Opinion
Nigeria Too Fragile For An Uprise
Following widely circulating rumours on social media about a looming protest tagged ‘#EndBadGovernance Protest,’ purportedly against the current hardships in the country, there is need for the Federal Government of Nigeria, and in deed, all Nigerians to co-operate in finding amicable solutions that would avert the breakdown of law and order. Aside from the rumours, notable Nigerians had earlier warned of possible unrests as many Nigerians face daily hunger. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, had warned that hunger riots might break out in Nigeria if government does not act fast to save the masses from being pushed to the point of taking to the streets. On July 8, 2024, out of anxiety and fear, one Mr Shuaibu Yushau attempted suicide by climbing the Aso Radio mast in protest against hunger, insecurity and hardship in the country and was later arrested. Following the understanding of security officials, he was later released on bail to receive psycho-social care and support, from where, however remains the question.
Admittedly, so many Nigerians are going through tough economic times due to unabating inflation, insecurity and hunger, amidst widespread unemployment in a country where public officials have been perceived to rather live in affluence. Indeed, it is easy to feel alienated in such situations. In as much as protests remain the fundamental rights of every citizen, the protagonists of nationwide protests should be warned not to play into the hands of criminally-minded elements, who would want to hijack a genuine desire to initiate mass-action towards drawing government’s attention to the sufferings of many. This warning is in view of past experiences when such protests derailed with bitter consequences, and were alleged to have been infiltrated by hoodlums who hid under the guise of genuine protesters to unleash criminality against innocent Nigerians, whose interests protests were intended to serve.
During the #EndSARS protests in October, 2020 for instance, a peaceful protest that genuinely demanded an end to the brutality of some bad eggs in the police, acting especially in the then Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), finally degenerated into general anarchy that led to shops being looted and many being killed. The Nigerian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector, a key driver of the nation’s economic growth, remains collateral victim during such civil unrests as shops are usually targeted for looting and vandalism. During the #EndSARS crises, criminal arsonists looted, vandalised and burnt shops of innocent traders in Lagos especially. With no compensations paid whatsoever to revive adversely affected MSMEs, the national economy in the face of other external, economic factors, have not recovered since that incident.
Experience has also shown that some unenvisaged and mismanaged outcomes tend to tilt protests towards tribal conflicts. Again, in some states during the #EndSARS crises, the killing of innocent passers-by led to ethnic reactions that spiralled away from the core of main protests and degenerated into tribal misunderstandings that created the ‘Unknown Gunmen’ saga which the nation still contends with. This is not to mention the controversy over the horrorful number of deaths and the involvement of the Nigerian Army in the regrettable October 20, 2020 shootings at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, in which unconfirmed reports claimed hundreds died. But while an Amnesty International report says 12 people were killed in the incident, Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who initially denied any deaths in the incident, later admitted to the CNN report that only two persons died, yet the state’s Judiciary Panel of Inquiry reported that nine persons were killed with 48 other casualties. But to the dismay of many on July 24, 2023, the Africa News exposed a plan by the Lagos State Government to conduct mass burials for 103 victims who had remained unclaimed at the morgue since the 2020 Lekki toll-gate shootings.
While the wounds from those events remain unhealed, the increasing level of hunger in Nigeria may be fanning the embers of anger and desperation occasioned by grim hunger and abject want, to the point of another protest being plotted. According to social media rumours, a nationwide protest is imminent in the early weeks of August, 2024 which, if it ensues at the scale of the #EndSARS movement, might be more catastrophic. Moreso, the increasing rate at which arms and psychotrophic substances are being intercepted at the nation’s ports is a cause for concern, and a pointer that something sinister may be going underground, especially with the alarming seizure at Onne Port on June 21, 2024, of 844 assault riffles and 112,500 live ammunition. Government should move early enough to peacefully disarm a looming anarchy, rather than delay to create a situation where the military would have to quench charged mobs with the barrel of guns.
But, opting to hunt and arrest suspected planners of peaceful protests or pointlessly victimising frontline politicians would rather be counter-productive as many may perceive such moves as attempts to gag and shutdown free speech and genuine expressions. Such treatments as recently meted-out at the Senate, to Senator Ali Ndume of Borno State, may embolden the resolve of protest plotters to carry-on without any cooperation with the authorities, and would be a pitiable setting towards anarchy. The federal government should therefore urgently summon a conference of stakeholders involving youth bodies, unions, traditional and religious leaders and civil society organisations, towards finding short-term and long-term solutions to mass hunger. While the current distribution of 20 trucks of grains by the federal government to each state of the federation is commendable, government needs to engage the people more towards achieving sustainable solutions, because while 20 trucks might look gigantic on the surface, it is merely a drop of water compared to the oceans of needs of Nigerians. Even if equitably distributed, 20 trucks per state cannot provide a square meal to all Nigerians taken at a time. Nigerians want to see themselves being able to sustainably provide their needs, and not the mirage of palliatives being dangled.
By: Joseph Nwankwor
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