THERE MUST BE A SHIFT IN OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM OTHERWISE WE LOSE OUR PLACE FOREVER
WE HAVE TO MOVE FROM CERTIFICATE CRAZE OF EDUCATION TO CONTRIBUTION DRIVEN KIND OF EDUCATION
IT IS ONLY IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD YOU FIND PEOPLE READING A COURSE AND NOT KNOW WHY THEY ARE READING IT.
I RECENTLY CAME UP WITH A CONCEPT OF MODULAR WRITING BECAUSE WE MUST DEVELOP FASTER WAYS OF LEARNING
AFRICA HAS NO POLITICAL SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEMS – WE MUST ESTABLISH SOLUTION CENTRES THAT WILL COMMAND ATTENTION ON VARIOUS MATTERS
OUR UNIVERSITIES SHOULD BECOME LIKE ENGINEERING WORKSHOPS WITH A FOCUS ON PRODUCTIVE AND VALUE ADDING EDUCATION.
THE WORLD HAS NOTHING TO RECKON WITH YOU BY WHAT YOU HAVE BUT WHAT YOU ADD.
UNIVERSITIES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PROBLEM-SOLVING CENTRES BUT IS THAT WHAT WE HAVE TODAY?
NO ONE RUNS AWAY FROM A PROBLEM TO SOLVE THEM, YOU CONFRONT THEM TO SOLVE THEM.
FOR 25 YEARS, WE HAVE NOT SUFFERED POWER OR WATER OUTAGE. WHO TOLD YOU IT CAN’T BE DONE?
YOU CAN’T BE COMMITTED AND NOT BE CREATIVE.
KNOWLEDGE IS THE SOLUTION PLATFORM FOR ALL ISSUES OF LIFE WHETHER AS A NATION OR AS INDIVIDUALS.
- Bishop David Oyedepo on THERE MUST BE A SHIFT IN OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM || Remark at the Special Public Lecture in Honour of Bishop David Oyedepo’s 70th Birthday Celebration || Covenant University Chapel || 24th September 2024.
Behind anything and everything working is someone behind the scene. There is actually no artificial intelligence, a human being programs it to function that way. It can’t go outside it. He keeps joining the things together. Behind the happenings in a believer’s life is God behind the scene. Jesus said “My Father who dwells in me, He doeth the works.” He is the one behind the scene. Church Gist. There is no great one in the Kingdom, it is the backing of the great God that makes ordinary individuals look great. I fast forward every accolade to the one behind the scene otherwise there will be no great man. Jesus is His name, the Son of the Most High God. The Saviour of the world. My Saviour! The Liberator of the oppressed. My Liberator and your Liberator.
The Word came in that lecture and intellectual depth came along with it. A combination of the two will change anybody’s life. So I believe we are going home with something in the name of Jesus. I wrote this remark down this morning and I will just run through it.
THERE MUST BE A SHIFT IN OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM.
There must be a shift otherwise we lose our place forever. There must be a shift. A need to develop our own module of education packaged to focus on addressing the issues that confront us in this part of the world cannot be overemphasized. Church Gist. We must have to develop our own module of education. We must have to move from the certificate craze of education to a contribution driven kind of education. Everything living contributes to stay alive. You see this validated by the plant and animal kingdom existence cycle. You find the animal on their side producing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. You find the plants taking that in to prepare their food and releasing back to the atmosphere oxygen. Church Gist. So it is for anything living you stay alive by making contributions. Everything living contributes to stay alive. We agree with your qualifications, the question is where is your contribution.
I have never seen people like my own people who will go to read a course and not know why they are doing it. They won’t know why. “What’s happening to you?” “I am going for Masters.” “Masters in what? Okay, what do you intend to do with it?” “Just to have Masters.” Church Gist. Two years of your life uncalibrated, wasted! It is only in this part of the world you see that. I met one of my own people, He was out here to do a PhD in Water Engineering. I asked him what he intended to do with it. Where are you making contribution? He said leadership. Is that Water Engineering Leadership? I told him to start going home.
I believe we must have to review our course content, make them relevant to industry, commerce and the public sector. We must review it. For most parts we just stayed with what the colonial masters left. We are so afraid to come outside it. Church Gist. So when Covenant University was going to start, it was built on a drastic departure. You can’t discover new islands if you are not willing to lose sight of the shore. A drastic departure. Things are not working, must we keep watching them.
We must have to develop faster ways of learning because time is fast running out on our generation as a people lest we suffer the extinction of the historical dinosaurs. I recently came up with a concept of modular writing. What I mean is, instead of having a chapter without head or tail for 25 pages, break it down to points. Church Gist. Readers want to take notes so give them the note. They won’t have to scramble. Up until 1451 the Bible had no verses but can you imagine for God’s sake: the book of Moses from Genesis to Deuteronomy, no verse no chapter. It makes learning frruuu disturbing. You can’t make reference! And that informs the modular concept I’ve been engaging in my latest materials. You check, “Treasures of Life,” they’re in modules not chapters. Nobody ties you to it. You can define something that will help people, so when you get at it, you can pick the points. We just coming out with a new book, “Leadership Ideology: A Covenant Perspective,” it’s in modules. So you don’t have to run round and read…you know I read a few things and some of the materials I read, you will read twenty pages and have 5 points – the stories are too much – but what you need are the points. Church Gist. We must develop faster ways of learning. Sir without that, we run out of time in no time.
