Tinubu And My Teacher Don’t Flaunt Degrees But Competence

By Kunle Awosiyan

Perhaps I would have studied Theatre Art but the lack of good art teachers in my secondary school days debarred me.

However, great science teachers won my heart as a secondary school pupil many years ago.

My Chemistry and Mathematics teacher in my form three was an NCE holder. He showed great knowledge of the subjects and laid the best foundation for my “A” grades in WASC in the two subjects.

However my Physics teacher who was a degree holder messed up the subjects for many of us. His class was always drab. The only time I enjoyed Physics was when a National Youth Corps member taught me.

It was an experience that defined the difference between a competent teacher and a qualified teacher. Indeed it was a great lesson of life success.

For me, tertiary education is good but the worth of a quality certificate is its application to solve problems and not the flaunting of papers that certify the degrees or diplomas.

So I get easily irritated that some people are still debating the academic qualifications and schools attended by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu despite that the court had quashed the case many years ago.

It is better that today’s critics of BAT focus their attention and condemnation on the country’s judiciary if their prayers against Tinubu had failed instead of waking up a dead case.

As far as Tinubu’s education and schools are concerned, it is no issue at all because it had passed the legal test. Let the haters invent a new song. They cannot triumph on this. “O ti o”.

Of course there are many fantastic, qualified and competent scholars as teachers and administrators across the country, they are not the real issue in this write-up but I’m using them as an analogy to stir this discourse about Bola Tinubu’s academic qualifications and schools he attended.

And to say that BAT’s competence and performance in both private and public sectors have not only reflected that he passed through school but that school also passed through him, it reminds us that he is a critical thinker.

His life and performance at Mobil Unlimited as Treasurer and Auditor did not only test his professional and academic competence, it exposes either the ignorance of his haters about what education really is or a grave envy towards the APC presidential candidate.

For those who have refused to embrace the shift from paper qualifications to value addition, I recommend for you the award winning movie, “The Three Idiots”.

The movie depicts one of the four major characters, Chatur also nicknamed as “silencer, an African, as man of no innovation but theory. Chatur is to memorise the books to earn good grades and certificates.

Of course Chatur gets the “Paali” but has to work for Rancho, an innovator who gets the school prize as the best student but refuses to take his Bsc Engineering certificate. He tells his professor that “Paali” won’t make him but the creativity to solve world problem.

What Nigeria needs today and by extension the world is not degrees but problem solvers. Men who can think out of the box for innovation.

Tinubu’s enemies must see “Three Idiots” to learn practical knowledge of how he managed Mobil; how he joined others to fund NADECO and pushed the soldiers back to the barracks for this present democracy to come.

They will need to learn how his finance acumen paid local government workers when president Olusegun Obasanjo withheld Lagos local government funds for eight years.

They will need to learn from his competency on how he introduced free WASSCE fees for pupils in Lagos and free eye glasses, “Jigi Bola” for Lagos residents.

They must learn about his establishment of six Millennium Schools across Lagos six educational districts despite his alleged “education scandal”.

They will also need to learn how he increased the Lagos IGR from N600 million to about N10 billion in a few years of his administration as Lagos Governor.

They must learn how a man without education qualification was able to train the likes of Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Akinwunmi Ambode (FICAN), Femi Gbajabjamila and many others about leadership and politics.

I’m sure that these new leaders and Tinubu’s beneficiaries are more brilliant than many of those who are seeking the BAT’s head over his education qualification and schools he attended.

I want to believe that the Tinubu’s disciples stayed with him because he could intellectually engage them. They could interact at any level without any suspicion of intellectual incapacity towards him.

He is a teacher who does not flaunt certificates nor degrees. Tinubu flaunts competence.