Tinubu And “Three Idiots”

By Kunle Awosiyan

President Bola Tinubu and his certificate saga reminds me of the award winning movie, “Three Idiots”.

It also makes me to respect US education system and the lesser value it attaches to certificate, (Paali). I shouldn’t be misunderstood here, paali is good but creativity is better.

While I may not like the disposition of former President Atiku Abubakar with the way he went about Tinubu’s academic records, I have a reservation in that his fruitless adventure has educated many of us.

That a third party vendor can issue certificate to a former student who lost the original “paali” issued by his Alma Mater.

Even Atiku, his lawyers and friends must have learnt new thing but still pretending.

Three Idiots was one of the best motion pictures of 2009 and award winning movie.

It stars Aamir Khan as Rancho with his two other friends Farhan and Raju.

They are all university students of Engineering alongside Chatur, aka Silencer, the only African among them from Uganda. He can memorise anything to score high grades.

With all his “cramming” method, he ended up working for the genius, Rancho after their university education.

Unknown to Chatur, he thought he was the most successful among his peers having come out with first class and working with a conglomerate with fat wages.

However, Chatur received the shock of his life when he finally realised that Rancho actually owned the company he worked for.

Rancho came top of the class but refused to collect the certificate because he was actually helping his master’s son who could not cope with engineering to acquire “paali”.

He got the best of certificate for those who value “paali’ more than practical innovation but moved out of the country to establish a research institute to solve the pressure most professors put on students in universities without necessarily solving many of their problems.

I remember Professor Viru in the movie, a very brilliant academic who will never compromise his archaic method of teaching.

Full of theory with no sense of practical innovation but his daughter’s pregnancy and sudden power outage at the hospital during delivery humbled him.

It was Rancho, his student, who he thought was too rascally that came up with an innovation that eventually saved the daughter.

Viru had killed so many students with academic pressure. He would tear their answer sheets, he would reject their thesis and would also attend their burials.

He derived pleasure from seeing students falling out of engineering class. He wanted the world to see him as the best ever but there was a Rancho who knew better, a genius, yet humble. He changed things and made students saw life from different perspectives. That they should work on their passion and turn it to occupation instead of pushing so hard, “cramming” books to become what they were never created to be.

Yes, “Paali” is good if you really understand the profession that is certificated and signed on it, for me, that is the way it should be. But the best is to keep the “Paali'” if what it endorses for you is not clear and pursue a clearer career

Atiku and his lawyers had acted exactly like Chatur, seeking Tinubu’s certificate while the president is so silent just like Rancho and smiling at their folly.