Nigeria does not reward excellence it rewards entertainment. We clap for dribblers, sing for dancers, and build monuments for politicians, while the minds that could change our destiny are left to beg for chalk in overcrowded classrooms.
The mathematics of reward has become a national tragedy in Nigeria.
The chalkboard has no cash prize only the football field does.
We clap for athletes with millions, while the geniuses who can invent the future walk home with stipends that can’t buy a semester’s books
A group of girls who stood tall on a global stage shining the torch of excellence in education and intellect were handed ₦200,000 as their prize. The equivalent of a semester’s school fees in a second-rate university. Meanwhile, a football team, equally deserving of applause but operating in a different sphere, returned home to a rain of millions ₦150 million, a house worth over ₦200 million, and other benefits too numerous to list. The FIBA basketball team, too, tasted from this overflowing cup.
When education becomes cheap and entertainment becomes gold, what message are we sending to the next generation?
Every Naira we deny the classroom but throw at the stadium is a policy statement and our children are listening.
This is not about begrudging athletes their due glory, sport is a legitimate pursuit, it unites nations, and it demands discipline. But the question is simple.
What message are we sending to the next generation?
If the scoreboard pays more than the blackboard, should we be surprised when students trade classrooms for training camps?
Nigeria’s reward system is teaching louder than our teachers and the lesson is dangerous.
When a child sees that a lifetime of burning the midnight candle ends in a token sum, but ninety minutes on the field opens the vault of the Central Bank, what conclusions will they draw? Are we implicitly telling them that the sweat of the mind is of less worth than the sweat of the body? Is Nigeria re-engineering its youth into believing that education is charity work while football is an oil well?
Have we turned brilliance into charity and football into fortune.
Nations that prize brains build futures, nations that prize only boots kick their future away.
We cannot ignore the optics. One day we lament mass failures in WAEC and UTME. Another day, we glamorize the escape routes of sports and entertainment with life-changing gifts. Then we sit back and wonder why classrooms are half-empty, why teachers are disrespected, why research is abandoned, why laboratories are cobwebbed.
This is bigger than football. This is about the architecture of national values. Every society rewards what it esteems. America pours billions into research and innovation because it esteems knowledge. China rewards invention because it esteems productivity. Nigeria, by the arithmetic of its reward system, esteems spectacle.
Should we then be shocked if more young Nigerians begin to drop out, not to farm or build, but to chase the one avenue where the state throws its full chest of generosity? Will our future be manned by athletes alone, while our scientists, engineers, writers, and teachers live on stipends?
Is this sustainable? Is this just? Is this wise?
Reward is not just money, it is a signal. It is a compass that tells a generation where to face. And if we misalign it, we will reap the harvest of misplaced ambitions. If football is the only ticket to fortune, then our schools, labs, and libraries will become museums.
Nigeria must wake up. Celebrate our athletes, yes but celebrate our thinkers too. If we can give a house for scoring goals, surely we can give something more than stipends for breaking barriers in education. We cannot afford to let brilliance walk in rags while entertainment dines in palaces.
The worth of a nation is measured not just by its victories on the field but by the futures it secures in the classroom. Until we get that right, we may keep winning matches but keep losing the game of destiny.
The message is clear, talent with a ball is worth more than talent with a book.
The winners of tomorrow are watching us today and we are teaching them the wrong arithmetic of value.
If Nigeria must rise, we must learn to pay the teacher before we praise the player.
Stephanie Shaakaa.
08034861434
