Educational
Feats of Nigerians in Diaspora: Food for Thought
In my last week article on "Educational
Feats of Nigerians in Diaspora: Food for Thought", some readers called my
attention to the inconclusiveness of the the article. It ended with
"but...". This is regretted and might have been cut due to space
limitation of the Column. I hereby
reproduce the missing paragraph for the completeness of the article: "In conclusion, this 3 – parts article has shown that
the receipt of 16 awards by Nigerians out of a total of 27 awards presented in
Howard University, Washington D.C, USA was a zenith of Nigerian performance
educationally, a feat not easily achieved by any country. That, with a favourable environment,
motivation and right leadership, Nigerians can excel in all facets of national
development. There are many unknown Desayo Ajisegiris, Philip Emeagwalis,
Sarki Abba Abdulkadir, Jelanis here in Nigeria but the situation (internal and
external factors) made them to be unknown heroes with a huge and unquantifiable
loss to the nation. Can President Buhari change the trend and elevate the educational
sector to a deservedly higher and enviable position? While we are fervently
praying for his government to succeed, the whole saga is a “food for thought”.
(concluded)
Now, a comment from one of the readers of this
Column;
Dear Othman,
Thanks for your interesting column,
the article published Friday 17/6/16, in which you discussed about some
outstanding Nigerians in Diaspora was particularly very interesting. Indeed,
many Nigerians abroad are making us proud, from undergraduate level to postgraduate.
The likes of Zainab Usman, a Ph.D student in Oxford, UK, and Adamu Tilde, who
recently completed his Masters with a CGPA of 4.7 in animal biotechnology from
Hungary, and many more. Nigerians are intelligent and excel anywhere they go,
and we still have them back here home. So, I think your column should go beyond
intelligent Nigerians in Diaspora. Let's try to feature the ones we have right
in the country as well. We have them everywhere, and am sure you are aware of the
UNILAG student who graduated with 5.0 recently. We have them in A.B.U, Open
University, and many other Institutions of learning.
Muntaka Dabo, MSc Student, Information Technology, National Open
University of Nigeria
Dear Dr. Othman,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your article published Friday 17th June, 2016. the article is timely and very relevant to the current deteriorating educational situation in the country. The situation requires present administration to create favorable learning environment by providing modern learning facilities, good motivation and right leadership in our institutions (secondary and tertiary). Kudos to Governor of Kaduna State Malam El-rufai towards this direction. We heard him sending thirty female students to study medicine in Uganda and recently planning to send one hundred and fifty male student to study medicine and other science courses in Cuba and Germany. That is an example of right and good leadership. Engr. Adamu Arab, Ph.D Fellow and Extension Specialist, NAERLS, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.