The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tony Marinho

  • Insert Life Skills in curriculum; Security; Rangers

    Insert Life Skills in curriculum; Security; Rangers

    (Education Continued)

    In Educare Trust, we addressed over 50 socially relevant life-skill topics neglected by the ancient RRR-Reading, Writing, Arithmetic school curriculum. Today, each of those topics has NGOs dedicated to its dissemination. Such topics include Abortion, Activities, AIDS, Abuse, Alcohol, Athletics, Art,   Boredom, Bullying, Budgeting Co-Curricular Activities, Career Choice, Corruption, Corporal Punishment Injuries, Crash Helmet/ Safety Belt Use, Creativity, Cultism, Diary Keeping, Data Base, Democracy, Development, Drug Abuse,  Education, Entrepreneurship, Exhibition, Classroom Content, Care, Carelessness, Concern, Criticism, Exercise, Failure, Feedback, Finances, Friends, Friendly Learning, Environment, Intelligent Board Games, Giving/Taking, Guidance, Holi-School, Idleness, Instruments,  Language, Leadership, Library, Meet-The-Expert, Mental Health, Mentorship, Music,  Olaudah Equiano, Physical Health, Partnerships, Poetry, Prose, Posters, Photography, Reading, Recognition, Research, Quiz, Reward & Award, Self-Appraisal, Sign Language, Social Vices, Sports, Success,  Sex, Talent Hunt, Think-Tank, Toilets, University Assess,  Volunteerism, Values,  Wall Charts, Youth Centres. Reader…please add your own.

    All these topics are essential for students’ ‘Total Rounded Education’ and must be taught ‘in curriculum’ to Nigerian students and their counterparts in Africa and beyond. But they are not taught to most of our Nigerian 30+m primary school and almost 14m secondary school students in approximately 81,520 primary and 23,550 secondary schools [Source: Google search] unless an NGO shows up at the school.

    NGO access to the school system is haphazard, potluck and not sustainable without parental, private sector and sometimes international funding and volunteerism through NGOs. Probably less than 1% of schools have, at best, epileptic access to one NGO.  This does not include the ‘co-curricular needs’ of approximately 2.1m under and postgraduates in Nigeria’s 270 or so universities. Our students need more than sporadic NGO visits to haphazardly ‘perhaps’ learn ‘Essential Life Skills.’

     NGOs cannot be a substitute for government-led archaic ‘Education Policies and Practice.’ Leaving this huge aspect of ‘The Total Education of the Complete Nigerian Student’ to NGOs has also consistently failed with consequent ill-prepared ‘poor life skilled Nigerian students’ in schools not reached by NGOs.

    FOR EXAMPLE, HOW MUCH ‘CULT, DRUG, SICKLE CELL, & RESPECT FOR THE FEMALE EDUCATION IS IN THE CURRICULUM OR EVEN MENTIONED IN SCHOOLS IN A NIGERIA RIDDLED BY A HUGE CULTISM, DRUG, SICKLE CELL, VIOLENCE AND FEMALE ABUSE EPIDEMIC AMONG YOUTH? SCHOOL MUST BE WHERE VALUES ARE TAUGHT AND FIRST PRACTICED. There IS NO OR POOR GOVERNMENT SCHOOL ‘VALUES EDUCATION’ POLICY and most schools are off-radar and inaccessible to ‘Life Skill’ NGOs struggling to pay for personnel, equipment and transport to visit the Nigerian students in their classrooms.  

    Nigeria needs TO BROADEN THE CURRICULUM TO MAINSTREAM THESE CO-CURRICULAR TOPICS IN THE CURRICULUM AS CLASSROOM SUBJECTS and tertiary General Paper.

    Historically school-based Clubs including Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Red Cross, Blue Crescent, Man O’War, Literary and Debating, Science etc. were widespread in schools and did an amazing job of transferring many of the currently undertaken ‘Life skills’ tasks, including Volunteerism, now abandoned to NGOs to transfer. Many good schools have computers, Scrabble and other CLUBS in addition, but the reach and spread are inadequate.

    It is up to Nigerian politicians in GOVERNMENT TO URGENTLY REUSE STAGNATING FUNDS OF UBEC (N1.39b in mid-2024) for the education of youth at state level. WE MUST COMBAT THE LOW NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT CONCEPT OF WHAT ‘A NIGERIAN SCHOOL’ SHOULD BE, OFFER AND PROVIDE.’ UN standard Nigerian ‘CHILD AND TEACHER FRIENDLY SCHOOL’ with adequate Classrooms, Toilets, Libraries and Laboratories and Education Facilities’ are not nuclear physics. They are the Right of our Children and Responsibility of Governance. Most Nigerian schools would fail ‘IS THIS A CATFS?’ examination. This is a failure of the system. 

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    While awaiting State Police for states wanting it, in part response to new 2025 attack waves by ISIS and Boko Haram, President Tinubu rightly established a 130,000 Forest Rangers Force for our 1,129 forests i.e. approx. 115 per forest. This cannot be by federal character but by local recruitment content only but records can be the six Federal Zones e.g. North Central Zone Forest Rangers etc. Equipment quality, especially firepower, will counter combat constraints facing groups like AMOTEKUN, who have as a result needlessly lost gallant Fellow Nigerian members. May the Government educate their children and pay a Died-On-Active-Service Pension to their wives. What weapons will be ‘allowed’ for our FR? And what supervision will stop the FR in turn terrorising the forest dwellers as unsupervised ‘uniforms’ do nationwide?

    The Forest Rangers organisers would need a similar army of IT experts for the deployment of a 130,000 Forest Drone Deployment Strategy for grid-based surveillance, heat-sensitive and real-time Combat Capacity with a Drone Squadron HQ for backup. These are security jobs for 13,000 or 130,000 backup frontline IT youth – right there. To anticrime and anti-terrorism, add anti-smuggling, agricultural and tourist advantages. Proper IT and drones will catapult our forests into the 21st Century with vital data available to universities and other bodies. 

    As we plan a 2025 Security Summit, including Forest Ranger surveillance, note MEDIA SILENCE & SECRECY and the stupidity of prior announcement of ‘Operation Hopping Cockroach’ on the air alerting terrorists to go on short leave. Update and improve the 9th ASSEMBLY SECURITY STRATEGY which cost untold millions with State Police, drone development partnerships, IT recruitments in security, bank and court-ordered cellphone surveillance, undercover work and communications monitoring.  ONLY ENCIRCLEMENT, CAPTURE OR DESTRUCTION and only then the media announcement is the tested battle plan. Take our security to the IT level.   

