"Education is a Scam": Nigerian Youths, Decolonizing Education and Power

Abstract (English)

The Nigerian formal education system was invented and patterned after the British educational tradition during the colonization of Nigeria. Regarding education, the British invented traditions to give the colonizer command and control over the colonized and create class and inequality among the colonized. Hence, the colonizer's invented education system was never made to make the Nigerian youths or students independent. This form of invented education tradition still exists in Nigeria, making education less impactful on the Nigerian youths and society. Youths are losing interest in formal education and calling it a scam, as many remain unemployed or underemployed, or have to engage in menial jobs. This points to the fact that Nigerian education needs to be decolonized. This paper examines the manifestation of the invention of colonial education, its impact on youths, and why and how Nigerian education should be decolonized. The study employs historical and descriptive-analytical approaches to present data gathered from unstructured interviews. Terence Ranger and Wunyabari Maloba's theories on the invention of traditions in colonial African and decolonization are used as the theoretical framework for this research. The study argues that education appears to the Nigerian youth as a scam because Nigeria still subscribes to the colonizer's invented tradition of education, so the decolonization of education will guarantee needed knowledge and enhance the taking of power from the reinventors of the colonizer's invented traditions. This paper contributes to anthropological science by discussing the intersectionality in education and youth lives in Nigeria.