GENERATION CITIZEN

Last week, I was handed a complimentary copy of an Abuja-based magazine carrying on its cover the picture of a young Nigerian credited to have produced Nigeria’s first range of smart devices – phones and tablets. Chiwetel Ejiofor is being celebrated all over the world for his talent as an actor. However, whether it was Pliris or Inye that was first produced in Nigeria, these guys are making the devices we spend over 2 billion naira annually to import and Nigerian faces are pasted all over the world for successes in their chosen fields.

This is just a drop in the ocean and despite our challenges it is clear that our youth are clever and can channel their energies into creative and intelligent ventures across all areas of life. They should be applauded for the outcome of our recent categorisation – on paper – as a bigger economy than South Africa. Nothing epitomizes this fact more than the entertainment industry.

Just two decades ago, South Africans would only invite Nigerian artistes to entertainment awards organized by South African-based promoters. This was really just to make up the numbers. Why not, in the Rainbow Nation there is better equipment and a wealthier population who can afford the extra luxury of entertainment. Their artistes get better international recognition and thereby more support for their industry. In less than 20 years, Nigerian artistes are the toast of every African country; if they aren’t at your awards you simply lack credibility. This change of status wasn’t aided by any government policy; it was due to the sheer undying spirit of the Nigerian youth to pursue and conquer.

For we the older generation who have embraced the youth-propelled social media, we see daily the wonders that these people are performing. The youth in Nigeria are probably the most socially aware and the most driven we have had in our short life as a country. Many of them were not exposed to the best education and intellectual resources, yet they manage to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their counterparts in developed countries where education and training are not luxuries but carefully drafted plans in securing the futures of these societies. These are investments that are not toyed with, lest a nation be left behind.

Here, only the minimum is done, yet some go on to achieve incredible goals. Imagine if we had a plan. We should make provision for them to be better citizens; they will in turn be of assistance to the development our country. With a little help, the two young men behind those made-in-Nigeria smart devices mentioned earlier could engineer Nigeria’s equivalent of Silicon Valley in a tech world which is creating more jobs and wealth than any other sector. If we cater for the energy and ambitions of our young people, then we would have succeeded in commissioning a superhighway towards the progress of our country.

How does it work elsewhere? Politicians do not hand out branded rice or cash-for-votes during elections. They lay on the table; policies and programmes that, to the best of their knowledge, would help individuals achieve their dreams. We need to set out policies that are capable of bringing the best out of our youth; their energy has to be converted to tangible personal and national development. This is a responsibility that we cannot afford to play with because there are dire consequences for not directing this energy to development – we either lose the good it would have generated or we slide into a hole to wallow in poverty and insecurity. A situation that will only breed frustration and fright, the natural reaction to which is to run to safety and security a brain drain to where we will find a voice and purpose. We are presently experiencing both on an unprecedented scale!

Those who are not winning medals, saving lives or creating new products for other newly adopted countries have turned to the dark side here at home. They are hoodlums on our streets and are ravaging our towns and cities as terrorists, insurgents, kidnappers and secessionists.  Our government cannot be serious, especially at this time when our polytechnic students have been at home for over a year now. What are we doing?

Upwardly mobile youth exist in all countries around the world and the race is one. It is only the countries that support their own that will progress. It is called selfish self-preservation. It is in this context that our leaders should understand the urgency with which we need to quell the insecurity in the land and invest in this development programme.

Say no to a leadership that shows no love for our children. I am ready to fight for my children. What about you? By the way, #BringBackOurGirls.

Double Jeopardy

I ask if the federal and FCT governments are content with making Abuja and Nigeria a contract pursuing, civil service country. My question is informed by the way business owners, industrialists and estate developers are discouraged from doing business in the federal capital through unwholesome and obnoxious illegally duplicated taxes and levies.

Last week, an acquaintance, whose company is developing an estate in Abuja, drew my attention to one of those criminal ploys deployed by government agencies to fleece any form of investment one tries their hands on in Abuja.  Before construction work commenced on his site, they had sought and secured all necessary approvals from concerned government regulatory departments. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) had been carried out and vetted by the development authorities. However, the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) served them a letter two weeks ago, mandating they pay a “review charge of N500, 000 and an administrative charge corresponding to the cost of your project”. In addition, it would be the exclusive prerogative of AEPB to appoint a consultant for the job from a pool of their “accredited consultants”! In fact, the letter’s complimentary open started with: “You are requested to stop work immediately...”

If this isn’t daylight robbery, then I wonder what name to call it. I was made to understand that the site had received nothing less than eight similar letters from government agencies threatening to obstruct work on the project which already has all the regulatory approvals and environmental impact analysis, from no less than the Development Control unit of the FCDA.

