I was meditating on the beauty of Diezani Allison-Madueke when I stumbled on one of Dr. Modestus Ezenwa’s accounts of the drama that saw him being walked out of a stakeholders meeting on Nigeria’s ‘unity’ schools.
It may not be recent but nothing has changed.
The interruption jerked me from my reverie about Diezani’s ‘oromantic’ big eyes and that mermaid beauty that disarmed even Naval Generals.
I imagined how even President Goodluck Jonathan also got enmeshed by her mermaid look. He made her sit atop the pot of Nigeria’s economy; talk of dipping her feet in oil.
However, that became her undoing. Jonathan mistakenly placed wax too close to the fire. Diezani was like wax. Neither her tender beauty nor prodigious intellect could protect her. She was soon seduced by the foxes who were masters in ‘lootocraft’. She learned the trade and began to dream about diamond brassieres instead of agbada and long caps where they stuff her stolen dollars. So, she was caught.
Now her recently repatriated $52.88m loot has ridiculed Nigeria. Some people are angry that the United States is telling Nigeria, a ‘sovereign’ state, how to spend its money.
I find this amusing; Nigeria, sovereign? If I have my way, America could take over Aso Rock and the 36 ‘lootocracy’ centres and Abuja until we learn how to be a people.
We are victims of sovereign befuddlement. Why do we pretend to be what we are not? What has Diezani done that Nigeria has not done worse? Why are we demonising Gen. Sani Abacha long after he died and robbing his family of their inheritance? Why are we troubling the god that did not win at the Central Bank, even calling him Emefailure whereas collectively we are much worse than all the looters put together?
Nigeria is a brazen bandit doing everything to destroy an innocent people called Igbo through the most repugnant official policies. Interestingly, especially for the North that champions this, the more they manipulate the system to favour their people, the more thick darkness overwhelms their land.
The region has nothing to show for their evil but brimful almajiri, terrorists, and bandits, threatening to spill southward via killer herdsmen; creeping squalor and an army of beggars testify to how their malevolence has boomeranged.
Sovereign nations are about justice, fairness, and equity.
President Bola Tinubu and some discerning northerners, who have seen and deplored their people’s self-destructive inclinations, must do something about the shame Dr Ezenwa raised, which led to his expulsion from the conference by haters of the truth. We are making a public spectacle of this country.
Over to Ezenwa:
I was asked to leave the 19th Stakeholders Meeting on Unity Schools /Colleges for asking what appeared to the officials of the Federal Ministry of Education to be a hate-filled question. The order came in such an uncharitable, direct, and malevolent manner! It matched the same venom that gave vent to it. I was not allowed to pick up my files and say a few words to colleagues. I must leave, and I must leave immediately within split seconds.
What did I say?
Priscilla Ihuoma, the spokesman of the Minister has just announced what appeared to me the information that brought me to Abuja. I was waiting for this announcement. I got it. I predicted the minister. She played into my hands. I had waited for an opportunity to share my thoughts on my hatred, opposition, and stance against Unity Schools and the injustice in the Nigerian education system. I missed the opportunity in 2016 and 2017 to present my views. Then, the meeting was a hushed one. This time around, we were told the meeting would drag to two days. Stakeholders, who have views could easily share them as the Minister would entertain such.
Mrs. Ihuoma announced the breakdown of the registrations for the 2018 Common Entrance Examinations. A total of 71, 294 young boys and girls were registered for the examination, a little shortfall from the 81,930 that registered in 2017. Lagos State hit the top with 24,465; FCT came next with 7, 699. Of course, you know why. The Igbo in Lagos and FCT are included! Then, she murmured a well-rehearsed statement: Zamfara 28, Kebbi 50, Taraba 95. These three states came first from behind.
She went ahead to tell us the obvious: that the nation has 104 unity schools, that most of these unity schools don’t get up to their carrying capacity, that a budget, running into billions of naira goes into their maintenance each year, and that the Unity Schools take up to 45% of the Ministry of Education’s budgetary allocation.
I was bitter. I was overtly burning with rage and hate. I couldn’t wait for the question and answer session. I did all I could to get hold of the microphone and finally, I got to the aisle, looked directly at the raised table, and heaved a sigh of relief. I glanced through my notes and let loose the canons:
Why do we have 12 Unity Schools in the East where more than 50% of candidates come from? Mr. Minister, why are kids from Igboland not given admission to those Unity schools that don’t get up to their quota/carrying capacity? Honorable Minister, can you explain why A young girl from Imo state, seeking admission into any of the country’s 104 Federal Government Colleges (Unity Schools) must score 139 points out of a possible 300 to stand a chance of being taken? But her counterpart from Zamfara state only needs to guess two answers right? Why is Abia’s young boy denied admission even when he scores 198 while his counterpart from Gombe who merely wrote the examination ( but scored zero) is allowed to study in any unity school of his choice? Why do we have only two Igbo principals in the 105 Unity schools in Nigeria? Does this reflect intellectual preparedness or merely a reflection of the wishes of the nation’s leadership and the ministry?
Why must the Federal Government set up a well-funded advocacy team to persuade villagers, traditional rulers in the North, and clergy to encourage their citizens to send their wards to unity colleges while efforts are not made to accommodate thousands of kids from the East, who are denied admission yearly?
Our Minister, I hope you are aware that last year, Nigeria’s four Federal Government Colleges did not produce a single candidate who scored the five credits, including English and Mathematics, needed to gain admission into the university.
Hon Minister, I hope you are aware that the Federal Government Girls’ College, Bajoga (Gombe State), FGGC, Bauchi (Bauchi State), FGGC Gboko (Benue State), and the Federal Science and Technical College, Kafanchan (in Kaduna State) did not produce a single pupil with credits in English and Mathematics.
Honourable minister, I hope you are aware that In 2013, human rights lawyer and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, filed a suit at a Federal High Court in Lagos over admission inequality in Federal Government Colleges. The court declared as unconstitutional, the decades-long state-based, quota system admission into Federal Government Colleges. John Tsoho, the trial Judge, in his ruling, declared that the action of the Minister of Education in prescribing and applying different requirements for candidates seeking admission into unity schools violates Section 42(1) of the 1999 Constitution. If this is the case, and that is the case, why does the Ministry of Education under you refuse to adhere to the court ruling?
Why does Zamfara State, with 28 candidates for the 2018 common entrance examination, have three Unity Schools, while my state of Imo has only two? Why do we have three Unity Schools in Taraba (which has only 95 students this year) while Enugu State has only two?? Hon. Minister, I can go on and on to…
It was at this point that the heavens were let loose. Stop there!!! Voices from the elevated table raged. It was amidst claps and jeers, heckles and clear disapproval from those whose benefits have been threatened; acclamation from those whose grievances have been let loose, that i was ordered and whisked away from the ICC, the venue of the stakeholders meeting. No harm befell on me. I retired to my hotel room, got enough rest, and made a Lagos-bound journey. I am sure the organisers wouldn’t invite me to subsequent meetings. But who cares?
NB: This Nigeria, sovereign country my foot!