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Chidinma Abamen, a
nursing mother, said she was rudely awakened from sleep on Tuesday
morning by two young girls who usually sold yams and plantain to her in
the evenings. “I was surprised to see them at my doorstep early in the
morning,” she said. “They usually sell to me only in the evenings but
because they can’t go to school, they have to hawk to support their
parents.”

Mrs Abamen added
that seeing the children hawking when they should be in school is
disturbing, and would adversely affect their studies when they resume.
“I feel bad about it because I am a mother myself and it’s unfair for a
child to be doing this when he or she should be learning,” she said.
“The break has gone for too long and if it doesn’t stop soon, it would
affect the children badly. Some of them have even started forgetting
their books.”

Child hawkers increase

In the past three
weeks, the streets of Lagos have been filled with an increased number
of children being used in different kinds of labour; a situation which
has become worrisome to residents. The compulsory closure of primary
and secondary schools in the country by the federal government for the
period of the ongoing voter registration has resulted in more children,
especially among the low-income group, being pushed to the streets to
earn an income for their parents and keep them busy.

Consequently, this
has exposed them to crime, accidents and other vices. While some
private schools have begun to ignore the federal government’s directive
and have started opening their doors to their pupils, students of
public schools are left with no options. Most of them, therefore,
contribute the majority of child hawkers in Lagos streets.

Keeping them engaged

A vegetable trader
at Obalende Market, who identified herself as Mrs Mogaji, said she was
forced to bring her two daughters, students of Aunty Ayo Girls
Secondary School, to the market with her everyday to assist her in
attending to her customers. “I’m not happy that they are at home but
they have to support the family so they must work,” she said.

Sola Ajagbe, a
12-year-old boy, said he goes to his uncle’s workshop everyday to learn
how to fix deflated and spoilt tyres. He said his parents forced him to
learn the work early in the year when they found out about the extended
break. “My uncle is a vulcanizer, so I go to his place to learn work
everyday,” he said. “I want to go back to school. I don’t like the
work.”

Onyebuchi Iheama, a
Junior Secondary 2 student of Aguda Grammar School, Surulere, explains
her daily routine. “I start in the morning around 8 O’clock and I will
be selling,” he said. “When the sun comes out, I will go and rest and I
will continue again around 4 when the sun has gone down. The lesson is
too expensive and my parents cannot pay for it so I’ve not been reading
since we closed school last year.”

Too long for the kids

A mathematics
teacher of a public secondary school in Lagos, who did not want to be
named, complained that it would be difficult to bring the students back
on track in their studies when the schools resume.

“By the time we
resume, it would be so difficult to teach those students,” he said.
“Ordinarily, they play a lot during the holidays, and it takes time for
them to settle back to their studies. But this time around, it’s more
than holidays. Most of them would have forgotten what they learnt last
year and it is not good for them at all. We don’t need this kind of
backwardness in our educational system. The government should call the
students back to school.”

Also, Gabriel Ogunrinde, a father of two, expressed his fears that
if the voter registration exercise is extended, the students would be
at home for a much longer period. “So many people are agitating for an
increase in the voter registration exercise for obvious reasons,” he
said. “I agree with them but I hope this doesn’t mean the students
would still remain at home.”

The Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill
Akpabio, on Thursday, said that the first primary election, which he
won as the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) in the state was annulled by the national leadership of the party
because some aspirants were given late clearance to contest.

Mr Akpabio stated this while speaking with journalists at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja.

The ruling party had two weeks ago cancelled the state governorship primaries held on January 9 and ordered a re-run.

“The first primaries we did on the
9th. Some people complained that they were given late clearance. The
Primaries was on the 9th of January and some people were given late
clearance as late as 11pm on the 8th of January and when they came, the
panel did not allow them to take part so the party felt that to ensure
fairness and equity, there was need to annul the entire exercise and
order for a rerun and that was what they did and so we went for a rerun
on the 15th,” he said.

“ And you need to understand the fact
that the case that somebody talked about came up for a mention for the
first time on Monday this week. So there was no injunction; there was
nothing like that; it is just a rumour and people like to peddle
rumours in order to create anxiety in the public.” Mr Akpabio assured
that he is ready to reconcile with those who contested against him in
the primary election. According to him, he is already talking to some
of them so as to join him to move the state forward.

