Image
courtesy of www.dreamstime.com
Recently, I was on one
of Abuja’s numerous highways when my eyes caught an MTN ad on a billboard with
the inscription learning is good, practice is better. I picked up a pen, wrote
that down and the rest of this article is what happened next.
Some years ago, I took
driving lessons from a friend. I learnt the basics and felt like I have
arrived. A couple of weeks later, I would end up bashing the car against a gate
when I was asked to drop some people off. I learnt the skill quite alright but
never took time to practice. Each time I look back at that incident, I always
think to myself learning to drive was good but practicing it would have been better.
This same thing was going to repeat itself sometime in 2008 when I represented
my school’s local government area in a Spelling Bee competition. I picked up
the dictionary, learnt most of the words but didn’t make out time to vigorously
practice them because I felt I knew them already. I lost out of the competition
that could have seen me clinching the 250,000 naira prize money and becoming
the governor of Lagos State for one day. Again, if only I had practiced.
The art of writing
could be learned, one could get books on writing to teach oneself. You could
also decide to take writing lessons from professionals in the field or even
seasoned writers and then do some fine writings. It takes constant practice to
either stick to or up your game, if not; all that is learned would be
meaningless. Learning the art is one thing and constant practice is just the
way to go as you keep tasking your brain, becoming more productive and dishing
out some fine stories, write-ups or articles as the case may be. There are a
lot of people who never sat in a class to take formal writing lessons but
learnt the art on their own, wrote consistently and today they have the sign writer
boldly written on their chest just like the Superman ‘S’sign. And just like
Superman, could save the world when the need arises, these people could defend
the sign on their chest when called upon or tasked with writing.
90 if not 95% of the
reasons why students fail exams or don’t perform to the best of their ability
is solely because of lack of practice. (The other 5 or 10% could be left for
the other factors giving the Nigerian education system.) Even assignments and
class works are designed to foster the act of practicing in the students so as
to have or show in-depth knowledge of what they are being taught. I am yet to
see a student who opens their books constantly, practice every single thing
that was written in there and not at least pass their exams in a normal
condition. That is, putting certain factors aside.
Ever wondered what the
political arena and leadership in general would look like if a good number of those
who ‘studied’ political science as a course and/or have a good knowledge of
public administration or even took leadership courses are at the helm of
affairs in the country’s government. (Studied was enclosed in inverted commas
because every single person who finds themselves within the four walls of any
higher institution in this country carries the tag ‘student’ wherever they go,
the reference therein doesn’t really include every political science students.)
For the purpose of this article, you’d agree that if these same people put all
that have been learnt into practice, there would be an array of workable
policies and progress would be recorded in some if not all sectors of the
economy. But then again, politics in this country is based on ‘experience’,
godfathers and all what’s not.
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Follow me on Twitter @Victorikeji
Nice one,keep it up!!
ReplyDeleteWe sure will. Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDelete