Why Igbo Apprenticeship scheme on decline – Obiora Okonkwo

Chairman, United Nigeria Airlines Company Limited, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo, has blamed the decline on Igbo Apprenticeship scheme “Igba Boyi” to moral and ethical decay in the society. Okonkwo made the revelation while delivering a Keynote address at the National Summit on Igbo Apprenticeship with the theme ‘Repositioning the Igbo Apprenticeship Scheme for Sustainable Economic Development’ […]

Chairman, United Nigeria Airlines Company Limited, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo, has blamed the decline on Igbo Apprenticeship scheme “Igba Boyi” to moral and ethical decay in the society.

Okonkwo made the revelation while delivering a Keynote address at the National Summit on Igbo Apprenticeship with the theme ‘Repositioning the Igbo Apprenticeship Scheme for Sustainable Economic Development’ held in Awka, Anambra state.

He said loss of family and cultural values in Igboland are seriously affecting the decline of Igbo Apprenticeship scheme.

According to him, the erosion of some fundamental values like honesty, discipline, diligence, hard work, among others have led to quest for wealth by any means, get-rich quick syndrome and the lack of patience to learn requisite skills that are pervasive among today’s youths.

Okonkwo said the it appears as if the apprenticeship Scheme that have served the Igbos so well had been plagued with major problems; even tilting towards extinction.

“Most of us will readily agree that the apprenticeship system in Igboland began to suffer when apprentices, even in their very first weeks began to aspire to become bigger than their Masters (Oga). Before I am misunderstood, let me stress that there is nothing wrong with aspiration, or even ambition so long it is pure and legitimate. But that’s certainly not the situation we are faced with. As a society, we are at the crossroads, faced with the existential challenge of seeing our youths through a tutelage system that patiently makes them respected wealth creators against the lure of quick riches by any means along with its abandonment of basic values and the embrace of all manner of violence and criminality.

“This has also led to situations where some apprentices go to lengths to seek to ‘control’ their bosses by diabolical means with the intention to take over their wealth” he said .

Okonkwo further stated that the failure of ethical infrastructure is directly tied to the loss of our family and cultural values,saying that it is one of the challenges the Igbo apprenticeship scheme currently faces.

He said that the recent upsurge in drug abuse and ritual killings were indisputably linked to the quest for quick money as a result of dearth of moral and cultural values among the youths .

According to him, the older generation of Igbo businessmen, most of who were products of the Apprenticeship system, became wealthy guided by the values and ethics they were brought up with, including those inculcated in them during their apprenticeship years.

“We must reinvent the apprenticeship system to be responsive to the business and industrial needs of today, along with the skills acquisition and value chain such new processes require,” he said