  • 10 pupils; FAAC; CBT; Youth ‘JAMB-ed’

    10 pupils; FAAC; CBT; Youth ‘JAMB-ed’

    Sadly, 10 brilliant pupils died in an accident on their way from Kano to Lagos by road, for a simple national assignment, a quiz. Do not dare take this as just another road statistic.  Think prayerfully of their distraught brothers and sisters today – their roommates and playmates since birth.  Who was responsible for that accident? The culprits in this case should pay the criminal negligence price.

    Of course, no method of transport is completely safe, even flying. We sadly remember the 2005 SOSOLISO Oct 22nd crash claiming more than 60 mourned children.  May God comfort their families. But do drivers drive children and youth with any greater sense of responsibility than they drive the rest of us? Definitely not! Across Nigeria too many youths are born to die uneducated, unsung and unmourned in preventable deprivation, disease, accidents and even by terrorism.

    We must juxtapose the FAAC ALLOCATIONS TO THE URGENT NEEDS OF OUR YOUTH IN AND OUT OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM vis-a-vis the youth just JAMB-ed at their point of hopeful ‘exam success’ and the 12-18m youth reported as being out-of-school Youth, too many as IDPs.

    Each member of NASS ridiculously pays himself or herself N1,000,000,000, yes N1billion for HOR and yes N2b for Senators as annual Constitutional Allowance – a completely irresponsible Allowance.

     There have been many faults and glitches in the JAMB system, now apologetically admitted with tears, or in the past when they were so often arrogantly sidetracked, ignored, or swept under the carpet. Those faults and glitches left good students sadly confused, unable to explain their poor certified performance against their known academic prowess. But who would believe ‘disgruntled, disrespectful’ students and their very poor or sometimes wealthy parents – it is not cheap in time or money to ‘challenge’ WAEC, or NECO or JAMB. Also, since the examination body is also the arbitrator in an appeal for a remark or dispute, there has never been a guarantee of a fair review.

    Granted, in fairness to the examination bodies, we have several cases of successful protest and remarking. But it can take a very emotional traumatising 6-12 months of a student’s life with no guarantee of success. But are there any annually published statistics by the exam bodies or by EXAMINATION WATCHDOG BODIES of ‘REMARKED EXAM SUBJECTS STATISTICS’?

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    This is why the government must make the bold decision that there should be an office of an EDUCATION EXAM OMBUDSPERSON OR PANEL, PERHAPS STATE-BASED if the workload will be too much for one person and a team. The leader should be a distinguished, seasoned, respected principal, maybe retired principal, changed every 1 or 2 years to handle the emotionally exhausting and delicate cases of exam protests for that period only. The person must work harmoniously with examination bodies to eliminate the unimaginable pain and trauma, and indeed sometimes successful suicide resulting from ‘MISDIAGNOSIS’ OF EDUCATION FAILURE AND SUCCESS. The exam bodies must be like Caesar’s wife – impeccable.

    Remember the unimaginable horrible situation of the too many unknown brilliant and ‘lucky on the day’ Nigerian students who have been wrongly condemned to being called ‘WAEC, NECO or JAMB CHEATERS’ and DENIED THEIR PLACE IN UNIVERSITY or worse just because WAEC, NECO and probably JAMB REJECTED THEIR ‘TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE’ BRILLIANT SCORES on the grounds that the results were too good to be true? But without interrogation, interview or follow up.

     Imagine the impact on the youth involved, the other children in the home, the family and relations and friends and classmates and entire school when they hear that their most brilliant emblem has become a common cheater, according to INFALLIBLE WAEC, NECO or JAMB? Years ago, we called for a THOROUGH PANEL ENQUIRY, INCLUDING AN INTERVIEW WITH EACH AND EVERY SUCH CANDIDATE and Principal and a thorough examination of all the circumstances before a cancellation or downgrading could take place. Is that the case now?

    These bodies make more than enough money to execute such an ‘EXAM RESULT VERIFICATION ENQUIRY.’ Indeed, there may be a need to reduce the exam fees as the organisation can raise up to N22b and return N7b to the government. That should reduce the fees by 25%. Some suggest that the extra N7b could create the necessary Computer Based Training, which is not just a skill required for sitting JAMB. CBT is the 21st century youth right and the responsibility of LGA, State and Federal governments to introduce usable CBT, using solar panels preferably, to every school.

    Figures vary, but one estimate reports 23,550 secondary schools of which approximately 10,000 are public schools i.e. N700,000/school. Let us add FAAC allocation and Constituency Projects by NASS, and probably State Assembly, and who knows if LGA councillors silently receive Constituency Allowances, off the books. All must spend such funds honestly and wisely and face youth education as a powerful weapon against poverty. They should note that if neglected, that same education will become a powerful weapon against progress, threatening all of us in our day-to-day life, and especially during our movements on our neighbourhood streets where the masses of obviously poor and abandoned youth are well versed in begging or providing menial services to obtain daily bread.

    The fact remains that our youth across the country remain at a severe disadvantage, almost uniformly in public schools, and partly even in private schools. Fund the education deficit, please.     

    •(To be continued)

  • JAMB lessons; Emefiele’s forfeited estate

    JAMB lessons; Emefiele’s forfeited estate

    The poor showing in JAMB-2025 is another tragic signpost demonstrating the difficulties on the very tortuous road to providing a better education environment for our youth. With so many not getting the marks they require, we have created another army of undereducated youth to add to the 18m Out-Of-School Youth already out there.

    Youth require to be coaxed, led, forced and directed towards acquiring an education they often resent. Our youth cannot be expected to educate themselves. No matter how eager they are, they need massive educational support on the journey. But judging from the lack of content, and poor infrastructure in most of our schools, our youth are required to contribute far too much of themselves to cover up for the gaps in equipment and professional skill.

    A picture is worth 1000 words, except in Nigerian Classrooms, which are almost as if as a policy, are not supplied with pictures, posters, maps et cetera -the standard ‘wall decorations’ in all advanced country school walls. In Nigeria, would you believe, teachers are not allowed to ask students to bring anything to school for fear that an opposition political party will claim the government failed to provide adequately for the students.  Abroad, students are asked to bring books, magazines, newspapers from which articles and pictures may be extracted as educational aids mounted in the walls.

    Youth need dedicated well-paid, well-motivated, well-equipped, modern technique equipped teachers teaching in an encouraging atmosphere -A TEACHER AND STUDENT FRIENDLY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING SANITATION AND TOILET FACILITIES.

    We must never get tired of suggesting and offering improvements in the learning environment. This most recent JAMB2025 is a huge wake-up call to the huge task of achieving AN URGENT 2025 EDUCATION UPGRADE.

