Ever since the so called “Abuja (drag) racers” got exposed recently, there’s been an outpour of condemnation particularly from those in the media. As misguided and at fault, not to mention naïve as these racers may have been, some of their actions have been over exaggerated particularly in the media. Yes, confirm accidents (unnecessarily) occurred, no doubt, but it seems people are quick to throw the baby with the bath water and hate the sinner and the sin (instead of just the latter).
As Abuja’s FRSC commandant Nseobong Akpabio delicately put in Weekly Trust (Sat, Nov 14th), “If they (the racers) want to show how wealthy they are, they should do something better with their money instead of buying expensive cars and bashing it.” Well said Akpabio. Now if only someone similar in his position of power could relay a similar statement to the Federal Government, won’t Nigeria be all the better off?
Just because the FRSC (and others with similar condemnations) have found “culprits” they can catch, doesn’t mean they should shout from their high horses just yet. It seemed somewhat justified, although wrong and disrespectful, that the youths captured laughed as their charges were being read in a court by the magistrate. This is a country where after all rule of law is so often broken, so why blame the youth (who are well aware of this) when they laugh. If there’s a real culprit in all of this, it’s the Nigerian society. We are finally seeing the effects of our actions, particularly the government’s ineffectiveness.
If the racers are threatening to call their parents who are in high places (some political), who put some of their parents there in the first place? Finally the aftermath of our society’s actions is trickling down. And by the way stopping the drag-racers only means one thing: that Abuja youths will find something new to do… let’s just hope it’s not as dangerous!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
GENERAL ISSUES PERTAINING TO NIGERIA
EDUCATION:
By the year 2015, Nigeria would have been expected to fulfill the Millennium Developmental Goal (MDG) of making education accessible to all, especially the girl-child. While Nigeria has educational problems (ASUU strikes, inadequate classrooms, e.t.c), the big question with 6 years to go till 2015 is should we be taking advise from the MDGs?
Granted their intentions may seem good (I doubt it), but Nigeria’s educational problem and any other for that matter can only be solved by Nigerians with Nigerian methods or that of fellow developing nations. I still maintain that the best way to save the educational system or at least the first step is to introduce a Ministry of Higher Education, to divide the work load of the present Ministry of Education. While the Ministry of Higher Education deals with the Tertiary institutions and ASUU (or maybe in the long run eliminate them, yes I said it), the Ministry of Education then deals with Primary to Secondary institutions. In this scenario, the Ministry of Education would be in charge of achieving the MDG goal of education, if indeed we are to follow their scheme. Anyway all in all, I think we should ignore the MDG and find our own home-grown solutions or follow other less demanding schemes like I said from fellow developing nations.
THE ENVIRONMENT:
I find it funny when I hear the Nigerian government or any Nigerian for that matter getting all hot and bothered about climate change, when we are yet to clear our streets of the numerous visible dump sites that we see paraded in some Nigerian cities. Sanitation is definitely one of the big issues bothering the Nigerian society. While most major cities seem to have a good sanitation system, there’s still a lot of work to be done. It’s not easy to monitor a large population, so you can understand how some people can seem ignorant to basic sanitation policies like not dumping their litter wherever they see fit. Let’s not forget the shanty towns that border major cities, which don’t have adequate sanitation systems.
The worst case is that of the open drainage system. For some reasons state governments find it fashionable to provide their state with goods roads and somewhere leave them with open drainages, which can also be a hazard for vehicles. These drainages need to be covered up, of course with a way to get in incase of emergencies, but nonetheless need to be covered up. They’re a hazard left open and a welcome to people who wish to litter the environment.
VISION 20: 2020:
Speaking of homegrown schemes, Vision 20: 2020 (the idea that Nigeria will be among one of the top 20 communities by the year 2020) has received a lot of criticism and with good reasons. While again, the intention here might seem laudable, it seems to be carried it in all the wrong ways. First of all is the involvement of old hands (those who can be counted as being responsible for seeing & letting the country fall to its present status being involved) and second, the fact that Nigerians are still crying over basic needs seem to invalidate Vision 20 (Vision 20: 2020 is to long to be writing and saying). At least with vision 20, we have 11 years to go, which at the way things are going are bound to be wasted with no credible achievement. Speak true!
UNEMPLOYMENT:
Perhaps the biggest issue of them all, unemployment may be Nigeria’s main bane. A large percentage of youths, not to mention graduates are left wallowing in the labour market. Whenever I meet people who do have jobs, their response to what they’re doing is half-hearted. Half-hearted, because you get the feeling what they’re doing isn’t what they intended to do, but however are glad they have a job. With unemployment widening, politics and illegal means of wealth become more lucrative (because what’s the difference between the two lately?).
