ABSTRACT: “Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where any man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein man love without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them with all. In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society and which is worst of all, continuall feare and danger of violent death, And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short – Thomas Hobbes poem, Leviathan, 1651.[1] “Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” is a phrase capturing the life of human beings when in a state of war. The state of war here can be likened to a state of ignorance, where illiteracy is the supreme lord and ruler of men. It can be palpably seen in the aforementioned quote that the state of war is characterized by wickedness, selfishness, stagnation, backwardness, anarchy, unrest, darkness, lack of innovation, dearth of knowledge, lack of vision, fear, violence, death, loneliness, poverty, and destruction. Human beings constantly strives to overcome this greatest evil through the tools of information, socialization reformation and revolution using the seven pillars of the society namely; Family, Education, Government, Church, Economy, Health and Media. However, more has to be done to mitigate the negative impacts of Illiteracy. It is worthy of note that the battle launched by Illiteracy against humanity is an endless one. There are records of successes and failures in respective countries depending on the functionality of the seven pillars of each nation. Notably among these seven pillars is Education whose indispensable role can be seen in the following quotes: “The one continuing purpose of education, since ancient times, has been to bring people to as full a realization as possible of what it is to be a human being. Other statements of educational purpose have also been widely accepted: to develop the intellect, to serve social needs, to contribute to the economy, to create an effective work force, to prepare students for a job or career, to promote a particular social or political system. These purposes offered are undesirably limited in scope, and in some instances they conflict with the broad purpose I have indicated; they imply a distorted human existence. The broader humanistic purpose includes all of them, and goes beyond them, for it seeks to encompass all the dimensions of human experience.” —Arthur W. Foshay, “The Curriculum Matrix: Transcendence and Mathematics,” Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 1991   “[The purpose of education] has changed from that of producing a literate society to that of producing a learning society.” —Margaret Ammons, Associate Secretary of ASCD, “Purpose and Program: How Does Commitment Today Differ from That in Other Periods,” Educational Leadership, October 1964[2]   From the foregoing quotes, it can be conspicuously seen that Literacy, a product of Education goes beyond the basic meaning of the ability to read and write but rather the ability needed to function effectively in a society. According to the UNESCO, “Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals to develop their knowledge and potential and to participate fully in their community and wider society”.[3]   Literacy is the foundation on which the super structure of Human Civilisation is built on. Literacy enhances the capabilities, abilities of people by providing them with requisite skills set for them to be better persons and blessings to the nation and the world at large. On the other hand, Illiteracy breeds hundreds of enemies such as epidemics, hunger, disorder, humiliation and many others. Thus, Illiteracy is a curse to humanity and development. The majority of the world’s countries are now democracies, however the world has not fully tackled the greatest villain of the world, Illiteracy which has grown to its full blown capacity most especially in underdeveloped and developing countries. Illiteracy is a contagious disease, disabling individuals, economies and the world at large. Little wonder, one-third population of the world is known as Illiterate. In under developed and developing countries of the world, large section of the child population is denied from the opportunity of basic education and continues to enlarge the rank of illiterates. Hence, the growing increase in the number of illiterates with as resultant effects of Discrimination, Immigration Stresses, Over population, Anti-social behavior, Poverty, Drug abuse, Malnutrition, Prostitution, Racial discrimination, Alcohol abuse, Corruption, Unemployment, Sexual abuse, Rape, Early pregnancy, Violence and High crime rate, among several others.   Recognising the growing influence of Illiteracy as evident in the myriad of social problems bedeviling the country, there is a need to be individually and collectively armed with Literacy characterized with Liberation, Light, Civilisation, Sanity, Love, Patriotism and a sense of responsibility. Considering the ripple and destructive effects of the oldest warlord, Illiteracy, It is high time we keep taking the elixir, Literacy. Until the good news about Literacy is shared abroad and optimally utilized by all, men and the society will perpetually be subjected under the oldest warlord, Illiteracy. Thus, this is a clarion call for all pillars of the society to be alive to their responsibilities of reforming, socializing, teaching, training and building its citizens to function optimally and effectively in the society. It is high time we put an end to this once and for all. To that end, it is recommended that the educational system and other pillars of the society should wake up from their slumbers. Adult and parental literacy programs need to be established. School attendance and retention strategies requires improvement. Resources, training, and technology for literacy efforts needs securing. National governments’ commitment to literacy initiatives demands strengthening, Family and Media has to be