It’s time to reconstruct our intellectual armoury and take up intellectual arms that will turn our educational institutions to solution centres which government and industries will be consulting for solutions to the issues of concern. I think by now we should understand that Africa has no political solution to our problems – no! It’s time to seek the alternative. We must open up solution centres that will command the attention of the public and private institutions on various matters. Church Gist. Someone once said, the empires of the future shall not be built by stone walls, brick and mortar or armoured tanks, the empires of the future shall be empires of the mind because until something changes within us, nothing will change outside us. Sir, there is no software solution – we need to engage the brainware – hard brainware. I think our universities should become like engineering workshops where we programme and deprogramme the intellectual content of young people for productive and value adding life. Church Gist. Those who will not take responsibility today, must end up liabilities tomorrow as we saw in that lecture.
With glory to Jesus, there is zero foreign input in the founding of Covenant and Landmark University. We have been long intellectually apologetic enough; it’s time to take full responsibility in addressing the issues confronting us as a people. The knowledge market is domiciled in the free trade zone of life. Church Gist. Every tested and proven knowledge product has a place there. Who will read it? The first is, have you written it? How can he read what you have not written? Must anybody have to validate how you’re solving your problems? They’re not in your problem, you’re in it. We came up with hard and fast rules to remodel the life of young people. It’s not lack of education but lack of the right kind of education and it’s paying off. These are the do’s and the don’ts. The only time to get that done is when you’re just growing up before the evil days come and you say, I have no pleasure in them.
We must begin to educate our young people to see beyond themselves and to begin to see how to make the World a better place for all. This self-centeredness is ruining the World. I made this statement yesterday: We got in a lot of tributes from very humbling centres, none of them mentioned what he has. Who cares? It’s your cup of tea. “You drive a car, it’s your fault. What is that doing for me? Did you pick me on the road when you met me?” Church Gist. No! The World has nothing to reckon with you by what you have but what you add. What are you adding? Wake up in the morning, go to bed in the night? Nothing added as value. We should train them to a point where they begin to ask questions such as: What have I to offer to make life in my environment better? What do I have and what can I do to alleviate the scourge of growing unemployment of young graduates? No one runs away from a problem to solve them, you confront them to solve them. Waiting never solves a problem, it’s taking appropriate steps that do.
I’m saying this to mean one thing, we need a repackaging of the content of our educational program. We need a repackaging! For instance, by common sense we know that knowledge is key to having our problem solved. You have a wristwatch problem, you don’t go for a bicycle repairer; you look for someone with a working knowledge of repairing wristwatches. You want to make a dress? You don’t go to a plumber or… (Laughing). Okay now! Listen! You don’t go to a carpenter because I’m yet to be able to twist my tongue to the frequency you are operating on (Laughing). You need a motor mechanic to fix your car, not a bricklayer. So you find problems are ordained to be solved by knowledge. That’s why universities are supposed to be problem-solving centres where public, private, industry, commerce will be consulting for their issues but is that what we have today? You don’t look for a surveyor on your healthcare, you look for a medical doctor. So problem-solving traces knowledge and if universities are knowledge centres, they should be problem-solving centres not big-grammared centres propounding philosophies that don’t fly. That’s why I believe universities are positioned to provide intellectual solutions to issues of concern to government, commerce and industry. We have the potentials, we are now to utilize the potentials without borrowing principles that won’t work. It’s like specializing in winter dresses in Nigeria, you will run bankrupt from the day you started. You know it’s a wrong solution borrowed into the right place. So, imported content can’t help us sir. Imported content in our education system won’t help us. Help me ring this to NUC, ring it to Federal Government; it won’t help! It hasn’t helped! We were left to train to be workers not leaders and then we swallowed all of those contents running with it.
What then is the value of formal education and chains of degrees that proffers no solution? Nothing! Our forefathers without any formal education succeeded in providing solutions to their needs including identifying crops for farming. Church Gist. Knowing how to prepare food that is edible and healthy. Invented their own farming implement, built their own weapons of war to defend their territories. We have a very rich culture, we shouldn’t dump what we have for what they brought, no.
We must recognize that knowledge is the solution platform for all issues of life whether as a nation or as individuals. John 8:32. We must have, therefore, to review the content of our training package to address the need of the hour in this part of the World. Church Gist. We have a very rich history of problem solving as gallantly displayed by our forefathers. That was well said. We must, therefore, leverage on this to deal with issues confronting us from our intellectual armories, that is, our education institutions.