    Every day’s delay will add to the failure rate. The yardstick of success in schools and education is a simple one – passing examinations. If the students do not pass the examination, the preparation for the examination system has failed them and the components of the system need to be overhauled, re-examined and upgraded.  If not, the failure rate will be an annual recurring figure.  That figure, more than one million, is actually one million youth with dashed hopes.

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    It must be pointed out that JAMB authorities have done a good job in fighting the cheaters who used mercenaries and other cheating methods like ‘miracle centres.’ But just like the fight INEC has against violence and corruption in elections, corrupt parents and teachers and students fight back.     

    The percentage of classrooms and toilets and laboratories and libraries in schools that are fit for the use of our Fellow Nigerian Youth is very small. It is not expensive to render a good environment for our youth. All over the country, and especially in Lagos, we see thousands of street urchins and older youth, some sent by their parents and others by gang leaders to beg, or steal in broad daylight at street corners and in traffic jams. The JAMB results have no effect on those Out-Of-School youth. But ask yourself how that street urchin trying to clean your windscreen in today’s traffic jam would have done if he or she had been given the opportunity to go to school. No one will know until and unless those youth are sent to school.

     The final forfeiture of the 753 duplex or 1506-unit massive estate in Abuja linked with Emefiele, the disgraced CBN Governor, to the Federal Government, raises several issues. The effrontery of the accused to even try to claim legal ownership is mind-blowing. Congratulations to EFCC on this fantastic achievement which has given 1506 accommodation units to the Government. The battle will now be how to finish the construction of the estate and how to manage it when it is finished. Government is not a good manager of such estates. Will the estate be sold in toto or will part of it be sold to raise funds to complete the remaining houses? Who or which organisations will the houses be allocated too?

     Please try and find out exactly where Emefiele actually got the funds from to carry out this huge megalomaniacal egocentric project. If it was stolen from an international loan or grant, then the funds raised should be used to pay back the loan. It is certainly money from somewhere. Was it a massive bribe? If so, please release the details of the bribe, and which contract was inflated, and which contract it was deducted from, so that it can be refunded to the project.

    We do know that Government officials and political appointees tend to be too greedy, and it is likely that they are already lining up to stake a claim to one or more of the houses. We are so used to never hearing about the fate of forfeited property and funds once the court case is over, that Nigerians will soon lose interest in the matter.

    However, Nigerians need to be informed of every stage of the fate of this estate. There is a need for office space and also residences. Beyond the needs of civil servants and Ministries, Agencies and Departments, MAD, Sports, the Mentally and Physically Challenged and NGOs are also in need of assistance and office and subsidised accommodation. Let the 1506 apartments go round, by lottery, if necessary, to fulfil the needs of the needy, not the politically greedy.          

  • The ECOWAS education question: CSR (2)

    The ECOWAS education question: CSR (2)

    INVEST IN THE YOUTH AND WATCH YOUR DIVIDEND GROW!

    More GOVERNMENT BUDGETARY MONEY and MORE CSR by Corporate ECOWAS is required for uplifting primary education – to give a rock-solid foundation. Do not wait till secondary school. A rocky primary school leads to high poor quality dropout rates and poor-quality students seeking secondary school admission. We need primary school Robotics, AI, IT, good practical agricultural education.      

    THE BILLBOARD MANIA PARADOX: Our corporate bodies erect ‘international standard’ hugely expensive mega-billboards often with pictures of footballs and admired footballers paradoxically contrasting with neglected neighbouring braindead schools, requiring corporate petty cash for FOOTBALLS and books to change their educational trajectory. It is a corporate no-brainer Advertising Strategy Course 101 that for every N20-50m billboard, N2-5m must be spent in donating ‘with fanfare’ 1000 branded balls (foot, basket etc.) and 1000 library books to schools in the dark shadow of the billboards which shamefully have NEVER had a real football from the usual suspects- government, corporates, PTAs or Old School Associations.

    To DISCOVER INNER TALENT youth must have access, NOT TO BILLBOARDS, but to balls, paper, paintbrushes, musical instruments, the science lab today. Can we demand a BILLBOARD TAX FOR SCHOOL EQUIPMENT? The 1,000 footballs would give publicity, improved mental health, opportunities to shine and meet others as an anti-drugs and anti-cult strategy.

    IN ECOWAS CSR SHOULD BE ELEVATED TO AN AWARD-WINNING ANNUAL CEREMONY/COMPETITION FOR NOBLE CAUSES and not a HQ media frenzy, gimmick event, to steal, trickling through a waste pipe tap. CSR should cascade far beyond the HQ like a shower reaching everywhere through branches, distributors, employees, customers, contacts, old schools, neighbourhoods & customers’ families and communities.

    IN THE ECOWAS THE CSR REPORT MUST BE UPGRADED, SUBMITTED, EXAMINED AND GRADED DURING ANY CORPORATE/GOVERNMENT CONTACT/SHORTLISTING/CONTRACT AWARDING PROCEDURE.

    It is May. IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS there will be THE ANNUAL MOCK Exam. The MOCK indigent failures, without funds for private teachers, usually fail WASC or NECO. We require a standardised system in which GOOD MOTIVATED teachers teach the indigent students POST MOCK as well. IN EDUCARE TRUST we achieved a 60 percent PASS RATE FROM SUCH A SCHEME FOR 160 STUDENTS. Most of our ECOWAS youth require a little help to avoid failure. Empower the education workforce and improve the environment -posters, books, sanitation, toilets and running water. A school’s 300 students and teachers will visit TOILETS 3-900 times a day. Remember that please when you are thinking about CSR. 

    ECOWAS School Curricula need to include material taught by NGOs – CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES   

    TO REALLY HELP, The ECOWAS Chambers of Commerce and Industries must AS A POLICY EXPAND CSR COMPLIANCE AS AN ANNUAL RE-REGISTRATION REQUIREMENT WITH PRIZES & should police its own.

    SPREAD THE CSR SCRUTINY TO ALL PROFESSIONAL GROUPS AND CONSULTANCIES INCLUDING ENGINEERING, IT/AI, LEGAL, ACCOUNTANCY, MEDICAL.

    THE CSR REPORT SHOULD BE SUBMITTED AND EXAMINED DURING ANY PARTNERSHIPS CONTRACT AWARDING PROCEDURE EVEN WHEN TAKING ON AN AUDIT, ACCOUNTING AND LEGAL TEAM.

