Success is a mystery but everyone wants to be successful in some way or the other as I wrote in this earlier article. Over the last week we’ve been accustomed to having Sakaja Johnson Arthur on our dailies and news briefing as a constant feature. This is attributed to the challenges ascertaining he has a degree which is a requirement to be cleared to run for Gubernatorial seat as he intends to. From claims of having graduated with First Class in Actuarial Science from the University of Nairobi to producing a degree in Bachelor of Science in Management from Teams University in Uganda, the genuineness of the case for or against Sakaja has not been concluded and I’ll leave it to the authorities to handle.
My concern at this point is with institutions considered to be credible who fall victim to our social desires to associate with success. The University of Nairobi (UoN) earlier had Sakaja listed on their website as an alumni to portray the level of success or excellence associated with its alumni. This is definitely poised to encourage others to consider pursuing their education at the university as that’s the caliber of their graduates. The worrying bit is that when the controversies came up they went to their archives to ascertain that he didn’t actually graduate and edited their website. Question is whether they had done their due diligence before creating the post or it was convenient to sell the narrative? Shouldn’t the university be sued for false representation?
Our desire to associate with success is a shortcoming in having us be honest with each other. The quick and easy wins are our desires and marketers all over the world use this as a narrative to get us hooked on their products promising successes we may never achieve in our lifetime but it’s made look easy. Why do gambling companies market winners? To fool our primordial senses that want to associate with wins. We ultimately get to be fooled. In the case of UoN, I believe it is a failure in their part not to have done their due diligence and falling victim to such well calculated lies which wouldn’t have been detected were it not for the current drama. Institutions should hold themselves to higher standards for individuals bank on them and count on their credibility in conducting business with them. We can’t be sold lies our entire lives.