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Nigeria : The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is Gradually Fading by Francis35(m): 12:49pm On Sep 02, 2016 |
Pause a while and read
NIGERIA OF TODAY
This article written by a friend is reproduced here for your
consumption. Enjoy..............
California is the 6th largest economy in the world. It's
economy is larger than that of France or Brazil. The little
problem is that California is not a country. It is a State in the
United States of America. It has little offshore oil, yet its
economy is larger than States in the US that are famous for
their oil reserves, like Texas. California generates much of its
revenue from non-oil products. It found a way to absorb and
domesticate much of the intellectual output from its premier
university, Stanford University, into saleable products within its
economy.
As a matter of fact, much of California's economy is built
around Stanford University. So with this, Silicon valley
developed. I'm sure you've heard of Silicon Valley at least
once in your life. Now with Silicon Valley came companies like
Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed, Hewlett Packard (HP), Google,
Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla...and the list goes on and on
ad infinitum.These are multibillion-dollar companies. The
yearly budget of any one of these companies might be larger
than the entire yearly budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom
State. I'm taking about companies that are richer than
countries. They are all in California. But that is just in the
technology industry where the technologies and inventions
spewing out of Stanford are caught midair and converted to
money spinning enterprises.
But there is also the entertainment industry in California. Yes,
Hollywood is in California. The US movies industry contributes
about $504Billion to USA's GDP. Hollywood, as you know,
contributes over 70% of that figure. Most iconic movie studios
are in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, the "Big Eight"
consisting of 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, MGM
(Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio
Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros
are, or were, all in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion
dollar companies generating revenue for California.
Despite the above, California also thrives on agriculture. As at
2014, California had nothing less than 77,000 farms and
ranches raking in about $55Billion in revenue yearly. It
produces over 400 agricultural commodities, a large chunk of
which it exports. It is the leader in producing exotic fruits in
America. Its wine industry is unique. California wine is drunk
with relish the world over. I used to drink some too.
This is just one State in America. You see, California actually
had a choice of sitting back and striving to get a piece of the
revenue generated from Texas' oil. It could have depended
solely on Federal allocation to survive so that every month
end, it will send its Commissioner of Finance to Washington
DC to receive monthly allocation so that it can barely pay
salaries of its workers and nothing more. Then San Francisco
would resemble Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly would
not be those beautiful sights and sounds that make California
what it is today. But No, not California. Not America. California
gives to the center and, because of its wealth, despises the
idea of depending on it for survival. The Federal Government
actually needs California to survive, not the other way round.
You see, America is structured in such a way that States must
look inwards to exploit their wealth for the good of its citizens.
There is no free lunch for the lazy States. There certainly is no
commonwealth. But there is your wealth, if you can create it.
Under American Federalism, you are the captain of your ship.
But again, you are also the waves upon which the ship will
sail. That is America. The local government, the government
closest to the grassroot, is deliberately made the strongest
level of government. Items like Variances (adaptation of state
law to local conditions,) Public works (yes, public works!!),
Contracts for public works, Licensing of public
accommodations, Assessable improvements, Basic public
services are all left for local county governments to handle.
The State handles weightier matters like Property law,
Education,Commerce laws of ownership and exchange,
Banking and credit laws, Labour law and professional
licensure, Insurance laws, and Electoral laws, including parties
and Civil service laws. Items that the Federal Government, the
center, handles affecting the States, are actually very
negligible.
Nigeria on the contrary will never do well unless we
restructure. We pretend to have a Federal system but we are
actually operating a unique form of unitary government, and it
is weighing the polity down. Can you imagine a country where
the school curriculum is regulated by a national central body
and states have no powers to vary or amend their curriculum?
So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead in
what they teach their children from primary schools, and our
Minister of Education has absolutely no clue, the States must
be burdened with antiquated school curriculum until such a
time (if we are lucky, before rapture perhaps!!) that we have an
Education Minister who would realise how far behind we are
and bring the curriculum up to date. Just take a look at the
science curriculum for grade students in advanced countries
and you would cry for Nigeria. I recently read of a high school
in Japan which has amended its curriculum to include robotics
and drones technology. IN HIGH SCHOOL!! But our Professors
here don't have a hang on Robotics even! Students are still
taught the very prehistoric rudiments of physics and chemistry
in our schools. And this is even in the few schools that
teachers and students still meet in the classrooms! For the
few public schools that are lucky to have labs, all you see are
miserable nameless creatures trapped in formalin, to which
nobody ever pays attention. These creatures suffer a double
jeopardy having suffered the first misfortune of being caught
and preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and then thereafter
completely ignored, even in death! And because the control of
our curriculum is central, there is nothing potentially proactive
or progressive-minded States can do about this.
You would think this is not a problem until you understand that
Nigerians spend over ONE TRILLION NAIRA every year to
study abroad, despite there being over 100 tertiary institutions
in Nigeria. Not one is deemed good enough. You see, the
reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Yale,
Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the citizens
of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in
their institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign
students from countries like Nigeria which has destroyed its
educational system. Abroad, schools are so important to
society that the economy, business and lifestyle of whole
cities and even States completely depend on or revolve
around schools. What would the city of cambridge be without
Cambridge University. Or Cambridge, Massachusett without
Harvard University. These cities depend on these universities
to survive. And imagine that Nigeria had invested in its
universities and was earning $1billion dollars a year from
foreign students seeking to study here, who would be fighting
over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car manufacturing
companies would we have in Owerri near FUTO where
students are constantly doing and selling their research
products to burgeoning engineering and manufacturing
companies? Recently, three students in Sweden conducted
research and came up with a product that could improve wear
and tear on tyres. The product became so successful that
Volvo had to partner with these students to patent the
product. Now when this product hit world stage, can you
imagine how much revenue sweden would earn from these
product? Do your research, most of the world-class products
we buy today off the shelf, at great cost, were invented by
university students. As you are reading this, do not forget that
without Harvard University, there would not have been
facebook, and this our interface would have been impossible.
But our students In Nigeria are not entirely without inventions.
We invented the Pyrates Confraternity, the , the Eiye,
the Vikings and what not!! Students resume school with guns
and bullets, rather than books and scholastic ideas, as though
academic institutions were a war college. Lecturers fly colors
as do students. And when the turf war begins, people die in
droves. But States can do nothing about this because some of
these institutions are controlled by the Federal Government.
Even for the ones controlled by States, you still can't do much
because the security apparatus is controlled by the Federal
Government. The Federal Government will provide or withdraw
security from the State, depending on whether it is happy with
the sitting Governor. So every year, all sorts of characters are
vomited from Nigerian Universities to take their place in
Nigerian society. So you have Judges, Lawyers, Engineers,
Doctors and so forth whose first and primary allegiance is to
their cult group, before the Country. The multiplier effect of
this, is a treatise for another day.
But suffice to say that as long as this problem persist, let's
forget about Silicon Valley in Nigeria, because there will never
be a Stanford University here to provide an infinite supply of
ideas and prodigies to feed the invention value-chain!
Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today because it
cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its existence is
concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government,
the weight is In Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source,
the weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need to urgently
restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and
weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria.
We need to revisit the exclusive legislative list in the
constitution and systematically reduce the responsibilities of
the Federal Government vis-a-vis the States. Resources have
to be handed back to the States that generated them but
place an obligation on each States to contribute an agreed
percentage to the common federal purse to service
obligations of the Federal Government. There is no reason
Education, Policing, Prisons (only people convicted of federal
offenses should go to federal prisons!!), Ports, Inland
waterways, natural minerals, even marriage (yes, english form
of marriage!!) and so many other items should be the concern
of the Federal Government.We will never develop with such
weight that weigh us down at the center. Nigeria can never
raise its head in the comity of nations because of the sheer
weight of the head.
There is more to say, but scarcely any time. But to emphasis
the point i've been laboring to make, shall i say again that there
is absolutely no reason or need to fight for oil in the Niger-
Delta. There are so many things that can bring more revenue
to States in Nigeria than oil. South Africa has no oil, but it has
Gold, and is richer than Nigeria. Let us fight for a system that
will promote both equality and equity. (Copied ) |
Re: Nigeria : The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is Gradually Fading by redcliff: 12:56pm On Sep 02, 2016 |
my brother, leave Nigeria matter or you would have heart attack.. |
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