When A System Is Set Up To Fail

Recently, a distinguished professor in my discipline who is also an exciting mentor of mine chatted me on WhatsApp after reading one of my articles. In agreeing with my line of thought, he told me a story that clearly and succinctly helped to make the point I laboured to bring out in the said write-up. He said, a colleague of his was lamenting how badly the standards have fallen in the university system, and he simply put this question to him, “when last did your university advertised for a job and duly conducted an interview to fill the vacancy?” This question settled the issue.

Yes, such is a question that brings matters to an end as it strikes hard on the very root of the problem. A system is set up to fail when those that pilot its affairs fail to do those foundational things that the system requires, as a matter of inevitability, to succeed. This is the lot of our university system which this don was complaining about. The rot, however, goes beyond the university or the education system, as it is one ailment that is in the character of the nation. The education system can only reflect that macro-level decay.

Two very foundational flaws run through the set up of all public institutions in Nigeria, be they ministries, departments, or agencies. One is the absence of a strict regime of internal governance that will ensure that everyday affairs of the institution are run in total compliance with extant laws and regulations. This is why none of our institutions is free from corruption and other forms of accountability malady. Since laws and regulations can be flouted with little or no consequences, the internal workings of these public institutions become some sort of bedlam where every worker does as they please.

The second foundational flaw running through the set-up of our public institutions is their counter-merit culture of recruitment. This flaw stems from the first, being that it is an offshoot of the said prevailing internal laxity vis-a-vis compliance with laws and regulations. The regulations that should guide public recruitments are only observed in breach. This is very critical because every human institution thrives on the quality of the human resources that drive it. In fact, history of human civilisation is nothing but a story of how variously talented brains and hands have been working though the centuries to produce magnificent artefacts and structures that are uplifting and refining our lives in all spheres – politics, economy, education, science, culture etc. Institutions, such as family, government, schools and other organisations, are there to advance our millenia-long march on the chequered but splendid path of civilisation. Therefore, any act that tends to sabotage the manifestation of human talents, such as done by non-merit-based public recruitment, is inevitably sabotaging the cause of human civilisation. This fact is exactly the reason some nations are deemed “civilised nations” while others do not enjoy such appellation. A milder nomenclature are so-called “developed” and “developing” tags given to nations.

The above two foundational flaws are so named because their effect distorts the very foundational norms that should define the set-up and operations of public institutions. Otherwise, these institutions are simply set up.to fail.

Using as a case the university system, which my professor mentor talked about, it is easily observable that the greater part of its malady comes from these twin flaws. The institutions are not run strictly in line with extant laws and regulations. This is why we have seen uncountable cases where Vice Chancellors are produced through hugely politicised and compromised processes. History and the time-honoured ethos of human civilisation certainly did not envisage a situation where the position of the numero uno in an ivory tower is so sacrilegiously desacrated. Poor adherence to regulations is equally the reason the ugly culture of “sorting”, sexual harassment and other retrogressive practices has refused to leave the ivory tower despite years of unending lamentations, both from the public and leaders of these institutions.

Related to this is how the counter-merit recruitment culture has populated our universities with too many incompetent hands, thus damagingly lowering the standard of mentorship offered to students. My professor mentor said his colleague was concerned about the quality of graduates coming out from our universities. But truth is that you cannot divorce the quality of a product from the quality of its maker. It’s simply gabage in gabage out.

Many people who question the quality of Nigerian graduates should also be more holistic in looking at the system that nurtures the same graduates. This way, they will observe that a huge part of the problem – not the entire problem – is the quality of the hands that mould the graduates. Then such inquirers may further ask the question, “but how in the first place did these incompetent hands find their way into the system?” The answer to this question will be revealing enough.

About 10 years ago, a friend who was still new on his lecturing job discussed this very issue with me. His appointment was secured through a friend of the Vice Chancellor. He was recruited without facing any form of screening. “How can you employ someone without even knowing how competent the person is?” he queried in a disarming frankness. His being a beneficiary did not blind him from seeing the rot and the damage it is capable of. This is the question all of us should be asking, even if we have been a beneficiary of the lopsided culture. No matter how much of a round peg in a round hole we think we are in our workplace (my friend is one of the most competent academics I have ever come across), we must ask and answer this question. This is because when a system that employed you did so by bypassing the regulations and processes put in place to ensure merit, you may have been qualified though, but the same sidestepping of rules will also have ensured that one idiot somewhere has as well been recruited.

As I said earlier, I have merely used the university system as a case, just for the coincidence of my recent exchange with my mentor. Surely, the two fundamental flaws signposted in this piece are visible across the entire spectrum of our nation’s institutional set-up. It has been an undying culture of anything goes, a reality we Nigerians have chosen to describe in a two-worded euphemistic phrase, the “Nigerian factor”.

It is the “Nigerian factor” that has kept us where we’re today. It is another name for that double-headed monster that has damagingly scuppered our civilisation march by crippling our institutions from their very foundations. Those who contest elections to lead us must be made by the electorate to address how they intend to exorcise this demon. Let the electioneering discourse draw back a bit from road infrastructure and refinery repair and focus more on how to remove the cog from the wheels of our public institutions. Surely every other good thing will follow from there.

Great nations are propelled to greatness by strong institutions. If we want to be great, let our thinking and actions be in that line. As it stands today, our system is simply set up to fail. There is no shadow of doubt about it.

Henry Chigozie Duru, PhD, teaches journalism and mass communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria.