There's a girl who passed all her subjects in secondary school. She did not just aced but performed excellently with a award-worthy educational success.

At Junior Secondary 3 (JSS 3) level, she was so brilliant that solving mathematical problems from Senior Secondary 1 & 2 (SS 1 & 2) curriculum came with ease.
She made some mistakes which I will like to use as basis here

First Mistake

At secondary school, she loved Mathematics and computers but was admitted into the university to study Geology.
After her university days, she thinks she would have been a wizard know statistics if she had been allowed to study either mathematics or engineering. She believes with either the two courses she wouldn't have to cram some qualitative garbage but provide quantitative solutions.

Second Mistake

In the university, she realized she didn't have to study very hard. Very few people were bothering to anyway. She was extremely smart & could hold her own but it became easier to combine intellectual efforts with other students at assignments, tests and final exams.

The system allowed it.

All her friends did it so, why fight it?

Third Mistake

At school, she was not taught how to write a résumé or be successful in interviews.

Like everyone around, she desires a good life but the system pretty much set them up to fail.
When she graduated, she met a professional at an international oil and gas company who asked her what she wanted to do in life and to explain her undergraduate degree experience but she was not prepared for that.

Her answers were weak, incoherent, lacked precision and clarity.

She'd never thought of herself in that light.

The internet wasn't readily available back then so she was left on her own with her fellow ignorant peers.

Luckily for her, she got some mentors, then left the country for her masters degree.

At first, she struggled at her Canadian university.

How she Corrected her second mistake

• She had to learn all those skills and resources she didn't bother with back in Nigeria due to combined students’ efforts.
• She had to read all those textbooks she never bothered with in her Nigerian university in order to excel at her program.

How she Corrected her 3rd mistake

• She met lecturers whose method of teaching was about empowering students to run with their ideas.
• It wasn't about multiple choice questions but making a case of why Case A is better/worse than Case B.
• It made her actually think for the 1st time in her life. She learned how to make great presentations. It was a confidence boost. It was exhilarating!

She learned about plagiarism which is a very despicable thing. She also learned about self-development, professional development and presentations.

She learned it was okay to make decisions, make mistakes and then learn from them.

She learnt to be comfortable working alone and also with a team. She learned the power of independence.

She became more confident about her thoughts and ideas. No one laughs at her mistakes nor condemns her for them.

Her bosses don't care about always being right or barking orders at those under them. Team contributions is crucial, encouraged and needed.

Everybody is equal. No one feared anyone. It was a healthy environment. She was valued. She freely runs her program the way she sees fit.

Withe this story, she was unable to correct the first mistake

If you read this, you'd understand how the Nigerian system encourages laziness & might discourage talent because of envy or pride.

Many Nigerian graduates are victims of their own underdeveloped and redundant society.

Maybe with the internet, a few might self-improve. Otherwise, they're unemployable because there's very few people to teach them better.

Note to any Nigerian student reading this - don't take the easy way out. Read not just to pass your examinations but to actually know.

You'd be truly a better person and student for it.

Good luck