Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Developing Country Studies
ISSN 2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online)
Vol
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23, 2014

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Richards S
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D)
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS AND MANAGEMENT RIVERS STATE
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA
E-Mail ekwuemeelechi@yahoo
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Peter’s concept of education and the educated man as a template for leadership
recruitment in Nigeria
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However, the paper through content analyses
observes that political leadership in Nigeria from independence up to the present has fallen short of the criteria of
education and the marks of an educated man
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The paper concludes that the observance of these criteria in breach rather than in compliance inadvertently
foregrounds godfatherism in political participation while serving as precursor to the various absurdities
confronting the country
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S
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Keywords: Richards S
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Introduction
As philosophers of education take interest in analyzing concepts that have relevance to education, they
have also recognized the fact that education itself needs clarification and application
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In the effort to analyse the concept of education, Richard S
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In the opening
paragraph of his edited book The Concept of Education, he pointed out that in exploring the concept of
education, a territory is being entered where there are few signposts
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Peters has in a consistent manner tried to sharpen his ideas of the concept in
several of his writings following his Famous (1963) inaugural lecture on “Education as initiation”
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The same line of thought shall suffice here
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In the
second part, some attempts shall be made to determine the extent to which leadership recruitment in Nigeria
meets those criteria and the implications of such standard or otherwise on governance
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These are chapter One
of his Ethics and Education (1966) and “what is an educational process” the chapter he contributed in his edited
book, the concept of education (1977)
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Peters’ Criteria of Education and being educated
Peters would refrain from any attempt to define education apparently because of the difficultly in
encompassing all that education involves in one definition
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Any
process that does not satisfy these criteria, will not be called education and cannot result in the production of an
educated man
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education implies the transmission of what is worthwhile to those who become committed to it;
ii
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education at least rules out some procedures of transmission, on the grounds that they lack willingness
and voluntariness on the part of the learner (Peters 1966:25,31, 45)
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These are:
a
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Knowledge and understanding criterion
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Developing Country Studies
ISSN 2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online)
Vol
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The cognitive criterion
Mode of transmission criterion
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According to him, a man who is educated is a man who has
succeeded in relation to certain tasks on which he and his teacher has been engaged for a considerable period of
time (Peters 1966)
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In
Peters view, the connection between “being educated” and having something that is worthwhile is purely
conceptual-meaning that if we deny the worthwhileness of an activity, we are logically bound to deny referring
to that activity as being educational (Enoh 2002: 29) Peters sums up his views thus: education implies the
transmission of what is worthwhile to
those who become committed to it;
an educated man is one whose form of life as exhibited in his conduct, the activities to which he is
committed, his judgment and feeling is thought to be desirable;
it is true that people differ in their estimate of desirability in respect of achievements and states of mind
that can be thought of as desirable, all that is implied is a commitment to what is thought valuable
(Peters 1966:25, 45, 1972:9)
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In the Nigerian context, one may be constrained to ask to what extent are
the political leaders committed to the demand of their offices?
