Emeritus Professor Godwin O. S. Ekhaguere of the Department of Mathematics, University of Ibadan, was recently conferred with the award of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM). He spoke with PAUL OMOROGBE on issues surrounding the award, the teaching of Mathematics in Nigeria and his thoughts on the ongoing exodus of the country’s youth. Excerpts:
In February this year President Buhari conferred on you and two others, Dr Oluyinka Olurotimi Olutoye and late Professor Charles Ejike Chidume, the award of Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) for 2020/2021. What do you think about the recognition?
It is a monumental laurel that is at once humbling, satisfying and challenging. I am therefore extremely grateful to my nation, Nigeria, for the rare recognition. Looking back, I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to my schoolmates, my teachers and my own students, at all the levels of education that I traversed over the years, as well as to my numerous colleagues, in Nigeria and around the world, with whom I interacted during my upward academic mobility.
The president during the award said that Nigeria’s collective future rests on active participation in science and technology. What is your assessment of the government’s investment in science and technology especially in universities?
The President’s assertion, which impliedly emphasized the role of science and technology (S&T) in national development, especially the vast potential of S&T to foster rapid expansion of employment opportunities, wealth-creation and national progress, is apt and incontrovertible. But no nation in the world can aver that it has invested sufficiently in S&T and would therefore not need to invest any more. Every nation must continually ramp-up its investment in S&T. In the case of Nigeria, as a result of many self-inflicted challenges (egregious corruption that has metastasized throughout every stratum of national life, exponentially rising cost of governance, low productivity, high consumption of foreign products, unrestrained population growth, prolonged poor funding of pre-tertiary and tertiary educational institutions, absence of clearly articulated medium and long term strategic development plans, whether at the national or sub-national level, etc), the nation has, over the years, been unable to provide adequate and steadfast funding for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Consequently, Nigeria has continually failed to implement, in a systematic fashion, its multiple developmental activities, which ought to be undergirded by STEM, at a pace and with the kind of strategic outcomes that are consistent with its vast human and appreciable material resources. This state of affairs could lead to national regression, extreme destitution, civil discontent and increasingly dysfunctional political, economic and social structures at both the national and sub-national levels. Fortunately, the challenges are also opportunities to deploy S&T for their effective resolution, potentially leading progressively to a knowledge economy. Every government in Nigeria, whether national or sub-national, as well as the private sector, should develop a smart policy on STEM, with adequate funding for its steadfast implementation, monitoring and evaluation. As a step in that direction, the sub-national governments with substantial human and material resources should, if they have not already done so, set up analogues of the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation toward entrenching STEM and the steadfast pursuit of mission-oriented research with measurable outputs and outcomes that produce game-changing national impact and transformation.
The President enjoined youths in the country to emulate the good works of the laureates by dedicating themselves to “excellence and strive to contribute their quota to the arduous task of getting Nigeria on the top bracket of outstanding nations.” However, many youths have their sights on leaving the country. What is your take?
I do not accept your implied premise that if some youths leave Nigeria in pursuit of their life goals elsewhere, then that would be incompatible with the idea of “dedicating themselves to excellence” or striving “to contribute their quota to the arduous task of getting Nigeria on the top bracket of outstanding nations”. Youths can “emulate the good works of the laureates” wherever they reside when pursuing their individual life objectives. For example, competition for the NNOM award is open to all Nigerian academics and intellectuals at home and in the Diaspora. Moreover, many Nigerians in the Diaspora are contributing enormously toward continually enhancing the status of the nation in the global arena. We do not all have to reside in Nigeria as a precondition for contributing toward the continuous upliftment of our nation. In my view, what is important is that whenever Nigerians in the Diaspora wish to contribute to national development and nation-building, either while in their countries of residence or when they wish to relocate to Nigeria, the environment in the country should be so conducive as to act as a veritable centripetal force or an irresistible pull factor that induces patriotic and problem-solving participation in national affairs. Antithetically, the centrifugal forces or push factors in the Nigeria today are overwhelming for many young people, whose lives are being adversely impacted. The situation may be ameliorated through simultaneously investing in STEM and also developing game-changing and durable national infrastructure.
Assess the teaching of mathematics in schools today as a mathematics teacher. Are you satisfied with it? How can it be improved?
The issue of the teaching of mathematics is global. Every nation battles with this problem; no nation is ever completely satisfied with its mathematics learning outcomes, as portrayed by student performance in public examinations. Accordingly, every nation strives to continuously enhance mathematics teaching and learning. As in the teaching of other subjects, the teaching of mathematics requires both human and material resources. The human resources are needed for teaching, facilitating student learning and driving school administration. To adequately carry out their functions, teachers must be properly trained or certified for the specific level of education at which they will operate and thereafter undergo periodic retraining. Because of the abstract nature and pervasive symbolization in mathematics, it is difficult for a poorly trained teacher to cope with a mixed-ability class of learners, without the requisite training. This is the cardinal problem in the Nigerian educational system. For example, it was recently disclosed by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) that 50% of the primary and secondary school teachers in Nigeria do not have the requisite teaching qualifications. This means that, for teachers, appropriate certification, together with training, training and more training, is the only way to go. There should also be some carefully designed quality assurance measures that foster continuous improvement in teaching and learning in schools at all levels. With regard to material resources, these should be available to enhance teaching and excite student motivation, visualization, learning and critical thinking.
What is your outlook for education in Nigeria? Can it get better?
As I have implied in this interview, the outlook for education in this country depends on how speedily the problems in the education sector are addressed. We are all familiar with the following unflattering descriptors of the Nigerian Education System: continuous poor funding of the education sector, shortage of qualified teachers in many States, poor working conditions for teachers, pervasive infrastructural deficits, over 10 million out-of-school children, less than 50% of girl-child participation in primary school education in the North East and North West, where many classrooms are sadly either destroyed or damaged, and the list is interminable. You would see that these issues may be resolved through a resolute confrontation of the problems. I know that several States are already doing so in various ways, even in the present dire economic situation in the country. Therefore, my outlook for education in Nigeria is one of cautious optimism that there is a pathway to a gradual renaissance in the sector.
You have been a visiting professor to top universities in Switzerland, Germany, UK, Italy, Japan to mention a few. How do you feel when you return to Nigeria and see the state of its education?
The state of education in Nigeria today is challenging, marked by the diverse headwinds that I have described earlier. But the situation can be much better, since it was previously much better than what it is today. Indeed, as I wrote elsewhere, when I joined the Department of Mathematics, University of Ibadan, in 1976, “I met a Department that was as sophisticated in every respect as the one I had just left at the University of London, UK”. Consequently, I am confident that with the right strategies and an unwavering fidelity to their implementation, the education sector can be turned around for the better. In my view, it is therefore the collective responsibility of all citizens and education experts, as well as that of the national government, sub-national governments and the private sector, to positively disrupt the prevailing unsatisfactory state of the education sector nationwide. As stated earlier, this will require, among other measures, a diligent recruitment of an adequate number of properly certified teachers, their rigorous training and retraining, and the provision of state-of-the-art teaching and learning resources to the nation’s schools at all the tiers of education.
Beyond mathematics, what else catches your interest?
Over the years, to keep physically and mentally fit, I played table tennis, squash and chess. I also enjoyed debating. I like gardening. Furthermore, I also love travelling: I have travelled to all the continents of this world, to disseminate my own research findings, while simultaneously also searching for emerging knowledge.
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