Decade Blogs - Seun Fakuade - Groping in the Dark

Decade Blogs

Seun Fakuade is one of those young Nigerian thinkers that helps retain the faith I have in Nigeria when I left for Europe almost a quarter of a Century ago.

At the end of his write-up, Seun asks one question, “Will the best and brightest citizens rise or whine?”

I have watched how he has striven and struggled to make sense of the malaise that afflicts Nigeria and how he with like-minded people have joined up leveraging tools at their disposal to seek out solutions to its many problems.

There are people in Nigeria who have a higher calling beyond the corrupt and unconscionable kakistocracy of the ruling class that seems to have a vice-grip on the neck of Nigeria and I count Seun as one of such Nigerians.

His contribution to my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging closes 5 weeks of interesting insight from 35 remarkable people but opens up many questions about Nigeria’s future.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

Whilst this is a long read, it is an essential and critical read too, it is about education in Nigeria, from the products entering the job market with literally no marketable skills, or even suffering from the consequences of strikes as explained by Chuba Ezekwesili’s contribution to this series to the powder-keg of over 10 million out of school children.

Blog - Decade Blogs - Chuba Ezekwesili - The Hidden Costs of University Strikes

No matter what the government parrots bandy about as statistics and gains, this is a disgrace and an emergency that has been put in the hands of garrulous political jobber – Nyesom Wike, the Minister of Education. His profile shows he has no pedigree or antecedents that qualify him for such a critical task, however, I must not write Seun’s blog.

‘Seun Fakuade blogs at www.seunfakze.wordpress.com; microblogs on Twitter with the @seunfakze handle, he is the founder, social entrepreneur and change advocate at Beacons Development Foundation; and is a business entrepreneur at Bedazzle Media. Contact him if you may at seunfakze@yahoo.com

Groping In The Dark

10 years. Wow. That is how long Akin has been blogging. When Akin writes, he leaves you with impressions: his literary expressions leave you awed at the vocabularies, his grammatical constructs and oft time – more confused while trying to make sense of all. In all, you just have to like him.

Self-deprecating, mingling, a definite sense of dignity, and all an understanding that one must follow before he leads. Akin is over 40, yet considers some of us decades before him as his comrades. That is humility if you ask me. Seeing that he has kept on blogging for 10 years is a jolt for me to take time away and resume blogging.

Egbon Akin, as I fondly refer to him, left me awed the first time we spoke on the phone: baritone voice, but with unmistaken command of the English letter, and an astounding grasp of issues. He called shortly after the #occupynigeria protest – one which had left most of us angry, irritated, confused, and even disappointed. After about 20 minutes, his compelling soothing words left me better than I initially was.

Nigeria is blessed with many men like Akin. One of such is Ade. He had picked me up twice at the airport: well built, soft-spoken, well mannered, and with a demeanor that shows refinement in all measures. I am quite observant, so the third time he picked me up, I was curious enough to ask him why he was a taxi driver despite his impeccable command of English.

Ade confirmed what I had suspected: he was a graduate who resorted to driving to make ends meet after three years of futile search. Since that day, I developed a more empathetic affection for him and I have always utilized his services anytime I don’t have family to pick me up. Ade, like many other jobless graduates, exists in many localities across states in Nigeria.

10 years. Long enough to juxtapose where we were in 1999 and where we are now. Long enough to ask “are we better off”? 10 years; enough to cast reflections on Nigeria and its myriad problems. 10 years, with the same challenges and new ones; with the same unsolved national problems despite monies spent.

10 years is enough to reflect on Nigeria’s torturous path to redemption, to escape from oblivion; enough time to find out if Nigeria’s democracy is worth it in the first instance. 10 years is more than enough to weigh our options; to consider as citizens what we must do if Nigeria as a nation must advance in growth and development; not just throwing around numbers and digits as measures of growth.

10 years. Sufficient time for me to see the widening disparity between the rich and poor, to see the growing unrest amongst the youthful population, to see children hawk more in growing numbers on our expressways, to see that nothing significant has changed regardless of the deceptive words thrown around by sycophants and growth propagandists – if you may.

10 years. Enough time to see Nigeria plunge from a steady and gradual path to redemption back to years of impunity and government-backed or sponsored corruption. 10 years has enabled us see politicians make promises that they won’t keep; seen years of waste in almost every sector of the Nigerian state.

