SIR: The PDP government has failed Nigeria in the past decade and half. Nigerians do not need tinkering on the margins. We need real change in orientation from decadence to real growth with equity, employment and inclusion.
Interconnections must be established among economic, social and environmental dimensions of development. Nigeria needs to invest in agriculture and agro-processing enterprises. Rampant corruption, sectarianism, cronyism and gross mismanagement of public funds must face a frontal attack, not arresting one individual for public consumption but all who have stolen the nation’s wealth must face the full wrath of the law. Dismissing or suspending a few police officers does not mean restoration of human rights and fundamental freedoms, there must be total reform in the Nigerian Police. We voted for change and change we must see after May 29.
PDP government has failed. Controlling inflation, important as it is, is not enough. Measuring progress in economic growth and per capita income terms is necessary but not sufficient condition for improving living standards of all. Launching a new vision without providing a roadmap about its implementation, monitoring and evaluation isn’t helpful. For that reason 2020 vision died on the very day it was launched in part because the then president hadn’t seen the final version, it was a rushed plan. The drafters of the vision never provided the methodology and indeed it was planned to fail.
Overemphasis on export in agricultural produce including foodstuffs has damaged the environment through de-vegetation and chemical pollution, overfishing and deforestation and reduction of food supplies in the domestic market contributing to severe under-nutrition. Poorly fed women produce underweight children with permanent physical and mental disabilities, children develop smaller brain size than normal and constrain their ability to learn and underfed adults don’t have the energy to perform optimally.
Exchange rate adjustment in favor of exports has made the price of imports very expensive for consumers and investors. Keeping inflation so low has reduced money in circulation and drove interest rates so high that few investors are able to borrow and invest. Consequently economic growth has declined considerably following exhaustion of excess capacity. Nigeria’s economy needs to grow at an average rate of 10 percent to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2020.
Nigeria is well endowed in human, natural and financial resources. The problem is poor leadership. What General Muhammadu Buhari needs is a government of all stakeholders to sort out the mess that has accumulated since 1999. Those who have helped cripple the economy of the nation must not be allowed to serve again, no matter the party they belong. Nigerians can’t afford another failed four years under Buhari.
Gen. Buhari must avoid the mistake of rushing to choose his cabinet ministers without knowing who they are. We should not have criminals in government again. Nigerians are hopeful that our children unborn will see why we voted out the PDP government and be grateful for the future opportunity that will be provided to them by the Buhari regime.
It is neither surprising nor shocking, but understandable, that Nigerians expectation of the coming government headed by the people’s general. (President-elect Gen. Muhammadu Buhari) is sky high. We all should appreciate the fact that Nigerians have endured for so long in the hands of clueless leaders, and definitely there is a limit to what the oppressed can endure. It is a common knowledge that the outgoing government over stretched people’s endurance and tolerance.
Millions of people were made to exist in neediness and unprecedented hardship while we read and hear in the news how Billions of Nigeria oil money could not be accounted for by the NNPC. Impunity was the order of the day; caution was an alien in the corridor of power, our president (Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) suddenly became the most powerful president in the world. Nigeria was fast coming to her knees. Coming from this background genuinely rationalized the people’s demand. They really want and truly deserve a better country in no time.
The coming government is expected to hit the ground running by the long impoverished people of Nigeria. From the first day in the office, President-elect (Gen. Muhammadu Buhari) is expected to turn stone to bread. To me, their demand is not totally ungodly, they believe they voted into power a government able enough to provide them succors and make them forget in no time the years of torture and anguish that characterized the government of the conservatives’, clueless leaders that could not provide us electricity for 16 good years.
The problem confronting the nation is too many that no government can tackle in a little space of two years, except we want to distort the truth. The PDP government fed corruption so well in the last sixteen years that it has become a fully grown muster that only a relentless serious effort can cage.
Unemployment is heart aching. Millions of Nigerians able youths are roaming the street unemployed. Insecurity enveloped the nation, no place is secured from the North to the south, and we cannot even secure our territory.
Economy is in shamble, one dollar is equated to #250 yet we were told our economy is the biggest in Africa. In the light of this gigantic nature of our national problems, I appeal to my fellow Nigerians to please exhibit patience and understanding with the coming government. My appeal should not be seen as an attempt to prepare ground for business as usual (excuses). With no iota of doubt in my heart, the coming government is up to the task Nigerians can be sure of that.
I can say this for free, the general and his team are adequately aware of the people’s predicament they definitely know where the shoe pinches, they only need time to stabilize, before setting out to correct the wrongs perpetuated by the outgoing government. 16years of bad government and maladministration cannot be corrected overnight. Nigerians can be rest assured that in no time the coming government will give us all the Nigeria we can be proud of.
SIR: The PDP government has failed Nigeria in the past decade and half. Nigerians do not need tinkering on the margins. We need real change in orientation from decadence to real growth with equity, employment and inclusion.
Interconnections must be established among economic, social and environmental dimensions of development. Nigeria needs to invest in agriculture and agro-processing enterprises. Rampant corruption, sectarianism, cronyism and gross mismanagement of public funds must face a frontal attack, not arresting one individual for public consumption but all who have stolen the nation’s wealth must face the full wrath of the law. Dismissing or suspending a few police officers does not mean restoration of human rights and fundamental freedoms, there must be total reform in the Nigerian Police. We voted for change and change we must see after May 29.
PDP government has failed. Controlling inflation, important as it is, is not enough. Measuring progress in economic growth and per capita income terms is necessary but not sufficient condition for improving living standards of all. Launching a new vision without providing a roadmap about its implementation, monitoring and evaluation isn’t helpful. For that reason 2020 vision died on the very day it was launched in part because the then president hadn’t seen the final version, it was a rushed plan. The drafters of the vision never provided the methodology and indeed it was planned to fail.
Overemphasis on export in agricultural produce including foodstuffs has damaged the environment through de-vegetation and chemical pollution, overfishing and deforestation and reduction of food supplies in the domestic market contributing to severe under-nutrition. Poorly fed women produce underweight children with permanent physical and mental disabilities, children develop smaller brain size than normal and constrain their ability to learn and underfed adults don’t have the energy to perform optimally.
Exchange rate adjustment in favor of exports has made the price of imports very expensive for consumers and investors. Keeping inflation so low has reduced money in circulation and drove interest rates so high that few investors are able to borrow and invest. Consequently economic growth has declined considerably following exhaustion of excess capacity. Nigeria’s economy needs to grow at an average rate of 10 percent to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2020.
Nigeria is well endowed in human, natural and financial resources. The problem is poor leadership. What General Muhammadu Buhari needs is a government of all stakeholders to sort out the mess that has accumulated since 1999. Those who have helped cripple the economy of the nation must not be allowed to serve again, no matter the party they belong. Nigerians can’t afford another failed four years under Buhari.
Gen. Buhari must avoid the mistake of rushing to choose his cabinet ministers without knowing who they are. We should not have criminals in government again. Nigerians are hopeful that our children unborn will see why we voted out the PDP government and be grateful for the future opportunity that will be provided to them by the Buhari regime.
The good book says that our young men shall dream dreams and our old men shall see visions. Even though I believe in the infallible words of God, the plight of the Nigerian youth tempts me to reconsider the veracity or accuracy of my faith. Permit me to say that the dreaming atmosphere in Nigeria is fast diminishing. That should not come across as a scandal. Millions of Nigerian youths go to sleep – that is for those who can still sleep – sad, confused, frustrated, heartbroken et al. Under such conditions, the consequence of sleeping is the repetition of horror dreams. With every passing day, it becomes more and more agonisingly difficult to dream because obstacles abound to cut short the actualisation of such dreams. Even when the dreams are shared with friends, family members and pastors who ordinarily should be supportive, they almost always make it a point of responsibility to cast the doubtful look and give compelling reasons why such lofty dreams may never come true. At the end of the day, those with a weaker willpower are left with no option than to abandon their dreams to perish. Worse still, if one decides to press on with his dreams, the harsh masquerading realities in Nigeria attempt to drive every iota of motivation away.
The rule of thumb is: study hard, make a first class, graduate and then get a good job. Such is the advice given by parents, religious fellowships, lecturers and friends. Why not? They argue. For even the scriptures implore us to “study to show thy self approved”. Maybe such advice helps, but does that really ease the gruesome realities that we have to face in Nigeria even with the first class certificates and knowledge?
In recent times, more and more emphasis has been laid on entrepreneurship. But if you intend starting a business, don’t you require start-up capital? How do you go about raising such capital? Recently a friend and I approached some banks to solicit for sponsorship for an intended career summit. Now, as student leaders, we also brought our own bumper offer of benefits to them. But ask me what happened: They each said they will get back to us, but till now, many months after the scheduled date of the summit, we have gotten no response whatsoever. This left me thinking. Were all the friendly and supportive adverts placed by these banks in the media meant to inspire people or in reality to kill their dreams? Imagine the very familiar scenario where you pass through fire to pay your way through school. You cry now and again as a result of hunger. You suffer deprivations. You beg and borrow from classmates and you face the humiliation and all attendant consequences of being walked out of examination halls because you have not paid your school fees, just like my fourth year in school, and somehow you still manage to finish. Then you emerge with the much emphasised Nigerian certificate and join the labour market. One and two years pass but you have no job. You turn to business, come up with an idea and then approach the banks for loans and aid but they quietly show you the door. You try everything possible and yet nothing substantial comes from the government, friends or relations. This is the typical Nigerian story. In fact, I know a young chap who finished his first degree and frantically searched for a job for three years with no luck. He raised money from friends and relations to pursue a Masters Degree in order to improve his chances of getting a job. He went to a university located in the south west region and finally obtained a Masters degree. Yet, this chap hawked his resume for three additional years before becoming a bus driver in the commercial city of Lagos. Now tell me, how will our youths dream dreams under unfriendly atmospheres such as this?
In any case, should Nigerian youths stop dreaming because dreams are difficult to realise around here? Should we keep mute in the place of prayers and allow the forces of darkness lay siege on the dreams of the Nigeria youths? Should we stop working hard because hope is farfetched? The answer is no. Nigerian youths can’t give up and must not give up. We must keep fighting until we prevail. We must keep pushing, hitting and knocking until the heavens quake for a positive answer.
I am aware of the naked truth that opportunities are becoming scarce, education is dancing with the winds and suffering is ever increasing. Our airports are endowed with dead birds called airplanes and many of our roads are death traps. I know it seems like to work hard is to chase the wind, but what can we do? For as long as there is breathe in us, we must never stop dreaming, never stop hoping and never let go of the ultimate victory which we seek, for weeping may endure for the night but joy will definitely come in the morning. A wise man once said that success is opportunity that woos preparedness, so each one must be prepared whenever opportunity comescalling.
If you don’t have almighty God, get hold of him for he is freely available. If you don’t have any education, it is never too late. Are you lacking in skills? Acquire some. They abound. The end is that when opportunity does come your way, you may not be the reason why you don’t shine. Ignore the loafers, discouragers, time wasters, never-do-wells and hope killers positioned everywhere along your journey. Their enterprise is contagious; remember evil communication corrupts good manners. Seek like minds, achievers, positive people and trail blazers whose thought processes are higher than yours.
Finally, if you forget anything else don’t forget that all that matters in this life is God. Cling to him for he is the author and finisher of our faith. The scriptures say that the horses and chariots are ready for battle but victory belongs to God. The race is neither to the swift nor the battle to the strong but the conclusion of all matters lie with God who shows mercy upon whom he chooses to show compassion.
To the Nigerian youths I say, keep holding on to your dreams, Let us keep dreaming, for our victory is sure.
•Dumebi, just graduated from Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, UNN
Deputy Consul-General of the U.S. Consulate-General in Lagos, Mrs Dehab Ghebreab, on Wednesday said 40 young Nigerians have been selected to participate in this year’s Mandela Washington Fellowship.
Ghebreah disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of a pre-departure orientation programme for the beneficiaries at the Consulate’s premises in Lagos.
The U.S. official said that they were carefully selected from among over 7,000 Nigerians that applied for the yearly international programme.
“Following our announcements and publication of the programme on our website, we received about 7,000 applications from young Nigerians.
“But, after a review of these applications in our office in Washington D.C., these 40 young Nigerians have been shortlisted to participate in the 2015 Mandela Washington Fellowship.
“It is really remarkable to see what these selected young Nigerians have been doing privately in different parts of Nigeria,’’ she said.
Ghebreah said that 21 out of the selected persons came from the North, while 19 others were selected from the Southern part the country.
The deputy consul-general added that until their selection, they were privately working in different areas of civil leadership, public management, business and entrepreneurship.
According to her, the six-week programme will further enhance their academic and leadership excellence in their various fields.
She said the beneficiaries would first be joining other young men and women from other African countries to participate in an internship programme, before visiting Washington D.C for a Summit.
Ghebreah also said that they would be meeting with President Barack Obama and other U.S Congressional leaders in Washington D.C.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship programme of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), and his commitment to invest in the future of Africa.
The initiative was developed by the U.S. government in recognition of the critical role of young Africans in strengthening democratic institutions, economic growth, and enhancing peace and security in Africa.
