Becoming rich by hook or crook is not the most desirable goal in life

Growing up, I remember the adults in my life often asking me: “What would you like to be when you grow up?” In the beginning, I would tell them I wanted to become a teacher. Teachers lived in nice houses and my favourite one had several daughters and a television set.

With time, however, I noticed that the adults would frown whenever I gave them this answer. The more candid ones would say: “But there is no money in teaching. Why don’t you want to become a lawyer or a doctor?” Even when I eventually made up my mind what career I wanted to pursue, I learnt to tell the adults that my ambition was to become either a doctor or a lawyer. I received many pats on the head.

After I sat my Form Four exams, one of my relatives insisted that I attend interviews for the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) intake. He even ensured that I did not queue with the hundreds of my age mates who were competing for the limited slots.

Once I appeared before the panel, I was asked why I wanted to become a registered clinical officer.

“Because I want to make money,” I said honestly, albeit foolishly.

“You have good results,” one panellist said. “If you had a choice between joining university and joining KMTC, what would you choose?”

I told him, in all honesty, that I could not wait to join university to study what I loved: literature.

“Good luck with your university education,” he said. The interview was over. I had never been more elated in my life.

BUY SLOT

When my relative learnt that I had “failed” the interview, he offered to buy me a slot that was up for bidding. I was only saved because I travelled.

One of the biggest challenges currently facing county governments is the constant conflict with doctors and nurses. Medical professionals across the country are going on strike to demand higher pay. Only last week, nurses issued a strike notice, warning that if their pay was not increased, they would embark on a nationwide strike.

Whereas workers, including those in the health professions, have a right to go on strike to demand better and timely pay that is commensurate with their contribution to society, sometimes I get the impression that some demands are fuelled by the desire to get rich quickly.

Young doctors, after spending seven years studying, leave the university in the hope that they will earn big salaries. However, when they land in public hospitals run by counties, they realise that they will certainly be overworked and underpaid.

Soon, they are disillusioned because the reality of their professional lives does not match the high expectations they had nurtured since childhood. As they say, God looks at their work and smiles, but when he sees what they earn, He weeps.

That is why the professionals who think more strategically move abroad in search of greener pastures while those who cannot emigrate for one reason or another move to the private sector. Those who are “stuck” in public service agitate for higher pay in the hope that they will catch up with their colleagues who “escaped”.

‘MARKETABLE COURSES’

In universities, during my time and I believe to date, young people turn their backs on the courses they would enjoy and instead pursue “marketable courses” in the hope that these will land them a lucrative job the day after graduation. However, they lack the passion to make an impact in these fields because their hearts are not there in the first place. All they are interested in is the money and the lifestyle that these jobs promise.

This brings me to the two points I wanted to make. First, parents ought to reorient the thinking of their children to stop the obsession with making money. They should encourage them to pursue the interests closest to their hearts and which also match their abilities. This obsession with becoming rich quickly is, in the final analysis, the root cause of the corruption that has bedevilled our country.

Second, teachers and mentors should inculcate in young people the wisdom so succinctly captured by Paul Makenna in his book I Can Make You Rich. Makenna says, and there are enough living examples to prove his theory, that “wealth is what you get when you add value to other people’s lives”.

Since we are in the process of reviewing our curriculum, we should find ways of bringing this valuable lesson to learners of all ages to disabuse them of the notion that becoming rich by hook or crook is the most desirable goal in life. If we do this, we will have struck the first psychological blow against corruption.

Ng’ang’a Mbugua is the deputy managing editor of the 'Daily Nation'; [email protected].