Human Capital

You can determine where a nation is heading with its investment on the human capital of its people. Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of Singapore as Prime Minister steered the annual per capita income from $400 in 1959 to about an estimated $51,709 compared to Nigeria’s $1,555 (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD). [Context: Four Asian Tigers (Wikipedia) The Economy of Singapore (Wikipedia)]

Yew believed that “the quality of a nation’s manpower resources is the single most important factor determining national competitiveness. It is the people’s innovativeness, entrepreneurship, team work, and their work ethic that gives them that sharp keen edge in competitiveness.”

Yew’s administration sustained an investment in the education of its young people, ensuring that the best and brightest of its citizens are sent to the world’s Ivy League schools each year; and re-absorbed into the country’s leadership (public offices) to steer change and utilize their human capital as fit.

Contrast that with Nigeria where public leaders are less interested in the future of the nation (as actions imply); less concerned about investment in education; and the education sector is riddled with years of cyclical union unrest (the University Union – ASUU – last week ended another 5 months strike that has become typical of administrations in Nigeria); rote learning, reductive and outdated curriculum and unmotivated tutors/teachers.

Nigeria, currently the world’s seventh most populous nation, is projected to be around 440 million in population by 2050, ultimately becoming the world’s third most populous nation. By 2050, 37 years from now, if Nigeria fails to develop its much-needed infrastructure and other capacities, the population explosion will overwhelm the dwindling resources available. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/jun/13/nigeria-larger-population-us-2050

The hope for Nigeria lies in its young: the impressionable, malleable and bubbling population; as such, a clearly-focused leadership needs to pay due attention to building its capital through a rigorously policy-driven investment in world class education that will solve its present and future challenges. The capital investments in the past 5 years in education, have they been driven by sound accurate data that reflects what priorities and focus should be?

Skills mismatch contributes, in part, to the ridiculously high unemployment rates in Nigeria amongst young people: young ones are either studying what is not specific or tailored to their career path, or being taught by outdated methods/techniques in over-crowded classrooms; leaders are barely interested in sound solutions than they are in the transactional contracts in education; and unfortunately, citizens are rarely interested in the process so long as they obtain a certificate.

Every quarter, the National Youth Service Corps churns out about 72,000 new graduates (2,000 per state): half-baked, ill-equipped to contribute “meaningfully” to the economy or innovatively create jobs themselves as entrepreneurs!

Science and technological advancements in nations are brought about by innovations and entrepreneurial creativity driven by citizens/private sector; based on a solidly sound foundational cutting edge education. The lopsided policies, distorted leadership and unpatriotic greedy characters in Nigeria’s political leadership give no room for arresting Nigeria’s educational backlog of problems. The statistics weigh against a bright future.

Despite the 8% capital investment in the education sector (a shortcoming of UNESCO’s recommended 26%), it seems Nigeria is making no in-roads to solving most of its pressing challenges. The out-of-school tragedy in Nigeria validates my unsettling worries.

Aggressive investment in education backed by thorough sound policies has resulted in marked reduction in arresting the trend of out-of-school children across other regions and in other countries; seen remarkably in India and Ethiopia.

Why, in contrast, has Nigeria’s case being different?

Who enacts educational policy in Nigeria?

What data do they draw in from policy decisions?

Reaching Out Of School Children - UNESCO

The 10.6 million out-of-school children [PDF] population in Nigeria is highest in the world - the exact size of Tunisia as a nation, twice the size of Singapore as a nation. The socio-economic implications of these children in the next 10 years should be a great source of concern for all Nigerians. If resolved, viable individuals can transform the economy of Nigeria in no small measure, contribute meaningfully to their families and live a sustained vibrant community. If unresolved, high unemployment will result in more crimes, violence and terror cells to mention a few.

Nigeria has the most children without schools - BBC

Foreign aid in education has resulted in little or no progress as desired. If policies are meant to determine the appropriate investment, what specific data has education public servants been using to deduce their policies? It behooves on every patriotic citizen to call leaders to wake to the tragedy ahead. It is important that anyone who has the ears of decision-makers in education call them to the ticking time bomb the neglect in education will cause.

A nation with viable human capital has many advantages socially, economically and politically. Capital must be emphasized on, not only during political campaigns or with speeches and beautiful rhetoric but backed with accurate data alongside aggressive and measured actions. The leadership in Nigeria in the next 10 years has an unenviable job of fixing the rot, the problems and averting impending tragedies of the future.