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    EDUCARE TRUST WAS BEGUN TO INSERT CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ESPECIALLY THROUGH SOCIAL MESSAGING in public schools. TODAY CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES are key to IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS BUT THEY RARELY GO AROUND. When you think of currency, please think of children. Corporate petty cash changes the lives of nearby children. Think stocks and shares, also THINK PROVIDING YOUTH EMPOWERMENT SERVICES. Thirty years ago, we started THE ET HOLIDAY SCHOOL -HOLISCHOOL -to occupy the youth, physically and mentally, during holidays in co-curricular and CURRICULAR progress. At our prompting and to the credit of Educare Trust, now, EVERY PRIVATE SCHOOL RUNS A HOLISCHOOL PROGRAMME. Great, BUT GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS DO NOT RUN SUCH PROGRAMMES. WHO LOSES? THE POOR ECOWAS STUDENT.

    WHY ARE WE SHOOTING OUR YOUTH IN THE BRAIN, DESTROYING OUR FUTURE?

     ECOWAS may obtain Commerce and Industry Achievements, overcome challenges to business success but if the youth are under-equipped there will be no successful future, only frustration, insecurity and violence. Education is not a guarantee for development or an inoculation against corruption but it is a better stepping stone, than ignorance, towards Peace & Security.

    The Youth Question is an explosive but surmountable Challenge requiring Solutions like increased Government budgetary and Private Sector CSR input. ECOWAS will lose if it mismanages this Opportunity and Responsibility to lay the foundation for future Peace and Security, prerequisites for economic development.

    Our ECOWAS youth, for REGIONAL INTEGRATION need INCREASED EDUCATION BUDGETS AND CLEAR 2025 CSR GUIDELINES ACROSS ECOWAS NOW, FOR A BRIGHTER TOMORROW.          

    ASK THE MODIFIED JF KENNEDY QUESTION

    ASK NOT WHAT THE YOUTH, POTENTIAL CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS, CAN DO FOR YOUR COMPANY NOW, BUT… WHAT YOU CAN DO, WITH CSR, TO KEEP THEM ALIVE, LIVING LONGER TO BENEFIT YOUR COMPANY LONGER BY BUYING YOUR PRODUCTS LONGER?

    THE YOUTH EDUCATION QUESTION —SUMMARY:

    NONPOLITICISED YOUTH CENTRES IN EVERY POLITICAL UNIT

    IMPROVE PRIMARY SCHOOLS WITH OLD STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATIONS

    EXPAND & ELEVATE PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION CONTENT

    INCREASE EDUCATION BUDGETS AND CSR CAPTURE

    Aim for AN OPTIMUM STANDARD TEACHER AND STUDENT FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT

    DISBURSE CSR TO THE PERIPHERY –WIDELY

    SCHOOL NEEDS LIST –ANNUAL

    BALANCE DIRECT CSR vs BILLBOARD COSTS

    FUND TEACHERS FOR INDIGENT STUDENT POST-MOCK EXAM INTENSIVE COACHING

    THE CSR REPORT MUST BE ASSESSED FOR PARTNERSHIPS/CONTACTS/CONTRACTS/SERVICE PROVIDERS

    INCLUDE SERVICE PROFESSIONALS IN CSR ASSESSMENTS

    FINALLY, PLS TAKE AND TEACH AT EVERY BUSINESS MEETING AS A YOUTH DEVELOPMENT/ANTI-EXPLOITATIVE STRATEGY: ‘INVEST IN THE YOUTH AND WATCH YOUR DIVIDEND GROW’

  • The education question: Primary schools – 1

    The education question: Primary schools – 1

    This article is a contribution made to celebrate ECOWAS @ 50: REGIONAL INTEGRATION: Gateway to Peace & Security, Trade & Investment, & Achievements, Challenges, Solutions & Opportunity. It is directed at corporate ECOWAS.

    Are all schools great? Think about caring for them all especially Internally Displaced Persons camp schools before they think about not caring for you and yours.   Where we were:

    Once upon a time a three-year old precocious child appeared, underage, in a village classroom and was told by the head teacher…    ‘Of course you need not come to school every day. Come when you feel like it …

    The young boy ‘I looked at him in astonishment. Not feel like coming to school! The coloured maps, pictures and other hangings on the walls, the coloured counters, markers, slates, inkwells in neat round holes, crayons and drawing books, a shelf laden with modelled objects –animals, human beings, implements-raffia and basket-work in various stages of completion, even the blackboards, chalk and duster…..I had yet to see a more inviting playroom……. I shall come every day,’ I confidently declared. 

    This was Africa’s First Nobel Prize for Literature 1986 winner Professor Wole Soyinka when he was three years old in 1937/8 as recorded in his autobiography Ake, The Years Of Childhood. That village classroom environment ignited his education rocket skyward on the pathway to the Nobel Prize success.  Can anyone today name an ECOWAS village kindergarten or primary school up to the Soyinka standard of 1937 in education tools?   – Do we as parents, politicians and private sector companies give ECOWAS children an education fair deal by taking responsibility for and financial commitment to the children to meet educational Social Development Goals (SDGs)?

    In my career in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OBGYN),I have accompanied thousands of women and children  on DELIVERY DAY…the most dangerous day in the life -and sadly sometimes death- of Mother & Child. And the result, a human being can end up in a poor quality school! Mother, is this the reward for your labour ward war? At delivery, I asked each baby ‘what will you grow up to be –the good 90% or the school bully, the bad and the murderous 10%?    Will you be the one to rob, or kill me in 20 years’ time?

    Every robber and murderer was a sweet screaming peeing baby once. The decision may be personal but the environment- home, neighbourhood, companions, educational, social – and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) support matters in the outcome. Do not underestimate or underutilise today personal and collective political, networking and CSR power to keep children unknown to you in good education and away from the DROP OUT or DRUG scenario that will enable them to commit a crime affecting you or your children tomorrow. 

    Thirty years ago, seeing the difference between my earlier education in St Gregory’s and what I then found, I initiated and received support towards the setting up of Educare Trust, Nigeria and ET Exhibition Centre, a youth venue. We pioneered computer literacy training over 7,000, impacted hundreds of schools and several university and polytechnics. We pioneered seatbelt, anti-smoking, breast exam, anti-bullying campaigns among others.  All ECOWAS youth deserve access to such a centre and suggest there should be ONE YOUTH CENTRE FOR EACH SMALLEST POLITICAL UNIT of the country. The centre should be apolitical in name and activities, community manned and funds and support from individuals and businesses in the area and philanthropic citizens and pensioners and other role models.    

