INCONSISTENCY AND LACK OF CONTINUITY IN NIGERIA; THE WAY FORWARD

On the lips of every Nigerian is the present economy recession. Even the man who picks mango from the tree in front of his house says this. Nigeria, giant of Africa as she is commonly called, blessed with rich human and natural resources. It is no gainsaying that Nigeria is one of the most blessed nations of the world. In Africa, Nigeria boasts of being the most populous nation with divers of skills. It is almost not an overstatement to say that only few countries in the world have more natural resources than Nigeria. However, it remain unclear, despite the rich human and natural resources, the country is still languishing and roaming about underdevelopment. In spite of the natural resources ranging from crude oil, fertile land for farming, timber, rubber, cocoa among many others yet to be discovered ones, Nigeria is still wallowing in abject hardship. WHY?! What could be more pathetic, only few persons fence round our commonwealth and are feeding on it, ignoring our agitations. They have their fill, take for their generations unborn. As if that is not enough, they still deny the poor masses of feeding on the crumb from their tables. Why? Don’t forget what happened to Lazarus and the rich man in the Holy Scriptures! They deny labourers of their wages, thereby creating unwarranted behavior and leading the society at the mercy of chaos and poverty, society littered with children suffering swimming in abject poverty.

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More so, now and then, we keep hearing “the youths are the future of tomorrow” yes, nobody is arguing that, but if I may ask, how will the tomorrow be when the today of our youths are not catered for? Is it the youth who must raise his arms and legs hitting the ground before he eats that will future the society tomorrow? The level of unemployment is aggravating every year. Universities keep rolling out graduates. Out of every 100 students who graduate every year, less than 20 are well equipped. The other more than 80 is either half baked or no baked at all. I feel for our education sector most times I see some corps members who during their undergraduate days had no proper training, assigned to teach. Can you give what you don’t have? One may tend to ask why; this mostly is due to poor funding of the university system. A lecturer who hasn’t been paid for months I want to believe won’t find joy doing the job passionately. Same goes to both junior and senior secondary cadres of education, not leaving out the primary school teachers too. In addition, means of transporting product from farm is worrisome due to the deplorable conditions of our roads.

No good roads, no empowerment for farmers. Entrepreneur like welder, barber and others cannot do much of a work because of epileptic power supply. The level of black out in this part of the world is really disheartening that one begin to wonder how the world was before God said “let there be light”. In line with all these aforementioned points, one may be tempted to ask why things are like this and way forward. Upon critical reflection, I found something peculiar to every government come and gone, year in year out. There is no CONTINUITY in our system. Each regime often neglects all plans and projects of its predecessor. This has been the major reason or may I say one of the major reasons we are in this present situation. Lack of continuity does little or no good but countless evils. This has cost us much in this country as our common wealth is often wasted on uncompleted projects administrations come and go. Lets for instance a road project is awarded and wasn’t completed by such administration, believe me, that is the end of such project in Nigeria. All we see and hear is the present administration faulting the previous contract, instead of making it work; it will abandon it and rearward another contract. Maybe they have forgotten it’s not their money! Permit me at this juncture to make reference to the science complex under construction at Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko, Ondo State. This project has been there for over ten years now, it remain the same way the vice chancellor who started it left it. There have been at least two other vice chancellors after him, they all turned their attentions away from that gigantic building.

The question here is, does it mean there is no plan of completing the project before it was embarked upon? Or is it the case that there are no plans to follow even if the tenure of the pioneer expires? In a similar way, everything in this country today is politicized. If ‘S.P’ political party is ruling, maybe got displaced by political party ‘Q.R’., this new administration renders virtually everything done by ‘S>P’ useless. I wasn’t impressed when it was a subject of debate whether the recommendations of the national conference should be considered. Then I ask, does it mean all the professors and well educated enigmas who attended the conference can’t come out with anything good for the county? I am not saying everything recommended should be strictly followed, but it should not be a subject of debate whether or not to take a look at it. Does it mean oppositions cannot commend each other for a well done job? Is leading Nigeria all about political party alone? I was also not impressed when I heard our president said he inherited nothing from the previous administration. We have allowed too much of politics to overshadow our sense of judgment. We blame PDP for the failure of Goodluck Jonathan and that of Buhari on APC. We now use that as campaign strategies,” because he did well, everybody from his party will do well too”.

If I am permitted to, I like to ask the president to give his own definition of “nothing” he is referring to. In spite of all these, I believe we know the ways out, but for our selfish interests we keep away our eyes from them. Let every government imbibe the spirit of continuity of good projects embarked upon by the previous regime irrespective of cultural or political affiliations. I strongly believe every administration has its goods and its bad, lets correct the bad and maintain the good. Also, opposition parties should learn to commend good project; opposition is meant to keep the government on its toes and do the right things. They are not meant to distract the government. Let us be aware that the peace and development of this nation is more paramount than any political party or individual. Therefore, let togetherness be our watchword in this nation and we clothe ourselves with the cloak and garment of continuity. With this done with sincerity of heart and mind, I believe a better Nigeria is possible. God bless Nigeria.

Written By:
ADEOSUN OLUWASEYIFUNMI FRANCIS “FRANCOFONE” PART III, DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, ADEKUNLE AJASIN UNVIVESITY, AKUNGBA AKOKO ONDO STATE. 08068066805 OCTOBER 5TH, 2016.

OAM4J, Mynd44 please move it to frontpage.