Back From Nairobi
A commentary by Valentine Obienyem, the Special Assistant to the Governor of Anambra State (in Nigeria).
ONE of the most profound pronouncements from a Nigerian Minister was the remarks by the Federal Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili. The Honourable Minister said that the Government would review the criteria for the award of honorary doctorate degrees by universities. The bastardisation of awards in Nigeria, which has also crept into the Ivory Towers, is worrisome to well meaning Nigerians.
Ideally, not everybody has the opportunity of pursuing education up to doctorate level, when you are certified as a true expert in your chosen field. However, some people with the requisite experience, even more experienced than academic doctors are conferred with honorary doctorates. We cannot quarrel if any University confers honorary doctorate on person like Chief Austin Ilodibe in transportation, because he is truly experienced even more than the books on transportation. What we quarrel with is placing cash values on the awards, thus honouring even little minds that stumbled into money and use it to buy their way without any form of experience. The key word is experience
Oracle Content & Collaboration
Talking about experience, the wise one says that education comes one fourth from schools, one fourth from experience, one fourth from the teacher and one fourth from travel. We gain much from these sources if we are positively disposed or confront them with open minds. A good example is the refrain of Nigeria being the giant of Africa. The notion of being a giant has made most Nigerians suffer delusions of grandeur, to believe that Nigeria is the first in terms of everything as far as African is concerned. You need the experience of travel to know whether this is true or false.
At the risk of sounding immodest, I have travelled widely within the sub-saharan Africa: Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea (Conakry), and Senegal. Abidjan and Accra are good cities in their own rights. But talking about places like Liberia, Freetown, Conakry, you talk about some primitive, uninspiring towns, where women still go about the towns in the happy ignorance of their nakedness.
Recently, I had the opportunity of travelling to Kenya, Nairobi, with my Governor and boss, His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi. Before Mr. Peter Obi became the Governor, he was the Chairman of Fidelity Bank and a Director in many other banks and companies. As a banker and a successful international business man, he moved around the world, from temperate to tropical zone from East to West and North to South attending one course or the other, one conference or seminar or the other.
However, since he became the Governor, he has not been travelling except strictly on official tours. He kept postponing the day he would visit his family in the UK, until the children became tired and had to come to Awka to see him. You may call this the demonstration of the fact that if the mountain cannot go to Muhammed, Muhammed will go to the mountain.
Recently, the Governor had a reason to travel to Kenya. Passionate about having Master plans for Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi, he had to travel to Nairobi to meet with the United Nation HABITAT and Shelter Afrique. Seeing the passion and the eagerness with which the Governor pursed this, the Organisation, as well as Shelter Afrique, promised to help him. Commending him, the under Secretary and Chief Executive of UN HABITAT, Dr. Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka said that the Governor was a good example on true governace.
Typical of him, to save cost for the State, he travels, locally and internationally with a few people. Beyond saving cost, he always says that those in power find it difficult to relinquish power because they surround themselves with many aides that the prospect of surrendering power becomes frightful to them. Obi reminds me of Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu, who, as Minister, would go to the counter at the Airport and do things for himself. Once I asked him why, and he said: "I do not want to live a borrowed life even as a Minister, so that any day if I cease being one, it will be easy to continue my normal life. In the case of Governor Obi, he usually tells us that being a Governor will not make him not to live his normal life.
Accept my apologies if I have digressed a bit. On the trip to Nairobi were the Governor and I. We flew Kenyan Airways, which is inscribed "The pride of Africa."
This at once aroused a sense of regret in me as a Nigerian. Is it not the place of former Nigeria's Airways that Kenyan Airways has taken? If not for mismanagement, what would have been of Nigerian Airways? At the time our Airways was functioning, was it not far bigger than Kenyan Airways in many respects? These are necessary questions.
At Nairobi, I saw what was beyond my imagination. Let me go straight to the verdict: Nairobi is far better than any Nigerian city you can possibly think of, including Abuja. Once at the Airport, you are bound to admire the order pervading the entire place. Though not as busy as Muritala Muhammed International Airport, it is better organized. In fact, some people told me, unverified, that the airport was built at the cost of Twenty-Five Million Naira (equivalent); while our own was at the cost of over Two Hundred Million Naira. But the two are big as to relatively cost the same.
Driving from the Airport to the town was a pleasant one. I took time looking at the street lights, and behold not even one bulb was not lit. Straight, we drove to Nairobi Serena Hotel. In fact, when we got there, because it was night, I could not really compare Nairobi and Abuja in terms of aesthetics. But when it was down, I saw Nairobi in its nakedness.
Being an old city, Nairobi roads are not so wide. However, unlike our own disordered cities, Nairobi is clothed with flowers and the buildings are superior to most that we find in Nigeria. The transport companies, especially the ubiquitious Citi Hopper are far better that intra-city buses in Nigeria. Foreigners enter it with ease, no standing, no careless driving.
Working with Governor Obi is business not pleasure, he makes sure you add enough value to the trip to justify your travelling with him. Though as we were about to land at the airport, some places of interest such as Giraffe Park, Animal Orphanage, Nairobi National Musseum,etc were announced, but we did not go to Nairobi for a picnic, not with my Governor, but for business. On our return, as we touch down Nigerian soil, Kenyan Airways did not announce any place of interest in Nigeria. This is instructive.
Oracle Content & Collaboration
However, in the spirit of adventure, I still managed to look out. Close to the beautiful Serena hotel is the Uhuru Park, a spacious park for recreation. If it were in Nigeria, corner shops would have taken its place. But in Nairobi, it is well maintained, and I understand such parks are all over the place. As you move along Nairobi streets you see public conveniences, neat and properly maintained. It will certainly be a source of revenue. In fact, it made me remember a king who built urinals around his kingdom, his son protested on why trying to make money from such a dirty place. When the money came, he took some close to his nose and asked: "Do they smell of urine?"
Nairobi is amazingly clean, especially when juxtaposed with Abuja. Without Okada plying the streets, you will not even see a single sheet of paper or pure water nylons on the ground. No wonder the city attracts foreigners. At Serena hotel, 98% of the guests are foreigners. You are therefore left to imagine how much the country makes on tourism. One Nigerian there said that what oil was to Nigeria was what tourism was to Kenya.
I had the opportunity of visiting University of Nairobi. Right inside the city, it is a reflection of the entire city: neat, organized and exuding scholarship. In my venturesome way, I interacted with some of the students and was not disappointed.
Nairobi has good hospitals, good schools and good weather. Though Nigerians seem well-to-do, but Nairobi is more of a human society than our disordered country controlled by bedlam.
Two days in Nairobi was a pleasant experience. As we touch down at Murtala Mohammed Airport, I was nostalgic about Kenya. A city where I did not witness police taking bribes openly, dry taps, power interruption. A city where right-hand driving is still in vogue. At our airport, we had to wait for some minutes for the generator to be put on, because the conveyor belt stopped when NEPA interrupted power. Regrettably, this was a reminding welcome to Nigeria, the land where,
![Nairaland [Nigerian Forum] Home](http://www.nairaland.com/Themes/default/images/english/home.gif)
Author
