Celebrating Brilliant Nigerian Girls Abroad

Celebrating Brilliant Nigerian Girls Abroad

WOMANHOOD today celebrates Nigerian girls in the Diaspora who have been making waves in their academic pursuits lately. 15-year-old Chidera Ota recently finished from Highstead Grammar School, Sittingbourne, Kent, Great Britain, with 15 As in her ‘O’ Level science and arts subjects. As a result of her brilliant performance, Chidera, who plans to study medicine, was offered automatic scholarship to pursue her ‘A’ Levels at King’s School, Canterbury.

Another Nigerian girl, Miss Chibundu Onuozu recently signed a deal for the publication of two novels with Faber, a frontline publisher. Chibundu is a 19-year-old undergraduate of King’s College, London. According to reports, the extraordinary deal has made Chibundu the publisher’s youngest woman author. Her first novel, The Spider King’s Daughter, has been scheduled for publication next year. Chibundu told CNN in an interview that she wrote the novel in her final year in school. She said she had been writing since the age of 10 and that The Spider King’s Daughter was the first book she had completed.

There were other young Nigerian girls before Chibundu who had distinguished themselves in the field of writing. They include Chimamanda Ngozi whose novel entitled Half of A Yellow Sun won her the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction, and Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, the author of I Do Not Come To You By Chance, which has won many awards including the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Last year, a 15-year-old Nigerian girl, Miss Kimberly Anyadike, was a global attraction when she broke aviation records by becoming the first African-American of her age to pilot an aircraft from coast to coast. Kimberly, who had been labelled as an “at risk youth”, shocked the US authorities and indeed, the entire world, after she successfully manned the one-engine Cessna aircraft for 13 days. Within that period, she was on a flying spree from California on the West Coast to Virginia on the Eastern Coast and was greeted with funfair by elated crowds in all the 13 cities in which she landed. She landed the aircraft in Compton, California on July 11, thus completing the round trip.

Kimberly, who had always wanted to fly, began the process of realising her dream when she enrolled at Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum, a flying school and youth mentoring centre in Compton, California. At the school, she received training under an intervention and mentoring programme. After taking her flying instructions, she took up the challenge of flying an aircraft across the United States under a programme sponsored by the US Tuskegee Airmen, a group of Black US military pilots who were discriminated against by the US Armed Forces during World War II on racial grounds. One of the Airmen, Levi Thornhill, aged 86, flew with her across the US. Kimberly said she wanted to use the historic flight to honour the famous Tuskegee Airmen for their services during the war. Her extraordinary feat dominated the media, both local and international. The US authorities were impressed by Kimberly’s uncommon feat. The Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger invited her to visit the state capital. And there were talks that she might meet with the President, Barak Obama.

These highly intelligent Nigerian girls resident abroad have done the nation proud, polishing her image which had been badly dented by corruption and other crimes before the international community. It is, however, worrisome that while the Nigerian girls resident abroad are making waves in their education and realising their life dreams, their counterparts at home are recording mass failures in major examinations like the West African School Certificate Examinations (WASCE) and National Examinations Council (NECO). This is because of the sorry state of our educational sector. Education has been so neglected by successive administrations in this country that basic facilities are now lacking in the schools especially for the teaching of science and technology, while unqualified teachers who are poorly remunerated are engaged to teach the students. Government would also not implement salary structures and allowances it agrees on with the teachers until they embark on strike actions which constantly disrupt academic activities. All these contribute to the dismal performances of the Nigerian-based students.

The outstanding performances of those in the Diaspora have shown that Nigerians possess great talents which can be harnessed for unrivalled excellence and productivity if the environment is conducive. The girls were able to achieve these feats because of the environments they live in, where opportunities abound to fully exploit their potential, which placed them at an advantaged position to realise their life ambitions. Their counterparts at home cannot boast of the educational facilities that they enjoy abroad as our educational system has deteriorated so terribly. Many of our youths in Nigeria are frustrated and have taken to crimes ranging from armed robbery, assassination, cultism, fraud to the latest hydra-headed monster called kidnapping. This is because there are no opportunities to positively channel their energies to, and they have to survive the odds against them occasioned by bad and irresponsible governance.

It is certain that more of the brilliant girls (and indeed, boys) will be discovered if the government will pay priority attention to education and put in place measures aimed at improving the sector. Existing facilities must be improved while new ones must be provided. Highly qualified teachers should also be employed and they must be well remunerated to bring out the best in them and avoid the incessant strike actions that disrupt academic activities from time to time. The youths are the leaders of tomorrow and if we fail to give them the necessary education, what can we hope to get from them tomorrow? Education of the youths is an investment which the government cannot afford to joke with. If we are aspiring to be among the greatest 20 economies of the world by the year 2020 as our Vision 20: 2020 says, this is the time to work towards achieving that vision.

Providing quality education for our youths has a great role to play in this regard. The human resources to achieve that vision must be well trained. They must have access to qualitative education that can identify and develop their talents. The youths in Nigeria can do exploits like their counterparts in the Diaspora if exposed to the same facilities and learning conditions. If a 15-year-old Nigerian girl could fly an aircraft the way Kimberly did, then the sky is just the beginning for our youths if given the right education. There is no telling what that 15-year-old can do in the next 10 years with continuous quality education. Our youths are able to propel the nation to the great heights that we have all been yearning for, if the government will invest properly in their education. That is the message from the feats of those young Nigerian girls abroad.

Parents also have a role to play in the education and general development of the youths. Aside from enrolling their children in good schools where they can have access to qualitative education, they are to help the kids to identify and develop their potential. By caring to know their life ambitions and observing them in the homes to know what they love to do, they can help the kids especially teenagers to identify their potential, and then, take concrete steps towards helping them to develop such talents. Mothers are generally closer to the children than their fathers and they are more available at home than the men. So, their role in this regard cannot be over-emphasised. But there is little parents can do when the opportunities for developing talents or fully realising children’s potentials are lacking.

By Nike Oluwole

(First published on October 14, 2010)