Monday, September 12, 2016

STATE OF THE NATION






Dear my country people; comparing jonathan regime to buhari’s will not make Nigeria better than America. We must come together as one, list out our problems, draw out a map of solution and define means in achieving the set goals…
As a Nigerian I have sat and list out some problems and propound my solutions so that we could have a better Nigeria for generations to come…here are the problems below….


Hunger and Unemployment
Hunger and unemployment are one of the major causes of this country headache. When there is unemployment the economy of the country cannot rise. During the era of former president Shehu Shagari £1 equals 20 naira. If not for former president Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, 70% of Ghanaians could have still be residing in Nigeria today. Let sit and think as a nation, A man whose job is lost, whose wife shop is been sealed-up by local govt. tax collector for permit and whose landlord just served quit notice will you insult and he will not jump up and ready to fight you to death. There is a saying that says “a hungry man is an angry man”. There is so much killing in every part of the country in the north boko haram is terrorizing our people, in the south the Niger Delta Avengers are destroying the nation’s resources, the Fulani herdsmen are killing innocent souls all over the country still the government have no solution for us.
You can never see a millionaire become a vigilante in his community or sees him throwing stone at other people’s windows. An idle man is the devil workshop, an unemployed youth that is invited to steal from other people or wreck havoc to the society will not say no because he or she knows something monetary or materially will come out from there. Will a man who just built a 3 bed room flat, whose children are in good schools, whose job keeps busy have the time to join the vigilante group not to talk of the various groups disturbing the peace of the country. Let’s look at a situation where by a fight is about to start in a party, you will see a rich man getting up and making way to get to his car or the nearest safe place because he has so many things to protect but when a bottle is been broken beside a poor man he sit comfortably and feel relaxed and positions his own emptied alcohol bottle beside him to defend his self or to make the situation flame more. That is the situation of poverty in the country. Let’s assume we have 200 million people in Nigeria, why can’t the government give each person a million naira in form of cash, loan, grant, capital, scholarship, training and so on…. After that step I am so sure we will still have more than enough remaining inside the nation’s treasury.

The deceit of the government both past and present
How did boko haram come into existence? How and where did boko haram, Niger delta Avengers, Fulani herdsmen and opc get their weapons and ammunitions from?  If the government claims they don’t know or have any idea that means we are in serious trouble and we don’t have a government then. Some aggrieved strangers or a group of lunatic psychopath might just decide to pickup arms and start  to attack and kill innocent Nigerians including defend less mothers and children in the name of an unjustified cause they believe in. we believed, is God that brought president Muhammad Buhari into power back. Can someone remind the president of his campaign promise and also ask him are we truly experiencing the change he promised us.

