Once upon a time, a certain man bought 5 monkeys, a cage and some bananas. He hung the bananas on a rope and put some stairs under them all inside the cage. Then he introduced only one monkey into the cage. Of course, no sooner than the monkey got into the cage than the monkey tried to grab the banana. The man however took a hose of water and flooded the monkey with cold water. He flooded the monkey so much that the monkey left the banana. After 30minutes, the monkey tried again and the man flooded the monkey again. He tried again in the evening and got the same reaction. After a while, the monkey gave up. After some time, the man introduced the second monkey into the cage. The monkey approaches the banana as a sharp monkey. As the monkey tried to grab the banana, the owner flooded it with water. It tried to grab the banana again and the first monkey grabbed it and beat it up. Later in the evening, the second monkey tried to grab the banana after the first monkey had slept, and the owner of the monkeys flooded it with water and the monkey gave up.
A few days later, the owner introduced the third monkey into the cage. He saw the monkeys and the bananas and thought to himself ‘these monkeys must be fools, look at banana!’ The third monkey thereafter approached the bananas to grab it, the two other monkeys grabbed it and gave it a thorough beating. He tried again, they beat it up. After a few trials and same reaction, the third monkey gave up. After a while, the man removed the first two monkeys, and left the third monkey. He later introduced the fourth monkey into the cage. Remember, the third monkey did not experience the water, but beating. So when the fourth monkey tried to take the monkey, but the third monkey beat it up. Later the man introduced the fifth monkey, and the other two monkeys beat it up thoroughly. After a while, the fifth monkey asked the other monkeys, ‘why are you beating me?’ They answered, ‘we don’t know!, but anytime we go near the bananas we are beaten.’ The water hose had dried, the man who was flooding the monkeys had stopped, but because they had lived in the culture where things had always been done in a certain way, they held to that culture and refuse to ask questions.
Now, you and I are similar to those monkeys. We have been told to go to schools, get good grades, get a job, live ever after and die. But we went to school, got good grades, studied good courses, got good jobs, retired and still discovered we are not able to meet our needs! We have been told either actively or passively that that it the way it is done.
Many of us also yield to our fears. The fear of being flooded inspired the beatings. While the flooding had stopped, the beatings continued. Many of us are afraid of stepping out of our comfort zones because of the failings of others.
Many of us also do not ask questions. We just do the things that many have been doing for years with little to show for it, and we hope things will get better somehow.
Now, for the second time in as many months, I had a heavy heart after hearing the misfortune of many of my friends and colleagues who are were not successful in the Part one examination of the National Post graduate Medical College. These are hard working folks, diligent in their work, but are in a culture where failure is regarded as normal. In fact, it seems there is a deliberate effort to keep an elitist fellowship group. I know the same can be said of a number of other professions e.g Accountancy. The interesting thing also is that the return on investment seems not to be commensurate with the huge investments in thousands of naira to buy books, pay for examination fees, travel expenses, hotel bills etc. Not to talk of the emotional investments.
A number of us have started asking questions. Why will we make such sacrifices and yet still live an average life. Sometime we live below the standard lived by those who left school to pursue other things.
So when you are telling your little ones to work hard, get good grades, study good courses and go on to get good jobs, be careful what you are passing from monkey to monkey.
If you have the guts to ask questions and consider alternatives you may check here:
No comments:
Post a Comment