Mike Wabali
The difference between Nigeria and other developed countries is nothing but the difference in orientation of the citizens of those countries and Nigerians. How a country wants its citizens to think matters a lot in how the country will, in the future, develop. Such a country as the case may be, bequeaths to its citizens, the greatest gift in life which is education. The country does not just stop at giving its citizens education, it makes it standard and reforms the system once in a while to enthrone best practices. The case is different here in Nigeria.
That is why development in Nigeria is not seen through the prism of human capital development made possible through education but through infrastructures that tend to beautify cities while the people go to bed hungry. In Nigeria, we beautify cities without beautifying the ability of the masses to think and fend for themselves. We need a change of attitude and a change of mindset. The national orientation agency which is taxed with such responsibilities is ineffective and inefficient in that regard as is every other aspect of our national life.
That Nigeria is the way it is, is because of the mindset of the Nigerian people. We are a resilient people, and hardworking too, but our attitude to leadership is fraught with sentiment.
That Rivers state, despite its huge oil and gas deposit, has the highest level of unemployment in the country according to a recently released data from the NBS, is dependent on the mindset of its rulers and those who voted them into power.
It is not just a governor Nyesom Wike thing. Our state has been on a speedy descent down the developmental slope for more than 20 years since the return to democratic rule. It is even saddening that we have become too myopic to see it.
If I happen to become the president tomorrow, I will ban projects commissioning. Yes. It is nothing but a Jamboree that signifies nothing. Nothing is wrong with commissioning projects but we have in recent years made it gross with desperation.
We even take it a notch higher by erecting billboards on the back of taxpayers money so we can display our projects to the people whom we are meant to govern and one tries hard to make sense of the whole charade. As the saying goes, it can only happen in Nigeria.
Is it not the same people that are using the infrastructures? Why do you need to remind them that you succeeded in doing what you were elected and subsequently paid to do? It is like a teacher displaying the number of topics she has taught on the streets when she is paid for her services. Her efforts can only be appreciated through the performance of her students.
If you fail as a leader, the people whom you are leading will know. If you succeed, the people will also know. Why remind them?
Nigerians knew when in August 2016, the country slid into recession. Even though the government through the minister of finance came out to say that recession is just a word, the people felt it and the government had to accept responsibilities for their failure.
This brings me to the main topic for the day; the wasting of scarce resources by the Rivers State Governor on project commissioning. This reeks of nothing but absurdity and is actually a new low that the state is being sunk into. And for the fact that everyone does it does not in any way make it right.
That road construction in the 21st-century Nigeria is greeted with so much fanfare shows how we as a people are developing rapidly in reverse gear. We are exhibiting, perhaps, the same actions that greeted road construction in the 50s. So in essence, we have not made any progress in the past 57 years. If anything, we are in a retrogression.
A rough estimate of the cost of commissioning one project by the governor will amount to at least 20 million. That is a conservative estimate especially with the knowledge of how contractors inflate government projects and sharing of such largesse by those who effected it.
When one factor in the cost of inviting traditional rulers from their respective kingdoms and other external guests like the speaker of the House of Representatives, the Obi of Onicha, and the VIP treatments accorded some of them, and then the hangers-on in the Governor’s entourage, one sees how the state is being bled to death in an era of human-induced recession.
Remember that the state tops the unemployment list in the country. If you doubt the statistics, check the number of people who turn out for political rallies on a working day in Rivers state. The numbers are so huge that any reasonable government will be terrified but this is Nigeria, where reverse is forward and forward is reverse.
Governor Wike can use the funds to equip young men and women with skills that will enhance their productivity and entrench peace in the state. Let us stop the perchance for setting bad precedences.