The legislative arm of government
The Nigeria legislature is unarguably the most expensive legislature in the world. The personal cost of operating the legislature and running the affairs of the legislature is simply mind boggling. Here is a federal government whose annual budget is virtually consumed by recurrent expenditure. Our legislative do not care about the wellbeing of the common man, since sworn in of this 8th assembly no significant breakthrough have been made. They are only concern about their salaries, allowances, bonuses and committee membership. The like of Senator Dino Melaye has raise questions from the public and in the international community about the integrity, core values, seriousness, and moral uprightness of this set of lawmakers. The emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as the senate president has brought more harm than good to the country. Since his emergence there have been so much distraction at the upper chamber of the assembly, the presidency have vowed to remove the deputy senate leader who is a member of the opposition party while the fierce caucus of the senate are also putting up fight to make this country ungovernable for the president. Can Hon. Yakubu Dogara and Hon. Jubrin tell Nigerians that the budget paddling was for the benefit of the ordinary man? The legislative do not have the love of the people, they do not think of the masses. It is just their personal interest that matters. They are only concern about the well being of their children that live and study abroad. Law making should be a part time job since the lawmaker are not seating everyday to make law. The economy is under recession and the lawmakers are not thinking on how to find solutions to the numerous problems o f this country. They should try and cut their pay, they should pity the masses and generations to come with the way they are demanding so much of the nation’s wealth without thinking of a way to generate the money back. They receives phone call allowances, I have not see the way which their phone calls benefits Nigerians instead they call their business counterparts which are based in abroad. They continue to gather wealth which they will not touch till their day of death. There is killing all over the country and they pretend they did not see anything instead they are busy going on vacations with their children abroad, if those countries our lawmakers visits were in war or they did not manage their internal conflict very well how well our lawmakers visits there for tourism, and it is the same sets of lawmakers that blames the military and past administrations instead they delayed the passing of the budget. Let’s assume the president do not have complex understanding about the economy because he is a military man and his area of specialization is in weapons and ammunitions. Can’t the lawmakers comprises of ND holders to professors define a means to build this nation and end the problems facing the nation. They forget that the voice of God is the voice of man, God has position them so that he could use them to govern and bless his people but if they forget they are just tool like Moses the servant whom God chose to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt and when Moses got angry about the deeds of the people of God, God himself cursed Moses and Moses did not get to the land of Canaan (the land of promise). Our lawmakers feel that they are indispensable, the truth is, they are not…. After Moses there was Joshua, after Elijah there was Elisha, after king Saul there was David, after apostle Paul there was timothy, after Tinubu there was Fashola. If they fail in their responsibility God will lift someone one day that will be better than them. What amuse me is that 75% of these lawmakers had humble beginning, they have tasted poverty one form or the other.90% of them schooled in this country. Can they compare the education Awolowo gave them with what they are giving us now……

Inability to diversify
I have listened so many speakers on this issue and everyone seems to agree that our inability to diversify is one of the problems we are facing as a nation. For so many years now our focus have been on crude oil, the bigger problem is that we are only extracting, we are not refining. How can we make more profit if we are not maximizing the full process of production? From borno to bayelsa Nigeria is gifted with vast nutritious land still yet we are not farming. Our government need to focus more on other sectors like the agriculture, sport and entertainment because of those are the areas Nigerians have inbuilt talented from birth. The federal government has failed to task each geopolitical zones on what, how and when to produce, they failed to establish a system whereby we don’t get to import 90% of the food we consume (Rice, frozen foods). If we don’t diversify the economy petroleum price might crash and then we will start begging for help in order to feed our children. Government does not realize how important entrepreneurship promotes or bring about economic development. For a country economy to work well, efficiently and prosperous, it requires entrepreneurs- those creative men and women who can identify what the country needs and can find ban efficient way to meet the demand. Entrepreneurs make the economic system work and make life better for everyone concerned by creating new products, developing new, efficient method and offering lower prices for local consumers and packaging it neatly for exportation which in turn increases the country GDP. There I nothing wrong if the government can warmly support the aba boys, who are famously know for producing ward roping items like clothing, bags, foot wears and e.t.c. if the government can assist them, this people can produce quality ward roping items in which wealthy Nigerians would not need to patronize foreign stores and the likes of Gucci, addidas, nike, Versace, e.t.c. and these wears will be eradicated in due time in our market which will add to the country GDP and indecent dressing will be reduced drastically in Nigeria because most of this foreign outfit are indecent dresses our youths puts on.

The strict closure of ports and boarders for the importation of food.
Failure to produce and the stoppage of free flow of importation of food has made the economy to suffer series of setbacks. Our inability to produce the nation’s common staple food (Rice) is worrisome and it has led to the excess spending on importation of rice which in turn depreciates the nation economy and also bringing the fall in value of the nation currency. If we can start producing rice at a large consumption scale the economy will take a turn. What our government don’t understand is that the country is not producing Rice, frozen foods and groundnut oil on a large scale for consumption and the government is blocking the passage of this in order to make Nigerians go back to farm and still yet we did not go to the farm. There will be no food to eat and the little we have in the market are been smuggled into the country from Cotonou. The effect of this is the hike prices of these foods comparing to the era when there is free flow of importation, which also add to the depreciation of the economy. If the government is adamant that Nigerians to produce their own foods because they believe Nigeria is capable of producing her own food, which I know Nigerians are not ready, let the government also stop the importation of mobile phones, cars, electronic gadgets and computer because I believe Nigeria should be capable of producing those items too since thousands of engineers, technicians. Programmers are graduating from our polytechnics and universities on a yearly basis.

