The
big news this week was the inauguration of the National Conference, but the
deaths of more than 16 young applicants who died in Abuja and other venues,
during the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS recruitment exercise, overshadowed
it. This tragedy mirrors the desperate situation of Nigeria.
One
only hopes that this unfortunate loss of lives, coupled with the incessant Boko
Haram killings and other youth-based violence, would serve as a wake-up call to
the summiteers, that this country needs a new governance paradigm. If the
conference cannot produce that, then the over N7 billion invested in it would
amount to another colossal waste of our scarce national resources.
It is
an irony that each delegate would earn a whopping N12 million for the 3-month
duration of the conference. By conservative estimates, N12 million is enough to
provide self-employment for 12 resourceful graduates, and N7 billion could do
likewise for thousands, some of whom perished under chaotic conditions in
stadia around the country, while waiting for a poorly organised aptitude test
by the NIS. The young graduate job-seekers who turned out for the tests filled
up many stadia around the country, as if they came to watch high-profile
football matches.
These
hapless chaps paid N1,000.00 (One Thousand Naira) processing fee each. So, the
Nigerian Immigration Service must have made quite some money, considering that
in Lagos and Abuja alone, over 125,000 applicants turned up. We may be looking
at millions of Naira that this monetised recruitment exercise generated for the
NIS. There was record turnout in each of the 34 states for just 45,000 slots
that the NIS advertised. The alarming job application horror is a clear
evidence of the inability of our public institutions to manage events, resulting
in poor crowd control and avoidable deaths through stampede. This is not an
isolated case, it is a regular occurrence.
When
things go wrong, our leaders seldom take responsibility. The NIS has tried to
duck charges of culpability, by claiming that it outsourced the recruitment
exercise to a private firm which actually collected the N1,000.00 levy. As
usual, a panel would be setup to investigate this incident, followed by a white
paper, and then, the report may end up gathering dust in a cabinet somewhere in
Abuja, while government officials focus on the more important 2015 general
elections in a country where competition for political power is about resource
control, not the promotion of the general good of the people.
The
fact that four expectant mothers died in this incident, with about 700 others
reportedly injured, is enough reason why those who organised this event should
not escape appropriate sanctions. Unfortunately, the Jonathan Administration is
not known to punish errant public officials, although the NIS boss and the
Internal Affairs Minister have been queried. In other countries where human
life is valued, the President should compensate the victims and, more
importantly, prevent a future re-occurrence. But the Federal Government has
other priorities.
For
me, and also for the FRESH Democratic Party, which I lead, nothing else matters
in our quest for a functional, self-accounting and representative democracy,
than a fundamental change of the prevailing order which is responsible for our
national predicament. It should be reasonably assumed that delegates to the
conference would know this, but I have my fears.
Many
commentators have observed that the composition of the delegates to this
National Conference is skewed in favour of the old politicians, and some of
those who ran this country aground. How can we expect any meaningful change
from this set of people? 20th century ideas cannot solve 21st century problems.
If you look critically, the composition of the participants in this conference
reflects the geriatric propensity of our polity.
All
the progressive nations of the world, especially those who have graduated from
under-development to emerging markets, are being governed today by new sets of
leaders, whose orientation reflects the new world order, and are thus able to
successfully confront the challenges they encounter in their respective
nations.
As
this NIS recruitment tragedy shows, our meal ticket educational system is not
designed to drive industrial development or produce resourceful, self-employed
folks who can create opportunities, rather depend on employment. The belated
introduction of entrepreneur studies in the newly remoulded college curricula
is like putting the cart before the horse. While vocational studies have been
introduced, there are no teachers to instruct carpenters, electricians etc.
I
have long been advocating a shift in the paradigm of our educational sector,
which should be anchored on Human Capital Development. Science subjects are
foundation of technology. If I were the President, this would be the mantra
that would drive my reform agenda because without a solid, qualitative,
continuous stream of local production of graduates in the technical, or
science-related courses, our dream of industrial revolution as recently
articulated in a widely publicised launch by Mr. President, would be a mirage.
The
secret of Asia industrial miracle is that, leaders of that continent sent their
students to Europe and America. The returning Asian students, who went to learn
the technological wizardry of the West, laid the foundation of the
technological revolution that produced the Tigers, who now threaten the
scientific dominance of Europe and America. This is a model we could learn
from.
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