To be honest, I think I have figured it out. It’s not a pleasant realisation — in fact it’s heartbreaking — but I feel like it’s critical that I came to this conclusion. It’s better for my mental health, my soul and just dealing with this shit show called Nigeria.
The realization that has dawned on me and led me to that [frankly] dramatic intro is a simple one: beyond an obvious literacy problem, majority of the Nigerian populace suffer from a terrible, terrible lack of basic comprehension skills. I’ll tell you why I think this and the empirical evidence to back it up.
I once led communications for a young fintech startup based in Lagos, Nigeria and Paris, France. This startup sold online, no collateral loans, like several other startups in the country and most of its target audience are between the ages of 25 and 50. They are, for the most part, somewhat educated, employed (self and otherwise) or own informal micro-businesses. Most importantly, they own a smartphone which allows them to access products through an app.
This brings us to the keyword for this story: “Optional.” You see, in the process of registering on the app, you get an option to enter a referral code — if you have one. Right inside that box, in brackets and in a clearly legible font, is the word “optional.” This means that filling that referral code box is not compulsory so if you don’t have one, you can move ahead with your application regardless.
Incredibly, about 25% of the most frequent complaints across social media were from people complaining that they do not have referral codes and as such cannot proceed with their applications. Please take a moment and read the previous paragraph again. Done?
Now, these complaints range from people sending very angry emails about how they have been stuck at the referral code box for months and nothing is being done about it to those who post 6 comments on the facebook page, all saying one thing: “Give me a referral code, I can’t complete my registration.”
Okay, maybe its a design problem. Or the word. Or the placement of it. So iterations are made and multiple variations of what was, in the first place, an already logical design, were tested. Still it had no effects on the amount of complaints on this particular issue. We even turned it into a sentence: “Type referral code here, IF YOU HAVE ONE” (emphasis mine) and the effect was mild, at best.
It does my head in, really. If thousands of people who supposedly have at least a decent education struggle to understand or figure out what a word like “optional” means, then how far off are we as a country? If we struggle with relatively basic comprehension skills, on such a massive scale, then how do we even begin to think of things like self awareness, mental health, patriarchy, climate change and propaganda? How can we become innovative as a society when we can’t even read properly?
Let’s even say you don’t know what a word means, can’t you find out? Open Google, ask someone, check a dictionary, something for fuck’s sake. Like, am I tripping? This thing dey scatter all my head.
I want to say a big thank you to all the libraries, book clubs and reading clubs out there. All the organisations and people investing in education and trying to fix this deeply disturbing problem are worthy of all the praise they get. I myself will start to research and invest some time and expertise in an educational non-profit and I think everyone should. It’s the shortest way to make a dent on this problem outside of the government.
On the flip side, maybe don’t raise your children on Nigerian education, if you can. If you have it in your head that you’re going to give your children the best, Nigeria is not it. Facts only.
Our educational system has clusterfucked so many of us and we don’t even realise it. Our thinking processes are all screwed up and we constantly underemphasize just how regressive our ideologies are as Nigerians. We’ve chosen to remain complacent in the demise of our collective minds and that is definitely one of our biggest failures as a society. Maybe this will change in our lifetime. Maybe it won’t. But the least we can do is be honest with ourselves about just how far back our people are and be guided accordingly. It is well.
