NATIONAL CONFAB: ANOTHER DANCE OF SHAME OR FAME 1 by Iyeomoan Emmanuel
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| Columnist: Iyeomoan Emmanuel |
At a time like this when it seems like “the center can no longer
hold” as the glue that bonds us together as a people is loosing its grip and
“things are falling apart”, many a political thinkers believe that a National
Conference is never too late a time like this. History is rich with meetings of this
magnitude, not in the caliber of prominent public figures that acted on the
stage, but in the errors and blunders of past conglomeration of ideas on the
national table.
In this first edition of the series on the National Confab, Polity Police observe with clarity of
purpose, some salient issues to be addressed; challenges to be faced and anticipated credits to be gained from a national conference of this
nature. For content’s sake, let’s concentrate our
energies on the salient issues that will draw
the collective attention of Nigerians, in the course of the national
conference.
SALIENT ISSUES ON THE NATIONAL TABLE
It’ll be nonchalance on our paths to shut our
eyes to realities, and negate the wind of change that is about to blow the
Nation to its near-eldorado. Before we envision reaping the fruits of a
national get-together, conscience-searching questions geared towards placing us
on the right direction of change must be asked. Progressively, answers to these
questions must be offered with respect to: where we were before; where we are
now; and where we intend to be after the conference? Having conducted an online
poll on the social media, Facebook to be precise, the afore-stated “conscience-searching
questions” are presented in no particular order here-under as follows:
- What were
the results of past conferences of this nature?
- What were
the demands of citizens of the country at those times and what are their
demands now?
- Would a
national conference procure curative measures to the maladies eating the
nation’s health? Has it ever resolved issues in the past?
- What are
the costs and benefits to society of this national conference?
- Why should
it be a national conference, and not a sovereign national conference?
- What
happens to
The Polity Police as well as other public
affairs analysts anticipate probable success on this matter that has, and is
still trailing the polity (National Confab). We expect partial success outcomes
on the basis of a negation of salient issues of national interests. These
issues must, and should be tackled headlong before the ship of a successful
national conference is set to sail. They include, and yet are not limited to:
- Deteriorated
state of the education sector
- Heated
polity ahead of a pregnant 2015 general election
- Poverty in
the midst of resource-surplus
- Unemployment
in the presence of massive capital flight
- Population
issues and its surrounding problems
Deteriorated
state of the education sector:
Aggrieved quarters (undergraduate and lecturers) sneer at the drama of a
proposed national conference by the Jonathan-led administration, tagging it a
“dance of shame”. If we are objective enough in our judgments, we can’t but
agree that the education sector has reached its boiling point. Our institutions
of higher learning which were initially set-up for research and development,
have been reduced to a state akin to livestock-pens; laboratories are as empty as
caskets, without basic facilities and chemicals necessary for experiments;
lecture theaters are like town-halls, that you could count the few available
seats; students hang on windows like bus-conductors, just to receive lectures
that sometimes span for hours. Furthermore, our libraries are archaic and hive
a crop of outdated intellectual properties; hostels are unavailable or
insufficient, and where they are available, are worse than Nigerian prisons
(you know how our prisons look). Ultimately and most painfully, the academic
calendar is stylishly truncated by incessant and concurrent seizures in the
form of labour strikes- courtesy of government insincerity in meeting up her
obligations.
Heated
polity ahead of a pregnant 2015 general election: Many wonder why the polity is unnecessarily heated by
power-hungry and greedy politicians, when the 2015 general election is still
pregnant; though, we can predict what the outcomes will be. It is unsurprising to expect that most of our
elder statesmen who are expected too act as glue to uniting the diverse
interests of Nigerians, are at the forefront of this shameful act. Isn’t it
needful to repair these broken edges of our walls before thinking of a national
conference? Why don’t we organize a conference of elder statesmen to settle
their differences before lowering this boat called “National Confab”?
Poverty
in the midst of resource-surplus: How can we be talking of a national conference when the stomach of the
common man is empty? Are they going to seat on the national table of resolution
with hungry-looking eyes? Or, probably, they will be cut out of the scheme of
things by inequitable representation. Their interests will be represented, or
better still, misrepresented by the over-satisfied few, who do not know how it
feels to be hungry. It’s an irony that the gap between the haves and have-nots
widens with successive increase in the GDP- this is not funny at all!
Unemployment
in the presence of massive capital flight: Many employers of labour argue that the problem of
unemployment in the country isn’t unavailability of jobs, but unemployability
of job seekers. I fail to accept that cheap claim owing to the fact that
present day youths and prospective job-seekers are more intelligent than those
of the 60s, 70s and 80s (the youthful times of our fathers) respectively. It
amazes me that most of the big government employees, who preach “unemployability
of this generation” are half baked intellectuals. The media can support my claim
with many incidences of multiple errors in communication and lack-lustre
presentation of ideas by the so-called government big-boys (the public
servants). For instance, the “oga at the top saga” on Channels TV is still
fresh on our minds; the grammatical blunders of the president’s wife, who was
at one time the controversial head of service of Bayelsa State; the most recent
is the Anambra governorship debates aired by African Independent Television
(AIT) on 31st October 2013, and the Abia national conference forum,
where working-class citizens couldn’t communicate their ideas to the public
without reading unending manuscripts, even when time was allotted to them on
that regard. Or is it in Edo state, where a
government employed head-teacher couldn’t spell her name in the presence of the
Comrade-Governor? Let’s tell ourselves the truth and stop living in deceit. With
this revelation, what are the reasons for high unemployment statistics, if not
bad government policies as well as capital flight? Money that would have been
invested here in the country are transported to foreign lands and imprisoned in
their banks. Our leaders should tell themselves the truth- that they are the
cause of our problems and not the harmless youths who are out there to better
their lots. We complain of unemployment, yet public officials buy private jets,
armored cars, and build sophisticated houses. Come to think of it, majority of
the masses have no rooftops to hide their baldness, yet all governors have
private lodges in Abuja
Population
issues and other surrounding problems: Last month, the NPC’s boss resigned from service after some
months of his appointment without any important reason. It was a true test of
integrity and is rather un-nigerian to remove one’s tongue from a honey-pot,
but he did and posterity must remember Francis Odimegwu for that. After
analyzing the circumstances surrounding is resignation, I gathered that
population issues are more political than I envisaged. The 2006 national census
was marred by irregularities in the figures, which alone was enough to break
the country. Many states had their figures over-stated, with expectation of
higher shares from the national treasury. How can we grow in the midst of these
insincerities?
The polity police have sufficiently touched some
of the salient issues that must be put before the cart, for an effective
national conference. We continue this series next time by treating challenges to be faced. Watch out for part 2!
© IYEOMOAN EMMANUEL,
UNIVERSITY OF BENIN, NIGERIA.