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Sir Abubaka Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first prime
minister was pushed by Ahmadu Bello to come to Lagos while he tended the shop in Kaduna
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Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was still in prison when the godfathers pulled him out of
the dungeon and put the crown on his head amidst a mild protest
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Dr
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Giving the
failing health and eventual death of the latter, luck smiled on the former who eventually became what he was not
prepared for-president
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The truth emanating from the foregoing analysis is that none of our elected leaders spent years
dreaming, studying, working , researching and networking in readiness for the top job
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Little wonder Adeyeye (2010) described Nigerian politics thus:
Our politics is depressingly primitive
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It hosts only a sprinkling of good men (Punch Newspaper Sept 28 back page)
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They have as
a result stumbled into power by accident than by design
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Unfortunately, Obafemi Awolowo, the man who spent a high time courting
the job, and was obviously prepared for it, never got it
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For instance, he insists that education does not consist in the mere acquisition of disjointed fact,
knowledge and skills, but that such facts, knowledge and skills should be properly understood and clearly
explained whenever the need arises
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Implicitly, the educated is expected to posses
the know-how, know-that and the ability to arrange experiences (Peters 1966:30)
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Developing Country Studies
ISSN 2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online)
Vol
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Also the attitudinal aspect requires that the knowledge acquired must not be inert in two ways
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Secondly, it must improve some form of knowledge on the part of the
individual who acquired the knowledge (Peters 1966:31)
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These goods, Babarinde (2000) regards as “cognitive goods” which must be demonstrated so that
they will not be inert in him
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Corroborating Peters criterion Randall as cited by Ekpu (2010:10) demands
…the leader must know, must know that he knows and must be able to make it abundantly
clear to those about him that he knows
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He must be educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent
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No first school certificate holder today can be made a
managing director of a bank or a manager of a high grade restaurant in Nigeria
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Indeed, that Nigerian leaders are too inexperienced and could be dismissed as starry-eyed novices will
not leave anyone in doubt
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In the process intellectual comprehension and spiritual depth which are elements of mental discipline
are developed
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These men will overwhelm clients with the potency of their
thoughts and ideas that drive superior market place performance
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The possession of such knowledge will reduce the incidences of tutoring, mentoring and nurturing political
leaders who should have gone through the brain purification process earlier in life
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Azaiki (2008) has noted that
in the United States for instance, 5, 100 think tanks support the government and look at government policies,
polish and return them to government
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But in Nigeria it is the contractors that
think for government due largely to lack of knowledge and understanding of the workings of the system
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The attraction of education system is in its initiation who worthwhile activities of
which Nigeria has remained largely dissonant to that principle
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Educated man should appreciate the interrelatedness of various fields of knowledge
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He could work
away at science without seeing its connection with much else, its place in a coherent
pattern of life: for him it is an activity which is cognitively adrift (1966:31)
Peters would be guarding against the tendency for individual becoming too restricted in what they know as such
narrow interest makes them to become like hermits without seeing the relationship between what they know or
engage in to related ones (Enoh 2002)
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4, No
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iiste
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For instance, president Goodluck Jonathan in one week in 2010 has made a wrong move twice that if
Nigeria were a chessboard he would have lost his king and the game would be over
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Also the award of National honours to 186 in the same year on Nigerians is an indication that
national awards have been bastardized as honorary degrees that universities award to people that are not “clean”
as long as they can afford it
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IBB? exemplary leadership? When national awards are bestowed on people who should be ostracized
for the ignominious role they played in knocking national engine does it not say something to the rest of the
citizens? Is it not a signal that it pays to plunder your country and not to plough?
Does it not annoye common sense that Nigerian government in October 2010 decided to import 600,
000 units of plastic waste disposal with N1bn for Federal Capital territory when plastics is one industry where
she is open on equal footing with every part of the world given that the basic raw materials from crude and gas
are easily available in the country?
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Does such
decision not undermine the country’s image and aspiration to become one of the industrialized nations by 2020?
It is poignant to point out a recent narrowness of mind exhibited by a minister of state for education
Kenneth Gbagi in 2010 when he shamelessly confessed that his daughter was schooling in Ghana because of the
hydra-headed problems of Nigerian education
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Should a man who is not a stakeholder in Nigerian
education be allowed to remain in such a ministry? Whatever happened to moral? The same position accounts
for why Nigerian leaders never bother to rescue education from collapse
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If it were in
Nigeria, the government would have shown apathy until the issue becomes a scandal
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In the little mind of Nigerian
leaders, militants are more powerful
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When the chips are down,
leaders whose children school abroad would realize lately that they are not safe as one thing is always the
consequence of another
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Morality is thrown to
the wind
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Accordingly, ethics shape behaviour while behaviour drives performance in every facet of life
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Is it not sickening to note that
