NIGERIANS MUST KNOW THAT THERE ARE SOLUTIONS (1)

By Soji Faloyo

The list of the most corrupt countries in the world are out and African countries take the best positions on the list. I am so surprised to know that Nigeria is number fourteen in Africa. What could be the level of corruption in those countries if it can be worse than what we experience in Nigeria. Even the school children are corrupt. One of the things the present administration promised us then was that they were going to end corruption and since its inception; corruption has been waxing strong. I read a write-up on the net sometimes ago when this government started. The writer said that our president did not have the capability to fight corruption in Nigeria. He cited many instances in Abuja alone that were enough to break the back of a horse. I never believed that what he said would ever come to pass. My belief was that Mr President only needed the political will to start uprooting the root of this common enemy that has been drawing us back. Why has nothing been achieved in seven years? Nigeria is still the number 154 out of 180 corrupt free countries in the world. It is too obvious to be denied. What does this even mean to our leaders?

Many of us believe that Nigeria will be great. That, it will regain her lost glory one day. Has Nigeria ever had glory before? Was even any glory for this country in the past? Many good hands were engaged in the first term of general Obasanjo and there was a glitter of hope but the hope was short lived over third term agenda. To me, by all means, whosoever God has helped to find his way to the most prestigious office in Nigeria should have total love for the country not for himself.
The person that took over from him was incapacitated and he still went ahead to take the mandate which was proven to the whole world that it was not about the love for the country but to enjoy the ceremonies that go with the office. I did not know that a man who was so sick could accept this kind of offer of leading a country that is besieged with all sorts of problems. They said he wanted to die in office. I do not know what his death in office has solved in Nigeria problems since then? Had it been it is an ordinary Nigeria that did this kind of thing, they, in that class, would have said that the person is unpatriotic.

There was another one that was coming fresh and had the chance to become the president of the country with opinion that he was God sent not knowing that the kind of corruption that the country had never witnessed before would be our lot during his administration. By the time l converted all the money that was seized from the then first lady to the Nigeria money, it was close to half of the county budget at that time. Till tomorrow, where she got the money was not known to Nigerians and the only thing we heard from her then was that the money was meant to take care of her health. Mrs Madueke was one of the heroines of that regime. This is not peculiar with this administration alone. This has ever been the situation with other government. I listened to the vice president sometimes ago when he said that just three people shared 1 trillion naira. Mr Ribadu, the former EFCC boss, once said in one of his speeches that there was a governor of one of the oil producing states that stole half of the money that was accrued to his state in his eight years of his administration. How much could that have amount to? No wonder he was in prison and his political influence out there was still much. What if the money had not been stolen but used for the development of the state in question? The governor stole half and the commissioners and others in that government would have stolen more than half of the remaining resources and how will development be achieved in all this? The story of the leaders stealing is what we hear all the time in Africa. No wonder we always have our names on the top list of the most corrupt countries in the world. Poor leaders that are born in Africa but they never allow Africa to be born in them. Africans are people of high moral standard. When the leaders are corrupt why then will the students in primary school up till those in the universities will not be corrupt by cheating in the exams, at least the followers must be like their leaders or the police will not be corrupt the way they are in Nigeria when the government they are working for are corrupt? I do not like to complain about the politicians because I see them as men and women of courage. I do not always want to blame them because when many of us do not want to be involved and only complain about, they pick the courage and get involved. Whether their involvement had brought to us a blessing or a curse is now a question for all of us to answer.

After losing in 2015 presidential election, our present president had wept openly on the national television during a press conference. There was no way I myself could have fought back the tears because this was a man I had thought would have been the difference we had been looking for. Being a man of integrity that could actually have had influence on all of us for a better Nigeria, l wanted him to become the president. Although, I was very young to understand his government as a military head of state but I was aware of how he had waged war against indiscipline. Some people claim that he was not the one but general Idiagbon that was in charge. Am l going to be so daft to know that it would not have been possible if he was not in support as the number one man at helm of affairs then?

Number one on the list of indiscipline in our society today is corruption. More than then, corruption is everywhere. Do we have any sector in the country where there is no corruption? None. If l say police is corrupt, it does not mean that all other sectors are not corrupt including the private organizations even the religious bodies but a country where the police and school children are corrupt as we have in Nigeria is doom. What has this present administration able to do? Nothing, is the answer in affirmation.

For a very long time, I have been hearing this motivational encouragement that Nigeria was going to be great. With the way things are going in this country, one will surely be skeptical of this. To me, as one of the citizens that want Nigeria to develop, I had always been elated anytime I hear this saying. I have now woke up from my slumber that Nigeria would be great is not just the word of the mouth. Something drastic has to be done. This is the reason people had always wanted to have the so called messiahs as their leaders but we have been disappointed each time. Is it that there is nothing we can do order than to just keep on waiting for the beautiful ones that will come and do the magic of giving us a new Nigeria we are yearning for? That waiting may take four hundred years as someone once said. He said it took United State of America four hundred years before they could get it right. If it had taken them that much years base on the fact that they went through try and error to get to where they are today, should we also start another try and error when the template is already there for us? or, are we not going to be foolish to need more than forty years just to copy the ideas to position our country on a good ground? We are over sixty years already from independence and we are getting worse every day. I was listening to one of Fela’s songs where he was decrying the state of the nation at that time. I asked to know the time the song was released and I was told it was in 1971. That was when I was yet to be given birth to. Since that time till now, the country has never got better.

Everyone complained of the military rule and we are in the civil rule and yet nothing has changed but getting worse day by day. We had thought that General Buhari administration was going to be different as we were made to know that he did not tolerate corruption but today more than before, corruption sleep and wake with us every day. A country where presidents steal. The money that General Abacha stole are still being retrieved till today. Is he the only former president that stole? Death exposed him among others. Another thing about all these stealing is that no one will own up to have stolen but stealing is going. The reason a president has to steal is what I am yet to know. When you are looking for money and you are met with honour, as it is being said among Yorubas, you do not need to move further as the reason for the money is to get honour. Perhaps, the president still wants to contest for councillorship or the position of the Almighty God. A country where the governors rob but we call it mismanagement. Being a governor of a state should have been a great privilege to serve humanity with a mind to give an account to the Almighty God that we all claim we are serving. You take all the money that would have been used to develop all to yourself alone.

WHAT A PURPOSELESS LIFE

All of them that make it to the national assembly even many that are tickly rich do not see it as an opportunity to help the country move forward but to be part of what we call National cake which destroys many good things in the country. Why have all these people decided to prey so much on this poor country to the detriment of all of us? We are all talking about a new Nigeria, where are we going to find that in all this? In this poor Nigeria, members of the national assembly want to live like the members of the assembly in economically good United State of America. They too want to use a car worth fifty million naira in this poor economy of Nigeria.

This is an act of insensitivity to the poor economic situation of the country which l call evil that is permitted by the constitution. I do not think that the budgets for the national assembly in this country where the people are drawn in the pool of poverty should be more than 10 billion naira yearly. Car allowances for a senator should not have been more than 4 million naira for those of them that are poor and cannot afford a car themselves. There are second hand cars that are good enough for any senator that actually understand the plight of the people. I know, someone will say that second hand car do not befit our honourables but is the country not worse than second hand at this time? Why have we not seen those senators that will have the love of the country at heart that they will decide not to take anything for serving the country? But most of these people are thickly rich? Where are the minds of service? Look at the huge amount that is budgeted for feeding and travel allowances for the executive amidst the poverty in the land. Why have the president and vice president decided to eat that much on Nigeria when they know that most Nigerians cannot afford even two square meal a day. The travel could have been reduced to the one that can make us save more money for agriculture. Last year, our president went for a summit on education organized by the Britain and Kenya. These are two countries where they have standard and quality education.

There is no examination malpractices in those country as it is the situation in Nigeria. What could the reason for attending such a program is what l do not know. To build on the lies we called education in Nigeria? We have not had the harvest from education like those countries where education is seen as the bed rock of development because we have not been planting its seed on truth and standard soil. I went barbing sometimes ago where l met some people who had the belief that Nigeria could never be great as some of us believe. After listening to their argument, I made them to know that Nigeria will be okay when we are ready for it as a people. Whenever we all realized that what we need to have are good leaders and we are ready to bless ourselves with it. One of them had the opinion that Nigeria would not be good again because he did not know how the problem of economy which he vehemently believed had been destroyed beyond repair would be solved. One was interested in the problem of the police, which he believed was too corrupt and angel would be needed to solve . One, the problem of power and other the problem of the insecurity. The funniest among them was the one that asked how the problem in the education could be solved. One thing that made me to be happy about this one was that he knew the core area of the problem. This is what the people in government never knew or know but chose to pretend as if it does not exist. It takes wisdom, knowledge and understanding to solve problems. To have the knowledge of a problem is the first thing. Understanding the problem is what is next. And having wisdom which solves the problem is the third thing. I took the problems one after the other just to convince them that the reason we are still wallowing in the problems in this country all this while is because we are yet to have the leaders that can put these three things together to achieve solution to problems and offered what could be the solutions.