The next 10 years will depend on active citizens who will make constant demands, participate and engage in the democratic process. Corruption thrives in an environment riddled with unaccountable leadership. An awakened and participatory citizenry is a guaranteed check for corrupt leadership.

To this end, it is essential that citizen voices are not silenced by any means, through legislative censure or otherwise. Censorship of dissenting but critical citizen voices is inimical to democratic growth. This is why the proposed intelligence surveillance on Nigerians by the Goodluck Jonathan administration is a threat to the expression of critical voices against all forms of corruption and impunity.

Nigeria has all the best human and natural resources needed to be the greatest country in the world IF the best and brightest people lead.

Will the best and brightest citizens rise or whine?

Truly, is there hope for true transformational growth and quantifiable development for the next 10 years?

Decade Blogs - Nike Olatunji-Akioye - Twittersphere

Decade Blogs

As I was trying to drum up support for my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging in the early days when I was waiting for blogs to arrive for posting Nike contacted me and asked if I would be willing to have her write for my blog.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

I was pleased that she offered to write and going through the list of amazing people who contributed to the #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series, I had seven such submissions, going by what we have now, that is a week of blogs.

Whilst she might suggest she is not a writer, our veterinary doctor and I mean doctor with philosophy is quite accomplished, and there are too many examples of the fact that she is much more than she suggests she is, self-effacing humility is something she possesses.

Nike Olatunji-Akioye blogs at http://randomthoughts-n.blogspot.com/ and uses the Twitter handle @imagervet

She writes about that vibrant other world of Twitter where empires and power plays reign, where the good, the bad and the ugly of our humanity interacts in the marketplace of agreement, disagreement, humour, seriousness and the essential abuse. We have a roll call of Twitter handles I would think any reader of this blog would find as good suggestions as any to follow.

Twittersphere

I joined Twitter in 2010 and did not really begin to use it seriously till 2011. I was in a serious relationship with Facebook is the reason why. Well, I was, till my wall became a hunting ground for some jobless people (read men) who made it their life’s work to update the significant other (who wanted no part of social media) on every word and nuance of my status updates and I suspect, the hidden meanings of every other word, like they knew what my intent was. Long story short, I packed up my dodgy English and moved on, while singing, ‘to the left, to the left….’ a la Beyonce.

So, I arrived Twitter and was determined to do a better job than I had done with Facebook and so spent quite a bit learning and ‘ghost-mode-ing’, all to the end that I would provide less fodder for the jobless ones who contract-stalk me for relevance to Le hubby.

I found that the same issues as with any (public) gathering of people exists on Twitter as with all human gatherings. Leaders emerged, whether naturally or the thrust of greatness (and sometimes something else) upon such people (or shall we say, in light of recent happenings) handles. Some appropriated leadership by notoriety and as with all human associations, cliques and groups formed and sociology determined the rest.

It has been amusing, to say the least, to watch the whole of Twittersphere evolve (or should that be devolve?). Though some imagine their reasons for being on there are different than most others, I am happy to tell you, you differ not at all. Most all of those who use Twitter are exhibitionist, opinionated, educated, drama queens (gender be damned!). We like others to hear us, and we need an outlet for the words that we are unsure how those who are around us will handle them, and so we find the set stage of Twitter the perfect backdrop for our ... whatever.

A big reason Twitter appealed to me was the ease with which links were tweeted and the access I got to blogs that I do not even follow. I have read some offerings from such a huge range of writers that it is even difficult to follow any blogs nowadays. I find it far easier to just click on those links that I wish to read. My morning ritual includes opening up the links to articles from blogs that look appealing for me to read when I have a minute during my day.

I remember reading the series from @toyinfab every Wednesday morning before she got married and marital bliss took her off. I remember finding some of the articles from @Anabagail's 38 series interesting also. I remember an epic article on education reforms by @ikhide whom I think should move to Nigeria to help whip the tertiary education into shape.

It’s been very gratifying to have me inspire @JustJoxy to write cos I think she is good at it when she is not busy cooking up a storm. I have learnt more than I care for about mobiles from reading @Mister_Mobility who really is great at what he does. @famuyideolawale is someone who writes from the heart, and I think is a great reader and encourager also, many links, he pointed me to.

