Chapter 36 - Nigeria and I

Chapter 36

Nigeria's

Contributions

 To

My Achievements

"I know that I am destined to win and, by God's grace, nothing short of that destination would be mine!  I am ready to literally turn stone to bread.  I am prepared to dig to hit gold in the depths.  That was why, at a stage of my life, I had to ignore every expectations from Government; so, too, with my brothers, sisters, or relatives for any assistance."

Nigeria Is Good

          God did not make a mistake when He, in His infinite wisdom, decided to create me to be a Nigerian.  He has, in His perfect wisdom, decided to place me in a country THAT CAN NEVER GO BANKRUPT!

          When I was much younger, one major fear I had was the fact that   Nigeria might go bankrupt if crude oil, the seemingly only mainstay of the economy, went dry.  When I saw the volume of human and material and natural resources God has deposited in the geographical entity called Nigeria, I have since come to realize that this country can never go bankrupt even if the oil dries up.  Nigeria has all it takes  not only to make the lives of its citizens abundant but the wherewithal to hold the rest of the world to ransom!   Whatever I may pray for, for Nigeria, I do not want her present geographical composition to be altered in whatever form!  My reason is simply that Nigeria should be viewed or seen in the same awesome way planet earth  is regarded!   So I urge those agitating for her breakup to realise that such occurrence will do more harm than good.  It is this enviable country that God decided to make my birth-place, a land-mass literally flowing with milk and honey!

Our Leadership Is the Problem

          What Nigeria lacks is a positive, vision-driven, purposeful and selfless leadership.  Nothing more.  We had a taste of the ideal type of leadership in the defunct Western Region of Nigeria under the able Premiership of the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo whose  legacy in that part of the country endures, never to be  forgotten in  the foreseeable future.  

          However, the current state of the nation is very sad, whereby the majority of her citizens are labouring under unbearable living conditions.   The leadership has been so far from reality that many good dreams have died at conception and others at different stages of their execution, not because they were simultaneously unrealizable but because of a tentative, careless and infact hostile leadership.

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How The Leadership Destroys the Fellowership

          There are basic and inalienable requirements for life.  They include food, shelter, education and good health.  When a country's leadership fails to enunciate and pursue such objectives or a visible blue-print for political, social and economic well-being of the citizenry, then there's discontent, the spunning of a prevalent anti-social underclass together with its environment and a consequent state of anomie.  Indeed, people are shaped mostly by nature and nurture.  Nobody is born evil but when he's surrounded by neglect and a state of hopelessness, he becomes an easy prey to undesirable tendencies.  Such is the fertile soil of violent revolution!

How They Affected My Life

          In such a situation, my expectations of Nigeria for my smooth development were pure fantasy and disillusionment.  The situation has persisted in one form or another up till now.  I am deeply hurt that Nigeria hasn't broken from this circle of bad leadership. I am aggrieved that my children and their peers are still surrounded by this dark cloud of misrule and lack of social engineering.  It is vexatious because my children and their kind have what it takes to make good.  Why is it impossible for the Nigerian leaderhip to be organised and focused?  Why can't they provide the basic social infrastructure for development in the midst of our abundant human and natural resources?  Why can't we have adequate schools (at all levels), electricity,, housing, a manageable health system, social security, etc.  - amenities that are taken for granted, like the air in other countries?

          That's why I stated at the beginning of this book that if I had had a choice, I might have wished to be born in a more developed, organised and civilised country, where leadership valued their people's lives, a country where the innate capacity of its people was encouraged to blossom.

