The inaugural Herald Guest of the Month is Professor Enase Okonedo, FCA. She is currently the Vice-Chancellor of Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria. Prior to this, she was Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and Dean of Lagos Business School (LBS). Enase Okonedo joined Lagos Business School in 1995 after a stint in the banking and financial services sector. Before she was appointed Dean, she was a full-time faculty member at the school teaching courses in Finance as well as Problem-Solving and Decision-Making; and held several leadership positions at the School. The Director, Very Rev. Fr. Anthony Godonu and Editor, NETA NWOSU chatted with Professor Enase, a Catholic of repute on her growing-up, career and experiences cum challenges facing the tertiary education in Nigeria. Excerpts:
The home is the first school, and looking at where you are today, you have achieved so much. Being the Vice Chancellor of Pan Atlantic University is no small achievement. So, how did your home contribute to you acquiring this enviable career profile?
I think that you are absolutely right. I mean the home is our first school, and that’s where we learn a lot of things. My home and upbringing is what instilled in me the values that I treasure and that have been my guiding post all through my life. I’m the last of eight children. And nuclear family, eight children, with me being the last. Whenever I tell people that I’m the last, they say, ‘Eh, you must be spoiled’, but I say nothing like that eh. There was no room for spoiling me. But in my home, there were some things that I treasure. The first thing was the whole idea of what I Iater came to know as the dignity of the human person; treating everybody right and being respectful of everyone. Honestly, in those days, beyond the nuclear family, there would be relatives and friends that come, it was a large family, we had domestic help and things.
But in that home, I learnt respect for everybody, regardless of whether they were domestic helps or not. The second thing was truth and integrity. My father was a civil servant, served in positions in which he could have taken opportunities to do things that perhaps may have put him in a better stead, but that I didn’t see happen. But more than that, one of the things that made the first impression on me was as a young child was the military take over, I think it was Murtala Muhammed that became president. And one of the things that followed was a mass retrenchment of people. So, we would be sitting and watching TV, and then, we would see names being called out of people who have been retired with alleged offences then; corruption, embezzlement and things like that.
And subsequently, when somebody comes visiting, my dad would ask, ‘Ok, so who are your parents, who are these? And I remember once, a friend came and mentioned her name, and after she left, my dad said to me, ‘You know her father was one of those who were indicted, are you sure you want to be friends with this person because if her father is like that, what would you learn? So, I learnt truth, I learnt integrity, I learnt charity. My mother was and is still selfless in giving. I learnt that as well. So, many things that you learn just growing up. And I think those are the things that stand us in good stead as we embark on our life and professional journey because we always need guiding posts, there was no grey area. It was pretty clear what was right and what was wrong. And I think that has helped me tremendously on how far I have come in life.
You have a background in accounting; from accounting you moved into the banking and financial sector, and now, you are in the classroom. So, what motivated you from the banking and financial sector to the classroom?
It was just pure serendipity. It wasn’t planned at all. I studied accounting in school only because I couldn’t get in for economics and they took me in for accounting. And having completed my accounting degree, it just seemed incomplete if you didn’t do your professional accounting exams. So, one was not deemed to be an accountant if you just have a bachelor’s in accounting. So, I went to do my professional exams and qualified as a chartered accountant. But at that point in time, I had no desire to work in an accounting firm, and I must say that my desire to work in an accounting firm or not was pleasing because of the income that I would earn. In those days, if you went to work in an accounting firm, you would earn something like N200 a month, and if you worked in a bank, you would earn N1,800. It was a no brainer, and then, I did the professional exams. And so, I chose to work in financing services. I started my career working in a financial boutique called Cashlink Investment and thereafter, I moved into banking. It was very interesting.