     As ECOWAS, are we underinvesting and by implication, undervaluing education as an investment opportunity? If yes, are we nurturing undisciplined and criminally motivated armies of conventionally undereducated and unemployable youth? These youth are mostly out of school but some are technically out of school because they are in poor education delivery schools which under-nourish their brains. They will then seek alternative negative nourishment from the underworld arts and sciences of the SAD syndrome: SEX, AIDS, ALCOHOL, ADDICTION, DRUGS etc. and very employable in the alternative economy of crime and corruption and especially violence aimed at the educated. All these are bad for ECOWAS Commerce & Industry. Tomorrow’s ECOWAS WORKFORCE IS IN TODAY’S SCHOOLS. Help make them better.

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    In ECOWAS, we may lose a large chunk our future workforce to the underworld and the dark side of Artificial Intelligence, AI, and Information Technology, IT, if we do not improve the quality of education to all ECOWAS children. We require to domesticate relevant SDGs and score each school, target needs and deliver its needs.

    Every school should be able to publish and distribute a ‘school needs list’

    How many ECOWAS kindergartens and primary schools are Teacher and Child Friendly Learning Environments? We have much work to do to catch up with the past in one village in Nigeria in 1936/7. We must reject minimum school and educational standards and raise the 2025 ECOWAS education stakes to optimum standards.

    WE MUST UPSCALE a very neglected  KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION CURRICULUM and CONTENT to ‘SOYINKA 1937 STANDARDS’ and beyond of course, as many children drop out ‘undereducated’ at that point. This will also get a better quality and quantity of ECOWAS children into secondary school- the springboard to a tertiary education and a career.

    ECOWAS needs to widen the list of CONTRIBUTORS TO EDUCATION to fill the gap left by CHRONIC UNDERBUDGETING, the 2025 TARIFF WAR AND European Union, EU REARMAMENT/ANTI-WW3 effort. Setting up Old Student Associations for primary schools, are a key untapped resource, encouraged by competitive performance awards by governments. (To be cont’d)

  • Wages; Solar; Happi; 145; CSR

    Wages; Solar; Happi; 145; CSR

    Why is the West not increasing its minimum wage and cancelling its subminimum wage as a way of lifting their lower classes instead of blaming others for their poor and homeless people?

    Lagos State is setting up or approved a lithium battery plant costing $150m. Around 22 years ago, President Olusegun Obasanjo approved the tobacco factory in Ibadan built 21 years ago. Educare Trust objected and requested that he approve a cell phone factory instead. We lost the opportunity and today more people have and are addicted to totally imported cell phones than to locally produced cigarettes and smoking. Who lost?

    Federal government is banning solar panels. How soon? What is the solar panel production capacity today versus demand? This could just make life 100% harder for Nigerians in search of independence from the irresponsibly low 5-7Mw power supply when we need 100Mw for our population.   

    Congratulations to Professor Christian Happi, named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Personalities worldwide. Google him to review his massive CV and contribution to African health through international laboratory upgrades and genome research. The falling funding for such health scientific work from the West is due to internationally politicised negative funding changes in science appreciation, application and responsibility. In addition, there is the West’s urgent requirement for diverting such allocated funds to increase budgets for weaponisation to meet the falling weapon support and falling funds from the sole Western umbrella traditional arms supplier in order to meet the increasing belligerent threat of a European war from the East.

    Africans and African banks declaring trillions in annual profit must be interrogated, graded, awarded on the ability to meet the Gold Standard of CSR 1% contribution. There is need to interrogate their over-glossy but usually poor-content Annual CSR Reports and grade them for their contributions to the arts, sciences and research versus self-advertorial jamborees – masquerading as Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR.

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    Nigerians raised N17-20b for Babangida’s Library. As an un-voted military president; is he entitled to a ‘Presidential Library’? This N17-20billion, added to the  trillions in profit by banks, added to the several EFCC revealed mega-government corruption scandals, each over N100b, cumulatively tell us that, properly motivated and monitored, there are hundreds of billions that can, with a strong political and anticorruption will, by committed to underfunded budgets for Nigerian and African Scientific, Medical, Arts, Research and Training -SMART, to take on the responsibility to fill the void in funding Nigerian and African research.

    Now, 145 and counting are the Fellow Nigerians murdered by so-called ‘land grabbers’ supposedly paid by ‘unknown financiers’ who want what is under their land. The land was owned since time began by the families of the killed and was lovingly tilled and handed down intact by the ancestral owners of those so callously slaughtered by machete, gun and dagger. These killing are not just random killing to satisfy vampire terrorists, spawned political criminality or escalated interethnic squabbles or even the bloody trail of herder-inflicted mayhem of communities nationwide that we know have killed over 150,000 and displaced over five million IDPs.

    This latest assault on the innocent hardworking, unappreciated and unrecognised ‘common man, woman and child has wiped from the earth a generational memory. All know which ‘big’ person dies, but nobody knows even the names of poor people when they die. If they are many, they, Fellow Nigerians, are consigned to a mass grave filled to the brim with ‘unknown’ or at most ‘unnamed’ citizens, killed for being citizens in a country which deliberately disarms them before the ‘kill’. So, we can add ‘unarmed’ to ‘unknown’ and ‘unnamed’ or dare we call them ‘unwanted’ Fellow Nigerians. We must reverse our apparent deliberate policy of underestimating, underpreparing for and under-weaponisation of our troops, before we are all eliminated.

    We should have the humanitarian responsibility to actually identify by name every victim, and humanise each person in an OBITUARY LIST, published widely in every media outlet and method. They deserve that we are forced to know their names and something of their lives. Surely that is documentary journalism? We ignore the very obvious security threats until the day after citizens are killed and then we miraculously discover enough security to swamp the place with a post-mortem security party for the cameras. But there is no obvious ‘First 24 hours hot pursuit’ of the murderous marauders while the trail is still hot. Perhaps politicians do these post-killing visits to each other, as high government officials, as mere photo-ops. Yes, they try to comfort and support the surviving citizens with compassion and or cash. But what can replace an entire family lost in a night? War has been declared on us for many years but our responsibility has been meek and weak. Security recruitment is a politicised challenge. A too high percentage of the undermanned police service provides exclusive security for the same VIPs, Nigerian and foreign, sadly including handbag and briefcase carrying, who may visit the deceased and the survivors, leaving very few police to keep us alive when the next attacks occur. We must get our ‘first 24 hours strategies’ up to scratch. Instead of chasing away, we should surround and capture the murderers once and for all. 

    When will this blood flow, civilian and military, started so long ago cease? How many more innocent Fellow Nigerians must, merely for owning their property and sometimes defending it, join our fallen gallant security forces who have paid the supreme price for being Nigerians?

