Why We ALL Need To Be Creative And Innovative

By Kenneth Nwabudike Okafor

I have often wondered why it is Nigeria so maddeningly leadership-starved, poverty-ridden, crime-prone, diseases-stricken and de-developing?

The answer really is complicated as any reflective analyst can attest to. There are so many reasons why Nigeria is seemingly in shambles. There are those who say they only try to reflect on the positive sides (Are there any positive sides really?). Then there are those who say it is spiritual. I am one of those that subscribe to this as a valid point, with proof that is beyond the scope of this blog.

However what, in addition, I have found, and this is only a part of the discovery, is that for a great many of our compatriots our imaginative and leadership capacities are poorly developed. And we are not honest enough to confront and face up to the fact.

For the purposes of this blog, I would concentrate on the aspect of the development of our imaginative capacities.

There is need for all of us to prepare for greater uncertainties and more turbulent times! This is the first and foremost reason why We ALL need to be more imaginative, creative and innovative. It is that simple.

When I had the opportunity to manage staff and workers (in some cases volunteers) over a period of twenty years (in both the organized private and the civil society/voluntary sectors, from senior to lower cadres), during staff appraisals (and in some instances volunteers’ appraisals) the most common deficiencies among staff after lack of motivation and drive were lack of imagination, poor creative thinking, and problem solving skills. But should these not be KEY employability skills?

When I began to research the root cause(s), the trail led all the way back to the quality of educational foundation and educational system (formal and informal) which these staff passed through.

Let us go back in time for a moment. If you have passed through the Nigerian primary education system from inception to date, the best you would have learned in developing your reasoning is quantitative aptitude (and later quantitative and verbal reasoning). Recently the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) added almost thirty five new subjects and not one single one of them had to do with development of creative thinking. This is not obviously not good enough which why some countries specifically introduced creative thinking, critical thinking and playing chess into their educational curricula, to augment this area of topical development.

There is a very strong and established link between creative thinking, creativity and education. Now some scholars have carried out in-depth studies to establish the theories of the importance of creative thinking in education and why this linkage is good even for economic development. 
I will cite Robina Shaheen’s quotes of the key propositions of five scholars including Parkhurst, Burnard, Davies, Poole, and Craft here.

Fostering creativity in education is intended to address many concerns. As a summary, this includes dealing with ambiguous problems, coping with the fast changing world and facing an uncertain future (Parkhurst, 1999). Perhaps the most dominant current argument for [this] policy is the economic one. The role of creativity in the economy is being seen as crucial (Burnard, 2006) to assist nations for attaining higher employment, economic achievement (Davies, 2002) and to cope with increased competition. It is for this reason that creativity cannot be “ignored or suppressed through schooling” (Poole, 1980) or its development be left to “chance and mythology” (NESTA, 2002). It is predominantly for this reason that there is a call for its inclusion in education as a “fundamental life skill” (Craft, 1999) which needs to be developed to prepare future generations (Parkhurst, 1999) so that they can “survive as well as thrive in the twenty-first century” (Parkhurst, 2006).

But at the moment our educational system is not tailored for its graduates to gain and deploy active imagination, creative thinking and problem solving skills. CHECK THIS YOURSELF!

According to Oral (2006):

“For many developing countries, creativity remains neglected, whereas in developed countries, educational philosophy and goals rely on student’s enhancement of creativity and self-actualization…For developing countries, integration of creative thinking skills in…education is a crucial need for shaping their future orientations and actualizing reforms in political, economic and cultural areas” (Oral, 2006).    

Nigeria has man-made intractable problems as well as the rest of the world around the country is changing so rapidly that graduates (of both formal and informal institutions) ought to creative, innovative, and able to adapt to new situations.

As Cropley argues in his landmark publication Creativity in Education and Learning: A Guide for Teachers and Educators 2001:

“…people need to be able to adjust to change that is both rapid and sweeping, both for their own well-being and for that of the societies in which they live. This means that education will need to foster flexibility, openness, ability to produce novelty, ability to tolerate uncertainty and similar properties – in other words, creativity.”

Again Robina Shaheen in the study Creativity and Education quoted an educationalist who has dedicated all his professional life studying the effects of creativity on education, P. Sinlarat, who in relation to the Asian peoples said:

“Educational process primarily needs to set a target on new thinking and creativity for it to make education have the real effect on the society...Asia must adapt itself to be free, must have the advanced and creative way of life and must be able to give a push in the direction of globalization. These will happen when Asian education and society develop into truly creative and productive society and when Asia resists adopting ideas and copying knowledge from other countries as is the present case” (Sinlarat, 2002).

I have no doubt that this is the case for Nigerian and other African educational systems. As the matter stands at the moment, Nigeria and the rest of Africa stand completely out of the loop. Because the thrust of our present educational systems (no matter what country out of the 54 African countries you refer to) is geared largely to producing TECHNICIANS – that is people who possess “know-how”!!!

We have to start producing the people who also know how to IMAGINE, THINK, and ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.

Why did I reference an Asiatic example here? Because while Nigerian, African and other countries educationalists were fumbling in the dark, Asia overtook the rest of the world!

Reuters international news agency filed a news report (Click here) about the in the first truly global survey of education standards (the biggest ever global school rankings) which the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published. This study also showed the link between education and economic growth. From the findings Asian countries came in the top five: Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. In other results Finland (well known for its high quality education) was the top European country coming in sixth, while Sweden fell to 35th place, following warnings from the OECD that it had serious problems in its education system. The US came in 28th place while African countries dominated the bottom rankings with South Africa and Ghana coming in last.

Asia is doing something right which is worthy of emulation. But are the policy formulators, policy implementers, education authorities as well as leaders with position to influence decisions observant?

This blog has argued that ignorance is a growth industry in Nigeria! See the BLOG POST Promoting Creative Mindset – Building a Culture of Learning published on Thursday, November 28, 2013.

Nigeria’s progress is at stake and her development is nestled in a precarious edge. Those in position to make a change must start making the right moves and taking the right decisions and taking responsibility for their actions, for us to move out of the morass we seem stuck in.

The very start for all of should be that we rethink the way we are currently educating / teaching our children and ourselves, to growing our imaginations, and gaining creative thinking and problem solving skills. For us to succeed, we need to see our current sets of educational curricula and systems (both formal and informal) as defective and inadequate.

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