Nigeria And Its Fading Dreams

One of Africa’s finest novelists, Professor Chinua Achebe. did opine that “Nigeria is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be” This school of thought is in the affirmative and arguably indisputable.

Prior to 1966, Nigeria was an upward mobile Nation whose gross domestic productivity was growing at about 7 percent per annum and income doubling every 13 years without the course of crude oil.

The dreams and aspirations of the foremost founding fathers and Nationalists was to lay a solid foundation that will nurture Nigeria to attaining greatness and to take her place of pride among the comity of Nations. This unflinching zeal displayed by the foremost Nationalists was betrayed by the invasion of the military junta and of late the political gladiators. The expectations of the expectant Nigerians were sacrificed on the altar of self aggrandizement and greed.

The enthusiasm that heralded the return to civil rule in 1999 is gradually fading away and the expectations blown away by the draconian whirlwind of the unyielding political players.

There are three dominant factors that changed the course of this nation and were largely responsible for the downturn of Nigeria’s fortune: the 1966 military coup, enthronement of mediocrity and reliance on oil as the mainstay of her economy.

The dreams that were conceived in the innermost mind of the great Nationalists were truncated by these aforementioned and other factors.

The Nigerian State is bedeviled by identifiable and innumerable challenges that look seemingly intractable due to lack of clear cut approach(s) to evade these quagmires.

Professor Chinua Achebe, Nigeria Novelist extraordinaire, in his classic novel, A MAN OF THE PEOPLE pictures a deteriorating Nigerian state that is enmeshed in innumerable socio-political ills and the consequences thereof.

Some described Nigeria as a jinxed state and others said the woes of the Nation were orchestrated by the evil machination perpetrated against the state by the successive Governments since the attainment of Independence in 1960.

This recurring assumption that the black race is jinxed is a misplaced thought. This assumption had been rubbished, punctured and demystified by the heroism of great African leaders of years past viz: Dr. Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, etc The determination and doggedness displayed by these great Nationalists were largely responsible for the freedom gained by Africa countries. Mandela struggled for freedom and an egalitarian South Africa State; Chief Obafemi Awolowo, popularly referred to by the Yoruba as Baba Awolowo, earned the status of a demigod because of his contributions to the Yoruba race, Nigeria and Africa at large. The name of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana rings a bell in Africa; he is a dominant subject in African history. Julius Nyerere also contributed immensely to the historical development of Tanzania and Africa at Large. What lessons are deductible from these great leaders whose services were genuinely selfless? It is a million Naira question for the present crop of African Leaders.  

Nigeria at 52 is a sorry state of complicated story that could fittingly be scripted for the performance of THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD; THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD is characterized by disjointedness and incoherence which evoke echoes of the sorry State of Nigeria.

The discovery of crude oil led to the abandonment of other natural resources that would ordinarily give oil a run for its money and as well compliment it for the attainment of socio- economic growth for the betterment of the Nigerian people. Nigerians have been captured, enslaved and soaked in the pool of abject poverty orchestrated by the looting spree of the loot masters.

These political gladiators covertly theorized a system that protects their interests, while the led wallow in a stinking world of abysmal poverty and unprotection.

These thieving leaders (“politrickians” and “Zombies”) have earned themselves new nomenclature that befits their actions and inactions; they are emperors, dictators and rulers.

Nigeria retarded growth overtly requires a team of very experienced political surgeons to perform an intensive political surgery to bring Nigeria back to the path of development and glory; the reality of this theory largely depends on the willingness of the leaders to accept the transfiguration and proportion of Paul’s apostolic conversion.

In a sane society, leadership is influence but in Nigeria leadership is affluence and how much a leader can amass from the collective patrimony of the people. The opportunistic few should consciously remember that the wealth of the few will remain threatened by the poverty of the majority.

The insurgency of diverse agitation groups has threatened the existence of Nigeria as a composite and an indivisible unit. Turbulence arises from injustice, but the Nigerian people must be prepared to fight injustice in the most civil and intellectual manner. Violence has never been a better option, dialogue and constructive demand for social justice could ice the cake.

The docile and stoical disposition of most Nigerians to socio-political and important state matters is none the less baneful. The Nigerian people must rescue themselves from a vicious circle to a virtuous circle .There is power in the ballot. The diversity of interests could be collapsed into a composite whole, which will provide a common and strong front for the realization of social justice.  

