are driven by growth and expansion.

Create an Innovation Hub to Support the Startup Ecosystem

Nigerian universities should realize the importance of an innovation hub on their campuses.  Described as a physical space that brings together researchers, creators, and innovators to nurture ideas into industry-changing products and services, a well-run innovation hub on a campus would provide a platform for both researchers, students, creators and innovators to ideate, incubate, develop and accelerate their ideas.  While some universities could run their hubs on their own, others could partner with innovation companies like Opolo Global Innovation Limited with hubs in universities across Nigeria. Almost all the government agencies are talking about innovation hubs now. From the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology to TETFUND, the focus now is a hub. When the amount of talents that abound on the Nigerian campuses, untapped, are taken into consideration, having an innovation hub on campus is the way to go. As a matter of fact, it would support the implementation of the innovation and venture management component of the new CCMAS.

Allow Industry Experts to be Part of the Teaching Faculty

To address the industry rustiness of students graduating from Nigerian universities, making experts from the industry facilitators would a game changer. This move would expose the students to industry practices and make them industry ready. It would also make industry professionals part of the teaching. This would improve learning and address the classroom-workplace gap.