This brings me back to Vision 20. You would think for Vision 20 to succeed, one of its major agenda would be to employ young people to help actualize it. No, instead like I mentioned above, they’re hiring old hands who can afford to retire peacefully and whose kids are probably all grown up and doing fine themselves. Where is the love? Is this part of the agenda, Mr. President, to show no love?
By the year 2015, Nigeria would have been expected to fulfill the Millennium Developmental Goal (MDG) of making education accessible to all, especially the girl-child. While Nigeria has educational problems (ASUU strikes, inadequate classrooms, e.t.c), the big question with 6 years to go till 2015 is should we be taking advise from the MDGs?
Granted their intentions may seem good (I doubt it), but Nigeria’s educational problem and any other for that matter can only be solved by Nigerians with Nigerian methods or that of fellow developing nations. I still maintain that the best way to save the educational system or at least the first step is to introduce a Ministry of Higher Education, to divide the work load of the present Ministry of Education. While the Ministry of Higher Education deals with the Tertiary institutions and ASUU (or maybe in the long run eliminate them, yes I said it), the Ministry of Education then deals with Primary to Secondary institutions. In this scenario, the Ministry of Education would be in charge of achieving the MDG goal of education, if indeed we are to follow their scheme. Anyway all in all, I think we should ignore the MDG and find our own home-grown solutions or follow other less demanding schemes like I said from fellow developing nations.
THE ENVIRONMENT:
I find it funny when I hear the Nigerian government or any Nigerian for that matter getting all hot and bothered about climate change, when we are yet to clear our streets of the numerous visible dump sites that we see paraded in some Nigerian cities. Sanitation is definitely one of the big issues bothering the Nigerian society. While most major cities seem to have a good sanitation system, there’s still a lot of work to be done. It’s not easy to monitor a large population, so you can understand how some people can seem ignorant to basic sanitation policies like not dumping their litter wherever they see fit. Let’s not forget the shanty towns that border major cities, which don’t have adequate sanitation systems.
The worst case is that of the open drainage system. For some reasons state governments find it fashionable to provide their state with goods roads and somewhere leave them with open drainages, which can also be a hazard for vehicles. These drainages need to be covered up, of course with a way to get in incase of emergencies, but nonetheless need to be covered up. They’re a hazard left open and a welcome to people who wish to litter the environment.
VISION 20: 2020:
Speaking of homegrown schemes, Vision 20: 2020 (the idea that Nigeria will be among one of the top 20 communities by the year 2020) has received a lot of criticism and with good reasons. While again, the intention here might seem laudable, it seems to be carried it in all the wrong ways. First of all is the involvement of old hands (those who can be counted as being responsible for seeing & letting the country fall to its present status being involved) and second, the fact that Nigerians are still crying over basic needs seem to invalidate Vision 20 (Vision 20: 2020 is to long to be writing and saying). At least with vision 20, we have 11 years to go, which at the way things are going are bound to be wasted with no credible achievement. Speak true!
UNEMPLOYMENT:
Perhaps the biggest issue of them all, unemployment may be Nigeria’s main bane. A large percentage of youths, not to mention graduates are left wallowing in the labour market. Whenever I meet people who do have jobs, their response to what they’re doing is half-hearted. Half-hearted, because you get the feeling what they’re doing isn’t what they intended to do, but however are glad they have a job. With unemployment widening, politics and illegal means of wealth become more lucrative (because what’s the difference between the two lately?).
This brings me back to Vision 20. You would think for Vision 20 to succeed, one of its major agenda would be to employ young people to help actualize it. No, instead like I mentioned above, they’re hiring old hands who can afford to retire peacefully and whose kids are probably all grown up and doing fine themselves. Where is the love? Is this part of the agenda, Mr. President, to show no love?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
STATISTICS AND DATA ON NIGERIA
You know how when you look at an atlas, it supplies you with information about just every country in the world? Anyway it got me thinking about Nigeria’s bio data. When you look at our official language, English is listed, yet there are roughly 250 other languages spoken in this great country. I once suggested that Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba be added to the country’s list of official language, however a close friend said that that would marginalize the other roughly 247 languages (are there really 250 languages?).
Anyway my argument was and still remains that these three languages should be added to the nation’s list of official languages, for one, English isn’t our mother tongue, it’s just the lingua franca, which we’ve accepted from being colonized. If Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are accepted as the nation’s main ethnicities, then the languages should be officially accepted as the main ethnic languages and not just the Colonial-accepted English. Where is our national pride, people? We talk about moving forward; so shouldn’t we start with the obvious like culture and language?
