Opinion
Wither The Nigerian Patriots?
It beats me hollow whenever I see people disparaging their country in the most undignified manner. Sadly, such pessimism has become the favourite pastime of many Nigerians.
Unlike many other nationals who are always proud of their countries, many Nigerians have grown to become incurable pessimists, with near manic obsessive sense of everything going awry.
As if patriotism is going out of fashion, the socio-economic climate is voided with earful comments whenever the state of Nigeria is being discussed. Even where appreciable roads are being made into the socio-economic development, the pessimists are in the habit of turning blind eyes to such landmarks in the country. This, perharps, is due largely to individual and collective frustrations over the pace or direction of the country’s development.
Last weekend for instance, I was at a friend’s birthday party when a mild argument ensued between two groups- the pessimistic majority and the optimistic minority. While the pessimists dismissed Nigeria as a wastrel that has no hope or future, the few optimists believed Nigeria is making an onward progress.
The pessimists premised their argument on the high level of poverty in the country despite Nigeria’s oil and gas resources. They could not understand why millions of Nigerians are living below the poverty line; why a nation awash in petrol-naira groans under the heavy weight of external debts. They could not understand why a nation which once fed itself and others should now be in want of food despite large tracts of arable lands.
They could not understand why the management of the nation’s economy has continued to be the Achilles’ heel of successive administration and why the nations’ yesterday seems ever so temptingly the best of the time that was.
In a nutshell, the pessimists were disappointed that at 49, Nigeria is an overgrown baby and that it has not progressed beyond where the British left it on October 1, 1960.
To the optimistic few however, it is unfair and uncharitable to say that Nigeria has not recorded some landmark achievements since independence. They argued that although Nigeria may not have attained the dreams of its founding fathers, it has the potentials to fulfil the dreams of its founding fathers. They based their argument on the fact that America which is regarded as the God’s own country, is also blessed with a fraction of the hoipolloi and that it took her a hundred of years to attain her present heights.
To the optimists therefore, it is unfair to see every effort made by successive governments with a jaundiced eye, especially now that there seems to be a patriotic desire by the Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s administration to reposition Nigeria.
As an observer with an impartial mind, I could not agree less with the two opposite views. To say that Nigeria is a total failure is to be economical with the truth. What about the complete renovation in tastes and styles over the years? What about the roads that spread like the sphagetti and the growing number of ritzy cars on them? What about the influx and growth of post primary and post secondary schools since 1960? What about the number of local governments and State capitals that has grown from three regional structure to self-autonomous units? Were all these attainable in 1960? Or are they sheer imagination of our mind?
Above all, I am tempted to share the optimists’ view that the journey to economic wonderland is a journey of thousand miles. It is even in most cases, ad infinititum.
But again, how many years would it take Nigeria to attain full socio-economic height? This is a question no honest man, not even the most patriotic optimist can answer without hesitation or a scratching of head. This is because Nigeria has already reached a menopause age when child bearing becomes a throw of a dice or better still a question that can only be answered in a grey, foggy land of maybe land.
The truth is that Nigeria’s potentials have not been exploited for the greater good of the greatest number. Otherwise, millions of Nigerians would not be so bewildered and so disillusioned about the state of the nation’s affairs. They would not be talking of scultled dreams and dashed hopes.
Therefore, while one may want to regard pessimistic approach to the Nigerian nation as injurious to our image and collective desire for national development, there is also the need for us, especially for our leaders to remake, regenerate and refuel Nigeria to enable her shake her invincible locks and rouse herself like a man after sleep.
Meanwhile, the pessimists among us would have to find a space in the heart of their hearts to forgive Nigeria for scratching her head, lost as it is in the countless dreams of her leaders.
Boye Salau
Quote:”Communities have rights to peace, safety, and quality of life. Noise pollution, crowds, or other impacts from religious activities can affect these rights. Balancing these interests requires consideration and dialogue”.
“All work and no play”, its said, “makes Jack a dull boy.” Despite this age-long maxim that recognises the role of play in early childhood development, play appears to be eluding many Nigerian kids. The deprivation of play opportunities comes in different forms for the Nigerian child depending on family’s social setting or status, but the effect is much the same. For children in Nigerian poor families, life is becoming as much a hassle as it is for their struggling parents. Due to harsh economic conditions, many families resort to engaging their kids prematurely in trading activities especially in hawking, to help boost family revenues, when these kids should be enjoying leisure after school. Some of these children barely attend schools while being forced to spend much of their childhood hustling in the streets. For children from well-off families, time could be as crunchy as it is for their busy parents when, obsessed with setting agenda for the future of their kids, parents arrange stringent educational regiment too early for their kids.
These group of children are made to get-off the bed by 5.30am every weekday, get ready for private school buses that call at 6.00am, otherwise report by however means to school at 7.20am.The situation is worse for kids in the city of Lagos where the need to beat urban traffic rush-hours is very high. Most children are further subjected to extra hours of lessons after school at 2.00pm, only to be released with loads of homework. On many occasions children who leave home for school at 6.30am get back by 3.30pm. With hardly enough time to eat, do school assignments and take afternoon naps, these children hardly had time for plays before dinners. In Nigeria, kids of ages between 3 and 12 spend averages of 9 hours a day and 45 hours a week to and from schools, and additional hours doing home assignments and domestic jobs, whereas their peers in developed countries spend about half that duration and have more time for leisure.