Some of the biggest issues in Twittersphere are what status a person has and while I am unaware of the Council that determines these things, I have found it very amusing to see tweeps appropriate status to themselves that is slightly different from what really is true. Some think people follow them for varied reasons and even begin to guess at the reasons during some of their really (my guess) difficult days. If anyone on Twitter is anything like me, reasons for following could range from amusement all the way through derision and sometimes, (like in my case) too many boring meetings to get through *dodges shoe*

Interactions between tweeps sometimes read nice and are great fodder for an imaginative junkie like myself. Sadly, they are sometimes less than savoury and being objective may be difficult when all of the information is not available to one. For me, being slightly younger in my mind than people my age (not on the level of Ikhide who is always 32 or thereabout), I find that speaking right may sometimes cause a re-think and an adjustment but when such an opportunity presents itself and is allowed to slip away, it saddens me greatly.

Some of my favorite tweeps include but are not limited to @Nusaybah09, @sagaysagay, @KwamiAdadevoh and his twit-wife, @dupekilla who sometimes provide almost ‘Fuji House of Commotion’-esque amusement with their very naughty ‘children’. @aeolofintuade, @ShecrownLita, @Rockabam and @PearlOsibu provide deep reason for joy at being female.

There’s that old man @akinsoke who together with @forakin and @thewordsmythe scare the bejesus out of my English-challenged mind. [Note from Akin: Don’t know what she is talking about, surely we are not sesquipedalians.] I always have Google open when chatting with them; a dependable friend and help out of every comprehension bottle-neck.

Those who read me, know, I started blogging only a little over a year ago and that I am ‘artistic’ (LWKMD!) enough that I can sometimes go several days (read weeks) without writing anything. So imagine my consternation at learning that @forakin has been doing this for ten years. TEN YEARS?!!! And then, imagine how excited I was to have him ask me to do a post?

I just felt very honoured and very ‘artistic’ (I am actually feeling like a writer right now!). I had read of his health challenges and felt such kinship with him not because I had had the same health issues but because human health issues scare me. I am grateful he’s bested that monster and here’s to multiples more of ‘ten years of blogging’ and do forgive any conjugatory or less than stellar English in this and any other interactions we have, as you probably well know, ayam (I am) not English, nor can write it but I sure do enjoy reading when you write it!

Decade Blogs - Ayo Sogunro - Gone Blogging, Back Soon

Decades Blogs

To the Nigerian Twitterverse, Ayo Sogunro probably needs no introduction as the cerebral and very reasonable legal brain who will tackle issues we so easily get emotive and sentimental about with passionate yet objective adherence to logical thinking.

I guess getting Ayo to write a blog for my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging is the equivalent of a scoop. Not only did he immediately respond to my request, he came back with reassurances that his promise would be delivered.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

On Twitter Ayo exudes wit and his blogs are well-constructed persuasive legal arguments on thorny contemporary issues in Nigeria as child marriage and the outlier issue of gay marriage.

Why You Should Be Worried About Nigeria’s Anti-Gay Law which he wrote in June 2013.

Ayo Sogunro is the author of The Wonderful Life of Senator Boniface and other Sorry Tales. A lawyer by profession, he also indulges in socio-legal philosophy on www.ayosogunro.com. Interact with him on Twitter via @ayosogunro.

Here Ayo writes about how his desire for the impartation of knowledge has not changed but the theatre has been enhanced by the Internet. Quite a good read from a raconteur.

Gone Blogging, Back Soon

As a university student, I gained a reputation for being rather clever, and the satisfactory nature of this reputation encouraged me to develop an even more satisfactory habit of imparting some of my versatile knowledge to friends and colleagues in the form tutorials.

In the course of time, I had gained a wider reputation as a fine teacher, and I soon got used to hearing complimentary remarks such as: “You teach very well! You ought to become a lecturer, someday!”

Since humans are generally shaped by expectations of society just as much as by their own personal choices, it wasn’t long before the ambition of being a university lecturer gradually settled in my thoughts as though I myself had originated the idea. Also, it was an easy ambition to aspire to: in those days, the qualifications required to be a university lecturer in Nigeria were a fairly simple matter—all you had to do was complete a first degree and then obtain a Master’s degree.

As I was well on the way to finalizing the first requirement, and the second being no more than one more year of the same, I was fairly confident that I would join the ranks of the academia very soon. I was so sure of this that I had already begun to stake out my own office in the staff rooms.

I already had my class schedules figured out, my routine mapped mentally, and in keeping with my character as a young and naïve male—I could picture already the horde of admiring students of the feminine aspect. I was ready to be the archetypal Nigerian lecturer: lording it over enslaved students, my word would be law and my exam scores, final.

But the Nigerian Universities Commission was not so sympathetic to my career ambitions for, just before I left school, it became a requirement that university lecturers had to be possessed of a doctorate degree.

I was quite puzzled by this idea: the logical connection between the ability to educate students and the possession of a certificate for having pursued a research thesis was—and still is—lost on me. And even then, I knew a number of lecturers who bore plain “Mister”, but were absolutely brilliant and even more lecturers that had the now required “Doctor” and who, as the man on the street would put it, “couldn’t teach jack shit”.

But my armchair protest at this unnecessary requirement was in vain. And with that came the dampening realization that three to four more years of study would now be required before I was entitled to brandish my academic lecturing skills. It was quite clear that the NUC had no urgent need for my services.

It was also quite clear that I couldn’t afford to pursue a doctorate degree right after school. In the end, I quietly pushed aside the ambitions to become a career teacher and took up a financially rewarding job instead, and without much ado, the ivory tower and I parted ways.

But along came the Internet, and that has made all the difference.

You see, back in school, the Internet was simply what you called the 30 minute long stare at the rolling icon of Internet Explorer over what was often a dial-up connection that taught you the patience of the gods. Emails and chats were the most interactive form of Internet usage, “Facebook” was just a typographical error to be underlined by Microsoft Word, and blogs—if they existed back then—might as well have been located on the moons of Jupiter.

But, as my professional life budded, and I became more aware of the other world that is the Internet proper, blogs gradually became A THING and soon, I found myself in possession of one. My first blog was a rudimentary package from Blogger that allowed me delusions of grandeur after seeing my name spread out on the Internet browser address bar.

With great grandeur comes great responsibility: blogging was work, and I worked at it. The perseverance paid off. And before long, the readership trickled into the thousands and the lecturing ambitions of my younger years were transmuted into a stream of steady articles for my readers.

The Internet is a school, and the blog is my classroom—and I don’t even have to perform the gruelling task of marking examination scripts. Of course, one comes across comments that make you want to take a stick to the reader, but even with those, the blogging experience is generally exciting.

I might go back to a classroom someday and oppress young students as originally planned, but for now, all the teaching I need to do—all over the world—can be done from my corner. With a click.

  

Thought Picnic: Moderating my decision tree

Deep reflection

Gracious Lord, I am at the crossroads of opportunity and advantage, let me be wiser about the decisions and choices I make this time.

In my career of over 25 years in the Information Technology industry, I have been presented with so many choices that I seized and ran away with. This gave me so many opportunities to do things all too similar to an enchanted life.

Then came times when I could make no choices because the options were not there. In the midst of that turmoil, I made really smart decisions for that particular moment that were long term foolish decisions that hurt me more than I can easily quantify.

When I danced

The most important thing as I write this is to understand with review and reflection what I did when I had many options, what were the results of the choices I made and the long term consequences if I had taken to heart other considerations.

Yet, I must accept that we are where we are now, we cannot turn back time but we can learn from experience and hopefully in learning learn the right lessons to act on the body of knowledge, wisdom, insight and expectation one has to draw on.

Critically, one must not take the immediate comforts that becloud future discomforts if on the main some balance can be achieved to provide a smoother existence.

Find balance

In short, I am calling on my sense of proportion, the spirit of contentment and desire for commitment based on calculated, reasoned and rational thinking.

The undulating lifestyles of mountain top to the bottom of the abyss as the biorhythm of life borne out of immediately satisfactory outcomes and a future existence of incapability is what informs why one should be smarter.

Therefore, for what I have been blessed with, even though much can be gained now to the detriment of much later, I’ll give myself to good today for a manageable bad, if that happens, than to sell myself to the best for the impending worst to come.

Decade Blogs - Kunle Durojaiye - Keep Running!

Decade Blogs

The number of times I have missed the opportunity to meet Kunle Durojaiye, I would not count, yet, he is one of those young and amazing thinkers (thematic as his Twitter profile suggests) I would so love to meet.

I was quite pleased when he responded positively to my request that he write something for my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

Kunle, a Cranfield alumnus holds court on Twitter with the handle @kunledee and blogs at http://kunledurojaiye.com/.

Here, Kunle writes about keeping at it, and whilst I have kept at blogging for 10 years, there are other areas of my life that I have been a poor starter, a worse planner with rotten persistence, like going to the gym, even if I still look a bit trim.

There is much for me to learn from this as I believe it would find some deep resonance with you. Thank you.

Keep Running!

Consistency, the name of the game! Life and its many self-appointed coaches have often taught us that the starting point to any endeavor is a vision, a concept, a dream, an idea, and perhaps rightly so. How come history remains replete with numerous accounts of ventures that started, but were aborted midway?

Of course, there could be many factors responsible for such but what remains an instructional lesson is the fact that starting is essential but certainly not everything.

There are people who are excellent starters. They do not suffer from the typical inertia many others face at the starting point. They think it and get it going; nothing stops them. Then, there are those who are slower to get running, they spend a great deal of time planning, preparing and re-preparing.

Of these categories, the jury may be out on which is preferred and recommended, but what will distinguish them eventually is staying power - the ability to run and keep running.

How else do you judge the success of an endeavor if not via results produced and sustained over time?

The ability to remain resolute and committed to a vision is a key quality of achievers and performers. They know that the goal set for/by them is worth weathering the storm for. As such, climbing over rocks and hard places is part of their race. They manage to stay fixated despite everyday challenges and by large, the law of diminishing returns. They exude staying power.

Again, there is some relativity to this. People think up ideas and within a year or two, the concepts are dead and gone. The extraordinary few probably linger for up to five years. So, keeping at something continuously, consistently for 10 years is indeed laudable... and this is what Akin Akintayo has demonstrated through his blog www.akinblog.nl.

For some, writing is an inherent trait, an inborn skill that requires little effort to activate and sustain. In Nigerian parlance, 'it isn't an easy something'. The ability to stick with a concept and run it through in spite of down time, challenges, life lessons, discouragement, and whatnot is a commendable attribute

As this milestone is celebrated, one hopes the lessons apparent are being noted and served to readers, and all as pointers for future endeavors. Don't just start, stay! Don't just begin, progress! Don't just initiate, execute! Don't just think, do! Don't just run, keep running!

Decade Blogs - Chuba Ezekwesili - The Hidden Costs of University Strikes

Decade Blogs

Chuba Ezekwesili in his piece for my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging writes about the true costs of strikes in the tertiary educational sector in Nigeria.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

I would not once suggest that he might have experienced another hidden cost first hand by reason of a relation who might have returned home with headaches about the inscrutable, intractable, interminable and incessant default to industrial dispute between academia and the government of the day.

Yet, I have some really enlightening conversations with Chuba, his mother and his brother on Twitter, whilst his blogs when published are quite insightful and knowledgeable in the use of facts and data and in offering useful opinion and thinking points.

On Twitter, he goes by the handle @ChubaEzeks and blogs at http://naijanomics.me/, and I am honoured to have him write for my series.

Students are most affected by the strikes, whether they are in school, graduated or seeking admission. Chuba identifies those areas and laments about the fact that students do not seem to realise how affected they are to get agitated enough to demand engagement, change, accountability and responsibility.

That is in my view, a great shame, indeed.

The Hidden Costs of University Strikes

Got back to Nigeria over a year ago and I’ve had the unfortunate opportunity of experiencing a fuel strike and a Universities Union strike. As should be clear to anyone, strikes negatively affect the economy directly and indirectly. The direct costs of strikes are mostly financial. [BBC News] [Vanguard Nigeria]

According to Reuters, the 2012 fuel strike cost Nigeria $1.2 billion after only 8 days of striking. Also, the Punch newspaper estimates that the total sum in salary for the lecturers during period of the ASUU strike may run into billions of naira. So yes, we’ve lost billions thanks to these strikes, but there’s more to them than financial loss.

The indirect costs are less obvious and perhaps more potent to the economy in the long run. Worse still, these indirect costs tend to be far greater in the skilled sectors-especially the academic sector-than in the non-skill sectors. Why? Cause it has long lasting effects that cannot be solved solely through money. Atrophy of knowledge. Knowledge – like a muscle – declines the less one makes use of it.

