This tragedy mirrors the desperate situation of Nigeria.
One only hopes that this unfortunate loss of lives,
coupled with the incessant Boko Haram killings and other
youth-based violence, would serve as a wake-up call to
the summiteers, that this country needs a new
governance paradigm. If the conference cannot produce
that, then the over N7 billion invested in it would amount
to another colossal waste of our scarce national
resources....
It is an irony that each delegate would earn a whopping
N12 million for the 3-month duration of the conference.
By conservative estimates, N12 million is enough to
provide self-employment for 12 resourceful graduates,
and N7 billion could do likewise for thousands, some of
whom perished under chaotic conditions in stadia around
the country, while waiting for a poorly organised aptitude
test by the NIS. The young graduate job-seekers who
turned out for the tests filled up many stadia around the
country, as if they came to watch high-profile football
matches.
These hapless chaps paid N1,000.00 (One Thousand
Naira) processing fee each. So, the Nigerian Immigration
Service must have made quite some money, considering
that in Lagos and Abuja alone, over 125,000 applicants
turned up. We may be looking at millions of Naira that
this monetised recruitment exercise generated for the
NIS. There was record turnout in each of the 34 states
for just 45,000 slots that the NIS advertised. The
alarming job application horror is a clear evidence of the
inability of our public institutions to manage events,
resulting in poor crowd control and avoidable deaths
through stampede. This is not an isolated case, it is a
regular occurrence.
When things go wrong, our leaders seldom take
responsibility. The NIS has tried to duck charges of
culpability, by claiming that it outsourced the
recruitment exercise to a private firm which actually
collected the N1,000.00 levy. As usual, a panel would be
setup to investigate this incident, followed by a white
paper, and then, the report may end up gathering dust in
a cabinet somewhere in Abuja, while government
officials focus on the more important 2015 general
elections in a country where competition for political
power is about resource control, not the promotion of
the general good of the people.
The fact that four expectant mothers died in this
incident, with about 700 others reportedly injured, is
enough reason why those who organised this event
should not escape appropriate sanctions. Unfortunately,
the Jonathan Administration is not known to punish
errant public officials, although the NIS boss and the
Internal Affairs Minister have been queried. In other
countries where human life is valued, the President
should compensate the victims and, more importantly,
prevent a future re-occurrence. But the Federal
Government has other priorities.
For me, and also for the FRESH Democratic Party, which
I lead, nothing else matters in our quest for a functional,
self-accounting and representative democracy, than a
fundamental change of the prevailing order which is
responsible for our national predicament. It should be
reasonably assumed that delegates to the conference
would know this, but I have my fears.
Many commentators have observed that the composition
of the delegates to this National Conference is skewed in
favour of the old politicians, and some of those who ran
this country aground. How can we expect any meaningful
change from this set of people? 20th century ideas
cannot solve 21st century problems. If you look critically,
the composition of the participants in this conference
reflects the geriatric propensity of our polity.
All the progressive nations of the world, especially those
who have graduated from under-development to
emerging markets, are being governed today by new
sets of leaders, whose orientation reflects the new world
order, and are thus able to successfully confront the
challenges they encounter in their respective nations.
As this NIS recruitment tragedy shows, our meal ticket
educational system is not designed to drive industrial
development or produce resourceful, self-employed folks
who can create opportunities, rather depend on
employment. The belated introduction of entrepreneur
studies in the newly remoulded college curricula is like
putting the cart before the horse. While vocational
studies have been introduced, there are no teachers to
instruct carpenters, electricians etc.
I have long been advocating a shift in the paradigm of
our educational sector, which should be anchored on
Human Capital Development. Science subjects are
foundation of technology. If I were the President, this
would be the mantra that would drive my reform agenda
because without a solid, qualitative, continuous stream
of local production of graduates in the technical, or
science-related courses, our dream of industrial
revolution as recently articulated in a widely publicized
launch by Mr. President, would be a mirage.
The secret of Asia industrial miracle is that, leaders of
that continent sent their students to Europe and
America. The returning Asian students, who went to
learn the technological wizardry of the West, laid the
foundation of the technological revolution that produced
the Tigers, who now threaten the scientific dominance of
Europe and America. This is a model we could learn
from.
Is this a mode of campaign or what? Fresh Democratic Party..
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.
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