Sanya Oni
WITH the ravaging coronavirus pandemic displacing virtually other items on the news menu in recent time, it was little surprising that the development, even merely for its symbolism, passed, almost unreported: the introduction, earlier this month, of body cameras and breathalyzers into the state’s traffic management system by the Ifeanyi Okowa-led administration in Delta State. In a society where outlawry walks on all fours; where the boundaries between law-enforcement and law-breaking are increasingly ill-defined, yours truly considers the event as not only worthy of celebration but deserving of consideration by other agencies charged with traffic and security management.
Now, some might argue about the ranking of the initiative in the hierarchy of the state’s needs at this point in time. That, certainly is a matter of opinion. The point is that the good thinking behind it would be difficult to assail. In any case, most Nigerians would appear to have long appreciated the imperative of such simple but elegant devices in moderating the conduct of both state officials and the general public in testy moments. Whether it is in Lagos where worrisome numbers of traffic officials have been murdered in the line of duty after minor disagreements; or on the federal highways where the police and personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps, acting like the lords of the Manor, routinely cast professionalism and decorum into the mud-pit; to aver that relations between motorists and traffic managers have not always been an easy one is to understate the depth of their mutual antipathy. Left to one, the other would rather be dead!
So why not deploy the simple and tested technology to ensure than the erring party in a traffic feud is called to account? Okowa’s Delta seems to have finally provided answers to the question.
You ask – why has the FRSC and the police in particular not thought about it? Or, would it strip the duo of their legendary insularity?
To be honest, yours truly does not pretend to have the answers!
Here is what Navy Commander Azubuike Idah (Rtd), the Director-General of the state traffic agency – DESTMA said of the devices: “the body camera acts as a deterrent for all drivers in the state who may be tempted to violate the traffic law; it provides documentary evidence during a traffic stop, and protects all parties involved against false accusations, assault and overzealous actions of DESTMA officers….”
The devices, he further noted will “reduce violent confrontations, reduce assaults of DESTMA officers, hold DESTMA officers accountable for their actions and increase public trust. It will also help us provide safe roads for all road users in Delta State while refining the attitudes of DESTMA officers when dealing with the general public.”
Note the emphasis on the two-way traffic of deterrence and public accountability!
As it appears, good thinking by the Okowa administration goes a long way back. Few months after its inception, the administration undertook a rather ambitious initiative in universal health care coverage for people living in the state. And the initiative: the state-supported health insurance programme which came by the Delta State Contributory Health Commission Bill signed into law in February 2016. Its by-product, the Delta State Contributory Health Commission (DSCHC) comes with the grand mission to “ensure access to quality healthcare and financial protection for all residents of Delta State using a healthcare financing mechanism structured through a mandatory pooling of cost and risk with fair utilization of all available resources and private sector participation that leads to an equitable distribution of healthcare across the state for an efficient healthcare service delivery”.
The big story here is that the individual, under the informal health plan, is only expected to pay a premium contribution of N7,000 for a period of one year to enjoy comprehensive health services. And still talking of good thinking, the scheme has, according to reports, churned out 677,071 enrollees as at December 31, 2019.
Finally, I move to the educational sector – a sector which most Nigerians readily concede has long lost its bearing. Today, with most of our so-called tertiary institutions churning out products often described as unemployable, perhaps only few of our current occupants government houses still live under any pretensions that the strictly unilineal 6-3-3-4 educational structure still holds much hopes for our teeming youths.
At least not in a state like Lagos where a robust agency – Lagos State Vocational Education Board, LASVEB – currently drives the vocational education segment and certainly not in Delta where a Ministry of Technical Education was created by the Okowa administration in 2019 to give impetus to vocational education.
Today, the ministry has six functional Technical Colleges in Agbor, Sapele, Ofagbe, Utagba-Ogbe, Ogor and Issele-Uku and six Vocational Education Centres in Asaba, Sapele, Ozoro, Agbarho, Bulu-Angiama and Otor-Owhe to superintend over. Hence, the state is not only moving deftly to reskill the youths in the state for the emerging world of work, the leadership is at once driving a new paradigm in which “tech-preneurship”, as against the old but worn emphasis on certification would assume primacy.
Again, I call that brilliant thinking.
I close with the views of Matthew Lauer, Head, Strategy, Mercuria Energy Group on the subject – future of work. Writing in a recent World Economic Forum article, he notes: “The real challenge of the Fourth Industrial Revolution… isn’t the robots – it’s that we aren’t properly training humans for the available jobs”.
He went further to note that “while the outlook for jobs is positive, on average, 42% of skills requirements are expected to change by 2022 alone. Reskilling is one of the major necessities and challenges of our era.
“Many of these skills” he went on “can’t be learned in the university lecture hall. The skills required for the skilled job at the auto factory aren’t taught in the traditional university – and you can throw an intelligent, highly educated graduate with a business or math degree on a commodities trading floor, and there’s no guarantee they’ll succeed”.
“But if you put the intelligent, intuitive individual on the factory floor or trading floor to learn the complex supply chain and shadow the most skilled in the business, then you not only give them a well-paying job with growth potential, but you also give them the bespoke skillset to flourish in the role and the industry”.
He calls the model – apprenticeship. I agree. In this, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has blazed the trail for others to follow.
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