Lekan Sote
lekansote@yahoo.com
08050220816 (SMS only)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” is a protest book, written by Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator, who later went into exile. It explores the relationship between the know-it-all European colonisers of the Old World and the presumed-to-be-ignorant colonies of the New World.
The thrust of the book is that traditional pedagogy, or the teaching template handed down by the colonising Western nations, is “the banking model of education,” which Freire argues, regards the student as an empty vessel waiting to be filled up with knowledge by the all-knowing teacher.
It’s much the same way that you will pour water to fill up an empty container, learning only by rote, for later regurgitation, even if the knowledge is not properly understood and can also not be properly applied whenever required.
It reminds you of British political philosopher, John Locke, who came up with the theory that the human mind is a “tabula rasa,” a blank slate, that is without data, as it also has no rules for processing data.
If Prof Gbade Sote, formerly of the Department of Psychology of University of Lagos, a thoroughbred academic, will not disagree, one could quote an online platform which indicates that psychologists of the “nurture school of thought,” think that tabula rasa “refers to the belief that humans are born with a completely open mind, and that (the process of their) upbringing, imprints beliefs and attitudes onto the(ir) personality.”
Freire thinks that rather than just being regarded as an absorbent sponge, the student, or learner, should be treated with respect, and as co-creator of the knowledge that he learns. It is not exactly serendipity, but it wouldn’t hurt to pursue that angle to understanding Freire’s argument.
But this rather highfalutin expository is not the purpose of this discourse, it’s about the tendency of the so-called “Small Man,” assaying to even up by exploiting, call it brazenly cheating, the “Big Man,” or even his fellow downtrodden compatriot within the Nigerian political space.
This is not exactly the dictatorship of the proletariats that Karl Marx describes, a state where the proletariat party, vanguard of the lumpen proletariats, holds political power before the economy transforms or dissolves from the capitalist, to the communist, economy. But it shows the wicked streak sometimes exhibited by the poor.
By the way, Freire thinks that oppressors are generally materialistic, and only seek power to dehumanise the oppressed. He therefore thinks that the oppressed should seek to understand the oppressor, instead of adopting his methods.
To rephrase his words, the oppressed must not fight back the oppressors by becoming the new set of oppressors, it would amount to becoming polar opposites of what they currently are, the oppressed.
But that seems to be exactly what the oppressed in Nigeria always seem to be doing, preying on anyone who is unfortunate enough to be at their mercy for whatever reasons, and in whatever circumstances.
And in carrying out these inhumane acts, they do not seem to have the intention to discriminate. They prey on members of their own socio-economic class, just the same way they do those not of their ilk.
The Deputy Managing Director of Leaders & Company, publishers of ThisDay newspaper, and socialist-Marxist of the reddest hue of University of Ifè school, Kayode Komolafe, may think this is harsh on the lumpen proletariats.
But he may have heard that there is an orifice, a leakage, between the N60 that the Oyo State Government agreed to pay, and what was, or would be, paid, per piece, to 100 members of Oyo State Association of Tailors, trained and commissioned to sew the first 1,000,000 nose masks that the government planned to give to the citizens.
If he found this allegation to be true, that may mitigate his misgivings about submissions here. That the leadership of the Tailors Association seeks to rip off both their members and the government is inappropriate. It will even be unacceptable, indecent as it is also an act of betrayal and disloyalty– if true.
The genesis of all this came out of the benevolence of coronavirus survivor, Governor Seyi Makinde, who thought of giving free nose masks to the citizens, to prevent, curtail, and control coronavirus in Oyo State.
But as reprehensible as it seems, it is actually something that Nigerian artisans do as a matter of course.
Recall an electrician, auto mechanic, and especially tailor, who received advance payment to do a job for you, but absconded, and never did the job. When you confront them, what you get is a blackmail riding on a horse called apology.
The late columnist of The Punch newspaper, Henry Boyo, once told the story of an artisan that he contracted to fix faulty air-conditioning systems in his office. The very modest workmanship fee that the chap charged made Boyo to wonder if the man was going to do volunteer work.
But the catch was that the man had loaded the cost of the spare parts that he was going to buy for the job by as much as five times! Boyo, who did not suspect a thing, casually informed a friend of the cost of the spares. It was a set-up.
Boyo was alarmed when another electrician, suggested by his friend, got the materials at unbelievably lower costs. When confronted by Boyo, the first electrician didn’t bat an eyelid as he informed him that it’s in the purchase of spare parts that they make their killing. Words failed a miffed Boyo.
Another friend reported that a tailor got angry with someone who had tried to renegotiate a lower tailoring charge than the amount that the tailor had initially charged him. The tailor told the intermediary off for preventing him from making as much as he could from a rich man. Needless to say that was the end of their relationship.
It looks as if those in the cadre of what you might describe as the Commons of the Nigerian realm are schooled to exact inordinate and extortionate fees from those they assume have more than themselves. An artisan confessed that much.
Those who betray any degree of refinement or higher education suffer the most in the hands of these heartless people. Indeed, these characteristics appear to define them as game for slaughter. And sociologists need to explain this kind of behaviour.
Perhaps, the best way to look at this is from the prism of discriminatory prices that economists say can only be charged literally on face value. No pun is intended. A vendor simply sizes up a client before charging.
A rich man, who is sick, has to present himself to the doctor in person; he cannot be treated by proxy. He must also visit the barber in person if he needs a haircut, as he must also do when visiting his tailor. And market mammies “punish” men who they suspect have the audacity to bypass their wives to come and buy groceries.
Sometimes, the petrol station attendant does not want to give you “change”. Somebody points out that they are not always enamoured of payments by the PoS machine, because it gives them no opportunity to coin you out of your coins.
If this sounds like a mix of sociology and economics, it’s because ethical deficits have fiscal repercussions.
– Twitter @lekansote
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