  • Maintenance; NNPC; NOA drug education

    Maintenance; NNPC; NOA drug education

    Travelling on the newly refurbished Lagos-Ibadan Expressway glaringly demonstrates the beginnings of how decay creeps quickly in to destroy the best of projections and plans. After all those billions, we ask where are the few millions to keep the road clear of dirt which is already growing healthy sized weeds.

    At the Ibafo/Mowe area, there is a pedestrian bridge and beside it on the inbound Lagos side, there an avalanche of mud invading the outer lane expressway as there is a major water control area totally ignored to date by the road monitoring team from the Federal Ministry of Works and the contractors. Hopefully this will be attended to before there is a major accident at the area.

    The observer will also notice there are clearly visible tracks gauged by heavy duty vehicles into the tarmac of the Lagos-Ibadan side noticed just north of the Abeokuta Interchange and also again just before entering Ibadan. Both areas were under the same north of Sagamu contractor. This is suggesting the terrain was very difficult or the work was not up to the standard of the other contractor who executed the south of Abeokuta part of the contract. The same heavily overweight articulated vehicles ply both contractors’ jurisdictions. It is already time for the Federal Ministry of Works to reassess the work, so recently completed and explain why there are these dangerous ruts gauged out of the road – the Abeokuta Ibadan section. Yes, vehicles are severely overweight. But the road south of the Abeokuta intersection is strong enough to withstand the weight. Why is the road north of Abeokuta intersection not strong enough? Is it the difficult terrain in the area or a different standard of work ethic?

    The pain when reading the horrendously callous, careless and maybe, corruption-driven massive financial economic and administrative failures  revealed in the 2021 NNPC Plc Audit Report can only be compared to the pain of learning about the plight of 18 million out of school children. It is urgent for the federal government to open simultaneous audits for the last three years 2022, 2023 and especially 2024 in order to quickly establish and identify criminal patterns and procedures that can be immediately stopped, now for the remaining part of 2025. It must be understood that we have multi-layered and multifaceted corruption probably running from top to bottom of such huge unaudited companies with no punishments of  the guilty at all levels of the company. There are probably many corruption points quite independent of, and unknown to, each other. It is the audits which will bring out the facts.  The country has suffered hugely for the mismanagement of the oil sector over many years. We have yearned for change without results. Indeed, we have had negative growth specifically related to budgetary failures related to failed budget targeting quite apart from the non-oil sector corruption.

    Read Also; FAAC shares N1.578tr March revenue to FG, States, LGAs

    The NNPCL audit for 2024 is even more urgent in the light of the Tariff Trump’s created ‘tariff bomb’ turmoil throughout the world and the resultant rumble in the oil sector with tumbling oil prices. We must protect, interrogate and sanitise the oil sector in our own interest and for the 18million out of school children. We cannot afford another episode of ‘frequent fraud findings’ without any action. The audits are urgently required. We must stop, learn and act positively to begin the recovery of Nigeria from the precipice of poverty and fiscal fraud.  We cannot have another combination of mindboggling corruption in NNPCL and poor petrol prices internationally.

    Nigeria cannot endure this level of unbridled corruption combined with international collapse of oil prices. Stop the corruption by all means necessary so that the only thing we need to grapple with is the falling oil price and we will survive.

    The increase in Boko Haram activities and other terrorist organisations are a major cause for concern nationwide. To add to this dire situation, we must add local drug use as deliberate policy of cartels and others aimed at polluting the youth environment. Indeed, Nigeria desperately needs a huge impact in the fight against drugs and corruption, ensuring the protection of NAFDAC forces.

    The deadly Nigerian drug scene is growing and it will take a specific campaign at youth everywhere – in and outside formal education. The size of the drug seizures is a tribute to the security agencies but also speaks to the extent of the problem. Daily, we are all exposed to witnessing some youth somewhere exposed to the effects of drugs. These effects should be introduced into the curriculum of education institutions from an early age and certainly from secondary school. The School Assembly Talks can also be used to drive the message home. Health talks by NGOs are good but they are random and miss out a huge chunk of vulnerable youth. However, if the drug education programmes is ingrained in the curriculum for all students, a sizable population of youth will be enlightened enough to educate the other half out of school during social contacts. The out of school youth will have to depend on National Orientation Agency to get the message to them in markets and communities. At LGA level, funds need to be allocated to get to the grassroots about the dangers of drug abuse along with the unfortunate growing trend of sexual and other physical and mental abuse.  

  • Audit NNPC 2022, 2023; Gridlock; 18m

    Audit NNPC 2022, 2023; Gridlock; 18m

    Mismanagement is a word deliberately misapplied by nefarious Nigerians to cover up deliberate fiscal failures and the premeditated financial operational calculated chaos aka systemic corruption when a Nigerian politician or appointee of a government, state or LGA in a Ministry, Department or Agency, MDA, or preferable Ministry, Agency or Department, MAD, knowingly corruptly decimates our resources. Such acts cumulatively amount to losses in the trillions of naira depriving the citizenry including our 18million out of school children and their families through a deliberate mismanagement strategy.

    The funds are corruptly removed from servicing our suffering poor, making them poorer. The theft or mismanagement particularly reduces the quality and quantity of facilities available to the needy. Such funds could have built a conducive learning environment for all including Nigeria’s 18million out-of-school youth denied quality education-a Nigerian birth right required for personal empowerment and Nigeria’s survival.

    Why do powerful Nigerians callously steal so much from poor Nigerians as to cause pain, depression, deprivation, disease and death? Why do most Nigerians in authority get so greedy, depriving the needy?

    The effects of mismanaging the MDA/MADs electricity bill and pension fund payments monthly As-And-When-Due, AAWD, are two burning examples of the suffering caused when leaders from governors etc. fail to pay legitimate  service charges AAWD, monthly, but prefer to ‘mismanage’ or corruptly ‘disappear’ the funds for self-serving corruption-driven projects with zero outcomes; or steal the money outright only to blame innocent pythons, other snakes, rats and cockroaches for eating the money meant for hospitals and schools for the 18m out of school youth and others.

    EFCC has accused an ex-governor that he so loved his own children, to the detriment of the youth, and that he took government money to pay his own children’s school fees, in dollars, for years in advance. Did he include his infants in primary school zero, or some unborn babies? The governor ignored his self-imposed responsibility for educating millions of Nigerian children with that money. If confirmed, what mismanagement/corruption!! Calculate the loss and suffering among Nigerian children made ignorant by absence of that money. Did someone die? Perhaps, because money does save the uncertain lives of mothers and their unborn babies today, instead of being stolen to guarantee the educational future of only the governor’s offspring.