It was very exciting. We used to structure deals in Nigeria then. And then, sometime in the late 80s, early 90s and the banking sector was liberalised and we had a lot of people coming into banking. There was a proliferation of finance houses, of banks, and all of a sudden, the banking game changed, it then became how easily you could source for deposits and then place the deposit somewhere else. I found that I wasn’t any longer intellectually stimulated. It wasn’t as exciting as it was when I began, and therefore I was restless, and I thought, ‘Ok, what do I do next? And remember that I was an accountant that I never worked in an accounting firm. I was an accountant and had always been the banker. And then I didn’t want to be a banker any longer. After eight years, I couldn’t now go and start from scratch. So, I thought, “Ok, let me go and do an MBA just sort of broaden my horizon and then, I would be able to decide what it was I was going to do.’ So, I decided I was going to quit banking. At about that time, Lagos Business School was relatively new, and then, the principal media we had then was the traditional media, which was the newspapers, radio and television alone.
And in the newspapers, they had these catchy, very attractive adverts that were coming out at Lagos Business School. I just was sort of piqued by the topics of the seminars, and I always used to look at them. And one day, I saw an ad saying they were looking for Research Assistant. I said ok, let me go and try. So I went there because I decided to do banking, but this was about the first quarter of one year and then I had gotten admission to go and do an MBA in September. So, I had like couple of months free. And this was the job as advertised was a one-year contract. So, I said ok, let me go there. But instead of just dropping my CV, I asked to see the person in charge, the Director of Programmes just to have a chat with him to know what it was about. And I went, had a chat with him and he said, ‘you are overqualified for the role.’ And I said, ‘But why is that your problem, isn’t it better for you?’ and he said, ‘No, you are quite set on your career, why would you want to leave it and come and take a one-year job? So, I managed to persuade him that whether or not I got this job, I was going to leave banking anyway because I was tired.
He then said, ‘Ok, well, we are looking for a mature Research Assistant for then Dr. Kolade who was a faculty at Lagos Business School. And he said, ok, go and have a chat with him and see. And I went to him. I had no idea what being a Research Assistant was all about, but I had time, it was six months, I liked Lagos Business School, the building was very impressive, pristine and I thought, ‘Oh, this is not a bad place. And so I went and I got the job which was meant to be a one-year contract. But then, six months into it, I was told that a vacancy had risen in the finance department for a lecturer. But I said I was going to do an MBA in September, and they said, ‘no, we have plans to begin an MBA, so if you could, you could do it here. And I thought that wasn’t a bad deal; and at that point, I started to enjoy the work that I was doing. So, that’s how I got into academia, completely unplanned, and am glad I did, and I am enjoying it so much.
So, what are the experiences so far, from Lagos Business School to Pan Atlantic?
It’s been an interesting journey. It’s been an exciting journey. I have just been fortunate I think to have begun work at Lagos Business School for a number of reasons. Earlier on, you asked about the experiences I have had in my first school which was my home, and I told you about the values that I learnt from home which have just been my breakings as I go through life. One of the first things that I realised in joining Lagos Business School was that it was an alignment of values. Also at Lagos Business School, there were no grey areas. From the very beginning, the founders of the school made business ethics, both the teaching and the living of business ethics one of the key pillars, and it remains today from Lagos Business School to Pan Atlantic University because Lagos Business School even though it is a business school of the university, it preceded the university. So, it’s been a business school for about ten years before we became a university.
So, first of all, there was an alignment of values. The second thing was that I think I was very fortunate to have bosses that allowed me the freedom to run, by entrusting me with responsibilities. And in my earlier years at the business school, they entrusted me with responsibilities that sometimes, I even sort of took a step back and thought how now? I recall in those days as a young faculty, one of the tasks that I had was to take students on a study tour. So, for a period of about seven years, I would take students; executives as well as MBA students to IESE Business School in Barcelona for a study tour. The first time I was going, they just gave me a letter. We have a relationship with IESE Business School. It was instrumental in the growth and development of Lagos Business School from the very beginning. And we have always enjoyed some sort of out-holding from them until we came into our own. The first time I was going, they gave a letter to me and said when you get there; give it to the Secretary General who manages the account. He was just like, ‘Oh, Enase Okonedo is coming, she’s leaving here, allow her to withdraw whatever money she wants.
It was just like a blank cheque. And I did that, obviously for the purpose for which it was intended, which was the study tour, paying for things for the students. I came back, nobody asked me for accounts. Being an accountant, I did my own and submitted. The second time the same thing. The next year was the same. I said is there something wrong with you people? You give somebody a blank cheque, you don’t ask that. But it was that sort of trust that existed within that place, that they trusted a human person. Of course, Nigeria was not like this then. Of course, when I first started teaching, obviously I was 27 years younger. So, you can imagine as I was teaching executives, some of them chief executives of large organisations. Invariably, there were always some people in the class who knew more than me. Sometimes they wanted to prove that they know more than me. Sometimes they wondered who was this person? But I got very good advice from a professor at the IESE Business School when I was just going to begin teaching because I did my MBA, and just learning how to teach at IESE Business School, and he said to me, ‘You know what Enase, you may be young, you may look young, obviously, your experience is limited. You are going to see people coming with decades of experience and all of that. And he said the one thing that you must always do is prepare and over prepare. So, if for one thing, your intellect, your knowledge because you have prepared and over prepared will stand you in good stead.
And it was an advice that I took to heart. And if I couldn’t win them over on account of my age because I was younger, or because of my experience at that time was limited to one sector, at least I knew the academics more than them because I had prepared more than them. And I think that was very good advice that has kept me in good stead. I had the privilege of good mentoring. At that time, I didn’t know there were mentors; I just had professors who I was learning how to teach from IESE, but mentoring me, then also my boss. My bosses were actually my mentors. My immediate boss was Dr. Christopher Kolade who was as strict as an arrow, a man of high values, high morals, and high integrity. But from him, my values were strengthened. But then more than that, I learnt how to work and work in an organised manner, just from his examples. And then the boss who trusted me, who became the second Dean of Lagos Business School, Profesor Juan Manuel Elegido, he was my immediate boss, I had the privilege of reporting to him all through my career until I became the Vice Chancellor.
So, I learnt from there because I taught, and as I was teaching people on how to see things differently, I also was open to learning. So, I learnt as much from subject matter experts, and I learnt from others who now I know assumed the role of mentors to me. I enjoy teaching. When you talk to people who were at Lagos Business School for their MBA, for their MBS, I won’t tell you what they say about me. But I used to harass people in class, but I used to like to that point of an aha moment when they understand the finance. You know several people have a fear of numbers, of accounting, sometimes it’s a mental block, so just overcoming that and encouraging people to take it as a challenge, harassing them to learn the fine art of accounting, it gave me a lot of joy.
What steps would you encourage a fresh graduate to take to acquire the career heights you have acquired so far?
I take it for granted that the height that I have acquired was not on my own, it was grace. When I became Dean of the school, I certainly wasn’t the most experienced, I was not the best enough in the school, and there were several other people that could. But there’s an element of grace, but we have to tap into it. And nowadays, because the young people somehow or the other, God and spirituality doesn’t teach us so much, unfortunately, in the things that they do. And I always remind them there is a God and I try and use logic. If only the young people would sit down and think of it, just creation for example, then they will realise there is a superior being who is God that made us.
So, that’s the first thing that I encourage young people to do; to say, don’t forget that somebody made you. It’s not your parents; don’t forget that. And don’t forget because I have seen it at every step of my life, good, bad, high, low, just the presence. So, that’s the first. The second is that I encourage the young people to take responsibility for their wellbeing. Again, maybe it’s their generation that people want to be fed, maybe it’s the system, I don’t know what it is. But people want to be led at every turn, and sort of have an entitlement mentality that things should just come to them, and they have no role to play, and sometime begrudge you when you don’t give them those things.
