On the riots (and choices we need to make)
by Zainab Sandah on Saturday, 23 April 2011 at 13:49
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| Courtesy Yahoo! News |
The parents of this child have not laid eyes on him since the afternoon of the day before, and thus have not (never) impressed upon him the value of saying a prayer in the morning or observing basic hygiene, instead he heads out (age 6) to make a livelihood through begging.
At the crack of dawn he sets out and catches up with a group of other bowl-carrying and raggedy boys, in search of food. The journey often carries them from motor-parks, to highways, mosques, posh streets, markets, petrol stations, brothels and so on. They usually just end up with a few morsels to eat, rotten fruits they pick from near a fruit vendor’s cart, and crumbled Naira notes. Occasionally, a big-shot tries to assuage his guilt, or has been ordered by his marabou to give alms to the poor, on such a day these boys get a very lucky break.
While they have never set foot in a classroom, or have dropped out before primary six, sometimes you catch them looking into a school while their peers studied, or standing across an amusement park while their peers rode on wooden horses and drove toy trains.
From a tender age, where lasting impressions are being formed, opinions are being absorbed these kids fall prey to the worst kinds (remember the terrain they often traverse on their journey for survival). Along the way they encounter drugs, knives, and an attitude for not conforming to normalcy as standardized, until finally they are wielding machetes and torching people and houses down.
Looking at the scenario above and the ensuing violence that preceded the Presidential elections, one is forced to cast all doubts aside and believe in the existence of a secret pact between parents, society chieftains and the government of outsourcing principal responsibility of caring for these children to remorseless thugs.
These groups of people bear direct culpability in what we are witnessing today, the parents who are primarily responsible for shaping their children’s worldview by instilling basic values such as respect for self, elders and authority, politeness, principle of hard work, hygiene and firm grounding in moral beliefs, have abdicated this responsibility to black market petrol sellers, or drug dealers.
The society chieftains who should act as figures of authority, source of moral / spiritual guidance and upholder of societal values have themselves become complicit in the grand scheme of pauperising the development of our youth by succumbing to bribery and illicit extortions.
The government has not provided the natural and required resource that would guide and shape the minds of these young ones, the ingredient that would make them fine individuals of upright standing in a society, citizens capable of distinguishing between right and wrong opinions and arriving at positive conclusions for themselves. The government has not provided education and jobs, period!
Instead, in what appears to be a parallel universe the government set itself apart from the realities of a society whose socio-economic decline it (the govt) has systemically engendered by robbing public coffers blind. Public trust holders have walled themselves up in houses with high fences to provide the facade of not being part of the rot that is their creation, their own children go to school abroad and they and their families obtain medical treatment abroad. All these barricades are to distinguish them from their handiwork. If recent happenings are a pointer to what to expect in the future, then even those artificial barricades will cease to be effective.
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| Courtesy www.hurryetdailynews.com |
The shock of this unprecedented occurrence should be enough to propel the government into taking steps to combating this negative trend. But do I have hope that this will happen? NO – the government which is the nucleus, to which other stakeholders should gravitate to, is sleeping.
Only the government can provide schools and sound education in the scale required to absorb our multitude of wasting youths. Only the government can stabilise the economy and create jobs for the restive youth - be it skilled or unskilled.
But with a Minister of Education who recently sanctioned closure of schools for three weeks for no tangible reason, and whose advise/policy on the low enrolment of boy-child in school in Eastern Nigeria is to “hire more male teachers...” a minister who has not inspired citizen confidence by not being able to articulate a coherent policy to tackle the constant failure of NECO and WAEC, I do not have hope.
-A Women Affairs Minister has been playing second fiddle to the 1st Lady in pursuit of a 35% affirmative action for women representation in elective and appointive roles in the government. One is forced to ask ‘who exactly is going to make-up this 35%?” a mother who is suffering back- breaking labour on the farm, or the one who fries akara on the roadside? Who is this Minister on the side of?
-A Women Affairs Minister who should fight for the rights of women and children and adequately partner with other ministries for provision of education and healthcare for women & children has clearly abdicated her role, and is instead fighting the insipid course of the 1st Lady. - does not inspire hope.
For the security forces that pretend to not have anticipated a post-election crisis, and who have consistently failed in providing protection for the citizen’s of Plateau and Borno States, and have yet to make an example of those responsible for constant bomb explosions across Abuja, Suleja, and Jos, I do not have hope.
For the Ministry of Labour that watches while nearly 10, 20, 30(?) million youths have turned armed robbers, prostitutes, shoe-shiners, security guards, machete wielding murderers, militants - and does not have a clue on how to engage this demography positively – I do not have hope.
The Local, State and Federal governments respectively do not inspire hope. Neither do the various National Assembly committees.
I however do have hope that the newly elected President – Goodluck Jonathan – will live up to his campaign promises of;
Making schools and quality education available in every corner of the country,
Providing electricity which will ensure a positive ripple effect of resuscitating dead industries and effectively providing jobs. Set-up skills acquisition schemes that will absorb non-literate but vibrant youth in our communities.
Working with capable and competent people who will provide the best of services befitting of standard global practises across the federal government.
All the above will to a large extent reverse the negative trend of our restive youths and make them part of the tool that will drive our economy to success. But another critical thing that the President Elect and members of the opposition ought to do, is to reach out very publicly to each other, and put the word “sacrifice” that they used consistently during their various campaigns to test. The nation needs to see that the campaign differences have been reconciled by the paramount need to strengthen and preserve our national unity. The President Elect needs to set a positive tone for the type of leadership/governance that should be emulated across all government arms nationwide.
I do have hope that parents, spiritual leaders (pastors & imams), Civil Society groups will come together to work out a solution that will save our youths from self-destruction and re-acquaint the society with lost values.
I also have hope in the literate youth of this country. The single-minded dedication and commitment they applied to the success of the elections by creating awareness through social media and other means gives me comfort. Comfort in the fact that they shall not relax the effort yet, until the government builds schools, trains teachers, and ensures every last child of school age is enrolled. Hope also that they will not let their wasting counter-part down by not participating in governance and ensuring that the government provides jobs for the jobless and a means of livelihood that does not involve anything illegal.
The youths shall form a parallel partnership with the government and their primary duty will be to ensure accountability and responsibility. My hope that the youth will be saved lies in the commitment of the youth that vigilantly RSVPed!
God Bless Nigeria
Reproduced here with the permission of the author.
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