The expensive lifestyle of our government official
Our politicians live a lifestyle which is very expensive and which cost the nation fortunes. Their wives and children live the life of queens, prince and princess, they forgot they are to guide their father and husbands on how best to govern and serve the people the best way they could. A lot of irrelevant expenses are made in order to comfort our leaders in order to make them serve us well but we also forgot this  have effect on our nation treasury. Fleet of empty vehicles follows the governor of a state, his wife, the deputy, his wife also and their children all around the place burning gallons of fuels.

Insecurity
Insecurity problems have cost greater damage to the economy of the country. Security has threaten the peace and development of the country, boko haram have cripple the north, they have destroy both lives and properties, farm lands have been affected and it effects tell on the economy. No enough food for citizens to eat because farmers are afraid to go to farm because of terrorist, the Fulani herdsmen have been killing innocent souls on farmland because of their cattle, they are posing threat to farmers, Niger delta avengers are destroying the nation resources, they are bombing up fuel storage facilities and vandalizing pipelines.

Religion intolerance and ethnical crises
In Nigeria, there is no doubt that religious intolerance is on the increase especially in some parts of the north. The recurring crises in Jos capita of plateau state, the boko haram crises in some parts of Northern Nigeria, the army and el-zaakary shite, in 2009 the zangon-kataf manifestations of religious intolerance in Nigeria poses serious challenge to the unity and oneness of our people. In a country of more than 250 ethnic groups and a population of over 200 million people, there is no doubt that ethnic distrust and fear of marginalization will be a major issue. in Nigeria there is mutual distrust by the major ethnic groups and this has led to crises especially in appointments and distribution of national resources.


                                                               
                                                                            Solutions propounded

In the area of job unemployment “Government has no business in businesses”
Government is expected to deregulate all sectors in order to foster economy development. The Nigeria Government do have the will, capability, managemental skills, innovative and patience to manage commissions and companies effectively... the government should release all commissions and companies to private individuals who are ready to do exploit with their managemental skills in all sectors. A clearer example is the telecommunication sector and the power sector. Government should empower youths and women of this country in the area of skills acquisition in which this propel citizens to be self employ which is the first stage of entrepreneurship.

Moral and Civic responsibilities
In America every child above the age of 7 knows the large part of the America constitution, how many Nigerians knows or have a basic knowledge and understanding about the state of the nation, the answer is just few. How many Nigeria house wives sit  to watch or listen to the News except when there is an outbreak of a deadly disease, the answer is just is few. How many Nigerians know their fundamental rights and duties, the answer is few. Nigerians needs to be enlighten, the government need to draft moral studies/knowledge back to the syllabus of the primary school module. Moral responsibilities should be teach and preach at our different places of worship. During the days of our forefathers it takes the whole communities to train a child but now only the biological parent is responsible for the upbringing of a child, in some case the grandparents is responsible for the training of a child. The grandparent might not have the physical strength to correct the child if the child does something bad. Some parent does not have the time or the financial capability to train a child while others over pamper the child because it is the only child or the only girl or the only boy. 

Lack of patriotism
Nigerians both the government officials and citizens of the country should place the interest of the nation above every personal interest. Americans knows that everything America does as a nation, America must win. There is racism in America: the blacks hates the whites, the straights hates the homosexuals, the commoners hates the elites, east coast hates the west coast but they all comes together whenever there is a threat against the country. Nigerians must develop extraordinary love for the country whereby activities of the nation matters to everyone not only when there is election at the corner. We should be bother about our country survives, stand, and how it is going to fly. We must pay our tax and be responsible in our duties like good citizens of the nation. Politicians must have the love of the nation and the people in order to make Nigeria a better place. All Nigerians must build, defend and uphold the unity, honor, dignity and glory of the nation. If you watch American and British movies like 24 hours, strike backs and other terrorist movies, you will see individuals who are ready to lay their lives down for the good of their country unlike our own movies that portrays our corrupt our politicians and the Nigeria police been characterized.