And I tell them, ‘you are the one that should be responsible for your learning, you need to take charge, you need to own it, and then learn from others. Of course, they learn from the internet, but I encourage them to learn from the good part of the internet. One is to recognise the role that God plays in the life of each one of us, the second to be open to learning and the third is to turn their passion to a hobby if it can pay their bill and look for what can pay their bills because you have to pay your bills and you have to do things for others as well and then, be respectful. Those would be the key things I will tell them.
ASUU on several occasions has called for university autonomy in such a manner that universities will operate without interference from the government. Are you on same page with ASUU?
I work with a private university, so academic staff are not members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities. When we talk about university autonomy, I think there’s a good part of it. But there are also some parts that one has to be cautious about. I think that autonomy enables you to be more efficient because you run your own show and therefore you are not subject to any form of bureaucratic inefficiencies that may be present if you don’t run your own show. The second is that it gives you agility to be able to do things and therefore, it spurs innovation because if you decide that this is how we want to do this, this is where we want to go, this is the university you want to become, this is what we want to be known for, there’s nothing that stops you from pursuing it because you are your own master and that gives you academic freedom. So, that’s on one side.
But even if we are allowed to do all of those completely, I think there’s still a need for regulation, which is the role that the National Universities Commission plays in Nigeria because obviously, when they confer accreditation on degree programmes, there’s a mark of quality, and therefore, for universities and education, I believe that we still need regulators to be able to help. When I speak to those who are completely on the side of complete autonomy, one of the constraints that universities face, especially the federal and state universities is funding. Obviously, the needs of the populace go beyond the amount that is targeted towards education. And if you look at the percentage of the budget allocated to education, it’s far below what universities prescribe for education. Of course, there are other things. When we look at it, it’s in the region of 5, 6 percent, but of course, there are also other sources funding that come. Autonomy means that universities can decide what to charge, and then with the fees that come or whatever revenue is generated, they can go on to do some things.
So, there are arguments on both sides. I come from a university, in which we are made up of schools, and none of the schools is completely autonomous because as the parent university, we need to ensure standard, quality, uniformity in philosophy, in thoughts, in action, however, they have a high degree of autonomy. So, they are not completely autonomous, but they have a high degree; which means that they make their own money, they determine how they spend their own money we approve their budget, but we have to appoint professors there, but they choose what they are going to do and how to do it. That’s what I am going to subscribe to. It does not negate the role of regulators, but allows universities the freedom to pursue their own way in disciplines, in curriculum and so on and so forth.
There have been diverse views on whether to charge fees in universities or not, and ASUU is insisting that there should be non-payment of fees to encourage indigent students to have access to university education. What is your take on this?
The first thing we have to recognise is that education is expensive. University education is expensive. In instances when one has to rely on subventions or grants alone, it may not be sufficient to cater for all the needs of the university. Staff have to be adequately compensated, the remuneration has to be a living remuneration. Research costs money. There’s a lot that is required that subventions and grants cannot cover. And therefore, the notion of university education being free in a country like ours can only happen when there are a number of things in place. And I’m not so sure that at this stage of our development, and looking at the amount that is allocated to education over the last decade or so that is a possibility. But the argument is about if it’s free, the indigent students can afford it. It’s only because we have a system in which until the president’s pronouncement about the students’ loan couple of weeks ago, did not provide financing for students.
Now, at Lagos Business School, we are a private university, we set our own fees, we don’t have a proprietor neither are we backed by a Church. So, really, we have to generate all our own money, and it comes from our tuition, grants and donations. And therefore, we have always been interested in people, beyond the category of people who can ordinarily afford the fees coming to the school because otherwise, you exclude the majority. And for many years we sought to get schemes to work with banks in order to give loans to the students to be able to come. We were completely unsuccessful.
We can only think of affordability of fees when the ecosystem is such that allows that loans are given as happens in other parts of the world where students’ loans exist. But then, there’s a lot that comes into that. I think that things like scholarships, things like student loans, things like grants maybe if they were in place will enable indigent students to come to universities. But the point that I always make, and when I use to make that point, people will say, ‘oh, it’s easy for you to make that point after all, you are a university graduate. I think we have to accept the reality that not everybody will go to university. But of course, the environment that we are in today puts a lot of pressure on people, sometimes, people are even deemed less educated or qualified if they didn’t go to university.