Has this happened to you too? My advice to the demoralised investor was for him to continue work and make all relevant documents available and be ready to view whenever AEPB feels like coming to actualise its threat. He should also take the threatening letters to Development Control, for their comments on this and as a last resort to take the matter up in court. 

 

The situation is almost as if these agencies are set up to obstruct, using strong-arm tactics to enforce the use of their often non-existent services. It appears that the poor are made to bear a disproportionate burden for the lack of capacity or the unwillingness of government to provide what should by right be our due. The Idu Industrial Estate, which normally should be the flagship of Abuja’s industrialisation, is nothing but a junkyard. Infrastructure at the Industrial Estate is deplorable; electricity supply is erratic and incapable of powering industries located there. Communication is a challenge as no masts have been erected there and road construction has been abandoned. Yet businesses are threatened with illicit levies and taxes. Most recently, trucks have refused to ply Idu Yard because at the entrance is a gang of armed tax force agents, arm-twisting truck drivers into paying an unspecified freight levy on behalf of government. 

       

It is clear that it is either the government is not interested in implementing its industrial blueprints, such as the National Industrial Skills Development Programme and the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan, or its agencies are sabotaging efforts at implementing them. Either way, we are killing businesses that we expect to create jobs.

We lack the urge to propel our country’s industrialisation drive. This is why the relevant officials of industry and job creation-related departments sit on their made-in-China furniture and draft onerous letters to the same businesses they are supposed to support for greater output. There are Nigerian factories performing nothing short of wonders without government’s support in Kano, Abuja, Lagos, Aba and Port Harcourt etc. Mr Director would do well to visit these companies and ascertain how to encourage and not cripple them.

Funny enough, the same government officials would be quickest to claim the glory when something good is said about the Nigerian economy. Like the recent rebasing of our GDP, which every public servant attributed to their oga at the top. But we all know that it is the undying spirit of Nigerians that keeps the flame of the Nigerian economy burning. Left to the uninformed statistic-reeling ministers and special advisers, our economy would be in shambles, because government is not doing enough. A government that has not adequately invested in human capital and infrastructure is frustrating and averting enthusiastic investors who are risking all to run their businesses in such unfriendly circumstances. Of course, many are content with our importation culture; it affords inflated contracts and kickbacks. It also ensures that their fronted concerns get the exclusive importation licenses and accompanying waivers! This adds zero value to our economy and only fuels that of others.

If you are experiencing these challenges, as an industrialist, a manufacturer, an employer of men, please do not take it sitting down. Rise up and rally your neighbours. We must not collude with our silence.

WHY WE MUST FIGHT

“War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings, which think that nothing is worth war, is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” John Stuart Mill.

As I quiz my mind and ask questions as to what has given fruit to Boko Haram, why they torture, kill and destroy, I look at the fact that most of these insurgents are young men. What has created a situation where our young citizens would raise up arms against their innocent brothers, government departments, schools and traditional leaders? It must be that there is some kind of disconnect; some marginalisation that has allowed them to be drawn to such a brotherhood of terror.

It strikes me that they are rebelling against a state with no moral fibre like a vulture, a band of hyenas who want to take all for themselves and enough is never enough. Is it our system of government that they are rebelling against, a system that does not cater for the people and our welfare?

Is this why democracy is abhorrent to them? Why they feel it must be destroyed? What is Boko Haram? As far as I can make out, ‘boko’ is northern vernacular of the word ‘book’ and ‘haram’ means ‘forbidden’. Is it their understanding that this Western teaching, this democracy as is practiced in Nigeria, is not equitable and therefore abhorrent?

Is that why they have decided in their immaturity to create havoc and anarchy, to destroy? Why should a section of our society feel this way and so easily be consumed by such evil?

These are symptoms of an ill in the land. The Chibok girls’ kidnap has helped us in highlighting to the world our plight at the hands of this terrorist group. It has also highlighted to us all how vulnerable and exposed we are. It is clear that our government is suffering from a real capacity issue and that we must all rise to the challenge in trying to protect ourselves from the ills that we have allowed to overtake our polity.

We should also not be comfortable in thinking that now that the spotlight is on us that something will be done. The international press are only interested in sensation. Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in Nigeria; these killings did not make the international press. Our bad news competes with similar situations all over the world.

My point is that this will soon be old news or no news at all and we will be back at square one, unless we dig deep and look into what we are doing wrong. We have a situation in Abuja now where the army is raiding newspaper sellers, beating them up and confiscating newspapers at gunpoint. Anybody who is caught filming is immediately pounced upon, beaten and carted away.

