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Our nation Nigeria is gradually becoming ungovernable because of the free fall accident that resulted in a head injury some decades ago. The head injury may lead to a coma, if we do not re-examine the journey we made that resulted in the accident that caused our vehicle crash.
Over the years, we tried to make a partial recovery but did not go far enough to investigate the cause of the accident, even the attempted partial recovery was not total and did not heal the body, let alone the soul. The mending of the broken bones and the treatment of the body injuries was ongoing at the time we started the exploitation of the gold and diamond around the accident site.
The exploitation at the site of the accident and the sharing of the resources around the sacred site were being done without any thought to giving back the land a bit of what we’ve taken as necessitated by nature. This may have contributed to the slow recovery because you can’t keep taking from nature without giving back, so much so that nature has started to fight back.
The result of all these can be seen in our disjointed or no meaningful development, instead we’ve had coups upon coups, wars of different types, insurgency and separatist movements, and massive corruption. Kidnapping and banditry becoming a way of life for youths who are being educated with little or no learning.
Some decades ago, Nigeria had a world-class higher education policy and system equal to Cambridge and Oxford that attracted foreign students.
Today, 80 per cent of our youths at university age do not want to attend university in Nigeria but are doing so because they do not have a choice.
The nation’s law and order were among the best in the world. Nigerians seconded judges to developing nations to assist with the development of their judicial systems and also to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and our police and military schools attracted foreign students.
Our military men and women served in peacekeeping operations around the world, distinguished themselves and came back with medals.
Nigeria built one of the best telecommunication gateways in the world and on the inauguration date, our Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafewa Balewa, spoke to the British Prime Minister from the State House. Today, the landline telephone system that was inaugurated and operating no longer exists. Those that came after us or copied us are still operating.
The nation built four refineries, not only for domestic use but with the possibility of exporting to neighbouring countries; a few decades after, we are importing refined products even from the countries that copied the operations from us.
Nigeria built motor assembly plants in six geo-political zones, which were to be the start of our industrialization towards making our own cars and trucks, in association with the steel rolling mills. The rolling mills and the assembly plants are no more. The collapse of all these contributed to high unemployment in the country.
Now, with the death sentence being passed on the universities in Nigeria by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government, it makes one wonder about the state of the country’s educational system. Is it that those in leadership are not aware of what this whole thing is doing to millions of students and parents in Nigeria?
Millions are waiting to enter higher institutions in furtherance of their education but it seems the wait will be much longer than expected of a short strike, since ASUU and the Federal Government are still bickering like small children, instead of settling the issues raised.
Some weeks ago, I wrote an article on “Leadership deficit” in this very column. I had predicted that, with the leadership deficits that we have in the country today, it may take 20 years for the present leadership to make way. With what is being experienced today, the 20 years may be too ambitious.
In this article, I mentioned that Nigerian voters are being asked to go out and vote in the coming election. For over half a century, they were told by leaders and politicians that voting would bring them dividends in many ways. They were told then that the corruption and indiscipline that were holding back the nation from emerging were going to be checked and eradicated. While they waited, they saw so much indiscipline and corruption among the same leaders: politicians, lawmakers and security agencies, all having a field day with criminal activities everywhere, sometimes investigated with no reporting to the public.
Any society that is passionate about its development must educate its people; no nation can be greater than its level of education.
The government’s and ASUU’s approach to solving the strike shows their level of concern for citizen and is geared towards the backwardness of a struggling nation. They have both forgotten the moral, physical and mental torture the striking has on parents, students and Nigeria as a whole.
There has been a steady migration of Nigerian scholars to universities all around the world in search of quality education. The incessant derailing of the Nigerian education system has halted the flow of quality education in Nigeria. When the universities are not on strike, the classrooms are overpopulated, making it hard to learn or get a proper education. The consequences of the strike are embarrassingly too much on Nigeria but it seems the Federal Government is having a field day and loving the roller coaster ride it is having with ASUU delegates, the students and their guardians. The country is losing revenues with high migration of students.
I wrote in this very column last week on Muslim-Muslim ticket. I mentioned that what we see and hear happening today in Nigeria is the hopelessness and backwardness of our political, educational and economic structure.
How would a country move forward when its youths are whiling away their time, idling at home and channelling their intellects to scamming people, joining robberies, Boko Haram, 419 and causing menace in society? How would a country move forward when the leaders of tomorrow are idling at home?
