DO WE NEED APC OR PDP OR ANY OF THEIR PARTY MEMBERS OR THE COALITION GROUP(S) FORMED BY FORMER PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT, GOVERNORS OR SENATORS: A CONCISE AND CRITICAL EVALUATION




If it is true that science and technology is the Main driving force for development then we have not got ANY leaders that can live up to the standard of bringing true development to Nigeria. They all visited foreign countries to come and invest in Nigeria forgetting that they would come with machinery made in their countries (because we don't have the manpower and the technological strength to produce the spare parts let alone the whole equipment), and they would be buying the raw materials from us while they add value to the raw materials and sell it at high price. The gain accrued from it would be used to develop their country's economy while paying little tax to Nigerian government, and if the government even feel like establishing such factory, they would buy the machinery but they can't operate it and so they have to send people overseas to be trained on its usage forgetting they are investing on depreciating assets.




Rather than investing on depreciating assets why not investing on manpower development [font=Lucida Sans Unicode][/font]through quality education which involve sound theoretical and practical knowledge, relevant production skills and mastering of technological intricacies at all levels including components production, working principles and functionality of the components as individual and when coupled, components assemblage, components testing and repairing and components modifications, power and logical units and their operating principles, mechanics of machines and its dynamics. These are all what our syllabus should encompasses.




Look around you anywhere you are even in the farm and you would see that everything around you either as tools, equipment, machinery, clothing's, textiles, housing materials, electrical appliances of different kinds or electronics, the processed foods and the packaging materials all comes from the industry. So who is telling you we need foreigners to fix our technologies for us? Who fixed theirs for them?




Tell me a single leader that has prioritized quality and well implemented education system geared toward industrialization in this country. Any country with highest number of craftsmen, artisans, self employed or an entrepreneur will never develop. Quote me anywhere. The level of self employment in US and UK and many Western countries is less than 9.3% whereas that of Africa is above 50%. The theory is very simple[b] " the higher the self employment level the more increase the poverty level in the country and the higher the rate of industrialization the more increase in national productivity and growth and a decrease in poverty and unemployment ".
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We have had many leaders in this country and they have tried their best with their best not enough to be felt directly by an average Nigerians. Many of them in their words have presented the problem facing us as a nation as one that has no feasible solution and those that provided solution presented it as something that is unachievable. This is due to the fact that many of our leaders lack the knowledge of the common problems that the country is facing (lack of problem identification skills) and as such they can never be able to solve the problem.




WHERE DID WE GET IT WRONG AS A NATION?

WHAT HAVE WE DONE WRONG?




1) FAULTY EDUCATION SYSTEM.




Any nation that do not prioritize education (quality one) will never develop. The United Nation specification on percentage budget for education is put at 28-40% but in my nation it implementation rate is less than 18% and the 18% is not even properly monitored as to whether it was judiciously used for the purpose it was meant for. The syllabus of the various schools should reflect practical and a quality one on the fundamentals and basic science and technology even right from lowest education level to the higher education level. Each secondary school should have as a matter of utmost necessity various functioning and well equipped relevant skill acquisition workshops with a specific time dedicated for it and it will be supervised not only by teachers alone but by government officials. The practical knowledge of students from childhood would be developed as they progresses in their education pursuit. The secondary education should be made very relevant with the schools being well equipped. This will increase the student exposure towards field of science and technology and they will be able to create and/or modify existing processes, tools, equipment as they progresses in their education.




2) LACK OF SUPERVISION BY THE GOVERNMENT




We all have parents who are civil servants and we all know their attitude towards work they were being paid for. It is the fault of the government who never supervise their workers by monitoring their actions electronically and physically. They gave autonomy that will never be properly monitored. The university were given autonomy and so many misappropriation of university funds were being carried out like the post jamb fee, pre degree fee, and many other money the federal government failed to monitor. The research and technology grants and allocation (though very small) from overseas and government were being squandered and no one question the VC. There are too many aspects left unsupervised by government. What of NNPC, customs, airport, seaport, contracts awarded, project allocation to mention but few.




3) EXPENSIVE GOVERNANCE




In my country, more than 52% of our yearly budget circulate around very few people for the payment of unproductive civil servant and clueless government officials. What will 48% do? The cost of running our government is very expensive and until their is a serious slash in their salary and allowance (s), we will always produce a mediocre like we've had in the past without excluding ANY. The allocation of funds should be reversed and/or revisited such that more money comes to the closest government to the masses (local government) and little goes to the central government. With this, more development will surface.




4[b]) DEVOLUTION OF POWER[/b]




The power of the central government is undeservedly and ridiculously much. They want to be in charge of too many things even without proper knowledge of the thing in question. There are many things that Federal government ought not to have championed. Example is power generation, police, natural resources mining. The state and local government should have unlimited regulated power on so many things.




5) POLICY FORMULATION AND INAPPROPRIATE ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY




Faulty policies brings faulty result. Nigeria failed to realized that there is no difference fundamentally between communist and capitalist particularly as regards their understanding of the human development process. The leaders of the Communists, Karl Marx (1867) was the first to say that the key feature of the capitalist system is that machinery facilitates a continuous revolutionary and creative production in agriculture and industry, communication and transportation. He also said capitalist must accumulate capital to start. In other words capital is the primary basis of sustainable economic growth. Both communist and capitalist are wrong as the West did not accumulate capital as a precondition before achieving modern industrial revolution. Africans have been talking of privatization (extreme individualism), free capitalism (deregulation or planlessness or market forces or Laissez-faire economics) for decades now. Westerners abandoned individualism and market forces in the 19th century. If free market capitalism were the panacea economic philosophy why did Westerner abandoned it?




To be continued in part two




BY

SALAAM Taiwo Afeez




SALAAM Taiwo Afeez write from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife

He can be reached on 07035480650 or salamitaiwoafeezf@yahoo.com