For the record, this is just as bad as Boko Haram. We are reducing ourselves to their level and should check ourselves in not becoming exactly what we should be fighting against. We should not further erode an already eroded rule of law. Where are we headed? We are a fractured nation. We need to take stock and not allow ourselves to descend into anarchy. The army should understand that they only hear harsh criticisms because we need them to do better and not because they are not appreciated. They should not stoop down to the same level as these terrorists.

The government spokesmen who pick up the microphones and make inarticulate noises that only further buttresses their lack of capacity and understanding should understand that they have a stake in this too and so if they have nothing sensible to say, then should perhaps say nothing at all. We must stand together and fight and not start bickering amongst ourselves. This is exactly where the enemy wants us to be. They are winning their fight.

The southern part of our land have gotten it into their heads that the terrorists are being funded by the northern Muslims to kill and destroy in their land just to remove President Jonathan. The North believes that he (Jonathan) is not doing enough or that an alien being is bent on destroying our land.

We need to fight this ill, otherwise our fear will consume us and we really will be shown to be that miserable creature, whose fate is left to chance. We must fight together.

BROTHERHOOD

Brotherhood’s most perfect analogy is a broom. A single broomstick, one prepared from the shredded leaf of a palm tree as is commonly used here, can hardly be described as a broom but in a bunch, you get a most efficient broom. A broom is as people united, and therefore empowered to confront their challenges collectively. Each one supporting the other, to sweep out any filth in the land.

Brotherhood breeds togetherness; a group, a team, a battalion. Let us take the latter, the army. The mentality of troops is as simple as ‘we versus them’. Soldiers have each other’s back because their lives depend on it. They can only face the enemy as a united whole. All for one and one for all. Each soldier is ready to give his life for his colleague, as he knows that they would do the same for him. He is therefore not afraid, even when he is in the midst of battle. He is part of something that he believes in and each and every one of them is ready to die for. This is all because of inclusion, acceptance, love even happiness in the midst of battle.

It is for this reason that when a soldier leaves the scene of battle and is returned to normal civil society, it is difficult for him to reintegrate. It is difficult for him to feel special. He simply blends again into one amongst millions. That feeling of togetherness of brotherhood is lost. It is this that gives him strength and he would rather return to that great feeling, despite the violent situation of the battlefront.  

From an anthropological standpoint, individuals needed protection against wild animals, the elements and external aggression. So what did they do? They came together to form a tribe to collectively overcome common dangers; to allow them sleep comfortably at night.

A togetherness formed to unleash terror is as formidable as the one retained to forestall it.  This is why Boko Haram is a challenge to a fractured Nigerian Army. The group shows brotherhood, even mounting attacks on our army installations to release their captured brothers. They are more motivated and effective. Why? Because they possess a vital ingredient lacking among the rest of us – brotherhood, inclusion. In recent weeks, there have been reports of mutiny in the ranks of our army.  Boko Haram on the other hand appears impenetrable, yet you will agree that in numbers and resources, the Nigerian Army is far superior.

Where there is no cooperation and inclusion, we begin to fight each other. The more we fight each other the weaker we become and external forces capitalise on such cracks. Boko Haram is a manifestation of many things, but chief among them is our lack of brotherhood; we have lost our neighbourliness and are now picking up arms against one another. Terrorism might be the most devastating security challenge facing us today, but is it our only challenge? Kidnappers are seizing fellow Nigerians for ransom in the South; herdsmen and farmers are killing each other in the North Central and secessionists in the East are targeting public institutions for attacks.  Civil servants and politicians are lining their pockets. If you loved your neighbour enough to die for them, would this be happening?

We have made monsters of ourselves. Worse still, we are creating more monsters to fight our battles of failure. Now we have civilian JTF in crisis-prone areas; an army of uncoordinated, untrained, largely undisciplined and aggressive young men armed by the state to fight terrorists.  We concur with our silence! But let me give you a scenario, what happens to these soldiers of war once BH is defeated? Another militia group is born.  This is how Boko Haram emerged in the first place. Niger Delta militancy was also borne out of politicians arming unemployed youths for electoral gains. Will we not learn from history?

A people divided will never be able to tackle their problems successfully. Our leaders need to understand this simple principle and look to how to include all of us. Look to why we do not feel leadership from them. Look to why the average Nigerian is not ready to die for Nigeria.  There is no inclusion here, no brotherhood.

Last week Barack Obama was in Afghanistan. He was not afraid. He went there to thank the troops for the sacrifices they had made for their nation, to protect their interests! This is lacking here and is why the rest of the world feel sorry for us on the one hand and laugh at us on the other. Here our leaders fly everywhere else apart from the war zone. It is akin to a coach not attending a football match. They do not care. We need leaders. Please step up now.