Professor Wole Soyinka in his book THE MAN DIED convincingly remarked that: “Most Nigerians are guilty of conspiracy of silence”

Legendary Reggae star, Peter Touch did remark in one of his epic music that “everyone crying out for peace, none is crying out for justice………

…” It therefore behooves us all (especially our leaders) to admit the fact that justice is a condition precedent to attaining a peaceful society.

If Nigeria is properly midwived, it has the potential of a land of endless possibilities vis-a-vis peace, wealth, freedom, prosperity, egalitarianism, happiness e.t.c. 

The process of recruiting leaders in Nigeria is shambolic and runs contrary to the ideas and philosophy behind true democracy. A complete purge of the electoral procedure could come in handy to addressing the challenges of recruitment of leaders.

Dr. GoodLuck Jonathan assumed office on the 29^th of May, 2011 as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Nigerians shouted Hallelujah: another Daniel has come to judgement. However, one year gone and most of the steps taken by his administration did not jug towards the right direction. Mr. President has to put on a large thinking cap to ignite clear-cut policies that will improve the lots of the Nigerian people.

Nigeria is in dire need of a prince Charming of a Deus ex machina status that could lead its people out of Egypt to Canaan Land.

As the curtain draws close, I leave us with the philosophical thought of Professor Chinua Achebe to ponder on-“The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience”   

Author: By Friday Jarikre

Of Population And Poverty

That our leaders are to blame for our myriad problems is such a common wisdom that it could well be the first abstract thought expressed by every Nigerian child. Among our pundits, there appears to be a competition to use the most stinging invectives to make the point.

We have variously described our leaders as plunderers, scoundrels, devils, Satan, cabals, locusts, and leeches. Reading some of these vitriolic renditions leave me wondering sometimes whether our leaders are implacable creatures from a cursed planet, who descended upon our otherwise blessed land and ravaged it. I’ve wondered, sometimes, whether they are a modern version of the Vandals, who plundered southern Europe and North Africa in the 5th to 6th century.

Yet, when we stare starkly at reality, we should have little trouble realising that those miscreants we love to excoriate are actually us. At least, they are our brothers and parents and uncles and nephews and nieces and cousins — and the rest of the extended family members.

They are the people we idolise and fawn before. They are the ones who occupy the front rows of churches and mosques. They are the ones who occupy the high chairs at ceremonies and dole out naira in bunches — to our applause.

Is this some kind of apologia for our leaders, some plea for empathy? Absolutely not. Quite a few of them deserve to be spat in the face and locked away in prisons.

Even then, the ever-so-popular our-leaders-are-to-blame thesis is a gross over-simplification. The reality is that there are societal trends that undercut development, even with the best efforts of the government.

Take the case of population. Two recent news stories about population growth — one in the United States and one in Nigeria — draw attention to its impact. The U.S. Census Bureau released figures last week, indicating that babies born to minorities — that is mostly blacks and Hispanics — now outnumber those born to white families.

That is not surprising because, for long, the black and Hispanic population has been growing at a faster rate than whites’. It is also not surprising that the economic gap between whites and minorities has been widening as well.

In the more salient case of Nigeria, the New York Times carried a story in April with the headline, “Nigeria tested by rapid rise in population.” The story quotes Peter Ogunjuyigbe, a demographer at Obafemi Awolowo University, as saying: “Population is key. If you don’t take care of population, schools can’t cope, hospitals can’t cope; there’s not enough housing — there’s nothing you can do to have economic development.”

Another population specialist, Prof. Joel E. Cohen, of Rockefeller University in New York, put the matter in a broader context: “The pace of growth in Africa is unlike anything else ever in history and a critical problem.”

The telling impact is that while the economies of most African countries have registered an overall impressive growth in the past two decades or so, the economic situation for many people has gotten worse. No, it is not because of corruption or mismanagement, as such. The economic growth is just outpaced by the population over-growth.

Well, population growth is more a function of culture than governance. Sure, there is a chicken-or-egg dimension to this argument to the extent that certain aspects of development actually lead to population decline. Thus, there is the paradox that people in developed countries tend to have fewer children, as do more educated people.

Still, one does not have to live in a developed country to appreciate the logic of family planning. In a sense, a country’s development is an aggregation of what happens in families.

If every couple succeeds in placing their children at a higher economic realm — without resort to activities that undermine society — that will result in generational leaps in development. But that is impossible when families have children far in excess of their shepherding capacity.

In Nigeria, women still have an average of 5.5 children. That is actually a 19.1 percentage decline in fertility rate, compared to 1975. And much of that drop comes from Southern Nigeria. In the North, the trend is upward, with women having an average of 7.3 children. That’s close to the rate for neighbouring Niger, which at 7.5 is the highest in the world.

In most other regions of the world, families are making concerted efforts to reduce the number of children. Up to 80 per cent of women of childbearing age in Asia are said to use birth control. In Africa, the figure is reportedly under 20 per cent.

China, of course, had to resort to the drastic one-child-per-family law. It is a policy that only a totalitarian country can adopt and enforce, but it has worked quite a bit. China’s population growth has slowed down dramatically. And that must have contributed to its recent economic surge.

But even with what is now the world’s second largest economy, China is still essentially a third world country. It still has about a billion impoverished people. The Chinese could well take the rest of this century to reach the level of affluence of Europeans and North Americans. There are just too many people to lift out of poverty.

As the Chinese of Africa, Nigerians are in the most vantage position to set the trend in population control. The government-recommended rate is four children per family.For most Nigerian couples, common sense would suggest three or fewer.

In the United States, women bear two children on average. In major countries of Western Europe, the figure is under two.

Population control is one area in which women have to provide the leadership for Nigeria and Africa in general. After all, they bear the most scars — literally and figuratively — of over-populated families. I envision a family planning campaign pivoted around the slogan, “Just say no after three.”

To get to this point, most African women will have to re-orientate themselves. The prevailing notion is that children are a blessing from God. But what couples do behind closed doors also have something to do with it. We can count our blessings up to three and stop.

BY MINABERE IBELEMA 

13 years of Democracy: Looted hopes from leaders steering Nigeria to its end

The morning of 29th May, 1999 was like the first day in a new recreated Nigeria after 29 years military tyranny.

Drumming, singing, dancing and jubilation filled the Eagle Square, Abuja as Nigerians awaited the handover of power from a  military regime to a new legitimately elected democratic government under the leadership of  President Olusegun Obasanjo that morning. It was same in all the 36 federating states of Africa’s most populous country – celebrating a future full of hopes for improved wellbeing of everyone.

The inaugural speech of President Obasanjo even re-enforced this faith the more, as Nigerians at the Eagles Square and millions more who  werewatching  live on TV or listening  over the radio allowed tears of joy to drip freely when they thought of the past and what the new “messiah” was promising.

“Nigeria is wonderfully endowed by the Almighty with human and other resources” Obasanjo reminded all.

“ It does no credit either to us or the entire black race if we fail in managing our resources for quick improvement in the quality of life of our people.

“Instead of progress and development, which we  are entitled to expect from those who governed us, we experienced in  the last decade and a half,  particularly in the last regime but one, persistent deterioration in the quality of our governance, leading  to instability and the weakening of all public institutions ”, he said

“Good men  were shunned and kept away from government while those who should be  kept away were drawn near. Relations between men and women who had  been friends for many decades, and between communities that had lived  together in peace for many generations became very bitter because of  the actions or inactions of government.

“The citizens developed distrust in government, and because promises made for the improvement  of the conditions of the people were not kept, all statements by  government were met with cynicism”, he pointed out.

“Government officials became progressively indifferent to propriety of  conduct and showed little commitment to promoting the general welfare  of the people and the public good.

“ Government and all its agencies  became thoroughly corrupt and reckless. Members of the public had to  bribe their way through in ministries and parastatals to get  attention and one government agency had to bribe another government  agency to obtain the release of their statutory allocation of funds.

“The impact of official corruption is so rampant and has earned  Nigeria a very bad image at home and abroad. Besides, it has distorted and retrogressed development”. Of course, he promised to reverse all, in a rare oration that pulled down the wary stand of pessimists.

Looking back these 13 years of democracy, those past leaders  that Obasanjo so disparaged, would be completely right if they asked for an unreserved apology from  Obasanjo, who left Nigerians arguably, worse than he met them .Virtually everything Obasanjo said has remained the same, and has even gone worse in some instances.

The tragedy of 13 years of Nigerian democracy is even more vexing when looked through Nigeria’s earning for this duration. According to analysts, the country has  grossed in  far more income between 1999 and 2010 than the prior 35 years before 1999. It has been estimated that  Nigeria’s GDP had jumped  from  $90 billion  in 1998 to about $350 billion in 2009 alone, about 300% and on an absolute value. Yet on Human Development Index, Nigeria remains among the most impoverished  nations on earth, with an estimated 79 million of its 150 million  populace living below the poverty level.

The North Western part of Nigeria, according to recent UNESCO rating, has the lowest literary   level in the world.

Nigeria spent not less that $16 billion (N2.5 trillion)  to improve on the 3,500 Mw of power that civil rule inherited from autocratic military rule.  It is doubtful if Nigeria produces Imw  above that figure today. Yes, some roads, boreholes, hospitals and some schools may have been built, but on the aggregate that  falls extremely far  from expectation.

The story of Nigeria in the past 13 years is the story of corruption finding a cosy, ripe breeding ground. Never in the history of Nigeria had civil servants, politicians and even men and women in uniform stolen so brazenly.

With a judicial system that is a caricature of itself, all the billions spent on creating laws and institutions that should fight corruption, lay waste. Since the Nigerian civil war, Nigeria has never been on the brink of collapse and disintegration like now. After all these earnings, we have won fewer laurels in sports than for the same period under military rule.

Our image abroad has gotten worse as Nigerians make the bulk of thieves and drug criminals in foreign prisons. There is hardly anything to cheer in the past 13 years of our democracy. It has been the story of looted hopes by Nigerian leaders at all tiers of government, as Nigeria totters on the brink of disintegration.

On MAY 26, 2012 · in SPECIAL REPORT

Stories by Chioma Gabriel, Taye Obateru, Luka Biniyat, John Bulus, John Bosco Agbakwuru, Ayo Onikoyi

THE JUDAS’S IN ASO-ROCK –

– If there is one individual whose name has continously carried a regretable heavy burden in history, that of ‘Judas Iscariot’ easily comes to mind. As an ardent observer of the Christian faith, this writer was made to understand the role Judas played in the life of Jesus Christ and Christianity as a whole. Judas to preachers of the Bible, was painted black and was made to look to many as the worst sinner ever to have been born. Judas typified the devil incarnate and it was said he bore a hole of guilt in his heart for his actions against Christ.

As if that was not enough, the name or term Judas entered into many languages as a synonym for betrayer and had become the archetype of a traitor in Western literature and art. The name Judas was a typical example of one who was insincere, hypocritical and voltefaced. Why then has Judas both as an individual and a name been so abhorred by billions of Christians around the world one might ask?

According to the New Testament, Judas was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ who is infamously known for his kiss and betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for a ransom of thirty pieces of silver. He was according to several theological schools of thought to have contributed to a large extent, the eventual crucifixion of Jesus. To this end, one can deduce why he is percieved as an incongruous character by many, since the last supper and eventual death of Jesus.

Having said this, it wouldn’t be a misplaced statement to say that there are several children of Judas or Judas himself among us in Nigeria. Infact, there are worse Judas amongst us–worse than the one who betrayed Jesus, most especially those who claim to lead the nation in Aso-Rock today.

Reason for this rather indelible appellation against policy makers in Aso-Rock could be seen from the fact that all those who claimed to ride on the ‘goodluck train’ are the ones who are now intransigent and claim to know more than the vast majority of people who voted them into power.

 It is so sad that a man who we all believed was going to transform this country and make it the envy of many is now the one assisting in its somalianization (to borrow a leaf from General Theophilus Danjuma).

Many would not forget too soon the ‘I wore no shoes to school’ nomenclature those in Aso-Rock used as an election platform and campaign strategy to win the hearts of the people. Many believed they had sincerity within them and thought since the pain the vast majority of people had been subjected to for years reflected in those campaign words and slogan, they would be removed from the asinine political, social and economic cleavages Nigeria had been dogged with for decades, yet as we speak, not much has changed.

What had been slammed on the faces of the people was an unjust and empty removal of oil subsidy which has done little or nothing for the uplift and development of those who are made to bear the brunt of the insensitivity. When we look around us, nothing shows for the greatness we claim to be. Its an irony that foreign financial institutions churn out unbelievable statistics to show that the country is fast growing in its economy, yet more than half of the population do not understand where such economic jargons had led them to. What has been witnessed is nothing but stagnation, poverty, want and unprecedented insecurity as a new political addition to the myriads of problems confronting the Nigerian people.

The question policy makers in Aso-Rock should be asking themselves is why they have become a Judas unto the people? Why did they promise the people gold during their campaign and eventually laid bare unto them rusted iron on a platter of mud? What happened to the promise of wealth, development, security, standard education, food security, employment, welfare for the people and most importantly leadership by example? Why are those in Aso-Rock claiming not to feel the angry pulse of the people and why have they suddenly changed amidst hope among the people that things would be alright?

Those who claim to hold forth the mantle of power in the current administration ought to have learned that power is a journey just few can take and as a matter of natural law must end one day. They had failed to realise what it took them to emerge as the leader of the country, else they ought to have played by the peoples’ rule and not those of some unpatriotic elements who always are bent on making the country big for nothing.

Let those in Aso-Rock look around them and assess how they have faired since the ‘I wore no shoes to school’ campaign. They should go round and see how their myopic policies have not only failed their cabinet, the nation but most importantly the people. They ought to be ashamed of the fact that nothing has changed in the last two years for what abound has been business as usual.

The oil industry more than ever before has shown to the people that those who ought to bring oil thieves and rogues or cabal (to borrow a leaf from president Jonathan) to their knees are the same people aiding and abetting them. Rather than commit them to the court of justice, they are shielded and made to continue the plunder.

It is a paradox that despite the fact that those in Aso-Rock were bent on removing subsidy, claiming it would help not only the economy but propel infrastructural development, the billions accrued from it in the last couple of months have not been accounted for properly. It even becomes saddening when nothing has been erected to show how efficacious subsidy removal could be to transform the country.

It is for this reason that when Nigerian politicians are placed side by side with the Judas of Jesus’s time, the latter would have done well at the alter of natural justice. Let those who matter in shaping the destiny of this country begin a process of evaluation and get serious with its promise to transform the country. With dangerous signs coming from everywhere, it is expedient that the man who holds power places his name on the sands of history as the best president the country ever had, else, Judas as a name is not hard to link with those who though had the ample opportunity to change the destiny of this great country, yet only played to the dictates and tunes of political godfathers and looters of our collective commonwealth. If they would not learn so soon, they should ask the like of Laurent Gbagbo, who failed to learn from history (even though he was a historian) but who today is being condemned heavily by it.

RAHEEM OLUWAFUNMINIYI is a social commentator and political analyst who wrote from Ibadan.

Your Excellencies, This Is Unlawful

There is something very deplorable about the public conduct of some Nigerian leaders and their spouses in government. They do not only act insensitive to the plights of ordinary Nigerians over whom they rule, they are examples of what leadership is not.

More often than not, our leaders do not act as people well groomed with the right moral or values before assuming office. Nor does it appear they were versed in requisite ideals, considering the corrupting influence of absolute power which they wield.

These issues become imperative in view of the way which some Nigerian ‘first ladies’ now foul the public space. Not content with being good wives and private advisers to their ruling husbands, these first ladies have since turned themselves to rulers in their own right.

Right under the watch of their permissive husbands, they now constitute themselves into parallel governments, accorded all the perks, paraphernalia, privileges and protection of public office. They have offices, monetary allocations, advisers and special advisers, and travelling entourage, just like their husbands. And they go about touring or inaugurating one public project or the other, just like elected leaders.

Many angry public-spirited Nigerians have always condemned this unconstitutional abuse of public office and resources by the first ladies, but the excesses are not curbed.

Agreed, there are some first ladies at state level who undertake pet projects that touch positively the citizens’ lives. However, the intoxicating preoccupation with public show of power, authority and influence has dwarfed commitment to lofty public causes in the hearts of our attention-seeking first ladies.

Thus, most of them see governance under their husbands’ leadership as a family affair. So, rather than advise and help their husbands to be true servants of the people, the First Ladies only help to worsen the excesses of government. They contribute to public perception of Nigerian leaders as self-seeking revellers and anti-people bullies. And if anyone should criticise their husbands’ leadership foibles, they curse them.

In recent times, no other Nigerian First Lady has exemplified this impunity like the present. Apart from condemning criticisms of her husband, she has been bestriding the public space with the abrasive powers of an insensitive visiting First Lady wherever she goes. When she is not visiting some states on a nebulous peace advocacy, she is on the road to others for glib reasons.

Now, nobody is begrudging our First Lady her right to visit anywhere she likes within and outside Nigeria. But the bullying entourage she goes around with and the resultant excessive disruption to public order and convenience is now a cause for concern. Not even the visits of her husband, the President, to different parts of the country cause such  a level of public distress. Yet, Mr. President’s own visits are of more important nature.

Not long ago this year, the people of Oyo State had brazen indignity unleashed on them by the overzealous security details of the First Lady when she visited Ibadan on her so-called peace advocacy. Traffic around the reception venue was hellish. As the media reported then, security men harassed and battered innocent people who made the mistake of going to the venue to welcome Her Excellency.

Top Oyo State government officials, including commissioners, were not spared. They were harassed, embarrassed and turned back from accessing the venue.

Next, it was the turn of Lagos State to experience the disruptive hurricane of Her Excellency’s visit in April. On that unlucky Thursday, April 11, Lagosians experienced one of the worst traffic nightmares of their lives. The whole stretch of pivotal Ademola Adetokunbo Street on Victoria Island was cordoned off. Why? Her Excellency was meeting with South-South women at the Ocean View Restaurant.

She came all the way from Abuja to demobilise the economic heartbeat of the nation for nine hours just to thank some women for voting for her husband in the last general elections!

Like many incensed Nigerians, Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola condemned this abuse of power.

Naturally, one would expect listening ears and change of conduct to follow such  condemnations. Nothing like that happened. The impunity is only getting worse now. And so, on Monday May 14, 2012, Delta State had its turn.

This time, Her Excellency was in town to — wait for it — open a new beauty salon owned by a private individual on Warri-Sapele Road! So, according to news report, the people of Warri experienced hell as social and commercial activities came to a standstill.

The question now is: for how long will this kind of disruptive and oppressive conduct by our first lady continue?  Is Her Excellency not aware of the acute emotional distress and economic loss she is inflicting on innocent Nigerians?

Has she seen first ladies in other climes causing public agony to citizens on account of flimsy visits? And what is the Presidency doing to discourage this unwholesome throwing around of federal weight?

In these uneasy times when Nigerians are buffeted every side by terrorism and economic hardships, what we expect to get from Their Excellencies and their spouses are comfort, help and relief, not more pains.

Really, the President, his wife, state governors and their wives, as well as other public leaders need adequate security on their itineraries to and fro; but this shouldn’t come at a high cost to public order. Would it not be nice if the same level of overwhelming security used by aides are used to stem the activities of murderous terrorists and criminals in the country?

Give us a break, Your Excellencies.

BY DENNIS ONIFADE

 http://www.punchng.com/opinion/your-excellencies-this-is-unlawful/

BUHARI’S DOOMSDAY TALE; A PSYCHOANALYSIS

 Nigerians wake up daily to witness one form of political controversy or the other. It is fair to state that the polity is tensed up to a level that the North/South divide has become evidently manifest because of the near- total capacity of politicians to manipulate members of the public to perceive every development from the prism of ethnicism, regionalism and religious affiliations.

Governors of the Northern states met recently in Kaduna and decided that come 2015 only a Presidential candidate of Northern extraction would get the votes of the northern electorate. This bunch of unpatriotic elements forgot conveniently that Nigerians of other geographical entities still live in the North in spite of the torrents of terror-related attacks by armed Islamic fundamentalist group in the North.

Currently, one major tension that has built up all around the country is the groundswell of divergent opinions and interpretation given to the statement credited to Nigeria’s one time military dictator- General Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari has contested the position of the President of the Federal Republic under different opposition political platforms since 2003 and he has consistently emerged the runner up to the eventual winner. He has also had the honour of becoming the only Nigerian alive to have dragged eventual winners of three consecutive presidential elections from the lower election petition tribunals to the highest court in the Land-the Supreme court of Nigeria. Buhari lost in each of those hotly contested legal cases and in each of those times he experienced judicial misfortune, he is known not to have accepted any of the verdicts with equanimity.

For the powers-that-be in the Peoples Democratic Party, the fear of General Muhammadu Buhari is the beginning of political wisdom. After Buhari lost at the polls in the 2007 presidential election, he decided as usual to challenge what he assumed was huge electoral fraud at the election Tribunals but midway into the hearing of his matter which he instituted alongside his then running mate at the election- the now late Chief Edwin Umeezuoke, Buhari suffered a monumental set back when his once trusted running mate at the election and a co-plaintiff in the election petition decided to pull the rug off his feet when he shockingly withdrew from the matter at the presidential election Tribunal thereby exposing General Buhari to ridicule before his political adversaries.

Buhari never recovered from this disappointment which eventually made him to leave his then political family-The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) to form his own party- Congress of Progressive Change (CPC).

From the above analysis, it is safe to adduce that General Buhari has had a dose of political misfortunes.

The Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 presidential elections, major –General Muhammadu Buhari while receiving some of his party loyalists from Niger state in his Kaduna home tasked the Federal government to either organize free and fair election in 2015 or face the consequences of bloody revolt from the electorate.

According to Buhari, “…We have resolved with your leaders that by 2015, either they uphold the principles of justice in the election or it will be bloody. God’s willing by 2015 something will happen. Either they conduct free and fair election or they will be disgraced.” Buhari was even quoted to have stated that if election is rigged in 2015, monkeys and baboons will soak in their blood which is an expression that bloody violence will greet any suspected manipulations of the outcomes of 2015 General elections.

The above apprehensions raised by no other a person than Muhammadu Buhari regarding a possible doomsday scenario in the country comes the year 2015, goes to show that many important factors are at play here.

First, Buhari’s doomsday tale is substantially in tandem with a recent study by some controversial researchers under the umbrella of the National intelligence council in the United States of America who had about two years ago predicted that Nigeria may disintegrate by 2015 because of a combination of factors which may include religious; terror-related; political and regional conflicts.

Besides, the United States report which predicted the doomsday scenario by 2015 in Nigeria had raised a very critical point that; “other African Countries-including some failed states-plagued by poor leadership, divisive ethnic politics, decayed government institutions, geographic constraints, and a brain-drain may be unable to engage the international economy sufficiently to reverse their downward trajectory”.

The kind of regional politics most politicians play in present day Nigeria is a justification of this study by the Americans on Nigeria’s future comes the year 2015.

Secondly, a good look at the prediction of blood- bath by 2015 as made by the politician- Buhari would show that he has quality amount of historical body of evidence backing up his claim especially if we take closer look at the violence that preceded the Western regional elections in Nigeria in the 1960’s which snowballed into the first ever military over throw of government which brought in the then General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi whose administration was toppled and he alongside his close military aides were gruesomely murdered.

Nigeria also fought bloody 30-months civil war when riotous Northern crowds executed what is still considered in some quarters as systematic genocide of the Igbos who lived in the Northern part of the country and the then Eastern regional military administrator-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu [late] rallied his supporters to declare a separate political entity to protect the human rights of the Igbo speaking people who were at the receiving end of mass killings.

It is fair to say that Buhari’s doomsday scenario deserved comprehensive psychoanalysis to anchor it properly within faultless historical perspective.

Buhari’s submission ought to have generated deep introspection, retrospection, critical appraisal and should not be dismissed with mere wave of hands or with the usual angry tone with which the ruling People’s Democratic Party always treated criticism from respected quarters. It is a fact that wise persons when confronted by an upsurge of verbal firepower as has happened with the statement of General Buhari, the best way is for the people in government to be in their best of forms, restrain themselves into jumping into the bandwagon of verbal combat but should reflect on all the possible imports of such weighty comment.

Bill Newman in his scholarly book titled; “10 laws of Leadership”, rightly stated that; “wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge and experience to any given situation”. The same author further stated that ‘one of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency’.    

The truth is that the current political leadership in Nigeria has not accepted the truth that our electoral system is rotten and therefore is in urgent need of comprehensive overhaul. I am not one of those that would be carried away by the false belief that because the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission Professor Attahiru Jega came from a labour union background therefore the weighty operational challenges confronting that electoral institution are healed overnight.

The fact is that Nigeria’s electoral system is bad and therefore a careful psychoanalytic reflection on the doomsday scenario in 2015 created by Buhari would reveal that this is possible if we do not unbundle the crises of credibility afflicting the Independent National Electoral Commission, a body that is anything but independent.

Samuel Anayochukwu Eziokwu in his book “Good governance; Theory and practice”, stated that “current method in Nigeria where the President wakes up and appoints a particular person to head the electoral body is becoming archaic and obsolete… a credible selection of the head of electoral body is a rudiment of any free and fair election.”