    Dear Reader, You are about to witness a thought-provoking essay; a discursive analysis as to whether illiteracy has a nexus with most social problems. Simply put; can illiteracy be said to be behind most social problems? Come on now on board this journey with an open mind; be willing to shift some grounds, be willing to learn and unlearn a few things. For when this happens, the writer and the reader can rehearse a confluence and have healthy cross-pollination of ideas. The outcome at the end of the essay promises to be a sweet romance. Regards! **********************************************************************************   “Blame it on illiteracy,” has oftentimes pushed the belief that society is getting worse; that social problems are on the ascendency because many can neither read nor write. Whenever there is significant social distortion – evidenced by a few social problems, – it will be blamed, one way or another on illiteracy. But, is that always the case? How justifiable can it get to draw such a conclusion? Does it mean the literate societies are bereft of any social problems? These and many more, are the burning questions the essay will answer. But what constitutes illiteracy? Illiteracy is the inability to read and write; the inability to understand a subject. Impliedly, when one can garner appreciable skill in reading and writing, a fertile ground for knowledge transfer is guaranteed, and ignorance, no longer a monkey on one’s back. The blame game… The essay takes an unfamiliar position in this analysis. This is because it is not surprising to find illiteracy taking the blame for most social tragedies. Society is no longer in a hurry to hold itself accountable for its infractions. What an individual does, becomes the product of a blame game. Yet, one questions whether shifting responsibility for social problems from a collapse of core societal values to illiteracy is ultimately in the best interest of society. Little wonder, therefore, the writer chose the title, “cut illiteracy some slack.” It is anticipated that by the end of the essay, there would be an understanding of the justification(s) behind such a bold title. Methodology… To do this analysis, the essay would limit its scope to the Nigerian society; going a step further to choose our ivory towers – our citadels of learning – as an ‘experimental’ sample, to represent a group of the larger society. Keep in mind the focal sample so chosen is known for its bastion of literacy and knowledge. Other sampled societies in the essay are the democratic institutions like the Parliament, the Judiciary, and the Press. Can there be any social problems in such highly literate societies? The essay shall tell anyway. By the way, what is a social problem? It is an issue within the society inhibiting people from achieving their full potentials. In our highly literate societies under focus, many social problems abound; from corruption to bribery, from human rights abuses to ethnic discriminations; from cultism to substance abuse; from rape to sex for grades, the list is endless. And all these end up inhibiting any society from rising to the various zeniths of their potentials. Talking about corruption, The Federal Government in one of the recent industrial disputes, accused the universities’ hierarchies of paying ghost lecturers and also, indicted them for the shortfall in tax deductions by dubious vice-chancellors who connive with their bursars during salary payments. How about vice-chancellors that bribe their way through accreditation panels from the National Universities Commission in other to influence the accreditation of courses, even when it’s clear material and human resources for such courses are in shortfall. In most varsities, for an alumnus or alumna to process his or her transcript of academic records for admission into further studies, money often has to surreptitiously exchange hands before one is being listened to. This is not even part of the money needed to fast-track the whole process. On the part of lecturers, it is no longer news that some of them demand sexual gratification in exchange for grades. They have also formed the habit of ‘sorting’ – a nomenclature describing a situation where students are made to offer money in exchange for good grades after semester exams. These lecturers have also gone ahead to lure unsuspecting students into one or two social vices. Students on their part, indulge in other social problems like cultism and substance abuse even when it’s clear they know its consequences. They play truancy in school and engage in examination malpractice. The question is, are these lecturers and students illiterates? A quick U-turn from our ivory towers to another case study, which is the highly literate journalism and press society. They are also not shielded from some of the social problems raving present-day society. Some mainstream media for obvious reasons have inadvertently abandoned their watchdog duties to pursue ‘brown envelopes’ – a subtle name for bribe – before events are covered; before ‘unbiased’ reporting is done. The story is not also different for our ‘literate’ parliamentarians. Many of them have left their oversight functions of bringing the dividends of democracy closer to the people, to rather embezzle funds earmarked for constituency projects. Needless to also mention the judiciary, where you find some judges who are keen to subvert justice for material gains. Our post-primary school system is also not left out. Dubious principals and proprietors of schools connive with examiners from the ministry of Education to aid and abet examination malpractice during senior secondary school examinations. Are these principals illiterate? Truly, there is no gainsaying that illiteracy affects virtually all facets of life and not just social life. It is, in itself, a social problem. Those with low literacy skills are much more likely to live in other social problems like unemployment and poverty. They are unlikely to participate in social and community involvements because they do not understand the need to do so. Illiterates struggle to know their rights simply because they can’t read the constitution. They are naïve, impressionable, and