Chinua Achebe, the sage and philosopher who though has transited
physically to the great world beyond but whose monumental intellectual heritage
will live forever, has clearly told us in very plane language that Nigeria’s
problem is purely and squarely that of leadership since in
his refined thinking, the Nigerian nation does not have problems with its
climate or geography.
Conversely, one time information and communication minister Mrs.
Dorothy Akunyili once introduced a sobriquet which says 'Nigeria- good people;
good nation".
In the last fourteen years that we have experimented profusely
with democracy and civilian rule, emerging facts have shown beyond the shadow
of doubt that Nigeria gets the kind of leadership that it deserves just as it
is pragmatically impossible for Nigeria to progress above the quality of our
political leadership since even the latin adage says that nobody can give what
he/she does not have (nomen dat quod non habet).
That the Nigerian nation-state is still bedeviled by
multi-dimensional developmental challenges such as the crippling effects of
mass poverty; youth unemployment; high crime rate and deteriorating state of
basic infrastructure such as educational; health; and road network, goes to
show that the quality of political leadership is poor in vision and policy
implementation.
Both at micro and macro levels, Nigerians are witnessing varying
degrees of developmental challenges even as certain political administrators
have over time worked out meticulous and result-oriented panacea to peculiar
problems of underdevelopment and poverty afflicting their people in their
respective spheres of influence.
In this piece, I will take critical look at two approaches adopted
by current political administrations in Kano, the North Western State and Abia,
the South Eastern commercial gateway, especially in the last eight years.
In Kano State where a professional engineer who was once defence
minister holds sway as governor (Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso), in the last six or so
years, over five thousand youth selected from the local councils across
political, religious and ethnic divides have all but being flown to different
world capitals in Europe, America and the middle East to attend on state
government scholarship scheme, different specialized and professional
academic trainings in the fields of rare engineering courses and other sciences
with a view to returning to help build vibrant educational and academic
environment in Kano in the foreseeable future. Thus an observer can rightly say
that in Kano today, the youth are witnessing an upswing in positive governance
paradigm shift.
In Abia state where Theodore Orji, a man who has worked for over
three decades in different capacity in the State civil service and rose to
become chief of staff to former governor Orji Uzor Kalu [OUK] before being
railroaded to the prestigious office of governor, another kind of
youth empowerment program has being launched with fanfare but with much
emphasis on vocational skill acquisition and distribution of taxi cabs to youth
for commercial activities as taxi drivers. This, to a lot of observers is
surely a fast decline in good thinking and positive visioning process of
governance and thus can be classified as a negative paradigm shift in
governance.
Here lies the irony: Abia is in South East Nigeria which is ranked
as one of the most educationally frontline states with some of the highest
secondary school leavers seeking for admissions into higher academic
institutions of learning.
On the other hand, Kano state is in the North West which is ranked
as educationally backward and disadvantaged. While Kano state governor takes up
the issue of comprehensive investments in the educational capacity building of
thousands of its youth, Abia state on the other hand is paying much attention
to the production of youth artesans including commercial drivers, carpenters
and tailors and apprentices in other vocational skills acquisition schemes.
In the last six years, the current Kano State governor has
established what is considered as one of the best equipped science university
which has attracted the attention of some very rich enterpreneurs of Kano state
origin including the World's richest Black African Alhaji Aliko
Dangote. But Abia State has failed within the same six years
under review to properly fund the Abia State university and the derelict state
polytechnic in Abia. Abia state polytechnic in Aba still looks like glorified
secondary school even as students from poor homes are left to their design to
fund their education without any form of scholarship to the best of my
knowledge. [May I be proven wrong].
Before delving more extensively on the two most astonishing
ironies of governance in contemporary Nigerian society as represented by Kano
and Abia states let me borrow some wise comments on youth proper educational
empowerment from the versatile scholar and a reputable catholic Priest – Reverend
father George Ehusani (Phd).
In the volume one of the beautiful and intellectually edifying
book titled “Reverend father George Ehusani in conversation”, Dr.
Ehusani has these to say; “For a nation that sincerely aspires to be among the
20 most developed economies of the world by the year 2020, one would naturally
expect to see a solid foundation for this aspiration by way of a vibrant
educational infrastructure, a stable political system and workable economic
blueprints that would be followed through with discipline and commitment. But
such is not the case with us today. See the quality of professionals across the
board-from Medicine to Architecture, from Auditing to Security, from the Legal
Profession to Journalism. It is a tale of incompetence and ineptitude,
corruption and mediocrity. We cannot continue in this way and hope to find our
place in a fast changing global society.”
Aware of the enormity of the challenges facing the nation’s
educational infrastructure and standard as rightly observed by Reverend George
Ehusani, the current political leadership in Kano State has set out to build
enduring legacy of good, qualitative and science-based tertiary schools for the
academic and economic empowerment of the youth for a better tomorrow.