Those that emerge most of the time are biased simply because they have to favour the people that put them there and most of the people that put them there are unrepented criminals that will need their protection when they are in office. There is no any problem we have in this country that do not have solution, all we do not have is the people who will take it upon themselves to put in place those that will give solution to the problems. This is to say, we, the people are the problem ourselves. Our inability to come together to present and elect the right people who will do just the right thing that can move the country forward is the number one problem we are facing. Some people will say will have to change our orientation. l do not know how over 200 million people will decide to change their orientation. Saying that, is just like saying that there is no solutions to our problems at all. A set of good leaders with the political will is the solution. They will surely come and do the right things and those who had been there before will have to bury their faces in shame.
The problems will have to be identified; this is knowledge. The true colors of the problem must be known; this is understanding. Then, the question of how it will be tackled will come in. If found; wisdom has been made manifested. I picked the problem one by one even those they did not ask for and gave what I knew to be the solutions to them. With what l told them, they all agree with me that there was a hope for Nigeria greatness. I can still remember the one that wanted to know the solution to the problem of education saying, ‘bros, if that can be done, there will never be anything called exam malpractices and that will be the beginning of Nigeria greatness. Someone represented the minister for education at an occasion.

 

On behalf of the minister, he said that Nigerian graduates could not write and speak English. He then advised that the teachers should make efforts in seeing that this is corrected. Is that the solution to that kind of problem? How did the graduates who cannot speak and write English make it through our higher institutions if those schools are actually what they claim to be? If such a statement is made on behalf of a minister who was appointed to bring development to his ministry, l expected the minister to take that kind of statement up and see what could be responsible for the university or Polytechnic graduates not able to speak and write English and find a lasting solution to it. This should be the priority of the people in such position. Examination malpractices is over 98% among the candidates that make their SSCE results every year in Nigeria? The standard is not there if malpractices in an examination is up to 2% but what do we say about examination in which examination malpractices is up to 98%? Over 30% of the candidates that pass SSCE every year in Nigeria are not present when their examinations are written on their behalf. Many in the south claim that it is because the north want to bridge the gap in the area of education. My question has always been that, is it the north that write their exams in all the centres in the south Nigeria where examination malpractices have been at the high level? The north come to lbadan, come to Enugu, come to PortHarcourt where prepared answers are given to the candidates in the exams? Is it the north that cheat in the JSCE and common entrance examinations that are conducted by the state with which other state do not have influence?.

I do not know how the north is involved in this and the south is not. One thing l just want all of us to know is that, we are waging the war against stalk illiterates today as bandits and all sorts and it is this serious, what will be the situation with the half-baked graduates that this act of examination malpractice will bring about in some years to come when we will not have jobs for them is what l do not know? It is not compulsory that you write UTME or POSTUTME before you gain admission into the higher institutions of learning. You just have to do regularization for your admission. This is an attempt to cover up as far as the case is concerned. A one year old child can gain admission into higher institutions through this means today in Nigeria.

He just need to be registered for any of the SSCE and have someone write the exam on his behalf and use the results to gain admission into any of the institutions. It is only his age that can be a barrier. Even the candidates that write, with 100 or 120 marks in UTME, you can gain admission into our higher institutions of learning. 120 in the UTME is the standard of a student in primary four. You now have to look at the kind of English a primary four student will speak and write. More so, if the student is coming from a background where English is not the modern tongue. Our professors that decide what should be the minimum cut-off points in UTME had said since the candidates are able to have five required grades in their O’Level, they are qualified to gain admission into the higher institutions of learning as if they do not know what the level of malpractices in the O’Level examinations is. You can now understand the reason for the failure of the teachers that were tested in those states where test were given to the teachers and they could not pass primary four examination. Answers to common entrance exams are given to the candidates in the exams throughout Nigeria. The JSCE candidates are being helped to pass the examinations everywhere in the country. The SSCE is complete rubbish. These make 92% of the students in our higher institutions to be below the standard. Over 80% of the students in Nigerian higher institutions of learning cannot write common entrance examinations and pass. A friend of mine who is a lecturer in one of the universities in Nigeria once said that the students in 200 level are not teachable. I think it should be clear now the reason a teacher who only carried the paper certificate we carry in Nigeria will not be able to pass primary four student examinations and the reason the graduates cannot read and write.

They may not know or pretend not to know but we know that a candidate that scored 150 in UTME cannot pass a single subject out of the nine subjects he or she may offer in his O’level let alone making five required subjects. Those are the candidates that make our universities. They are the one that are going to solve the scientific and technological problems that we have as a country. It is not that the students do not have the brain but bad system has made them lazy which has resulted in them being poor. I do not know where the hope is in Nigeria. All these are as a result of lack of good plan towards development and this is the consequence of poor leadership.