And education can take different forms, there are polytechnics, there are technical and vocational training institutes. So, maybe we should de-emphasise university. When I used to speak about that, people will say, ‘it is easy for you.’ No, I really mean it. I have close friends who despite having university degrees, one runs a hairdressing salon and has made a living from that for so many years. My other close friend is a dressmaker. Nothing that they studied in school is related to that. Why waste four years and come out and do dressmaking, instead, why don’t you just learn the dressmaking from year one and then enter into that. Let’s stop thinking that university is the way. Of course, as Vice Chancellor, it’s in my interest if people come to university. People just are cut out for different things.
Public institutions over the years have been experiencing disruptions in academic activities due to strikes. What do you think is the solution to this?
I think that there are legitimate demands that have to be addressed. And unfortunately, I haven’t worked in any public academic institution. But I think that there are legitimate demands. If there are agreements that have been put in place by both sides, if you have a contract with someone, you stick with it, and if not, you come back to the drawing table. Let’s look at the reintroduction of the education loans; may we have your view on this? I think it’s a good thing. I think it’s a good start.
When I went to school, we had bursaries. So, if you came from a certain state, they will give you bursary. For us though, that was extra pocket money. But for some other people, it was good and it was useful, but that disappeared over the years. So, I’m gladdened. Some people criticised it, and say, oh no, how is going to happen? What is N500,000? It is a lot and it is significant. So rather than criticising it, I would say let’s look at it being implemented, and implemented in such a way that it benefits those that will come in there. I think it’s a welcome development.
You have been in the university system for several years. Going back and looking forward, I would like you to describe the state of university education in Nigeria?
I think we have made good progress. If you look at the number of universities, we have over 200 universities; we then have the majority being private universities as at today. That’s a welcome development because in the past, universities were just federal and state, and therefore, what happened was that when people deemed or desired that their children get education that was different or perhaps perceived to be higher quality, most times they will look to going abroad. I know that going abroad is still something that a lot of Nigerians do. However, the percentage of students that go abroad is infinitesimal compared to our youth population. For the rest of us, we have to be educated here. And the fact that we have private universities that have come up. For some of them, they do subsidize those fees. I think that that’s a welcome development.
The advantage of having private universities in the system is that things like the remuneration can be determined at will by the governing council, the proprietor, there’s fewer disruptions, and therefore, people can be sure that if you go into universities today, if it’s a four-year course, in four years’ time, we will graduate as opposed to when you enter university, it could take you seven to nine years to finish that. So, people can sort of get on with their life. So, I think that we have made tremendous progress in that regard. Before we used to have what we call benchmark minimum academic standards for universities whereby the curriculum is determined by the National Universities Commission. So, it was like homogeneity in what universities offer. If I’m going to do computer science, if I’m doing it there, it’s exactly the same. But universities, as I mentioned earlier on, we want to be innovative, someone may say, ‘you know what, I want everybody graduating from this university to have certain skills, certain competencies. The world is moving on.
Sometimes, the curriculum review has not kept pace with development in certain fields in the world, and therefore, you wanted to introduce it and some of our hands were tied. But earlier this year, the National Universities Commission came up with something called the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards that allows universities to determine 30 percent of their curriculum. I think that that’s a good development. I think that technology has also helped us because again, in the past, everything that we did, we had to do physically, but now, with technology, what it means is that if I have a professor who I may not have been able to bring to teach my students, deliver a session online and therefore am exposing my students to new concepts, new ideas, different cultures because they are learning there. And a number of universities now are adopting technology in terms of having things like that cross cultural teams to work on projects, etc. It may not be where we want to go, but I think progress has been made.
