This message in the video from Governor Ayade resonates with me very loudly. It echoes my thoughts and repeats exactly what I have been saying persistently to the irritation of some persons who erroneous assume I am against certificates.
There is nothing anyone ever did with a certificate. Ok, let me say it differently, no one ever used a certificate to start anything. You must be confused but let me repeat again to you, your certificate is not what made you or gave you what you have now. It is the knowledge you have that sums you up. If your certificate is actually what made you or gave you what you have now, you will soon loose it. When an employer for instance, asks for your certificate, why do you think the employer also schedule interviews? The employer knows that the certificate is not what will earn you the job. You know too.
The certificate has served for centuries as the first threshold of assumption that the carrier is knowledgable in that discipline. After that layer is torn, interviews reveal further whether what the employer is searching for is therein. If that layer is also crossed, there is in-house training or adaptation classes, as the case may be. But in the end, the certificate isn’t what will earn you what you are searching for. It is your ability to fill the needs that the labor market is searching for. This is not something you hear all the time. You always hear that the certificate is what will earn you a life. Your mind is still struggling to digest it. It’s reverse thinking. You don’t have to agree with me. Just think.
Now, I don’t hate certificates. I have mine. I also want others to have theirs. So you know I don’t hate certificates, my first published book is titled “How To Get Tertiary Education Without Writing JAMB.” The book has helped very many persons to acquire certificates. I also run an active scholarship scheme “Major SSA Agba Education Foundation” with several persons in school. We (ACROJ), also just succeeded in partnership with Arthur Jarvis University, AJU, in commencing the Institute of Online Journalism, IOJ, which is offering a six months Certificate program and two years Diploma program, for intending media practitioners across the country. Entrants do not require JAMB for admission. Above all, I am also a teacher. Working daily to assist others acquire certificates is part of my work schedule. I love certificates.
But I have also seen people who, otherwise can pick up and move on successfully with their lives being bugged down simply because they own a certificate. Their certificates, matter-of-fact, have become their undoing. In other words, the reason they can’t move forward is the entitlement mentality that comes with their certificates. Like saying, ‘I now have a certificate, I am therefore entitled to something to do’. It doesn’t work like that oga and madam. While there are others who, though extremely intelligent and talented, have been silenced to a corner, merely because they don’t have a certificate.
Your hands or your brain must know how to do something whether you have a certificate or not. That is what the world needs now. Ability to solve at least one problem. The certificate makes you more attractive no doubt. But the absence of it can’t stop you either. In fact, you can get whatever it is you want, even if you don’t have it. And if you already have it and you are not getting what you want with it, please adhere to this truth that Governor Ayade just told us in the video and get your hands and brains to work.
There are problems everywhere around us. Don’t add yourself to the list of the world’s problems. Become a solution today and the many problems in the world will find you, and as you provide solutions, you will not lack. You don’t need a certificate to do that. Neither does having many certificates stop you. Just do it!!!!
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.
Citizen Agba Jalingo is the publisher of CrossRiverWatch and writes from Lagos State.
NOTE: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.