The zeal to travel to Europe or America in search of greener pasture sometimes ends up as a misadventure for some Nigerian youths. Two young ladies were recently rescued by the Oyo State Police Command from slavery in Kuwait after they were deceived into the Asian country. They recounted their ordeal to BISI OLADELE.
Any young Nigerians are fed up with the wobbling Nigerian economy. They are in despair in a country that is unable to offer them employment or help them earn a decent living. Some are bitter because of the lack of job security while others simply lost hope after several failed attempts of securing their future. They look for any opportunity to move to foreign lands at which side the field looks greener.
Desperate to escape, many of them become gullible in the hands of dubious travel agents who exploit, and sometimes, abandon them thereafter to harsh conditions in foreign lands.
•Miss Daramola (right) and her friend Miss Ajayi
Two young ladies – Abiola Daramola and Taiwo Ajayi – just had a taste of the bitter experience.
Seeking a better life in the United States of America (USA), they ended up in Kuwait where they were lumped with fellow victims from Nigeria and other West African countries and forced to work as house maids.
Confined to solitude and rendered incommunicado, the ladies were forced to work as house maids with some others eking it out through prostitution.
“The agent in Kuwait is an Ethiopian. He told me plainly that he signed a two-year contract on me to work as a house maid in Kuwait.” Miss Daramola said, with unbelievable surprise on her face.
Daramola, 26, is a holder of Diploma in Industrial Relations from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye. She couldn’t finish her B. Sc. programme in a private university because of financial challenges. She sought greener pastures in the USA but she landed in Kuwait after she was persuaded by the agent to take the option for the countless job opportunities awaiting her in the Asian country.
She said: “I went with my friend, Deola, to an agent, Mr Victor Adelaja, for traveling. When we got there, we said we wanted to go to the USA. The man is the agent in Nigeria. His office is at Bodija, Ibadan. He charged N250,000 for US. We agreed to pay and he promised to facilitate the visa. But as we got to the open office where his secretary sat, she asked us about our country of choice and we told her it was US. She asked if we had sponsors and I told her we didn’t have.
“Then she suggested Kuwait to us. She said there are jobs in Kuwait. Mr Adelaja had earlier told us but we rejected the idea. But the secretary persuaded us to do it because she had also applied. She said we could go there, work for a few months and return to Nigeria before going to the U.S. She affirmed that white collar jobs are plenty in Kuwait. She convinced us that the idea was good because it would enable us raise enough money before traveling to the U.S. They charged me N150,000. I paid N80,000 with a promise to pay the balance at a later date. Then, they took me to Kuwait.”
According to Daramola, she was unaware that she was entering the trap of an international trade syndicate with agents across borders. When she got to Kuwait, she recalled that she was well received by the agent in the country. She disclosed that the man came to welcone her at the airport from where he took her to her office. After the office, the agent told her that she was in the country to work as a house maid.
Her words: “But on getting to Kuwait, the agent there, who is an Ethiopian, received me at the airport. He then took me to his office where I dropped my luggage.
Then he sat me down and asked if I remember that I signed a two-year contract with him to work as house maid. I was dazed. I said I didn’t sign such contract. I said I only came to work for a few months and return to Nigeria. He said that was not possible because he signed the contract over me, stressing that he paid N350,000. I was helpless. I didn’t know what to do again.
I didn’t have a choice because even another Nigerian agent there told me to play along. He said I could just work for about four months and obtain work permit that would enable me do the kind of job I desired.”
But the job was hard. It wasn’t what she thought as she had to daily clean a two-story building housing 14 families. Worse still, feeding was once a day, and, it was crumbs she packed from the tables of occupants of the building.
“I started doing the job. But it was so stressful. I had to clean a two-story building accommodating 14 families. There is this family with nine children. Two grown-ups among the children are also married and live with the larger family in the apartment. They are so many. The work was so tedious. Moreso, there was no provision for food. I ate left-over from the families; and that was only once daily.
“So, I became so uncomfortable. I then told the Nigerian agent that I wanted to come back to Nigeria but he said I must pay back the amount they spent bringing me to Kuwait. I then learnt that the Ethiopian man actually paid N350,000 on me covering visa, air ticket and agent fees. It was like someone sold me to someone, unknown to me. Then, I started crying everyday.”’she recalled.
Daramola said she continued to cry for days, even in the midst of other victims. After a few days, however, she managed to contact the travel agent in Nigeria, who also insisted that she would have to pay the huge sum if she was desirous of returning home.
