76 Million Nigerians Are Non-Literates--Commissioner

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I wonder why the Nigerian government cannot declare a state of emergency in the education sector.

A nationwide tour of our public primary schools, colleges and universities will confirm that the future of our children and youths is in danger. Because, when 76 million Nigerians cannot read and write, that means they are going to become less productive in  sustainable human development in Nigeria. And that is why I have little or no regard for the present Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria when his spurious economic assumptions and postulations are not based on the social and political realities in Nigeria. He is just posing and posturing to bamboozle the ignorant intellectual morons in government who are also posing and posturing to bamboozle the ignorant and gullible 76 million non-literates, 30 million semi-literates and 20 million intellectual illiterates and we end up with a government of mediocrity. A government of sychophants and mediocares who will do anything for political appointments, government contracts and handouts.

The government has been wasting millions of naira from public coffers on the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) for the past 13 years without achieving any commendable economic benefit for the majority of the over 140 million Nigerians and they are talking about our economy growing between $800 billion and $900 billion with a minimum average annual GDP growth rate of 13-15 per cent if the country must rank among the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020. And as I have stated earlier in one of my articles, that the Vision 20-20-20 is all hocus pocus. Because, we cannot talk of any progress in human development without the following indices:

1. Sustainable basic health care for- A long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth.

2. Educational advancement , as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weight) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrolment ratio (with one-third weight).

3. Social and Economic developemt for- A decent standard of living, as measured by the log of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) in USD.

Our health sector has collapsed.
Our education sector has collapsed and
Our public and private sectors have been mismanaged by corrupt and despotic regimes since 1976 to date.

The Nigerian state actually collapsed the very day the ill-informed Brigadier (later General) Murtala Ramat Muhammed toppled the highly intelligent General Yakubu "Jack" Dan-Yumma Gowon on July 29, 1975.

Cross-check the educational backgrounds of most of the corrupt public officials in Nigeria and you will trace them back to examination malpractices of the late 1970s perfectly chronicled by Prof. Chukwuemeka Vincent Ike in "Expo '77".

President Umaru Yar' Adua's first 100 Days in government were 100 days of administrative confusion over the monetary policy of Professor Chukwuma Soludo of the apex bank and the misappropriation of revenue allocation by Mrs Patricia Etteh, Speaker of the House of Representatives, whose criminal intentions are as clear as daylight in her N529/N628 million Contract Scam. Over-invoicing is the Trojan Horse for the gross misappropriation of public and private funds in Nigeria. And the President has also mismanaged the Niger Delta crisis as he has continued with the Pandora's Box of the senile predecessor. Therefore, Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua may not be able to address the collapse of the education sector.

The only solution is a total revolution for the prosecution of all corrupt Nigerians in both the public and private sectors without any plea-bargain for anyone of them, pragmatic leadership in government and transparent management of all the sectors for a new strata of government. Finis.

As Ben Lawrence asked Who will clear this Augean stable? .