25% of annual national budget is spent on national assembly members while the ordinary worker is fighting to
earn a paltry N18,000 a month
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Mode of Transmission criterion
Educational processes have to be directly productive of understanding based on mode of transmission
of knowledge
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Some methods are morally acceptable, others
are not
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Teaching, training, instruction, drill,
conditioning, indoctrination are all distinguishable activities within the educative process which are not by
themselves synonymous with education
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For a method to
be morally acceptable, it must not deny the learner willingness and voluntariness by which is meant that the
method must be one in which children are treated with respect, are not coerced and ordered around but are
allowed to choose for themselves
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The defining characteristic of a democratically elected government is that it assumes power at the
pleasure of the majority of the electorate voting in transparent and credible election
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4, No
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iiste
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A democratic system of government
observed Fashola (2008) must pass the credibility test on at least two levels
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In exchange
for the mandate conferred on it on trust by the people, the government is under obligation to fulfill its electoral
promises
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Credibility of the integrity of the electoral process and its capacity to ensure that government assumes
and retains power only in accordance with the majority will expressed in free and fair election
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That weak capacity is a preponderant quality
of Nigeria’s leaders, a quality shared by their aids and consultants is a naked truth
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Given this scenario, gross inability to discharge
the two aspects of legislators responsibility- representation and oversight is a common experience
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In conducting their oversight, there have been many cases of compromise and lack of
patriotism
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The flaws associated with the mode of transmission criterion in respect of elections in Nigeria has
paved the way for the wide gulf between promises and performance and thus create credibility crises both for the
government in particular and the democratic system as a whole
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Where these qualities are lacking as in the case of Nigeria as a reference point,
what should be expected? Can the Nigeria project from the exploration so far show evidence of greatness? If any
greatness is observed, can it be in the positive or negative direction? Does any one require extra ordinary insight
to appreciate the fact that the criteria of education and the educated man are far from constituting the hallmark of
leadership in Nigeria hence the stories of woes that are daily being told about the country that parades herself as
a “giant”
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Their actions have been such that offend civil society through mis-implementation of
budget, mismanagement of national and world economy, the over manipulation of the stock market, the banks
and the financial sector, the constraining of the manufacturing sector and industries, and utmostly, the provision
of more darkness than light, less power and energy, less food for the tables and less money for the pockets by
way of corruption and bad policies
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As a result, the country has become a place where savage instincts enjoy free rein and life too cheap and
utterly worthless as government no longer exercises monopoly over the instruments of force, authority and
violence as should be the case in every enclave ruled by sane humans
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The fall out of embarking on a mission they are ill-equipped to accomplish-mentally, strategically,
politically and spiritually translates to a house built on the quick sand of illegalities, imposition and injustice,
which will continue to crumble under the weight of truth and incontrovertible evidence
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The list is endless
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No nation, no matter how wishful she thinks, can just wake up to
greatness
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Conclusion and Recommendations
Education all over the world remains the best instrument for the achievement of a good life
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S
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Our exploration of such criteria
and their application to Nigeria has not convinced us that Nigerian leadership is anywhere close to being called
educated
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4, No
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iiste
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The glaring disconnect between the people and those that lead them is a function of the nexus between the
ineptitude of the leadership and the acute poverty that characterizes the lives of the citizens
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Falling short of the criteria
of education has presented leadership in Nigeria as an establishment that has destroyed the dreams of their
fathers at independence, frittered away the wealth of the children and seeing nothing wrong about destroying the
future of their grand children
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Education of the citizenry that will arm them with the boldness to insist on a genuine debate on the
pedigree, character, competence and ideas offered by each aspirant and to freely make a choice that must be
respected is the answer to Nigeria’s lunatic leadership” as described by Chinweizu
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(2010)
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Azaiki, S
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We are building our democracy more on hope in The Guardian Newspaper Thursday October
2 p
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(2000)
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Babarinde (ed) Education and the challenge of
patriotism in Nigerian
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21-26
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(2002)
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Jos: Saniez
Ekpu, R
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Leadership: the flock or the fleece in Newswatch magazine 52 (14) pp
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Esiemokhai, E
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(2010)
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Retrieved from http://wwwfocusnigeria
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Fashola, B
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Setting a new agenda for credible governance in Nigeria, being a lecture delivered at the
maiden annual democracy day organized by Nigerian Union of Journalists, Lagos State chapter on June
12
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Lagos: Federal Government
press
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S
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London: George Allen and Unwin
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S
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S
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London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul

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