Must we Settle?

Hi hi,

Hope you had a nice weekend. Hmmmm... I didn't really have a good one, for a couple of reasons. For starters, the public power supply kept toying with us, the voltage kept going high-low all weekend, thereby blowing up some appliances in my house. This led to me ponder on our situation here in Nigeria right now.
I keep seeing pictures of our leaders vacationing outside the country and I always wonder: don't they want the same clean environment, security, good roads, constant power supply, health care, etc for us here in Nigeria? We seem very comfortable with the situation and do not even aspire to make it better. Why I no go vex?

I was discussing on a forum about education in Nigeria and the issue of Finland and their wonderful system of education came up. One discussant said he was okay with the situation here, and we must not look at other countries and compare! Hmmmm... See how we accept mediocrity as the norm? Finland always didn't have a wonderful education system, theirs was bad as well, but they decided to improve on it and made a major overhaul of their education system about 40 years ago. They select the top 10% of their graduates and send them to study further as teachers. The teachers spend 4 hours a day in class and take 2 hours a week for "professional development". Their schools are all public schools,  not more than 16 pupils in a class, the children start mandatory school at 7 years( not here when we shove them into the school once they're out of the womb), and the first six years are spent without giving the children any form of examination or home work. The believe in preparing children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test. Now their education system is the best in the world, even the US wants to be like them in that regard. Yet someone said we shouldn't even try and emulate this????

I acknowledge the fact that we cannot achieve all this in one year or even a century, but does that mean we shouldn't even try?? Do we settle for what is available and not aspire to get a hold of the desirable? I don't think so! Should we aspire towards mediocrity or the best? If the best is obtainable, shouldn't we aim for it? Our education system here is BAD! I learnt of a big school here in Abuja where the pupils were given WAEC questions prior to the exam so they'd all pass the exam. I sent a mail to WAEC Nigeria, don't know if they got it. We complain of brain drain in the medical field; hmmmm... the brain drain we shall experience in other fields is still doing press-ups, getting ready to punch us all in the face (all pun intended). We all know the importance of good education, yet we keep toying with our education system. Under our Ministry of Education, we have over 20 parastatals (Agencies, Departments and Commissions), yet, our public schools are in deplorable states.

 The same thing happens in our daily lives; we have this 'just accept it' syndrome which I find irritating. Just because it had always been like this doesn't mean we shouldn't want to change it when the old system doesn't work anymore. Looking for job? Just settle for whatever is available even if you're miserable every morning you go to work, or it's not what you want to make a career out of. In marriage? don't be choosy, just settle for that guy or girl that's available (and cheat your way though it with the desirable that'll come your way later). Power supply? Haba, just know that it gets better in rainy season and gets worse during dry season! so it's okay, we're used to it. No questions asked, no agitation. Methinks we're too complacent to change the status quo. Maybe we're afraid, but if we don't try, we will never know. I believe in not knocking it until you've tried it. Do not settle when the best is obtainable!

Have a great week ahead.

Hugs...