BY YAYA ADEMOLA
WHAT have we not said? We established that government should give free and qualitative education to every child irrespective of background, tribe or religion. An educated mind will become a resourceful instrument in the development of the society and himself/herself, which should be the ultimate agenda of any serious government. Instead of heeding the advice and investing in public education, the ruling elite ignored it. They technically and rapidly destroyed public education and established their private schools which could only be accessed by the very few rich. More often, the elites send their sons and daughters to good schools abroad. That explains why the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) and the likes in Polytechnics and Colleges of Education will be on strike for almost a year and the government will not be so bothered.
While millions of young men and women could not access public education, few that struggled for it have no job awaiting them or an enabling environment to be productively engaged after schooling. It has been the compilation of an army of unemployed youth who are prepared to do anything to survive. An idle hand is said to be a devil workshop.
Meanwhile, nature has been so wonderful to us. We are blessed with vast and fertile land and clement weather to grow any crop through mechanised farming that will decently engage the youth and increase our productivity with the capacity to feed ourselves and export the excess for foreign exchange earnings. Mechanised farming has a chain relationship with production and productivity in packaging farm produce and other allied products for local consumption and exportation. What have we got instead? Beautiful speeches from their speechwriters delivered by the ruling elite on the need for government to diversify the economy at public gatherings but they are never committed to it. All they stick to is petro-dollar which is no more sustainable and waning internationally.
One would have thought that the #End SARS protest would teach the ruling elite lessons by quickly implementing recommendations that will make the restive youth productively engaged. They foot dragged till the present pathetic situation surfaced – agitation for secession, attacks on police and public institutions, daily kidnapping, killings, and numerous criminalities that have overwhelmed the security apparatuses.
Interestingly, Nigeria is the largest assemblage of black people in the world with enterprising and resourceful people who have no problem living with one another. Before now, mass killings, daily kidnapping and attacks on security formations were aliens to Nigeria. They were seen as foreign news that could never happen here. What is happening now is the harvest of cumulative decades’ long negligence on the part of the ruling elite to invest in the people and infrastructure. Unlike their forebears between 1950 and 1980 who took steps to invest in the people and infrastructure, the primary target of the contemporary ruling elite is looting the resources meant for development at all times! This pathetic ruling elite disposition led to frustration, hopelessness and self-help; hence, our present predicament.
The ultimate agenda of good governance is the security of lives and properties, which is best enhanced through the abolition of poverty where every man/woman will have access to means of livelihood and facilities – decent job, healthcare, education, shelter, clothing, transportation from one point to another without hindrance and guarantee of his/her life and what he/she lives for. This is what modern political arrangement aspires to achieve. So, what is the big deal in attaining this? After all, the ruling elite has always had and maintained their privileges in and outside the office. With jumbo salaries and allowances, they allot to themselves under the guise of serving the people, they still steal and have demonstrated zero capacity to develop with attendant oppression and harassment of the citizens on the road by blaring siren with disrespect to traffic rules.
Although, I am not an advocate of a forced marriage, breaking or dividing Nigeria is not the solution to our problems. Assuming it is divided, once justice and equal rights are missing in the new formation as it exists, experiences of broken up nations have revealed that it will end up as one step forward, many steps back – clamour for another breakup will ensue. The solution lies in the unity of the common people across ethnic and religious divides, who are the majority, to enforce a change either to form or join a political party that will foster their interest and wrestle power from the present vampires.
To prevent degeneration of the new ruling elite, a new constitution must be drawn wherein the following, among others, will be enshrined: true federalism as against the present unitary arrangement where power is concentrated in Abuja; in a true Federal Republic, everyone is equal before the law and there are no privileged persons or groups; all the federating units are independent and will support a Federal government for a common cause; in the new dispensation, children of the ruling elite must attend public schools – failure to adhere to this will be criminalised with jail terms and outright ban from politics or holding any public office; there must not be power generating set in Presidential Villa, Governors’ Houses and all public officers’ official and private residences – everybody must rely on the national grid; every political office holder should not take a wage more than average skilled worker salary, amongst others.
The new arrangement must take our young people to the land with mechanised farming that will productively engage them with decent remuneration and boost to our ailing and failing economy. Nigeria is a place of bountiful opportunity which has been violently violated by its thieving ruling elite. We must rally, “reflect, rethink and act” to make it work as we have no other place to call ours.
