‘Study for the greater purpose of life rather than a degree’

Three African students at the University of Oxford walked away with the top honours in this year’s awards for Rare Rising Stars after being selected from a shortlist of high achievers. The awards celebrate black African and Caribbean-descent university students, sharing positive stories and inspiring future generations.

In the first of a series of interviews, University World News spoke to Nwangele Godwin (Emeka) Chukwuemeka about why education matters and why young people should associate themselves with a vision or an ideology to be successful in their careers. He is the only Rhodes Trust scholar from West Africa to study towards an MSc in energy systems at the University of Oxford.

UWN: What information do you think young people need to make smart career choices?

Chukwuemeka: Young people need to have a vision and a larger-than-life goal. By associating with a vision or an ideology, they can seek mentors who share similar ideas and thoughts. By doing so, they can filter out career paths that align with their goals and pursue them. I recommend this approach because students do not merely select careers like engineering or medicine, or accountancy, which can become obsolete.

Instead, they choose to address non-fleeting challenges by innovating, saving lives, or ensuring accountability. Because these are generational issues, students can study related courses that address these challenges in specific ways. At the same time, they will be eager to learn new skills and understand future trends in their chosen areas.

UWN: What is the biggest challenge you faced during your educational life?

Chukwuemeka: The limiting nature of the academic environment and society in general. The concept of thought had become mundane and less impactful in the contemporary world, so I struggled with understanding the purpose of learning. Additionally, the lack of access to basic amenities, such as lab tools and infrastructure like data and electricity systems, significantly challenged education.

As a result, I found myself studying under less ideal conditions, carrying out less than optimal research, being less ambitious, and settling for less. I only wanted to graduate with distinction and follow the cycle of a typical Nigerian student who studies to get a job.

However, I overcame these challenges when I decided to follow my dream and aim high, conditioning my problem set, consistently seeking knowledge. Upon realising what mattered, I actively sought solutions to problems, which was far more rewarding.

UWN: What was your biggest triumph during your school and university life?

Chukwuemeka: This was in my undergraduate days when I was involved in many activities that did not affect my chances to finish with good grades. By the time I was in my final year, I was a student leader and an entrepreneur.

While I studied, I fought to protect student rights and give students a sense of purpose. I also worked to derive solutions to challenges to earn a living and satisfy people’s needs. In the end, I graduated top in my faculty with a distinction. This was not an easy process, but fulfilling.

UWN: Who was the most influential person in your educational life?

Chukwuemeka: There is no one person who influenced my education. On the contrary, I learned from many people because I saw good and wanted it all.

For instance, Professor Linus Opara [of Stellenbosch University in South Africa], who received the [African Union’s] Kwame Nkrumah Continental Scientific Award [for senior researchers] in 2016, taught me that I should study for the greater purpose of life rather than a degree.

He taught me I could be an engineer and still drive policy and business in unconventional ways. Being an engineer or a doctor should first build my thought processes to identify problems and solve them rather than prepare me to design circuits or treat patients. My dad showed me what it meant to study and why I should do that.

My mum believed in my dream and pushed me to do it, my siblings are great, and their advice spurred me on to do more. My uncle excelled in business, academia and leadership and pushed me to do more to make people happy.

In Oxford, Malcolm McCulloch [associate professor in engineering science and leader of the Energy and Power Group at the university] will always tell me to not be lazy but smart, pick my battles wisely, and finish what I start effectively and thoroughly. He also improved my understanding of problem-solving for societal development, a skill that I intend to explore for the rest of my life.

UWN: What would you like to see happen in the higher education sector in your country to build a culture of excellence?

Chukwuemeka: I think that Africans and Nigerians, in particular, should start paying attention to our unique societal problems. When we study issues like the lack of resources and our political economy and start thinking of using our strengths to our advantage, we might be on a path to rebuild.

Imagine a Nigeria where someone is recognised for researching land irrigation, land cultivation, crop harvesting, food transportation, and food storage, especially on a small affordable scale to Nigerian citizens.

The herders-farmers clash can be addressed by finding the optimum system to allocate resources through ranching, defining a tailored cattle-rearing system, or creating a market value chain for open grazing. Afrocentric solutions to these issues can cause rapid change that can bolster economic growth and douse political tensions.

I look forward to seeing research and implementation frameworks that prescribe a path for Africa’s energy transition. The generic International Energy Agency or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change frameworks mostly fail to account for context specificities in Africa and may not be sustainable.

Local universities can recommend transition frameworks and adaptable technologies to harness our vast renewable energy resources for economic gain while curbing emissions which we only marginally contribute towards compared to the developed world. The insufficiency of energy gives us a clean sheet to plan for a more robust system than what is obtainable anywhere in the world.

UWN: If you were the minister of higher education in your country what three things would you change?

Chukwuemeka: I would work with the federal government and the legislature to increase teachers’ salaries, from nursery school to university level. Teachers are an asset to our academic system. But the current reward for teaching in Nigeria is so poor. Some teachers earn as little as US$50 monthly, which makes me wonder how they survive.

This low reward keeps qualified personnel away from the noble profession. With an improved salary structure, more intelligent and motivated people will want to impart their knowledge to the younger generation. This will result in better teaching and an improved learning experience for students.

I would drive a framework for public-private partnerships in running our government-owned schools. Over time, these institutions have been poorly operated, resulting in the visible decay in the sector.

This decay can be associated with numerous factors, including the underlying corruption in the system, stemming from the lack of accountability in the current framework. Running those institutions as private institutions driven to protect their public image to compete favourably is crucial.

The challenge with this approach is the expected rise in educational bills. A potential solution is subsidising fees for the less privileged. A system can be made to match subsidy approval based on parents’ salary scale, with the rich paying more than the poor.

Subsidising education is a more worthy investment than the current corrupt subsidisation of consumables like petrol in Nigeria because investing in education will always lead to a better society filled with opportunities that will offset the investment cost.

UWN: What should universities do to help graduates to be more employable?

Chukwuemeka: Universities should focus on studies that drive impact. They should project into the needs of the future, including energy transitions, digital economies, pandemic prevention and control, climate resilience. If universities study these key future challenges and give their students the tools to address them, they will make the students employable while addressing questions threatening the quality of human life.

UWN: What would you say to a student who wants to give up because of the challenges he or she faces?

Chukwuemeka: I never want to give up because I want to make the people around me happy and improve my society because our people deserve better. It’s easy to give up, but life is not about the easy stuff. Get up and move. Share your problems, seek help, and have a plan. It pays to be resilient.

UWN: What is your motto in life (and learning)?

Chukwuemeka: Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Godwin Chukwuemeka was recently admitted to the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom for an MBA and was offered a DPhil placement to develop modular flexible green hydrogen-ammonia power plants that guarantee renewable penetration. He plans to use his knowledge to improve access to electricity in rural areas.