Charles Onunaiju, a public policy analyst had in 2006 stated rightly thus; “Any good constitution must think of the South African experience where members of the electoral commission are chosen through popular consensus and all political parties are represented and not one handpicked by the President and ratified only by the National Assembly”.  

It is therefore imperative that the National Assembly should amend relevant sections of the constitution on the composition of members of the electoral agency and borrow the South African model if we want to avoid the doomsday scenario of 2015 predicted by Buhari. In the 2011 elections in most parts of the country, INEC officials followed the tune dictated by the pay masters in Government.

Written By Emmanuel Onwubiko

http://thewillnigeria.com/opinion/14200-BUHARIS-DOOMSDAY-TALE-PSYCHOANALYSIS.html

Education Should Be A Test Of Knowledge And Not a do Or Die Affair.

Education is supposed to be a test of knowledge and not a do or die affair, but in the case of Nigeria, the reverse is the case.

What is education?

According to the dictionary, education can simply be defined as the act or process of imparting knowledge, judgement, and a level of intellectual maturity. It is also the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, as for a profession. It is the result produced by instruction, training or study.

Education in Nigeria in recent years and now has not shown its usefulness, as it has now become an arena to exploit youths and their parents. Students are not being encouraged anymore because the educational set up in Nigeria is nothing to write home about.

Before the advent of JAMB, individual universities admitted their students mainly through GCE A/LEVEL or Higher school Certificate (HSC). It is a known fact that “JAMB came into existence because of agitation from the north that the admission process at that time was not favourable to the region,” a keen observer of the nation’s educational development recalled.

Even if JAMB was established by law, the Post-UTME was not established by any binding law what so ever. Post-UTME owed its existence to the concept of “quality assurance” propagated during the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo that most university students are of poor academic background and so likely to drop out before completing the degree programme. They will come in with exceedingly high JAMB scores of between 280 and 300, but cannot write or speak correct English after graduation.

Are students to blame or the government? This poses a serious question, and an accurate answer is required.

A tree falls from the top and not the bottom is a general saying. The Nigeria government should be blamed for the sad issues in the educational sector of Nigeria.

First and foremost, most students sitting for this examination called JAMB are apprehended one way or the other for cheating in the examination hall, why does this continue year in year out? Is it that the students tends to be smarter than the government or the fact that the government is lazy to adequately disperse it’s duty of conducting such examination in a free and fair manner.

Students are caught with phones in the examination hall, yet they are been searched before they get into such hall. What does this tell you? After all, the phones were not invincible during the search. It is actually clear that the so called securities put in place during such exam are corrupt and not professionals. Most of them tend to collect bribe and just pretend at the security check.

Yet things have not changed for better. Corruption, fraud, bribery, favouritism, nepotism, sectionalism, exam malpractice have combined to make mockery of both JAMB and Post-UTME. They are believed to be money-spinning ventures for tertiary institutions.

Because of scarcity of admission spaces, placements in universities had become “a-cash-and-carry exercise” for the highest bidders. The number of people who can’t get admission after JAMB keeps increasing every year, building an army of frustrated, hopeless youths easily lured into criminality and anti-social behaviour.

Why does JAMB conduct examination for over a million or more student without adequate space to accommodate such students? Let’s take a scenario where everybody who sat for JAMB passed as expected, after writing the Post-UTME, they also passed. What happens in this situation? Would some be asked to go home for lack of space or what? The Nigeria government should learn to forecast the future, and place education as one of the priority in this country instead of getting fat on six figure salaries.

In a country like China for instance, their citizens are motivated in one way or another to be creative. That’s why you find out that most things that they make use of in their country are locally produced. It is a sad situation in Nigeria because even spoons are been imported into the country. That’s why you find reduced innovational personalities in a country such as Nigeria because we do not encourage local made good, we do not encourage our youths. We tend to depend on imported goods which is a very wrong step in the development of a country. Nigeria cannot boast of making ordinary calculator, let alone a computer system.

The government should try and look into the educational sector of Nigeria by increasing the budget allocated to education, provide more tertiary institutions for its citizen, motivate youths to be productive, and also give student’s scholarship to acquire more knowledge and improve the Nigerian economy.

If you ask an average Nigerian undergraduate what his/her plans are for the future, the response would be: I want to work in an oil company or I want to work in a bank and so on. This shouldn’t be, we should learn to be productive and not working for others. Education should not be a do or die affair, but a test of knowledge.