There’s a high wave of emigration of Nigerian youths to other countries, what do you think is responsible for this?
I would say it’s a number of things. Why do people go? Let’s first ask ourselves the question. I think people leave because they see limited opportunities in the environment. That’s one. People leave for the opportunities that could arise. A lot of them take the route of going through studies and then hoping that they can remain. So, they go in, sign up for a course for two, three years. They know they will finish at the right time, after that, they have opportunity to stay. Secondly, the work opportunities are there. Remember Africa is the continent with the largest youth population. In several other parts of the world, there’s an aging population and population rates may be in decline, so our people go there to find work. So, they look for work opportunities, they look for the education of their children. Honestly, funding of education at a higher level is expensive.
The one I find a bit harder to accept is what early child education costs here from kindergarten or nursery? What are they teaching them? So, you think of young graduates, people that have graduated and they are raising families. So, people leave for opportunities to get a good education for their children. We are more comfortable at home with our people around us, our way of life, our social life. When people make the decision to leave, it is a great decision, but then of course, it is because of the environment. So, until things start to improve, economically, socially for people, I believe that we will continue to see this wave of migration.
You are a professor of management. What advice do you have for government in addressing the issues that has to do with our crumbling economy, unemployment and rising insecurity?
The role of government is to provide an environment that enables businesses to thrive, which means that the necessary policies, rules and regulations have to be put in place for businesses to thrive. I think the focus should be those, on how do we ensure that we make the country, a place that is fit for living and for businesses to thrive? Of course, that’s a sweeping statement, but it cuts across several other things. When we talk about unemployment, it is really a lack of jobs.
How do we create more jobs? What are the things that can be done to stimulate the economy so that jobs can be created? Unfortunately, with the situation that we face right now, a lot of small businesses are really feeling the pinch. Remember in Africa, especially Nigeria, the informal economy is by far larger than the formal economy. About 90 percent of businesses in this economy are small and medium businesses. These are the ones that can stimulate growth not formal one that is less than 10 percent. But for these people to stimulate growth, they need to be able to survive. And to be able to survive, we need to look at the environment.
Is there power that is affordable? Most times, people have to generate their own power. With the cost of fuel right now, for small businesses is crippling. There is the issue of multiple taxations that small businesses face, which is crippling. There’s the issue of access to finance. Of course, micro-finance banks have come up now, but even then, they shot out of traditional finances business. Until all these are looked at and addressed, small businesses cannot thrive. And if small businesses cannot thrive and create jobs, then the vast majority of our people remain unemployed. So, at the macro level, the government has to ensure that the policies in place are those that can contribute to the survival of businesses, and a number of things can fall into place.
The reading culture is going down every day. What do you think is responsible for this, and what is the solution?
What is responsible could be any number of things? When I ask people, ‘do you read?’ They tell me who has the time, especially in a city like Lagos that you have to wake up at 4 am and if you are driving or whatever. The hustle is real. People tell me about that. But for the younger people, looking at our gadgets has sort of spoilt that because even for us older people, rather than read a book that would require you to sit for an hour or more at a time, you just go there, we take small bites of things, we absorb those things and then we go.
The solution; I always look at things and say, ‘how can I be part of the solution? And I guess that’s why I’m involved in AIFA Reading Society because we recognise the fact that the reading culture is dying. And therefore, our aim is to promote a reading culture in Nigeria at first, and hopefully in Africa. And we do a number of things. We have a young writers’ club in which we have essay competitions for people in junior and senior secondary schools to write essays. Obviously, we give a topic. For you to write the essays, you have to read. And the winners go with a prize. The two top winners go with a prize. It’s a significant cash prize that encourages people to do that. We promote reading clubs in different areas among different categories, within universities, among friends. At times I just say to people, ‘You know what? Call your friends together, give them something to read, come together come and discuss it; what are the lessons you got out of this?’ We go on book drives, we tell people who have kids that have passed a certain age to donate their books to us because sometimes, people in a certain income bracket, they don’t read because they don’t have books.
