Friday 29 July 2016

WILL NIGERIA GO THE WAY OF VENEZUELA? - POSITIVE LESSONS FROM ANAMBRA STATE


There is this recent press release by Senator Ben "Common-Sense" Murray-Bruce, comparing Nigeria's oil induced Resource Curse with that of Venezuela, a country with the world’s largest proven petroleum reserves. Simply put, oil reserves guarantees absolutely nothing in a country of lazy bones. . Sen Murray-Bruce went further to ask Nigeria to find out whatever it is that Anambra State is doing right to keep its head above water despite the current stark economic realities.
The above reminds me of the article written by Dr Ike Okonta in the sad era of the abduction of Dr Chris Ngige during Obasanjo's dark rule. Okonta wrote that Anambra State was and remained the "lightning rod" of the whole of Igboland. The forces in control of the Nigerian polity, for reasons best known to them believe, rightly or wrongly, that to subdue Igboland, all you had to do was to subdue, disorganize and destabilize Anambra State. Whereas we are no longer the 1950s or early 60s, when everyone looked up to the Onitsha - Nnewi axis for guidance and leadership, this mindset remains unshaken that Anambra State call the shots, holds all the aces as regards Igboland. Hence the need to rein in it's citizens and leading lights.
One of the methods, which has been analyzed over and over again, has been the imposition by the likes of General Olusegun Obasanjo, of "Ofekes, Akalogholis, Anukaifufes" and other never-do-wells on Abambrarians for leadership positions. Names like Chief(?) Chris Ubah readily come to mind. Of course there are very many others, people who I know cannot hold a five minute enlightened discussion with me and others like me on ANY issue. Therein lies our predicament. The real tragedy is that "enemies" of Ndigbo, who have clearly no reason for such enmity, imagine that any meaningful progress can be made in Nigeria while striving to sustain such a clearly unsustainable statusquo.
I have had cause to make specific proposals to my personal friends up north and the nation at large about how to begin to address the huge gap in educational attainments between the north and the south. Not one person has to date responded to the issue of trying to replicate the amazing experimental results achieved by Dr Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Laboratories, USA. Dr Negroponte is the proponent of the One-Laptop-Per-Child Global Initiative. In a location in rural Ethiopia, with 98% illiteracy, cheap and basic tablet computers, then targeted to cost no more than $200 each, were dumped on kids. Of course, there were no teachers. There couldn't have been any in such an environment. I leave it for readers to google up what happened next. It is all out there!
Right now similar or more powerful tablets are available from the likes of Kindle for $50 or less. This is the point where I now invite the various money-miss-road billionaires in the north to find some relevance in their meaningless lives by siding with the hapless masses. No, I don't have to name them. It would be worthwhile recalling that Gen T Y Danjuma had lamented publicly at some point, that he was at a loss as to what to do with the yield from his unearned holdings in the oil and gas industry. Others are not necessarily more enlightened on this score.
I have often alluded to the relative quality of the Igbo developmental model. Ben Murray-Bruce has now backed me up. Other Nigerians have consistently ignored this fact to our common peril. However, let's keep the discussion now strictly on matters of education. We are all aware of the regular eruptions in the north of Nigeria, (which could be for just about anything), during which the Igbo nation has had to deal with the regular massacre of its people. Because of this, most Igbo would find it exceedingly difficult to rationalize the following point that I have shared privately over sometime now.
Whether we love the north or hate it and it's people, IF AND WHEN the northern elite finally decide to give universal education the proper pride of place, who do Nigerians imagine will provide the teachers? Sadly, it is the same south, especially Ndigbo. It is important that both the thieving northern elite and the angry southerners and Ndigbo realize and reconcile themselves with this fact. That is unless we have finally decided to head to our various separate tents, hence fulfilling Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB's long declared objective. That would still be ok. The only difference here would be that the Igbo teachers would need visas just like their Indian and Pakistani counterparts. I discovered that most southerners are livid when I bring up this scenario. Obviously they angrily fail to face reality.
There was a time money was easily appropriated from the Niger Delta and spent for procuring a few teachers from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, etc, for the benefit of the few northerners who bother or are coralled to go to school. This approach cannot work if we are talking about mass education. Moreover, in case some have not noticed, we have run out of money. The situation is not likely to improve appreciably anytime soon.
Let us return to the thesis of Sen Ben Murray-Bruce on the lessons that Nigeria can and must learn from Anambra State and Ndigbo. Also there is this recent analysis by Olusegun Phillips-Alonge: The Biafra Pandora Box. His conclusion was that yes, Ndigbo have serially proven that they can successfully take care of their own affairs, but are probably better off in a restructured Nigeria, the warning here being that Nigeria will certainly lose and stagnate if Ndigbo, the leaven of Nigeria's unity and economic vibrancy, leave the union. He was however doubtful about the peacefulness of the transition to Biafra.
Recently also, Tony Osborg writing on True Federalism warned that "Nigeria Must Not Let the Igbos Leave this Union,"
http://opinion.premiumtimesng.com/2016/07/11/173846/
With the above in mind, I will now conclude by returning attention to my earlier rebuttal to President Buhari's saucy question, "What do Ndigbo want?"
Read....Oduche Azih's Blog.....: Re: Buhari on WHAT DO NDIGBO WANT?
Exerpt: "Nigeria loves to beat about the bush! Ndigbo rightly feel that Nigeria is wasting it's time! Many Ndigbo, including the obviously minority MASSOB and IPOB are actually not interested in the Nigerian presidency, or the character occupying the seat.
More than two decades ago, speaking in private circles, I have had cause to lament the socalled "No victor No vanquished" mouthed with relish since January 1970. Nigeria would have turned out a better place if instead of deceiving ourselves, a war restitution of perhaps $1b (1970) was clamped on Ndigbo with the proviso that Ndigbo would be left alone to pursue economic activities with which to pay for it. Such an open legally based demand would have been in much better alignment with the popular sentiments hidden just beneath the surface. A win-win situation! Ndigbo would have been selling refined petroleum products to Nigeria, West Africa and beyond, with change to spare. Ndigbo would have successfully dragged the rest of Nigeria (kicking and screaming) into the industrial era. A fully domesticated armaments industry in Igboland, under the eagle eyes of the occupying Federal Forces would have made Nigeria, however configured, a powerhouse in this regard. The advantages of returning to Nigeria would be there for all to see. Economic progress all around. You don't have to try too hard to sell a good product."
I rest my case.
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