Any remaining spare time left after school work or street hustle is further stolen, when kids who usually are fascinated by gadgets, are exposed to household electronics like phones, tablets and gaming consoles. Electronic games may create a sense of leisure, but the difference with human interactions is that kids doing games interface mostly with machines or with programme structured in ways that entrap a child’s pysch directionally, according to the game’s programming, in ways that may not encourage independent thinking. Moreso, attraction to such gadgets displaces kids’ attention from important television and radio programmes. The prevalent tight, academic schedules for some Nigerian kids, though intended for academic excellence, encroaches on childhood leisure time needed to achieve an all-round childhood development, and could make children to resent formal education altogether. Besides, academic excellence or economic pursuit, is not all there is to living a well-nurtured life.
Children’s leisure time, defined as time left over after sleeping, eating, personal hygiene and attending school or day-care, is very crucial to childhood development. Sociologists recommend that children should have at least 40 per ceny of the day as leisure. According to Berry Brazelton, a former pediatrician at Harvard Medical School, “Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about him or herself.” Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, and in the process build self-confidence and self-control. Play is one of the important ways in which young children gain essential knowledge and skills. Leisure time enhances learning as fun enables children to learn at their own level and pace. Young children naturally explore and learn many skills by making cognitive connections from events that catch their attention.
Unstructured plays help children developed their cognitive, physical and communication skills that make them acquire social qualities necessary in navigating relationships in adult life. Plays enable children assess how others feel and learn perspectives as well as empathy through observing differences in facial expressions, body language and even tone of voice, which helps them copy how to express themselves to others, and therefore develop socially acceptable behavours that build relationships. In cooperative activities, children willingly take things in turn and may delegate roles. Children can also share the glory of winnings through competitive games, which is all great for working together in task sharing. Aside encouraging parents to ensure adequate leisure time for their kids at home, schools should make plays and exercises an integral part of the educational curriculum. The educational curriculum set by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) includes specific training durations and break periods, as well as sporting activities, as part of the school system.
Due to poor government funding, sports in public schools have declined, while most private schools lack sporting infrastructure or even play grounds. These make recreational activities and sports implementation almost impossible in schools. Also, the increasing rate of urbanisation in Nigerian communities is gradually eroding ancient playgrounds, while established urban centres have lost community playgrounds. With tightening apartment spaces now being the norm in most urban residential areas, many kids are forced to wriggle within burglary-proof enclosures. Nigerian governments and the relevant agencies should ensure that existing child labour protection laws, educational and urban development codes are implemented in the country, to enable proper nurturing of children as the future stakeholders of our society. Private schools, especially, should be supervised to ensure they follow the educational curriculum standards set by NERDC.
In a bid to impress parents and draw more patronage as better option than public schools, private schools, most of whom operate in cramped environments, have continued to set high regiments of training schedules beyond the capacity of most kids, and even encourage enrollment of pre-school age kids who can not sit still to listen for an extended periods of time. Schools, from creche to secondary levels, without playgrounds and recreational facilities should not be allowed to operate, and should be made to understand and implement appropriate curriculum and training durations. Many Nigerian kids, whether from rich or poor families, appear to have been set-up inadvertently, in the same leisure denial that affects their parents. All work and no play could lead to some messed-up kids who grow up not understanding social cues, and being unemotional and self-centered, manifest later as obsessive-compulsive adults.
By: Joseph Nwankwo
We thank God who is above all human contrivance and arrogance. Congratulations, Your Excellency Amaopusenibo Sir Siminalayi Joseph Fubara. Your victory takes us back to the Bible as a living document of a God that rules in the affairs of all His creation. In a manner of speaking, welcome back from your first war with Phillistines, Your Excellency! Yes, first example is David and Goliath! And like David, Your Excellency stands over Goliath in victory. But that is not enough. Our real enemy is that Your Excellency is Governor of a State with a wretched economy. Indigenes of Your State are today reduced to battalions of beggars waiting for who will hire their loyalty on the usual “pay-as-you-go” basis.
Your Excellency, it brings us to another Bible- based parallel. Conscientious Rivers indigenes above 50, should identify with and commit our all to this second parallel. It is to liberate the economy and people of Rivers people from 23 years enslavement and poverty, for us to regain our dignity and pride. When the economy of Egypt was drifting into a disaster zone, even Pharaoh did not know it. He also did not know what to do. But God sent a Joseph to build the economy into a fortress of good fortune that overcame the economic and social disaster Egypt did not know was ahead. Your Excellency for 23 years, Rivers State has been ruled without any logical, credible and consistent PLAN of how to overcome mass poverty from our dehydrated local economies.
Your Excellency, Rivers State cannot survive one month without Federal allocation! So called IGR only about 10 per cent of Federal allocation.It is also not based on what we produce but on tax from other people’s productivity that pass through our State. Pharaoh did not know what to do in the case of Egypt. May it please God to position another Joseph in Governor Siminalayi Joseph Fubara to heal Rivers State and build an economy that all Africa will come to access in order to chart a new course out of worsening economic hardship that is caused by near zero investment in productivity and endemic reckless looting. They are the twin chambers nursing a corporate cancer unfolding across Nigeria and Africa. The hard work begins today, Your Excellency.
We need an economic blueprint that will enrich every Rivers senatorial district from investment to grow productivity and to enrich every Rivers person from career-based productive labour, just as Pharaoh was enriched by Joseph’s economic Blueprint. Let Rivers State stop the trend of waiting the lives of young Rivers people recruited by Phillistines into cultism, thuggery and easy money, as a career. These Phillistines believe they have only lost one phase of many legal battles and battles by other means. But from comments in the public media, their eyes are fixed on 4-years of war and more! Your Excellency, we the people will not let you forget what you owe us. We have to make unbelievers see that your leadership is different and that we are uprooting the old order of an unproductive Feudal System. That system makes a few persons and their cronies to monopolise our collective wealth, while the majority are left in misery. Let’s put an end to enslavement by cabals and mass poverty in Rivers State. That is when the Phillistines will surrender.
By: Amaopusenibo Brown