Misprints of a Recipe | Featured Artiste: Samsong

Misprints of a Recipe | Featured Artiste: Samsong

[Picture from HERE]

No, I am not about to launch into a detailed recipe for 3 ways to prepare garden egg (Does anyone actually "cook" garden egg? *curious*) or how to make guava pie for Thanksgiving. The title was inspired by a section from H. L. A Hart's "The  Concept of Law" where he discusses mechanical jurisprudence.  Without boring you with the details, I thought of that phrase again with respect to the education plan for Nigeria.
Apart from the infamous "6-3-3-4" system, I wonder if the current educational system was constructed with the Nigerian child in mind.  While I do not advocate re-inventing the wheel, there surely is a need to tailor the educational system to fit the unique needs of the Nigerian child while still making him/her competitive at the international level.

You see, I am not saying anything new, neither am I even referring to something Nigerians in general have not thought about and even debated.  At some point, we did have a system that worked, with degrees from our universities such as the University of Ibadan being recognized as solid and respected degrees due to the rigorous training and instruction that was given to students before they graduated.  I don't believe in lamenting about the "good old days" because I believe there are better days ahead, but we absolutely have to figure out what went wrong and learn from past mistakes before we can hope to make any progress in the future.

So back to my original question: Is there really an educational system that is focused on the success of the Nigerian child? Or are we just blindly following a system that we "inherited" from the British? Like the saying goes, (paraphrased) only a madman continues doing the same things over and over again while expecting a different outcome.  If we do have an educational plan which we are following, shouldn't the poor results we are getting cause us to pause and revise or completely discard that plan and start from scratch? We should stop being "unintelligent cooks" like Hart says blindly copying the misprints of another country's recipe for education and try instead to understand the principles, the philosophies behind their system to formulate a system that is uniquely ours.

But then again, Nigeria's problem is not just coming up with a plan that works, but actually IMPLEMENTING / EXECUTING and MAINTAINING that plan. And frankly, I don't see how to do this without help from the government, and folks, therein lies my frustration because our government has proven to be remarkably unreliable and unserious in its approach to education.  Yet, how do we move forward without the same government? The private sector can only do so much, and they have in fact helped with increasing the number of private schools.  But, those private schools need to be regulated (yes, there are some private schools you should NEVER send your children to).  In my opinion though, both the private and public sector need to be on the same page for education in Nigeria to really work.  Right now, they are "unequally yoked." *tongue in cheek*

Featured Artiste: Samsong

Samsong is no stranger to Nigerian gospel music and is known for his vocal dexterity.  If you have not heard of Samsong, please check out his song "Bianule" on YouTube and that should take care of that :-)  Today, however, I would like to introduce you to a song I found on ReverbNation titled 'Obimo.'

[Samsong / ReverbNation]

The song was produced (I believe) by Gospel Obi (a.k.a. 'Gospel on de Beatz') a well-known and versatile music producer / sound engineer in Nigeria, and I actually found the song on Gospel's ReverbNation page. It is tagged "featuring Samsong,"  so, I am not particularly sure what the arrangement is.  Either way, it is Samsong singing sha, which is why he is featured here today.  Will this song be on his next album? I don't know o. We shall see.  The song itself is a remix (to me sha) of a popular Igbo praise and worship song (Please if you know the translation, kindly share it with me).  I am not a fan of remixes because not everyone gets them right.  But this one actually works.  Okay, listen for yourself below:

Likes:  This song is an R & B song and strong vocals can make or break a song in this genre.  Samsong delivers very well on the vocals.  I particularly LOVE R & B.  It is the Number One genre of music I adore, but I know not everyone shares that level of enthusiasm and might be bored or un-impressed with the style of the song.  Nonetheless, the song has this exciting energy that you (or at least I) feel right from the beginning, and Gospel spins the beats in a way that maintains that level of excitement throughout the song and keeps you expectant. *picture me drooling and yelling "I want MORE!"* (Hehehe!)  The songwriting was good; no complaints there.  Furthermore, the background vocals were on point and the song just sounds like it was well-mixed.


Dislikes:  One thing I disliked was the female voice repeating "Gospel on the Beatz," but I guess Gospel has to brand his work product somehow, ba? :D  In addition, it kinda hits you in the face that this is a remix, with the loud beats that start right from the intro.  Thankfully, we were spared the incessant yells of "This is the REMIX" or "REMIX" that usually accompany remixes in Naija songs.  Samsong also did not do anything out of the ordinary with the adlibs.  If you have listened to his other songs, you can pretty much figure out the pattern his adlibs will take and so they were quite predictable for me.

Finally, some brief information on Samsong:

Artiste's Stage Name: Samsong

Artiste's Real Name: Samson Uche Mogekwu

ReverbNation Page: http://www.reverbnation.com/samsong

Download Link:  You can download the song HERE

Have a Happy Thanksgiving y'all! Gobble, Gobble, Gobble! *big grin*