Saturday 16th July 2022.

0400 hours, Ede, Osun State

Ademola Adeleke woke up from sleep in his private suite in the palatial family home. He pressed hard on the pillow as he lifted his weight off the 2-seater sofa in his room.

The Senator could hear the voice of his Personal Assistant in the adjoining living room in what appeared to be a discussion with his chief security officer about the change of plans on the time of movement, and the route, to the polling booth where oga (their principal) will cast his vote.  

Mr Adeleke immediately falls on his knees, begging God for the third time since he retired to his room at 2.30 am: “My Father, my Father, please give me victory today. Let not my enemy triumph over me. Let not Oyetola or any other candidate triumph over me. Let affliction never arise in my life the second time. Let me dance the dance of victory today. Make me the Governor today. Baba, demi lade Governor leni…”

0430 hours, Near Munhaye Village, Tsafe LGA, Zamfara State 

Adamu Aleru opened his eyes and scanned his moonlit room. He rolled his body aside, reaching under his pillow for his sidearm. He could hear the voices of women and girls in the courtyard. He heard the frantic bleating of the rams about to be slaughtered, the thuds of cows marching to their deaths, all donated by Ali Zakwai, Bello Turji, Danboko, Sanata, Isuhu Yelo, Damina, and Mai Shamuwa Bello, and other notable bandits for the day’s celebration.

He paused to reflect as he reached for his kettle, “Since 2019, I have been declared WANTED BY THE POLICE; today, I am WANTED BY THE PALACE. Before, they wanted to attack and arrest me; today, they want to appoint me Sarkin Fulani and adorn my head with the royal Turban….” 

Adamu was jolted back to consciousness by the voice of Ayuba cutting through the somnolence of dawn as he called the people to the fajr prayers. 

“Allahu Akbar”, Aleru reechoed the Muezzin’s chant. “Allahu Akbar”, he repeated all the way as he filled his kettle with water for the ablution. “Wanda Allah ba ya gafartawa babu shi”, he muttered as he stepped out to join his lieutenants for the congregational prayer.

0500 hours, Duchess International Hospital, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos State

“You are all good, Sir”, the Physician assured the inpatient in Duke Suite. “We will return at noon for the preparations.”  

“Please rest the leg, Sir. We’ll need it just as calm for the procedure”, the Orthopaedic surgeon counselled.

“Thank you, Doc. Campaigns have ended. I won’t be trekking today,” Yemi Osinbajo quipped. The two clinicians laughed as they escorted Nigeria’s Vice President out of the suite’s private examination room into the living room.

Four cold-faced security details nodded at the doctors as they made for the door out of the suite.

Then the VP attempted a slow and steady stride into his cosy room.

Sitting on his bed, the patient no. INP2 reached for his iPad on the bedside drawer, the table lamp guiding his hand. He then retires his legs slowly in the plum eiderdown and opens his Bible app. 

He scans Psalm 23 and highlights two lines that read, “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me”. 

He slid fully into the downs, lying on his side, and continued to read the Psalm on the iPad. And he read on even when the iPad screen had timed out.

History pessimistic, Humans Optimistic

By the time the sun set on Saturday 16th July 2022, three Nigerians had made history. 

One, by the name of Ademola Adeleke, had been voted to topple the incumbent governor of his State. The other, Adamu Aleru, a notorious serial killer declared wanted by the Nigerian Police, had been decorated with a turban as an exemplary community leader in the presence of Nigerian State officials. The third, Yemi Oshinbajo, became the first incumbent Vice President to be an inpatient or placed on anaesthesia in a hospital in Nigeria since 1999.

Recent events highlight the emerging prospects for free and fair elections and the youth’s growing disgust for entitled and irresponsible leaders. On the other side, one sees the ruling elite’s effort to arrest the chaos encircling the country and their own imminent overthrow – by the youths’ ballot or the terrorists’ bullet. 

For instance, President Buhari suddenly found his voice on the closure of Universities for the umpteenth time during his administration. Suddenly, Vice President Oshinbajo now appears empathetic with the state of healthcare in the country by submitting himself to the scalpel in Nigeria, even if it had to be in a highbrow Lagos hospital built only for Dukes like him. 

Toppling an incumbent party and its governor through the people’s ballot and Turbaning a mass-murderer who kills his own people for a living prefigures the dual path to political leadership in Nigeria come 2023 – a steep double lane of vice and violence that leads backward side by side the double lane of vision and virtue that leads forward. 

Indeed, the lead-up to the 2023 elections appears to be another watershed moment in the 30-year cycle of the nation’s political history of recurring misery, following the aborted progress in 1963 and a political stillbirth in 1993. Yet, while history is pessimistic, humans are optimistic.

Adeleke and the Nigerian Education Curriculum

Senator Ademola Adeleke’s election as the Governor of Osun State is a story of fame, failure and fortitude. But his election story began with his education.

Born in Enugu into the aristocratic family of Adeleke in Ede, he was nursed by both cleavages of fame and fortune. He waltzed through 4 missionary primary and secondary schools but emerged as a classic case of academic failure. It appeared he was destined to learn directly from life rather than be coached about it in a classroom.

Mr Adeleke is not alone. He belongs to a dynasty of accomplished merchants, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs who did not have a great time in formal school. Two cases in point are Tony Elumelu and Peter Obi, who excelled in the corporate world far above what they ever did in the classroom.

Also, beyond the public exhibition of politicians like Tinubu and Adeleke as ethical deviants, the duplicity that trails their certificates compared with the distinction in their careers calls into question the means and meaning of education in Nigeria.

Is it time for Nigeria’s curriculum planners to revisit why some students do well outside the classroom rather than within it? Is it time to introduce those real-world dynamics into our educational settings? If learning becomes hands-on, will Nigeria’s arts, management, science and technology students become more productive to the economy?  

Should the country’s educational curriculum still reward rote learning and not practical, real-life application? Should private firms and government agencies continue prioritising (fake) certificates over (actual) individual competence? 

These questions should shape the conversation on Nigeria’s educational policy going into the 2023 elections.

For Mr Adeleke, what he missed in Montessori he now compensates for in music and dance. And though he evaded intellectual exertion, he embraced the industrial experience. Top of that, the people just employed him as the Governor of Osun State.