The principle of the Invisible Hand is a term in Economics popularised by Adam Smith, of the Classical School of Thought. It is used to describe a scenario where every individual is allowed to pursue his economic survival with zero organized interference. That in the long run, ceteris paribus (meaning all things being equal), it would lead to equilibrium in the distribution of incomes. A laissez faire economy.

But in the long run, mutatis mutandis (meaning all things not equal), it failed. It led to the severest global recession dubbed the Great Depression of 1932. No solution was in sight until the emergence of the Keynesians. They advocated for organized regulations of economic activities that will achieve collective goals instead of individual goals. This was the beginning of government regulations of the economy with its numerous benefits.

Adam Smith wrote his theory by observation of human economic behavior. Today such behavior subsist in our communities. Worse, even the government has failed us. Our individual and institutional failure has made our country less desirable to pursue our destinies. If everyone leaves who will fix things. Is it rational to want to stay in a neighbours house because you  failed to maintain your house? The human race started together. The countries we run to did not drop from heaven; the citizens fixed it. Besides, they do not want us there. An African adage says, “No matter how long a log of wood lies on water it will never become a crocodile.”

It’s time we change our mentality and attitude. Nation building is not the exclusive preserve of those in government. Citizens have greater responsibility. I love Nigeria. I believe in our potential. I beseech us to be more patriotic with civic duties. Let us start fixing our communities. There is so much paralysis and dysfunction. Our communities are full of challenges that would make anyone a celebrity when solved. We are always quick to accuse the government for our mess. We need the proliferation of local NGOs and other groups to solve real problems. If we do not act no one will.

On a final note, at this auspicious time, I can hear the groaning of many looking for true leadership. They await the sound of the horn. The sound of the Corps Volunteers for Change. We cannot afford to fail their expectations. Like the Keynesians that pulled the global economy from the abyss of the trade cycle, let us get to work by making our hands visible by pulling our communities from the dungeon of unsustainable development.

Let’s make Nigeria great!

Those days in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, aka UNIZIK, English Department was split into two major sections – Language Stress and Literature Stress. What it was like then is that every student studies both stresses in 100 and 200 levels, and then goes into one of them from 300 level.

This method helped us a lot because we were able to find out what we truly wanted before making a choice. But even at that, the model didn’t make experts out of us.

Even as I complained that UNIZIK’s model didn’t do the job very well, some schools don’t even divide their English department. They leave their students to struggle through literature and language related courses from 100 to 400 level. Maybe they thought they were doing these students a favour but they didn’t know they only ended up releasing half-baked English graduates into the society.

I know this because most of the people that passed through this later method have little or no knowledge of either language or literature related subjects. This is because for their schools to be able to stick within the approved course loads, they dropped off a lot of courses from their curricula. The end result is that the students graduated without having deep knowledge of their field of study.

I don’t know how it is for other courses but I believe English, as a course of study, should be unbundled. I was so happy when I learnt that Mass Communication Department has been professionalised and I couldn’t help wondering when English Department will receive its own “blessing”.

Both the students and lecturers of English will bear me witness when I say that we graduated from that department only to find out that we don’t have in-depth knowledge of our field. We all came into the wider world and started learning what we should have learnt from school. It is not because the lecturers didn’t do their best, but because the curriculum didn’t go deep into the course. We floated through different areas of language study because there was no way we could have achieved more within the duration of the study.

There are so many areas in English Language and Literary Studies Department that needed to be studied deeply for students to become experts. The only way this could be achieved within the four years of study for this course is to unbundle the department into several sections and units.

I don’t know the body under whose jurisdiction it is to do this, but I will suggest that English Scholars Association of Nigeria (ESAN), which is the umbrella association for other English scholars groups, should kickoff this campaign. Based on my experience as an English scholar, the English department should be broken, from 300 level, into the following divisions, sections or stresses:

1. Grammar: Grammar is one area of language study that needs in-depth analysis and understanding. It was after graduation that I found out that grammar is more than just understanding where to put “is” and “was”. Grammar itself is the basis of the language. It has so many units and sections that it shouldn’t be studied alongside other areas of the language.
2. Phonetics and Phonology: Even though we are second language users, there is still a need for experts in this area. Earmarking only one or two hours a week within a semester is not enough to learn this area. If I’m asked, I’ll suggest that students that have interest in phonetics and phonology of English should be allowed to go fully into it from their 300 level so they can graduate as experts. It is quite a pity that we graduated from English department and were not able to produce, properly, the sounds that exist in English. A lot of us don’t even know the proper intonations and rhythm, or the stress patterns of the language. This is because enough time and attention wasn’t given to learning this level of language.
3. Stylistics and Discourse Analysis: These are the people that should analyse, review and criticise language use in people’s works. These days, there is much need for critics and reviewers but few are seen because a lot were not well grounded. Many Nigerian reviewers these days are self-taught, which is not supposed to be because it should have been learnt while in school.
4. Applied Linguistics and Sociolinguistics: These people should study language use in society and the problems associated with language learning and teaching. They should be experts if they can help with the research of the use of the English language in Nigeria.
5. English as a Second Language (ESL): This section is a separate department in all universities in English speaking countries. It should also be given much priority in Nigeria.
6. Creative Writing (Fiction): It is unfortunate that people graduate from English department, even from literature stress, and still pay heavily to learn how to write fiction. This section should even be further broken into different units – drama, poetry and prose.
7. Creative Writing (Non-Fiction): This section should also be divided as its fictional counterpart.

There is no way anyone can say that when a student focuses on one particular thing, he will not become an expert in it. Packing up so many courses at the same time has never helped Nigerian students. Let them focus on one area so they can become well grounded in it. There is no need to make Nigerian students the proverbial jack of all trades that mastered none.