It was at that stage her relations contacted the Oyo State Police Command which waved in, leveraged on its wide expanded network and rescued Daramola and the second victim, Miss Ajayi, from slavery.
Daramola: “Somehow, I managed to call Mr Adelaja, informing him that I wanted to come back home. He asked me to pay the Ethiopian agent. Then I asked him if he ever told me that he was selling me to someone else. He insisted I must refund the N350,000.
We managed to get across to Nigerian police who rescued us. The police went to arrest him in his office.”
“When one of the other victims saw how I cried daily she advised me to go into prostitution to raise the huge amount the cartel requested but I declined.
“But none of them is doing prostitution because they used to lock us up in a place. No one could go out. They came to pick whoever they had a job for. They also returned us there after work. They didn’t allow us to communicate to the outside world. I hid the phone I used to call. Otherwise, they would have seized it from me.
There were lots of young women there, so many. They were uncountable. There were so may Ghanaians, Sierra Leoneans, Camerounians who were trapped there. It’s hard life. They are forced to work as house maids. But there is a particular one who is into prostitution.”
The Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr Muhammed Katsina, described the suspects as “a syndicate whose stock-in-trade is unlawful, criminal indulgence in human slave trade of international dimension.”
He added that the syndicate has web of agents in many parts of Nigeria and overseas, particularly in Kuwait, specializing in luring young ladies seeking greener pasture abroad into slavery under the pretext of assisting in providing job opportunities.
Recalling how the command succeeded in rescuing the victims, Katsina said: “Through the cooperation of our expanded strategic partners, we were able to establish links with the victims in Kuwait and immediately commenced the process of their rescue and at exactly 10:30 pm of May 2, 2015, the rescued victims arrived Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. In company of our Special Force, the victims were safely brought to the Post-Trauma Unit of the Oyo State Police Command Hospital and Counselling.”
According to him, Rev. Victor Adelaja has since been arrested and sued to court.
On her current frame of mind, Daramola revealed that she was already adjusting to normal life again.
She praised the police for a job well done and warned young ladies against falling prey to fraudulent travel agents.
THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the citizenry to disregard speculations about the appointment of ministers and the zoning of offices under the incoming Buhari Administration.
In a statement in Abuja on Monday, APC National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed disowned the rumour concerning appointments, zoning of the National Assembly’s principal positions and other offices.
The party said in the true tradition of the APC, all issues of public interest will be handled transparently and conveyed to Nigerians through the usual communication channels.
‘’No appointments have been made and no offices have been zoned. The main concern of our party at the moment is to ensure a smooth transition and to hit the ground running, in the overall interest of the long-suffering people of Nigeria.
‘’At the appropriate time, Nigerians will be informed of the appointments made and the offices zoned,” APC said.
No appointments have been made and no offices have been zoned
No fewer than seven million Nigerians are living with asthma, a chronic disease, which affects the airways, the Medical Science, Liaison, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Dr Omolabake Okunubi, has said.
This, she said, is because the severity of asthma is under-estimated in the country. Mrs Okunubi spoke at the World Asthma Day (WAD) in Lagos organised by GSK and Eias Nelson Oyedokun Foundation (ENOF) with the theme: You cancontrol your asthma.
Asthma, she said, is a killer disease, which affects no fewer than 300 million people across the world.
The good news, Mrs Okunubi said, is that people can control their asthma, adding: “There is a class of medication known as controller drugs for asthma. These are taken on a daily basis to put the symptoms under control.”
Besides, with correct treatment, support and advice, asthmatics can lead full and active lives.
Asthma, she said, does not have to limit people’s life because it can be controlled.
She said people can stop asthma attacks by taking their preventer treatment regularly. They should know the things, which trigger their asthma and avoid them where possible, she added.
Okunubi said: “Using a peak flow metre and a diary will help them to know how well their asthma is controlled. This will ensure there is advance warning of worsening asthma symptoms.”
In the event of asthma attacks, she said, the asthmatics should take one or two puffs of their reliever inhaler (usually blue), sit up and take slow steady breaths.
“If the asthmatics do not start to feel better, they should take two puffs of their reliever inhaler. This should be one puff at a time. They can take up to 10 puffs. If they do not feel better after taking the inhaler, the asthmatic can visit a hospital,” she said.
A consultant paediatrician, Massey Street Children Hospital, Lagos, Dr Abimbola Mabogunje, said people, especially students can have a productive and physically active life if their asthma is controlled.