          It hurts the more now to remember my continuous ordeal in trying to live as a factory worker, as well as a student, without electric light with which to study.  It was daunting, inhibiting, frustrating and dispiriting, and I was sorely tempted to cave in.  My survival is simply vested in God who had pre-destined me for recognition through achievement in life.  Otherwise, the alternative would have been very devastating all-round!  One Reginald Ibe rightly captured my perception in one of his write-ups when he said, and I quote:

“The challenges of those times still stand unassailed by the nation. The problems which those powered seminars, symposia, studies and lectures addressed have only increased, worsened, or mutilated”

          For instance, I jubilated when the Open University system was first introduced by the University of Abuja in the early 1980's although my joy was shortlived when it was scrapped later by the 1984/85 Buhari/Idiagbon military junta without just cause.  It is gladdening to see that the programme has not only been restored with an initiative from a democratic Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Obasanjo but the same Government has actively taken the necessary steps to democratise the educational space in the country to a greater level by approving more private Universities.  But for such initiative, my own children, like others, would suffer the same fate that I, their father and many other parents alike, had endured and they would have inherited a legacy of disaster!  As at 2004 there has been the reported case of over 640,000 students who wrote the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board's examination but without the prospect of gaining admission into Universities.  It is also sad that Universities have had to combine two years JAMB results to clear the backlog of admissions arising from incessant university teachers' strikes that had scuttled the opportunities of qualified students in the preceeding years. 

          However, another wonderful development, is the current requirement on re-screening students to eliminate cheating in JAMB examinations before admission into the University!  This is a step in the right direction.  It is an opportunity for the so-called high flyers emanating severally from JAMB's “special centers” to prove their mettle.  It is equally an opportunity for proper students to prove their worth because in my honest opinion, I do not expect many unaided but brillant students to be able to score more than between 190 and 250 marks in JAMB exams!

          The monopolistic position of JAMB has made it prone to inefficiency through unwieldiness.  This development has jeopardised the fortunes of otherwise brilliant students to go to higher insititutions.  The unwholesome situation has enabled some unscrupulous parents to negatively influence some JAMB officials to help their dull wards score undeserving high marks in JAMB examinations. 

          The obvious inefficiency of JAMB has manifested in the scandalous distortion of examination time-tables whereby, often, students slated to write their examinations , say, at 9 a.m. do so instead at 3 p.m.with repercurssions.

At the end of the day, students who actually worked hard to score well suffer the cancellation or withholding of their papers by the same JAMB on the untenable pretext that such students had cheated!  My innocent children were victims of such examination cancellations but, thank God, they have since been doing well in their respective Universities after surmounting JAMB's problems!  

          As a co-suffering parent, I have been frustrated with the prevalent lack of leadership generally in Nigeria and the seemingly unconscionable mistreatment of the citizenry, even in this 21st century. 

During the editing of this book, (3rd week of March, 2005), the news broke that the Education Minister and the Senate President had lost their positions due to their involvement in a N55m bribery scandal to pass the annual budget on Education! 

If a Minister of Education, at that, had to pay a bribe before his budget could be passed, then there can be no basis for national integrity - a situation that has bred what has been shamelessly tagged “The Nigerian Factor”.  Besides, would such a Minister be able to morally address a serious issue as examination mal-practice in his jaundiced or flawed perspective?  What stops him then from diverting the funds, when released, to other uses other than the education sector?  What chances are there of an honest cabinet or for concerted national development?  In this seeming stench of corruption, what fate befalls university teachers and their expectations or agitations?

Unless something radical or drastic happens, there will be no end to strikes and shut-downs in our tertiary insititutions. 

However, we pray for sustained progress and that the scepter of bad leadership in public (and private) institutions will be eliminated altogether.

But My Vision Lingers 

          As it has been my practice, I have set aside the failings of Nigeria's leadership to concentrate on bettering my lot.  I have therefore refused to allow my vision of a better tomorrow to die.  I have always fought the good fight.  I abhor the stories that failures engender.  I know that I am destined to win and, by God's grace, nothing short of that destination would be mine!  I am ready to literally turn stone to bread.  I am prepared to dig to hit gold in the depths.  That was why, at a stage of my life, I had to ignore every expectations from Government; so, too, with my brothers, sisters, or relatives for any assistance.   I have relied solely on God whom alone I have trusted to take my destiny in my own hands.  As I paddled my own canoe - East, West, North or South - God has not failed to send my way those whom He uses to fulfil my life! 

          So, having attained the highest promotional opportunities in the Secretarial line, and still feeling that I was not where God ordained for me, I began to consider how to get to the 'promised land'.

People who don't read books tend to find life boring, dull and their lives are static. So cultivate a reading habit! Yemi Omogboyega