Academic schedules are created with strategic amounts of time to ensure that students are able to learn as much as possible. Sadly, the unpredictable nature of strikes immediately interrupts such learning processes. “The academic calendar of the students has already been disrupted. This would mean the adjustment of their timetable and a delay in their year of graduation. The man hours lost over this period would have to be paid for,” notes Professor Yomi Akinyeye, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, the University of Lagos.

Worse still, it creates a wedge in knowledge assimilation. During the strike process, students forget a major part of what had been previously taught. Add this to the fact that with the Nigerian rote method of learning, assimilation is hardly possible. So, with an absence in tutorship, the rate of atrophy is much faster. Consequently, when the strike is over, students are guaranteed to return back to school dumber than they left. How then are they all meant to graduate with Upper Second Class degrees?

Given enough strikes, students can end up spending 2-3 more years attempting to obtain a measly degree. Worst still, by the time these student graduates, they'll be inducted into the one year of NYSC Service. By the end of their NYSC year, few will be retained at their Primary Place of Assignment i.e. where they 'worked'.

Those searching for a job afterwards will be faced with job applications with a requirements like "Applicant must not be older than 24". Consider also that this requirement gets worse as time passes. If one cannot get an entry level job this year due to one's age and lack of work experience, then his/her situation is bound to worsen the next year. This is the reality of thousands of graduates. A system that holds the students back and proceeds to alienate them once they attempt to be economically productive.

Interestingly enough, the consequence of this regressive game of strikes reaches further back to those outside of the University gates: applicants attempting to get into these universities. The delay in the academic calendar of Universities causes a backlog of applicants who end up with more competition over time.

Do the math: the more the applicants to a constant and finite number of universities will only result in the rejection of capable students.

Students will be rejected, not because of their academic inability, but because there’s simply lack of university spaces to accommodate the backlog of applicants. Most of these Secondary School students will have to wait a few years before they can be admitted into these Universities with subpar education.

Within their universities, they will face the same issue of strikes that kept them out of these same universities for so long. Then, they will eventually graduate and be faced with the same age barrier as the rest of those before them.

Sadly, the interesting part of the strike system is that it never affects the two major jousting parties; at least not significantly. The Government suffers no adverse effect from it; after all, the professors are not drilling oil, so their strike is inconsequential to them.

The professors on the other hand do not significantly feel the weight of such strikes as most of them probably have speaking engagements and other projects on the side. Best part of it, they can’t get fired; ask Nyesom Wike, the Education Minister, he tried. [ThisDay Online] [Premium Times]

Once we begin to understand where the incentives lie, we begin to understand who really endures the most of these strikes: the students. Many of whom might be unaware of the true cost of the strike and might just be happy to get back to school.

The game of strike in the education sector might have ended now, but assuredly, another strike will commence once the $1.3bn Government payout runs out. There’s something to continuity that takes more than $1.3bn. The money is nothing but a Band-Aid for a problem that cuts much deeper. It would take the overhaul of a system that encourages incompetence and lack of accountability.

Like Mr. Akin's persistent 10 years of blogging - which has made him proficient - adopting an efficient system improves efficiency & specialisation.

Besides, students must understand the need to become more vocal about how they choose to influence their academic lives, no one bears the cost more than them.

Students were disappointedly quiet during this ASUU strike, and unless they become vocal about the accountability of funds supposedly doled out to ‘improve their education’, they’ll be nothing but pawns on the chessboard of power. Those with the most to lose need to be the most vocal.

Nigeria: That Finance Minister and House Committee Meeting

The video showing the beginning of the proceedings before the committee. 

Courtesy of Premium Times. The news story.

The video that sensationalised the proceedings and attracted much commentary. 

Courtesy of Channels TV.

Update

These are two additional video Courtesy of Channels TV where the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance was interviewed.

   
Part 1

Part 2

For the time he was allowed to talk beyond the biased obstreperous interviewing technique of Harriet Agbenyi, a better picture of the reasonableness of the committee to the unreasonableness of the Finance Minister playing to the gallery exploiting the subjectiveness of Nigerians is evident.

Videos unlimited

When the second video was released in December, many jumped on it and excoriated the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Dr. Abdulmumin Jibrin for disrespecting the honourable Federal Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Whoever stitched together the second video was no doubt up for mischief and enough mischief was wrought by it. However, from the get-go, I was of the opinion that the Minister was haughty, wrong and troublesome, whilst the committee gave all due consideration before they came to the ruling that she should leave to return on another day.