I still want to believe that providing indigenous solutions is the only way to go and that, without apology. All the animals in the Wild provide their solutions where they are found, they don’t get visas to travel, yet, their kingdom keeps expanding, they solve their health problems where they are. But the slightest headache now, “I’m going to Germany”. Church Gist. You get there, they say “Sit down, you can’t go now, till 10 years time. You know why? The pressure on your finger has gone up” You say ah! They say “It has spread here and it’s spreading here. Wait”. It’s marketing. Most of the time, common sense suspended, common sense suspended. If you see the kind of training people are going for, you will laugh. Going for training on how to prepare tea, tea that I prepare for myself. Church Gist. All my life I’m preparing tea for myself. Okay, would they put it in a tube? No. You now sit down, they say what happened? “Well, just to let you know the protocols of preparing tea and serving people in a conference, serving people”
What we don’t want, we don’t watch. What we don’t resist has a right to remain and what we won’t confront, we cannot conquer. It’s time to take full scale responsibility in reviewing our educational content so we can move forward. Every challenge of life on the path of life is a test that must be passed to experience a change of class that is a change of story. We have problems, there are challenges, we must quickly start looking for how to pass it. Passing the buck is not the way to go. Let each one take position.
I believe what makes a great leader is not capacity but capacity utilization. (Capacity utilization) is key to the future we desire. As we all know, no one can write test on behalf of another and no one can delegate another to write an exam for him. Church Gist. Everything that will secure one’s change of story cannot be delegated and this is what we have continued to do in this part of the World till date.
Can I say this? 25 years running, we have not suffered powered outage on this Ground, 25 years. 25 years running, water has never dried up from our pipes. Who told you it cannot be done? You can’t be committed and not be creative. You can’t be creative and not be productive. Church Gist. You can’t be productive and not be successful at what you engage with and you can’t grow your success and not become impactful. It’s time to develop indigenous solutions to our problems. Somebody from China will come and solve problem with power for you, how? The more you remain in it, the better for them. Church Gist. I’m saying, to His glory, 25 years running, people who live here, there are people who have been here since that time, there is no one day that power went off, whether from main grid or minor grid. Power has been consistent.
Today, Covenant University draws largely from the concept of unapologetic departure from the traditional content of education to secure her place in the world of University Education. We should be able to tell ourselves, look, “you have what it takes to deal with these issues. We have what it takes to make Nigeria a great nation.” It’s not just people in political leadership, it’s much more people in educational institutions where solutions can be provided. Church Gist. Push it out. Let the people know we have thinking people in some quarters who are able to address issues on a consistent basis. Have columns, perhaps intellectual arms; keep developing concepts and principles that they will be forced to listen to because the World is reading it and they know the World is reading and would measure them on it.
No sportsman can delegate his role in the field of sport and a great coach never makes a star. It’s the commitment, the dedication (and) the determination of the player that determines who becomes a star. It’s time for Africa to fly again. Now listen, it is by light and insight that men fly. “Arise, shine, your light is come and who are these that fly as the cloud?” Church Gist. It’s time to put on our wings and tell ourselves “no race or colour or geographical location has the monopoly of knowledge.”
Knowledge creation is every human opportunity. You have an idea, bring it forth. Let’s see how you have tested the idea and now, it has worked. We have never borrowed as a mission and as an institution. Mismanagement is behind uncontrollable (and) uncheckered debt. I brought out a data sometimes back and now it has never been proved. 449 billion naira is spent monthly on recharge cards in Nigeria. Church Gist. Loosed life – pay as you go, don’t think! I will be very surprised if upto 20 percent of that is on business but on pleasantries. We have waited enough and we have wasted enough. It’s time to come awake and begin to work at the changes we desire.
Can I bring this up and I hope I will not be stoned? In my view, inaugural lectures should be a platform for dissemination of new solutions in one’s field of study and not rhetoric that we have in most parts of this World. You have not found anything, you are not qualified to present. It’s what you have found that qualifies you to…you are inaugurating knowledge. Church Gist. They can’t appoint you to present what you have not found. They can’t say, it’s your turn. How can it be your turn when you have not found? You are to present what you have found and we are still searching for it.
Sir, 4 points is enough. I have found this. One, 2, 3, 4, 5 – this should be the effect of it. It has been tested this way. I have this platform, reliable database. You should change the scenario. So, you are coming up, we know this man has found something to present. Church Gist. It should be a platform for presentation of new solutions to issues that impact on life. It should be a platform for a viable, proven and tested database on issues.
Inaugural lecture should not be an applause winning speeches but referencing winning findings. He found this, this is the effect of it – we have engaged with it. In this part of the World, many including those in academia are being entertained by the sufferings of others and not committed to finding a way out for them. Church Gist. A number with potential to solve problems have only continued to stare at them (stare at the problems) but never made moves to solve them.
Things must change and we must be the one to effect the changes. Someone once said, “you don’t do nothing just because you can do only a little. Church Gist. The little you can do can make a world of difference at the end. Thank you!
“I have something to offer” (can I have someone say that?) Because you do. You are created a contributor. You started contributing carbon dioxide from the day you were born. So you have the potential of a contributor inside you. Church Gist. Can I have you say one more time? “I have something to contribute. Living to myself will make me a slave. I have something in me that will add value to others. So help me Lord!” Thank you.
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