Another issue about our bio data, although not one that needs changing, is our population. According to the last census in 2006, there are about 140 million Nigerians. 10 million less than we used to believe there were. Also revealed in the census was that they were more men than women, which is surprising, considering the excess number of women I see. Then again men notice women more than the other way around, so maybe it’s our (men’s) fault for not noticing there are more of us than them, but then that just wouldn’t be right if we men did… that would be that word that used to mean happy.
Jokes aside, when the results of the census were issued, one issue that caused a bit of a stir was the revelation that Kano state had the largest population, larger than Lagos. The Lagosians refused to believe this. This might have to do with the fact that the state with the highest population more or less gets the largest state allocation from the Federal Government, but I could be wrong about that. I don’t really follow Naija politics like that, it’s like watching a day-time soap, you’re bound to get lost if you miss an episode or two.
Anyway, this Lagos/Kano rift was explained quite delicately to me one evening while visiting the local Tantalizers restaurant near my home (they should thank me for the free drop), when I was waiting in line behind these two gentle men. Coincidentally they were men who had just carried out the 2006 census and it turned out they too had heard about the outrage coming form Lagos. Eavesdropping on their conversation, I introduced myself and indulged their attention on the matter and they explained it to me in plain English. The kind everyone is supposed to understand.
According to the census workers, while Lagos had a large daytime population, it was not that high in the night as a percentage of the state’s working population came from neighbouring states specifically mentioning Ogun state. Thus those from Ogun or elsewhere were not counted as people living in Lagos. Meanwhile Kano state had the reverse scenario. While some of the state’s population worked outside of the state, Jigawa in particular, they lived in Kano and this assertion was recently proved to me in an article by Sunday Trust (can’t remember the date) that revealed a large portion of Jigawa’s legislators don’t live in Jigawa, but rather come from Kano and go back. So that settles it… I hope.
Another statistics argument is whether the Muslim population is larger than that of the Christian or vice-versa (As if that’s a criterion for going to heaven). What I want to know is who counts the atheists and traditionalists? Aren’t they part of the population?
YOU CAN ALSO LEARN (AND EDIT INFORMATION) ABOUT NIGERIA AT, OF COURSE, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria
Anyway my argument was and still remains that these three languages should be added to the nation’s list of official languages, for one, English isn’t our mother tongue, it’s just the lingua franca, which we’ve accepted from being colonized. If Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are accepted as the nation’s main ethnicities, then the languages should be officially accepted as the main ethnic languages and not just the Colonial-accepted English. Where is our national pride, people? We talk about moving forward; so shouldn’t we start with the obvious like culture and language?
Another issue about our bio data, although not one that needs changing, is our population. According to the last census in 2006, there are about 140 million Nigerians. 10 million less than we used to believe there were. Also revealed in the census was that they were more men than women, which is surprising, considering the excess number of women I see. Then again men notice women more than the other way around, so maybe it’s our (men’s) fault for not noticing there are more of us than them, but then that just wouldn’t be right if we men did… that would be that word that used to mean happy.
Jokes aside, when the results of the census were issued, one issue that caused a bit of a stir was the revelation that Kano state had the largest population, larger than Lagos. The Lagosians refused to believe this. This might have to do with the fact that the state with the highest population more or less gets the largest state allocation from the Federal Government, but I could be wrong about that. I don’t really follow Naija politics like that, it’s like watching a day-time soap, you’re bound to get lost if you miss an episode or two.
Anyway, this Lagos/Kano rift was explained quite delicately to me one evening while visiting the local Tantalizers restaurant near my home (they should thank me for the free drop), when I was waiting in line behind these two gentle men. Coincidentally they were men who had just carried out the 2006 census and it turned out they too had heard about the outrage coming form Lagos. Eavesdropping on their conversation, I introduced myself and indulged their attention on the matter and they explained it to me in plain English. The kind everyone is supposed to understand.
According to the census workers, while Lagos had a large daytime population, it was not that high in the night as a percentage of the state’s working population came from neighbouring states specifically mentioning Ogun state. Thus those from Ogun or elsewhere were not counted as people living in Lagos. Meanwhile Kano state had the reverse scenario. While some of the state’s population worked outside of the state, Jigawa in particular, they lived in Kano and this assertion was recently proved to me in an article by Sunday Trust (can’t remember the date) that revealed a large portion of Jigawa’s legislators don’t live in Jigawa, but rather come from Kano and go back. So that settles it… I hope.
Another statistics argument is whether the Muslim population is larger than that of the Christian or vice-versa (As if that’s a criterion for going to heaven). What I want to know is who counts the atheists and traditionalists? Aren’t they part of the population?
YOU CAN ALSO LEARN (AND EDIT INFORMATION) ABOUT NIGERIA AT, OF COURSE, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria
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