You can’t be bored in Nigeria – Irish envoy

You have been in Nigeria for four years, how would you describe the country?The first thing I would say and not just me, is that Nigeria does not have a good reputation internationally because of the scam.  But when you are in Nigeria it is totally different. In my early days here, the foreign minister […]

You have been in Nigeria for four years, how would you describe the country?
The first thing I would say and not just me, is that Nigeria does not have a good reputation internationally because of the scam.  But when you are in Nigeria it is totally different. In my early days here, the foreign minister at the time who made a comment at two different functions, that the biggest victims of the Nigerian scam weren’t the people scammed but the honest Nigerians who worked hard with the same brush and this is true because of the scams; there is that suspicion.
I was talking at one occasion with an Irish businessman in Lagos who was part of a delegation that we brought to Nigeria in trying to bring businesses here. I asked him what the biggest problem is he facing and he said the image. When I first came, I asked all the Irish people who were here, ‘if you were starting again and knew all you now know about Nigeria, will you come to Nigeria’ and what was interesting is that every solitary  one of them said ‘yes’. They said there are challenges but the benefit is enormous and yes they would all come without exception. It’s the image that needs working on. I thought the foreign minister was spot on when he made that point.
I remember in my early days when I was working, I thought if people put the same genuine effort into work than into scam, the country would have been a lot better. I remember when I was working some people could create effort on how to get rid of a file when it lands on their desk and I used to say to them that ‘if you put half that effort into handling the file, you would have done it long ago instead of thinking of how to send it to someone else’. You meet that everywhere but as a country it is varied. I find here that you can never be bored as a diplomat. If you are bored sit down and do nothing because there is so much happening because the country is so much different from others. Sadly, I’ve not been able to move around as much as I’d want but I have been around a few good places with my favourite being Uyo where I received a title as ‘the chief of prosperity’.
You have been in the education sector and you are coming back next year as a visiting professor, what is your view on the Nigerian Educational system?
One of the things that strikes me more is that, some of my staff are part-time students doing third level courses and the strikes put them way behind. For instance, one of them enrolled to do a five-year degree programme, she is now going into year six but only in year three because of the strikes. I feel sorry for the students; they are the ones who are impacted. But I was taken aback reading about the salary of university professors and lecturers. The level of pay for the professor is lower than the middle or lower senior management of the public service. As a result of that you get allegations of corruption that you have to pay for the notes you get, you have to buy the professor’s book.
I was upset with my staff because my analysis is if your professor has written a book you would be very foolish not to buy it, whether he or she asked you to buy it or not because you know how they think and you know what they are willing to give back. If your lecturer has ever written a book you should buy it and make sure you refer to it in any essays, assignments or exams.
But according to some of the stories I hear and read that here, they have no choice than to buy it. So it seems like it’s a way of supplementing the salary.
How then could education be made better on all levels?
In education you have three levels. The biggest advancement in my opinion, in education, in Ireland in the last century, was free secondary education. The big difference that made in my small town was when I went to secondary school, there was no secondary school in my town. So my whole family had to go to boarding school, it was a secondary school for girls but it wasn’t great. My two sisters after a year had to go to boarding school but because of the fact that you had to pay for secondary school there were only two families in the town whose children went to university and then they brought in free secondary education. As a result of that practically every town has its own secondary school, every family at home, now has somebody who has gone to university or is going to university. Without that it would have been unthinkable 30 years ago. Although you have to pay for accommodation and other bills, that for me was the biggest advance. Another important advancement which I think is a terrific potential here in Nigeria, is vocational training. From what I have seen and have heard, when I was at the Eagle Nigeria Business Forum in Lagos two years ago, there was a principal of a Nigerian technical college, with whom I could identify as she spoke, thinking, this was Ireland 30 years ago. Technical Education was the distant cousin of secondary education.
How much did this impact on the education system?
One of the big things that happened is that we introduced regional technical college at third level in the 80’s, known then as the regional technical training and now as Institutes of Technology (IT). This brought vocational learning. Two governors have spoken to say what they would want to introduce is vocational learning as some of the people are not academically oriented but they can get skills either as an electrician, plumber, or in road work. Whatever it is, to do things like that and at the end of it students would get a paper (certificate) that is recognizable in Ireland, United Kingdom and globally but at the end of it you get a qualification and have reached a certain standard. So if you get someone to electrify your house you know they have a standard and know what they are doing whereas in the past you would get people who in Ireland we call ‘cowboys’. People referred to as chancers. I think there is a terrific scope here in this regard. In a talk with some of the governors they were kin on trying to do something with the vocational education here and I encouraged them to get someone from Ireland, because it is an area we are good at.