Governor Kwankwaso told a Nigerian journalist why his
administration is focused basically on educational investment and anchored the
reason on the sacred fact that education holds the key to radical development
of the people and society.
“Without education it is very difficult for a society or country
to develop. Education is number one and first agenda of our administration. We
started right from primary education where we reintroduce the issue of free
feeding of pupils in schools 5 times a week; we also give each pupil two sets
of uniform. In fact we have spent billions of Naira in providing infrastructure
and other materials. WithN8 billion, we were able to achieve so much especially
in terms of building classrooms. We have over 1,800 classrooms with reasonable
amount of offices. The schools are designed in such a way that in each block
there are 4 classes and two offices. The teacher- student ratio is now
reasonable. We are also converting some abandoned projects into training schools.
Training and retraining our teachers is now mandatory.”
On why his administration is spending public fund well to train
Kano state youth in their thousands abroad in professional and specialized
courses, the Kano state governor said the meaningful human capacity building of
the youth holds the key to peace, stability and economic growth of Kano state
now and in the future.
His words; “We are deliberately creating avenues for our citizens
to acquire education in all fields of human endeavor owing to the fact that
investing in knowledge brings about accelerated social change and sustainable
technological progress”.
He continued; “There some capacity buildings and skills that we
believe are better acquired in some selected institutes abroad. We are therefore
encouraged to send our people to go there to study. In less than two years, we
have offered overseas scholarships to hundreds of Kano citizens to go for
graduate and postgraduate courses, based on the conviction that the level of
greatness of the state depends squarely on the level of education of its
citizens".
"We have awarded special scholarship worth N1 billion or $6.7
million to 100 young graduates from the state, for an 18 months professional
pilot training course at Mid-East Aviation Academy, Jordan. The programme is a
watershed in the history of the state, is in line with the human capital
development agenda of his administration", Kwankwaso stated.
He further stated that; "Our vision is to equip Kano citizens
to face the challenges of globalization and to take advantage of abundant local
and international opportunities to improve their lot. The foreign training will
expose beneficiaries to best practices in aircraft management in addition to
fostering global citizenship.”
As the Japanese commercial advertisement slogan states that;
"good thinking; good product", one is left with nothing but to
applaud this academic revolution going on in Kano state.
In Abia State, the reverse is the case where critical thinking and
visionary leadership attributes were lacking in the formulation of the
so-called youth empowerment program by the current administration which has
placed so much emphasis on production of commercial drivers rather than
training the Abia youth in some rare professional and scientific fields that
will turn them into World class experts who will not only bring pride to Abia
State but will create comprehensive economic spaces for the active economic
advancement of Abia state.
Does Abia governor wish that the state produces more commercial
drivers and touts who may one day be forced by circumstances to work as
commercial and private drivers of those Kano youth now being trained
abroad as professionals by the Kano state government?
Here are the reasons given by Abia state government for
('dashing') awarding refurbished taxi cabs to Abia youth as part of youth
empowerment program.
The Chief Press
Secretary to Governor Theodore Orji, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezue said the programme
was to engage the youth in the state with useful venture.
He said that the
government embarked on the empowerment programme in order to secure the youth
of the state, insisting that it has no political attachment.
Emezue who spoke
with a Nigerian media said that the youth have done a lot for the state in
the area of security.
“With
this youth empowerment scheme which will be carried out in all the local
government areas of the state, many people will be empowered and those who have
been empowered will also employ others like conductors and others in their
different areas”.
“We want our youth to be
celebrated like others in the transport industry, which is why we have given
them vehicles to help start their own transport garages like others before them
in that industry, and in future, they will say they started with Abia youth
empowerment programme".
“The concern of Abia
government under the leadership of Chief T. A. Orji is to see that youth of
Abia get meaningful economic opportunities and as well stay out of crime".
My simple reply to Abia
state government is that they should go back to the drawing board; put on their
thinking cap and deploy public fund in training of selected Abia youth in
some rare professional courses both home and abroad so they can compete
favourably in the global market place with their contemporaries rather than
being trained as commercial cab drivers in this increasingly globalized World.
I am of the belief that
it is better to train ten medical doctors and pilots than give out ten thousand
rickety and refurbished taxis to Abia youth because human capacity building by
way of specialized professional courses is more enduring than few naira and
kobo and the rickety vehicles that will give way sooner or later to the wear
and tear of the weather. A word is enough for the wise. If Abia state
government wishes, they can unleash their usual public relations half baked
rejoinders rather than do the right thing for the benefit of Abia youth.
* Emmanuel Onwubiko;
Head; HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot;
com; www.huriwa.org.
16/7/2013
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