This new video [The topmost one on this blog] corroborates my views, and I hope that viewers of both videos [The first showing the beginning of the engagement and the second showing how it ended.] which offers a more complete view of that engagement would review and reflect dispassionately and without sentiment.

Once we extricate ourselves from the gender and age politics, yes, the Minister is female and 22 years older than the Chairman, which could mean a lot in the Nigerian setting, and concentrate on institutions, process and procedure, we would be better informed of the fundamental issues.

The synopsis

The Minister was invited to appear before the House Committee, she was given the floor and with excuse seeking pity and whatever else, she said she was very ill, implied her colleagues might be fatigued, for they had not slept for days and offered to tackle the questions from the Committee almost half-heartedly because of her condition.

The committee sympathetically considered her condition, gave her the questions they were to ask her and advised her with all due courtesy to return at another time, two weeks hence.

The Minister took umbrage at this and questioned process and decorum of the Committee as the Chairman containing his exasperation and possible anger, told her she cannot face a gruelling grilling by the committee in her condition.

This after earlier letting her know that the Committee was as flexible as to make the maximum allowances for understanding that the Minister’s health was paramount, and they would have postponed in consideration of that.

The exchanges degenerated, the Committee ruled, the gavel came down, the session should have ended there and then but the camera kept rolling and that was theatre for Nigerians.

Separation of Powers

Broadly, we have a system of government in Nigeria that practices Baron de Montesquieu's theory of the separation of powers. An Executive presidency with a cabinet of ministers, a National Assembly – the Legislature comprised of the Senate and the House of Representative and the Judiciary.

Again, somewhere between the theory and the practice, the Legislature has oversight of the government and has powers into invite or summons the Executive about issues relating to governance, budgets and much else. The graphic below captures the general idea of what we should expect of the arms of government.

Source Wikipedia.

Now the event

That lays the groundwork into the how and the why of the Minister appearing before a committee of the House of Representatives.

As far as the video is concerned, the Minister was late in appearing before the committee, that is the first slight and show of disrespect to the House Committee that the Chairman overlooked without comment, and the Minister did not apologise for.

Then when the Minister was given the floor to speak, rather than address the serious matters of the days head-on, she had a more important human limitation, she was unwell and her colleagues were seriously fatigued, she would do her best, but implicitly, the Committee should have consideration and not grill her, or words to that effect.

Open book test

The Chairman, by observation decided that the gruelling activity of appearing before the committee should not be taken lightly, they had prepared 50 questions already, but seeing the condition of the Minister, the committee was willing to let her attend to getting well.

Meanwhile, here was an open-book test, take the 50 questions away, answer them and the Committee would invite you at a later date to discuss.

At which point the Minister for whatever reason contemned and impugned the Committee about orderly and respect, as she perked up, she was suddenly well, ready and able to face the Committee.

After the gavel

The Committee Chairman, overruled her, made a ruling and the gavel came down. The Minister should have packed her sheaves of paper and left because the session was at that time over, the Chairman said as much to her but she laid into the committee, suggested she had been disrespected and much else.

In my view, if we are to have strong institutions in Nigeria, it is important that all arms of government appreciate where they stand in the scheme of things. The Minister of the head of her ministry but answers to the legislature on matters concerning her ministry.

In that setting, the committee orders the proceedings and whoever appears before the committee should clearly respect and submit to the primacy of the committee in their deliberations, decisions and rulings.

Once the gavel came down, there was nothing else to discuss, the manner in which the gavel came down of no consequence, the reason why the gavel exists in the committee room is to maintain order, in process, proceedings and rulings. End of story – the rest is idle banter.

This uppity minister

That the minister decided to escalate the matter into a histrionic fit as depicted in that video is unfortunate and the chairman did well to make her understand that she cannot countermand the ruling of the committee.

In the process, it appeared the Minister was badly treated, but when we watch both videos, it is clear that the Minister simply pushed the matter to the point where it degenerated to – that sadly defines the unfortunate mess of a jumble of separation of powers we operating in Nigeria.

I stand by my original premise, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in that setting was unprepared, uncouth, rude, wrong, ill-disciplined, ill-tempered, melodramatic and disrespectful, and all that as someone unwell.

That the executive when appearing before the legislature had to be handled in that way is order that has grown into a storm in a teacup – the committee prevailed, just as it should, anywhere that system of government exists in the world.