THE NIGERIAN EXPO?


Attending the ‘somewhat’ Architecture Expo of the University of Lagos – Nigeria, got a number of people thinking in different manners and forms, and it also did me. I used the word ‘somewhat’, because in respect to architecture expo’s occurring the world over, on a yearly basis, ours was like a spit in the desert. Nonetheless, Rome was not built in a day. The fact that something of this manner is just being birthed speaks volumes of how below we are as a country and as Black peoples. Needless to say even as youths. Again, nonetheless, the effort must first be commended.
The first architecture expo (I stand to be corrected) of the Department of Architecture, University of Lagos took place on a Wednesday the 16th of September 2015; with little to no aplomb. It featured as usual ‘potentials’ of great architects, artists and art creatives. When we shall break beyond the barrier of potentials is a matter of another day. Featuring also were enthusiasts; critics; lecturers; and big players in the architecture/construction industry – the FMAs, the James Cubitts, ACCLs.
Of course! Far from it, that this be an appraisal to wax lyrically on the beauties of the ARCHIEXPO, ‪#‎UNILAG‬. It is rather a stark opposite. Faced with my own challenges like any other human being on this surface earth. It never did cross my mind, that I would attend a single event of the UNILAG architecture week, (not that I would be missed anyway). But upon seeing a poster bill for the exhibition event, it did spark some of my interest. So fast-forward to the end of the exhibition. You have postgraduate students commending this feat. The pride they felt that their school could execute such progressive event; and also the shame on their, our faces that we could not think of, or achieve this (again) progressive feat. Instead what we all saw in our times’ were houseparties, costume days (parties) and cultural days – where we all donned our agbádás, dansiki’s, bùbá and ìró’s in stupid pride, as if to say we wore them every day in that ‘stupid’ pride.
So, take a walk every second semester of every session in the University of Lagos, and you will see banners upon banners of Law Week, Engineering Week, Science Week, and all sorts of weeks. And like we students all know this so-called Weeks have nothing to do with the nouns preceding them; except for a single day. The much heralded corporate day; where less than ten percent of students from the department partakes in. And where we all wear thick padded suits-and-ties like we are all corporate slaves. But that again is another matter for another day. Thus the fact that the University of Lagos had a student organised architecture expo is a sixty watt bulb in a dark hall. How long the sixty watt bulb will last, and how quickly it will be joined by a thousand more 1000+ watt bulbs, is left to be seen.
Early this week with a group of mind-liked colleagues discussing on the issues of Africa. It was obliviously brushed upon – the fact that ideas that made up the current riches and wealth of the Silicon Valley began in Jaja-like halls of somewhat universities, like the University of Lagos. Of course we all laughed aloud the ironic comparison of the products of the King Jaja Hall to the halls of the Harvard University. Again, another fact of our below-filth status – as Youths. Pass the buck all you want, to the government, the teachers, leaders, the educational system, etc. It must however be said that ‘we’ have done nothing as a generation to affect positive (technological) changes in our environment or country. All you have hither and thither are paltry calf-like efforts scattered haphazardly over this semi-wasteland. So upon typing this talk-is-cheap-like piece, I wondered why we do not have (student organised) University of Lagos; Engineering Expos, Science Expos, Law Expos, Art Expos, and the likes. Instead all we have are InExcess Beach Parties, Grind House parties, Engineering barbecue nights et al. Of course proponents of the aforementioned’s would argue that “all work and no play, makes Jìmí a dull boy”. But trust me, Jìmí is more than a dull boy, he is a confused African, and ‘all work’ is not even sufficient to save him. Some would also argue that school is not made for them or they were not made for school, that instead, “owó ni kókó” ‪#‎davido‬. This also, of course, another discourse for another day. But I shall restate that these are all mumming’s of the confused African youth. As Walter Rodney rightly put, “… youths and young adults are human agents from whom inventiveness springs”, but all I see, and all we are, are confuse, dried up African springs. There are barely iotas of inventive springs in this country, not to talk of inventive wells (of course they are also dried up) – and where these inventive iotas exist we are brain-drained of them. That also is another topic, for another day. Using also another excerpt from Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, “… in the German Democratic Republic, the youth established a ‘Young Innovators’ Fair in 1958, calling upon the intellectual creativity of socialist youth, so that within ten years over 2,000 new inventions were presented at that fair”. Of course I stand to be corrected, but I think not that there exists an invention fair in this Giant-of-Africa country of ours. There is no culture of Science fairs in primary schools (which is the foundation) so it is not too surprising that African youths in the university do not give a hoot about expos. It was only some years ago that I watched on television a science fair for public schools in Lagos state supported by the then Fásholá administration. How long that will or is still lasting, only time will tell. Although elite schools mainly on the Lagos Island are beginning to play with the idea of science fairs in primary and secondary schools. But how much of an effect it will have on the Nigerian populace remains to be seen in the near future. Or the fact that these children of aristocrats will mainly be shipped abroad, only to return – if willing – to a group of peoples with whom they have little to no connection with or even know about, and even later preside over or represent in political matters, as ‘they’ claim to do. ‪#‎nigeriansenators‬
Another buttressing point, of which we are too oblivious to the fact, and have been gullible to, for far too long; is one of Trade Fairs. The Lagos Trade Fair is about the most popular of them all, featuring mainly imported products and little (to no) Nigerian made products. And just as the aforementioned fair suggests, we have become like our forebears “too concerned with ‘trade’ than with ‘production or invention´. Therefore we will remain, if not otherwise a dependent poor and confused country. Hopefully we will also not declare without shame in the days when our youth has departed us and proclaim that, “My generation has failed this country”. ‪#‎GEJ‬
You can call it what you want or analyse it how you see it. But this is just a young African airing the saddening views of the Nigerian educational system and its ‘prospects’. Prospects who cannot wait, but to get to the top and have a share also of the national cake. Prospects who cry every four years of how they ought to be leaders of the so-called tomorrow, but in truth cannot wait to also grab a seat of power for themselves and their household. Prospects who complain that Nigeria is this and that, but cannot also wait, but to loot of the nation’s treasury. Prospects, who are confused.

Ayeni Olajide