THE UNIVERSITY OF MUMU

THE UNIVERSITY OF MUMU

I took a break from social media but returned when someone sent me a video of Sunday Igboho.

I transcribed a clip of the video and wanted to share it here.

If you read the following statement by Sunday Igboho, you will shake your head in disbelief.

Sunday Igboho, the kind of person we refer to as a stark illiterate, is the one leading the entire Yoruba nation, and one of the very few people making any sense in the country called Nigeria.

Is it not clear to us by now that our educational system in Nigeria is just a scam?

We all attended the University of Mumu in Nigeria—under various names.

Our educational system is to train people to become rogues like Ibori, the former governor of the Delta State, who stole so much money, it was impossible to conceal his greed.

Our educational system is geared to produce clueless people like the governors of the southwest—minus Aketi of Ondo State—governors who are without any iota of emotional intelligence.

If Sunday Igboho without formal education could be this smart, this empathetic and revolutionary, then all your formal education in Nigeria is questionable if not outright counterproductive, null and void mumuism.

We should all go to our alma maters and ask for our money back from this school system that produces hundreds of thousands of graduates to be jobless, naive, without a future, and a mumu.

Below is Sunday Igboho’s statement.

It is in Yoruba, and I translated it into the English language—perhaps the only thing he was not able to do, and I could.

Below the Yoruba quote from Sunday Igboho is my English translation.

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Àwọn brothers wa àti àwọn sisters wa, tí wọ́n bá kàwé, wọ́n á ní kí wọn lọ kọ́ṣẹ́ tẹ́lọ̀ tí wọ́n bá parí yunifásítì, wọn ó ní kí wọ́n ó lọ kọ́ṣẹ́ ọwọ́, hair dresser.

Àwọn tó jẹ́ bí àwọn ẹ̀gbọ́n wa ọkùnrin, àwọ́n ó kọ́ welder.

Tí ò bá jẹ́ pé Sunday Igboho jẹ́ ọmọ líle, mi ò lè wà níbi tí mó wà yǐ lénǐ.

Àgbẹ̀ ni bàbáà mi. Bàbáà mi ò tí ẹ̀ rówó tọ́ mi ní ilé ìwé dé ibi pé n ó tiẹ̀ ní mo fẹ́ parí ìwé kankan.

Àgbẹ̀ lèmi ò bá ṣe kú.

Ṣùgbọ́n lọ́lá pé èmí jẹ́ ọmọ líle.

Bí ó bá ku èní tàbí ọ̀la kí èmí jalè, kí Ọlọ́run gba ẹ̀mí mi.

Mo ń fi agídí gba ẹ̀tọ́ mi lọ́wọ́ àwọn olóríburukú yẹn.

–by Sunday Igboho

Our brothers and sisters, those who went to school, they tell them to go and learn sewing as soon as they complete their university degree, they tell them to learn a trade, such as hairdressing.

Those who happen to be men, they tell them to learn to weld.

If I, Sunday Igboho, was not such a tough knot, I would not be where I am today.

My father was a farmer. He did not even have any money to send me to school, less talking of providing an opportunity for me to complete any iota of schooling.

I would have perished as a farmer.

But for my tough and fighting spirit, peasant penury would have been my fate.

Rather than steal, I would pray for death.

But I use any means possible to grab my due from those vagabonds in power.

–Sunday Igboho, translated by Moyo Okediji