So, we collect books from people, we sort out the books and then we distribute these books; text books, reading books, we distribute it to various schools. We help out in schools setting up libraries, traditional libraries not e-libraries; in which we have books, and then create a quiet space where people can go. These are the things we do in the reading society to promote the reading culture. Then to encourage people, I give out books as gifts, and then I ask the people, ‘have you read it, it’s interesting let’s discuss it sometime. These are the things we do.
How is Pan Atlantic University different from other universities in Nigeria?
How it’s different is that we educate in freedom and with freedom. And I will tell you what that means. I mentioned that we have the majority of universities that are private universities. A large number of these universities are faith based universities. A university is a place where you transition to adulthood. And maybe because of what is happening in the society. Of course, the world has become a scarier place. So, people are very scared of their children being in the wide world and going into the university alone and away from them. So, most times, they would prefer that the children are in the university in which there are really tight guard rails around. We think differently.
Of course, their rules and regulations which if you violate, there are consequences. But because we believe this is a place where you learn how to become an adult, there is freedom. But you recognise that with that freedom comes responsibility. So, it’s true; you can do as you please, but if you go against those rules, these are the consequences. As different from other ones that perhaps they lock you in, they stipulate that you must worship in certain ways, they must believe what you believe, you must act in a certain way. No. We give people the choice. This is who we are. Our philosophy is based on the Christian identity of man.
We have Catholic doctrine. We are not owned by the Church, but our philosophy stems from the understanding of Catholic doctrine. So, we educate in freedom and with freedom because this is where you learn how to be an adult because otherwise, you find that the people, they moved to a higher secondary school in which they are directed at every turn, they are controlled at every turn and they get out into the big wide world and they don’t know how to function That’s how we are different. We put a lot of emphasis on character formation. So, we give the knowledge, but we give the values and we promote the attitudes that we think are useful for a true professional. We can’t give only the knowledge without the values.
And one of my favourite quotes, is from Franklin Roosevelt, one-time president of America, and he sort of encapsulates what it is that we try and do. He says, ‘if you educate a man in knowledge but not in values, you just created a menace in the society.’ So, if we give the knowledge, but we don’t give the values, given the fact that we put a lot into ensuring that the knowledge that we give is cutting edge, we may just be creating sophisticated criminals. So, we give the values that we are able to say this knowledge should be sued for the good of the society. Don’t use it only for self and don’t use it for criminal activities. That’s how we are different.
You are sitting here with the team in the Directorate of Social Communications where you have the Catholic Herald, the Archdiocesan newspaper and you have the spokesperson of the Archbishop, Very Rev. Fr. Anthony Godonu, so what advice do you have for us?
Every Sunday, the paper is promoted in the Church. They tell us a new one is here; buy it and things like that. I think that the future of our country lies in the hands of the youths. If we want to ensure that these readers are really people that formed right. In order to read, we need to get hold of their mind and their thinking. And if you need to get a hold of their mind and their thinking, we need to think what are the ways we can get them.
Of course, we are trying to promote a reading culture and this in itself – the traditional media – is very good. But the youth of today, they read on the go, they read in small bit sized pieces, they read on their gadgets. We may wonder whether we may not look at non-traditional media to have snippets of these things because that is how they read. I think that this is good for me, my generation. Maybe those ones there, those people whose minds we want to get, how do we reach them? If this is what they are using, let’s see how we can put it there. And even before then maybe to create social media pages, get a young person.
We need the young people that understand how it works and what they listen to, to understand how it works, put those things in snippets. In business or marketing, we say the whole objective is to gain share of mind. We can use this same too here; to gain share of mind. How can we put those things out there? Of course, there are various things out there; catechism, this one. We need to use something for peculiarities of the environment. I would just say, get into nontraditional media in order that we can shape the minds of the youths, and then have things that can be more appealing to them and attract them therefore, to contribute to becoming leaders of tomorrow.