She said the law, which says students should not be given more than paraceutamol when they are sick in school, should be looked into.
“Ideally, there should be a nebulizer in the school. This helps to relieve an asthmatic attack before they are taken to the hospital. There should be steroid tablets, injection and aspirin in the school,” she said.
Most asthmatics, she said, need two kinds of drugs. They are a quick-acting reliever or rescue medication, which they take when needed to stop asthma symptoms; and a controller medication taking daily to prevent asthma symptoms.
The paediatrician said schools should be empowered and caregivers and teachers educated to be able to deal with asthma in students. Teachers should be able to recognise asthma symptoms so that they can give first aid and refer them promptly.
Also, there should be a plan with the parents and doctors to care for an asthmatic child.
“Many Nigerian children are suffering from asthma. The figure is a lot more than what we see in the hospitals. This is because a lot of people are living with it silently and are not living optimally because they are not well,” she said.
Mabogunje said: “Chronic cough, especially at night and early in the morning, difficulty in breathing, particularly during exercises and shortness of breath, mainly when children are not keeping up with their peers when they are running, people should look out for these in their children. Those sorts of children are likely to have something wrong with their lungs’ function, especially asthma.”
Less than two academic sessions ago, I was opportune to listen to some members of staff of my university library lament over the current state of the average Nigerian youth and what the future holds for them. The trigger of this discussion was the large number of students – over 500 – leaving a lecture theatre adjacent the library after a two-hour lecture. They decried the level of insensitivity of the current and preceding governments to the plight of graduates who are churned out in their thousands every year from the universities and polytechnics without anything but a bleak idea of what life after school would be. Their apprehension is further heightened especially when they have older siblings at home who are yet to find meaningful employment years after school.
The courage exhibited on March 28 by voters who stormed the polling units in their numbers to cast their ballots, was in itself enough indication that Nigerians are tired of the ordeal with which they have been plunged by the current government over the last couple of years. Every discerning and unbiased observer of the mammoth crowd recorded at 120 thousand polling units across the country would give the victory to the candidate of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, even before the election results were announced.
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) failed to wake early from its slumber to the reality that it was no longer business as usual; that the electorate had considered it time to ‘fire’ a government that had failed to offer them anything in practical terms but daily apprehension of billions of dollars missing from the state coffers almost on daily basis, as well as the corruption and lack of transparency in the oil and gas sector, the country’s major foreign exchange earner.
I, like many other Nigerians, get a moral boost each time I hear the statement of the President- elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, to the effect that corruption would not be given room to fester in his government and that the problem of youth unemployment would be addressed.
However, if I were to advise the in-coming administration, it is not yet uhuru as the hope of majority of Nigerians are surging by the day, especially as May 29 draws closer. Although Nigerians are not unaware of the fact that time is needed to put the country back on the glorious track of development. And the People’s General, as many Nigerians call him, needs to urgently address the problem of youth unemployment which has the potential to place the country on the boiling ring of disaster. The rise of several militant groups from different parts of the country is a perfect attestation to this fact. To continue to budget as high as 30percent annually for defense – in a country that has refused to allocate 25 percent of its budget to education despite outcry by the United Nations, without addressing one of the major triggers of insecurity, is to continue to scoop water out of a flooded room without blocking the channel through which water finds its way in.
Just last week, South Africans, who probably sensed parasitism by other nationals, decided to make us question our memory as to whether the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela actually spent a good part of their lives in South Africa. They went on rampage, attacking and looting shops of fellow black brothers whose countries did not turn a deaf ear when the deafening cry of South Africans under white minority rule reverberated across the continent. In the words of the late anti-apartheid crusader and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, “love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite”. South Africans would not have degenerated so low as to take delight in hacking fellow humans to death, if jobs were enough for them. Although there can never be a justification for such barbaric act, the South Africans saw the xenophobic attack as the only means to get rid of foreign nationals who would not yield to any provocation to return to their home countries. This, among many others, is the result of youth unemployment left to fester for too long.
As home loving as Nigerians are, they are forced to seek greener pastures elsewhere when their government does not provide enabling environment for them to grow economically. They are scattered across virtually every country of the world, including neighbouring countries without as much potential for growth as Nigeria, defying all the ill treatment they receive from their hosts, the recent xenophobic attack in South Africa being a perfect example. After all, if home was good enough, nothing would have taken them out of their fatherland to seek livelihood.