    Read Also: NNPC: The rough road ahead for Ojulari

    Most leaders across MDA/MADs have similarly self-enriched and failed Nigeria. Too few managed without stealing.   Nigeria’s vast resources would have carried Nigeria higher up the ladder of development measured by the UNs MDGs and SDGs, the Transparency International Index, Corruption Perception Index etc. Foreigners since forever, release petty funds to fill the huge financial hole dug by pathologically fraudulent MAD ‘leaders’.   

    Of course, the developed world powers ensure Africa remains hungry ‘consumptive’ and ‘developing’, servile and dependent on the West. However, unasked, most African political elite under-develop their countries, and Nigeria leads by massively mismanaged Nigerian MDAs. Foreigners hardly mentioned Africa. That shows even Giant of Africa Nigeria’s ‘receivership status’ no matter how flamboyant Nigerian social functions are. We do know that foreign powers, white and yellow, snigger at us as we collect loans to steal to save in their banks. However, it is unlikely that the foreigners will take out a governor who refuses to steal or be corrupt and instead develops his state with every kobo of state income from IGR and FAAC allocations. So, what is our Nigerian leadership’s motivation to constantly steal from our children? 

    The ‘Great Lagos Traffic Jam’ of Wednesday April 2 precipitated by the ill-timed closure of one bridge is typical MDA mismanagement/corruption with misplaced power of governance. It demonstrates numerous costly, multi-billion naira loss lessons. Firstly, we see ‘Cause and Consequence of actions’. Here we clearly see cause i.e. closure, and consequence i.e. citywide 10-hour gridlock costing billions from shop closures, vendors losses from millions of office workers and trapped transporters. Secondly, we see a ‘Ministry of Road Arrogant Power’-, not a ‘Ministry of Road Service’.  Thirdly, we see no ‘Time and Motion’ studies, essential to anticipate impact and prevent ‘Action -Reaction’ traffic catastrophes.

    Disgracefully, such traffic catastrophic failures are commonplace. We have experienced it, without apology or sympathy or ministerial or press outrage, on the ‘Lagos Ibadan non-expressway’ for 15 years, ameliorated only in the last few months. Lagos, welcome to our ‘Traffic Suffering Club’ which was punished by the contractors and ignored for 15 years by the Ministry of Works when it took 6-12 hours to traverse.

    The Auditor General’s 2021 Audit revelations of NNPC Plc reveal the DISGUSTING BUT EXPECTED ‘MEGA-MISMANAGEMENT’ AKA CORRUPTION ‘DISCOVERED’ IN THE NNPC Plc. AUDIT DEPRIVING OUR 18M OUT OF SCHOOL YOUTH OF THEIR FUTURE . How dare MDA/MADs AUDIT be so illegally late? We will only see the end of multi-billion diversions when we have immediate audits and criminal charges. All federal and state funds earned should go to rescuing citizens and strengthening our murdered currency value. The federal government should order immediate simultaneous 2022 and 2023 audits and introduce an in year Quarterly Auditor-General Report to prevent MEGA FRAUD AND MISMANAGEMENT. We need such audits to force our MDA leaders to STOP STEALING THE FUTURE.

    AN 18M WEAK YOUTH ARMY, BRAIN STARVED, WILL MUTATE INTO A DESTRUCTIVE STRONG ADULT ARMY OF DESTRUCTION AND FUTURE EVIL. ANTI-CORRUPTION AUDITS ARE CHEAPER THAN FIGHTING AFTER MISMANAGEMENT CORRUPTION HAS TAKEN PLACE.        

  • Reduce corruption and political costs

    Reduce corruption and political costs

    We want an end to tanker crashes and explosions and loss of lives. The National Orientation Agency animated ‘anti-scooping petrol’ campaign must get to every Nigerian needy citizen. The high climate change temperatures may cause tyres to burst and also increase the pressure in the tanks making them potential bombs. Good, qualified responsible driving and quality maintenance of the hugely expensive vehicles, and good roads, not for increased and dangerous speeding, but for a smooth drive, are essential. 

    Following the closure of USAID etc., developing countries must quickly grow up and become self-sufficient through higher standards of political and private sector financially accountable and conclusive anti-corruption investigations to find funds to fill the huge financial hole created by disasters like the earthquakes in Bangkok, Thailand and Mandalay, Myanmar, with over 1,600 deaths. These demonstrate life’s fragility and are tragic for the millions affected.

    In Nigeria, we claim to be relatively natural disaster free. Nigeria has witnessed worldwide, stories of devastation and misery caused by droughts, floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and now another earthquake. Please add the huge cost of man-made conflicts and wars. However, we have our own problems costing us more than the cost of the above-mentioned natural and manmade disasters.

    We are all aware of the sad and distressing half century of oil pollution. We do have floods. There is also the plight of our IDP-Internally Displaced Persons even though many have helped ameliorate their suffering. Thanks, but more is needed to empower them to return to former social respectability and economic empowerment in their ancestral homes. This can only be done with successful, effective and permanent elimination, not mere interstate relocation, of terrorism and the widespread herder-caused conflicts with local farmers causing such high tensions resulting apparently in the killing of herders said to be in transit. The armed forces have been empowered but they need more support in equipment, drone coverage and personnel, in welfare, medical care of the wounded and family support. Hopefully all pension arrears have been met by recent presidential directive. PENSION PAYMENTS SHOULD START THE MONTH AFTER RETIREMENT, NOT 6-12 MONTHS. DELAYS ACCUMULATE AND BALLOON PENSION DEBT.

    Read Also: Sanwo-Olu warns sick pilgrims against travelling for Hajj 2025

    Even without many natural disasters, our Nigerian governments  and Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, have still not all lived up to the fiscal responsibility and financial fundamentals for governance repeatedly sworn to when taking office. Why are politicians boastfully blind to the responsibility for payment of legally-binding outflows for pensions, salaries and running cost like utilities? When did they stop being a sworn and sacred duty and monthly, first line deduction, responsibility of accepting to serve or lead, depending on the mind-set of the political climate. It was a disgraceful abandonment of responsibility for governments and MDAs in the past to have failed to pay pensions resulting in a mountain of debt to armed forces and other pensioners. Yet the past leaders have escaped without censure or even explanation. Nigeria is just recovering from the shocking exposure of officials refusing for years to pay electricity charges for years, plunging many government arms including military formations and teaching hospitals into darkness precipitating misery and mortality-CITIZENS DYING IN DARKNESS IN A COUNTRY WHERE BANKS DECLARE TRILLION NAIRA PROFITS?????

