“I just read the story of the UNIBEN First Class graduate of mechanical engineering who was rewarded with a prize of N5,000 for being the best graduating student in his department.
I know, I know; it’s not the amount but the recognition. Even so, we can do better with these ridiculous monetary awards at a time when less noble accomplishments are attracting serious monetary prizes.
The more I reflect on the story, the more I realize that this is a longstanding Nigerian practice of instituting a monetary prize but not adjusting the amount to account for inflation and currency devaluation.
In the 1990s, at Bayero University, every year, the student with the best GPA in every department was recognized with a prize of N100.
Every year of my enrollment there, I won the prize for my department.
At the time, N100 had more value than today’s N5000. And yet even at that time, we considered the N100 prize, which had been instituted in the late 1970s, ludicrously out of step with the socioeconomic realities of Nigeria.
Even more than the disappointing amount was the elaborate bureaucratic process of claiming the N100.
You were required to go to the Bursar’s office and fill out paperwork, which resembled paperwork for a multimillion Naira contract.
You’d make several visits to the Bursar’s office before you met someone ready and willing to attend to you.
Sometimes no one was there; other times the person in charge was not “on seat” or they didn’t have the forms. You were told to come back.
When you eventually filled out the forms, the long wait began.
There was no timeline for processing, and there was no GSM then, so you had to keep stopping by a small window outside the bursar’s office to inquire whether your N100 prize had been processed/approved.
I remember stopping by that window many times during the semester.
Then, on one of those visits, you’d be told that the payment had been approved. You’d show your ID and they’d give you a payment form to fill out and sign.
They’d then count N100 and hand it to you.
I cannot forget the feeling of collecting the N100 and feeling rich for a day.
But the feeling was always anticlimactic because of the amount, relative to prevailing socioeconomic conditions, and the long, tedious process for claiming the prize.
I hope there’s now an easier process for the young man to collect his N5000 prize.
We can do better at recognizing academic excellence and achievement.
Graduating with first class in mechanical engineering and graduating as the best student in the class no be beans.” – Moses Ochonu