Corruption
Corruption runs through the veins of Nigeria between clerics and their followers, husband and wife, parent and children, government officials and the citizens. There is a saying that says charity begins at home: corruption must be dwelt with from the root. The anti graft agencies must be at their top gear in order to fight the disease called corruption. We must learn to live upright. Our politician show remorse and be willing to be free from corruption, our officials must be transparent in all their deeds and be accountable for their works. Corruption should be stopped at every level.

Planning ahead
America has a dream and every Americans believes and contributes to that America dream. What is the Nigeria dream? What is our vision? The truth is that we are dreamless and visionless. Nigeria has been in existing without any plan, just living by how and what the day brings. As a nation we must start planning ahead for the future, we must have a dream first and then draw out a plan how our dream can be fulfill. We must draw that will make provision for a better Nigeria in future. The government must know planning is not an event, it as a gradual process and government must engage all sectors, stakeholders and citizens in building a better tomorrow. We must plan because preparation precedes opportunity. Excellence is an art won by good planning and preparation. According to William Danforth “No plan is worth the paper it is printed unless it starts you going. Preparation does not only mean mastering of facts, it does not mean knowing all the answers, it does not meaning achieving consensus, and it means putting ourselves in a better position to succeed. We must construct a good time plan and which we must adhere strictly to it. Firstly we must need to list our priorities base on their importance. We must draw out a timeframe that covers our planning and execution. Preparation begin with what we do, it begins with what we believe. If we believe that success tomorrow depends on what we do today we should treat today differently. What we will receive tomorrow depends on what we will sacrifice today. If we are preparing today, chances are we will not be repairing tomorrow. 

Nigeria should stop the lifestyle of “borrow post”
Our government should not pretend to us as if everything is well. They should stop deceiving us as if we are ok. We are borrowing billions from different developed economies and still we are not working towards paying back our loans. We should stop living as if we are richer than those countries borrowing us money. We should see ourselves the way we are. Pride inflates our sense of self worth and distorts our perspective of reality. The deadly sin of pride comes from the feeling of superiority.

Nigeria should start to produce/ manufacture
Nigerians need to start having the idea that we must be a producing country if our economy must grow. We must start producing our foods (rice, frozen foods, groundnut oil), we must start manufacturing our own little house hold items. The various items we have in the country is either imported from china or India, if not imported it is been produced in Nigeria by Chinese, Indians or Lebanese. If Nigerians don’t start producing or manufacturing, our GDP cannot grow, we must go back to farming. Wealthy Nigerians should start investing in the country. 75% of Nigerians are jobless, 5% don’t have a decent and stable job. Wealthy Nigerians need to see in ways they can help or contribute to national development like Alhaji Alico Dangote and other able billionaires. Nigeria should learn to develop human capital.

Nigeria should save when we have surplus
Nigeria is not a productive country, we must always look out for tomorrow. We must learn to save our resources because nobody knows what tomorrow hold. Nigerians do not have plan, we eat everything we have both the fruit and the seed. We must always look out for tomorrow we must learn to save our resources because of nobody knows tomorrow. Government must not lavish tax payer’s money on unreasonable and irrelevant projects or events. As citizens we must invest properly because of the raining days ahead…

Improve educational system
57 million Nigeria children are out of school. 90% of female children in rural settlement do not formal education. The government needs to make education if not free, affordable at all levels. They must improve the system whereby jambites can easy integrate into any institution of his choice. We are producing thousands of engineering graduates still yet we cannot invent our own mobile phone that suits the kind of our environment conditions. Government needs to task and provide standard facilities to our institutions so we can have well trained and well equipped graduates.

We must direct our passion, effort. Courage are not enough without purpose and direction. We cannot control or change the past, but the future is firmly in our hand, everyone has their misfortunes but we need to contain the pain and turn it into motivation. Nigeria can have a fresh start every day. All babies fall down while trying to learn how to walk, when they take a tumble, they do not just lie on the floor and cry for the rest of their lives, no matter how many times they fall, they never give up.





OMOESHO OLUWASEUN
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