    Most Nigerian doctors have operated with torches on pregnant women or performed abdominal surgery for gunshot wounds. Hospitals require electricity 24/7 to run theatre, laboratory and blood banks and darkness is synonymous with death and demonstrates impotence to help save life – thus failing the very reason the hospital was provided. The serial failure, over years, of hospital management or the supervising ministry to pay past electricity bills immediately, month end, or as-and-when-due is a crime against Nigeria’s patients and the medical personnel condemned, without medical tools, to care for sick citizenry from conception to the cemetery. Modern warfare requires 24/7 electricity to power combat equipment and installations.

    Nigeria is reeling over the dismissive attitude to payment of land use dues in Abuja as revealed in the recent past. Government and private sector impunity seems to know no bounds.

    Of course, we, the non-politically connected, pre-pay through A,B,C,D extortionary electricity bands. Remember we produce a microscopic 5-7000 Mw of power for 160+million, not 200m+, when other counties have more than 60,000Mw for a 60+million population elsewhere in Africa. China adds power to its grid at the rate of 30,000MW/year.  Nigeria cannot afford to continue to carry the huge corruption burden or the huge price tag of Salaries and Perks of political office.  The destruction of a building, costing millions in state citizens’ money, just to prevent legislators from sitting, is an unacceptable price to pay in steps to solve political problems. Converting it temporarily to an orphanage would have been a wiser move, but probably illegal. The excesses of political office and the unlimited budgets are counterproductive considering our poverty level. POLITICIANS – PUT A POVERTY PHOTOGRAPH ON YOUR WALL.

    The struggling Nigerian citizen demands a reduced cost of governance with such savings applied directly to poverty alleviation strategies especially improved and widespread education facilities and electricity access- keys to development and self-empowerment jobs. Politics and the private sector must deliver more fiscal discipline with wider population impact and not just Forbes Africa Rich List winners and trillion naira bank profits while we have fiscal losers like 18million Out-of-School youth denied quality education-a birth-right required for future empowerment.

  • ‘Breaking news’; Corruption vs 18m

    ‘Breaking news’; Corruption vs 18m

    The ‘Breaking News Bar’ is a popular and important media device to get viewers’ attention. Indeed, there are prizes for ‘Best Breaking News Media House’.  However, it is not scrutinized enough to deliver quality material all the time. It is often too slow, too verbose, too often interrupted by programming or adverts and often has spelling mistakes. I record these on my camera and have over 100 mistakes.

    Worse than these problems with the ‘Breaking News Bars’ is that the decision to insert a news item is considered more important than the decision to edit or withdraw the BREAKING NEWS resulting in untrue news being displayed sometimes for two-four days. 

    The media houses should teach their editors that there are two decisions the ‘Breaking News Media Editor’ must take. The first is to ‘INSERT BREAKING NEWS’ and then the even more important second decision, ‘UPDATE or REMOVE BREAKING NEWS’ . This requires the editor to actually follow the news on his and other media outfits and know when to order a modification, update or takedown before the news becomes stale and even misleading.

    When is ‘Breaking News’ not ‘Breaking News’? When the news becomes stale or been remedied. Nigeria’s ‘Breaking News’ may be okay when it is broken but the editor should do due diligence and continue to monitor the news for further developments.

    For example, ‘Heathrow Shut Down Due To Fire’ was correct on Day 1. The same headline was used on Day 2 the following day when it was wrong as the airport was reopened within 24 hours. Was this deliberate corporate laziness? However, the Breaking News was still seen on Day 3 when the airport had been opened for two days. Is this mischievous malicious misinformation on Day 3? MEDIA BOSSES AND NEWS EDITORS SHOULD MONITOR AND UPDATE BREAKING NEWS INFORMATION HOURLY.

    For the information of media houses, it is advised that they study the presentations of DSTV Channels 414, 417, 410 which have a vertical left side bar with news items. Learn from the competition.

    It is obvious that in addition to having competitions for the ‘BEST Breaking News’ media outlet we should also have awards for the ‘WORST BREAKING NEWS’ media outlet. Every media house editor should ask the monitoring staff aloud every hour: ‘TEAM, IS THIS BREAKING NEWS BAR STILL ACCURATE?’ If they had, the HEATHROW BREAKING NEWS BAR would have been changed to ‘HEATHROW PARTIALLY REOPENED AFTER FIRE’ on DAY 1 1/2 and then ‘HEATHROW FULLY REOPENED AFTER FIRE’ on DAY 2. The delayed removal of a breaking news bar amounts to ‘disseminating misinformation’ which must be legally and morally wrong and a breach of media ethics.

    This matter should be taken seriously by lazy and inefficient media houses. If they can break the news, they can update the news. A simple moral responsibility to the public which does not want to be bored by yesterday’s news. Remember that ‘yesterday’s media truths can easily become today’s media lies’.

    We are our own worst enemies. We are daily reminded of our great wealth, not by the mirage of Nigeria’s successes but by our monumental failure to meet the needs of the citizens in proportion to our income at Local Government, state and federal levels. We know from history and learn from today’s international politics that foreign powers actively conspire to keep us on our knees bickering and fighting to the death among ourselves, while they cart away our wealth. At the local level, our political leaders and their cohort prefer mayhem to making up and prefer to run a ‘winner takes all’ rather than ‘share and share alike’ according to the political equation of voters or supporters.

    We are living the life of a wealthy family fighting over and losing our rightful huge inheritance being stolen because we refuse to be honest and share.

    Read Also: U.S. Coast Guard lauds Nigeria on ports security

    The best evidence of the huge wealth Nigeria has, does not come from CNN or abroad. The evidence comes from the courts and nauseatingly frequent mega-normous amounts of money, in repeated N100billion stocks, announced in the EFCC confiscations, plea bargains and accusations, naturally mostly not proven. Who knew a country could have so many mega-thieves all in one country, all hating their fellow citizens so much that they would routinely steal them blind and be happy to leave children and patients in pigsties for education and health facilities and 18million ‘Out-of-School children’.

    Of course, some societal facilities are good but the majority do not meet minimum Sustainable Development Goals standards. Trillions of good pre-devaluation naira, stolen from every single human being born a Nigerian and stolen daily from the day of birth to the day of death. As long as they appear to get away with it and as long as punishment does not fit the crime, for that long will the criminals in authority at every level will steal through inflated contracts, outright theft and blatant criminality.

    Look at the fortunes recovered from Abacha, Diezani, high moral titled people like Auditor and Accountant General and the numerous governors under investigation for theft in the N100s of millions each. Every thief disguised as a political, contractor, banker, business professionals, security, medical, administration must be made aware of the 18,000,000 Out-of-School children, with 18,000,000 crimes creating 18m reasons for Nigerians not to steal their food, water, shelter, books, pens, paper, classrooms, school time and future successful lives.