“My doors are open,” he said. “I don’t
want to call them opponents. I would like to call them my colleagues.
They are my fellow party men; the doors are open, I’ve already started
talking with them, I discuss with them on phone. I’ve met with one of
them for about two three hours so we are discussing. Everybody that
wants to join me in moving the state forward why not? We are to take
the state to the next level and it is better to do it in unity. I
believe strongly that everything will be alright in few days.” Mr
Akpabio said the PDP will win all the elections in Akwa Ibom State not
only because the party is popular but also because his administration
has performed in the last three years.

He said, “I reassure the Party that
Akwa-Ibom will return 100 percent for the party. If you look around the
entire country, it is important for you to come to Akwa-Ibom and see
what the PDP government has been able to do in the last three and half
years of my stewardship and so we are not going into election with
empty hands; we are going into election with a record of performance; a
record of very credible, feasible infrastructure for you to see.

When you come there the story is totally different and I think there
is a lot to be learnt from Akwa-Ibom State. So the PDP is safe in
Akwa-Ibom.” He concluded.

As part of measures
aimed at enhancing the level of security across airports in the
country, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, on Thursday, announced
the restriction of non-travellers within and around airports.

The directive,
which is a fallout of Wednesdcay’s rumoured bomb scare at the Murtala
Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, was made public by the director
general of the authority, Harold Demuren, at the agency’s headquarters
in Lagos. According to Mr Demuren, the directive was in accordance with
Part 17, Regulation 83 of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations, and
Section 13.7 of the National Civil Aviation Security Programme. “I
hereby direct that the following additional security measures should be
implemented immediately in order to forestall any threats and incidents
at the nation’s airports: Use of hand-held metal detector and explosive
detection system at the airport entrances and gates; restriction, as
much as possible, the movement of non-travelling public around and
within the terminal building; and adequate advanced information
concerning inbound cargoes meant for the nation’s airports must be
received prior to the arrival of the cargo,” he said.

Russia’s experience

The speculations of
a possible bomb explosion at the Lagos international airport followed
the recent bomb blast at Moscow airport that led to the demise of 35
persons. The rumour at the Lagos airport prompted airports users and
passengers to become suspicious of one another at the airport on
Wednesday. “In addition, passengers should be informed that they may
experience possible delay as they pass through our security checks and
are, therefore, advised to arrive at the airport at least three hours
before their flights,” said Mr Demuren. “This directive shall take
effect from 27th January 2011 and shall be in force until further
notice.”

Early this month, the Nigerian Police and other law enforcement
agents at the airport swung into action by effecting stringent security
checks on motorists moving in and out of the airport. Days later, the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority carried out a security meeting with
various organisations and intelligence outfits in a bid to ensure
safety across Nigerian airports. The screening and security meetings
were as a result of the bombings recorded across Nigeria and
preparations for the forthcoming general elections.

The federal
government may soon give more security responsibilities to private
security companies in the country by divesting from the policing of
certain cities so as to allow for effective policing of the country.
The National Security Adviser, Andrew Azazi, a retired General, said
this at a one-day security summit organised by J.K. Randle Professional
Services, in collaboration with the office of the national security
adviser.

The summit, held at
the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, has as its theme,
“Security and Risk Management on Land, in the Air and at Sea.” It was
aimed at addressing the concerns and challenges regarding security of
lives and properties and investment. Mr Azazi said some cities can
employ private security companies to collaborate effectively with the
police in checking crime wave in the cities. “Private security should
be organised in big cities like we have in Durban South Africa,” he
said. “We can encourage that while we work on our police to effectively
collaborate with the police and also help in checking crimes.”

Real causes of insecurity

The national
security adviser also emphasized the need for government to address the
fundamentals of governance, stating that poverty, unemployment and
corruption are indices that impede security of lives and property in
the country. “Security is the relative absence of fear and national
security is the defence of the nation,” he said. “And for us to have
effective security, to me, is for us to begin to look at the quality of
lives in an environment which is now more important than the invasion
from other countries. Whatever it takes to make the human lives better
and progressive is security. National security involves planning and
the vision 2010 is a blue print that if adopted would help us because
it contains the ingredients of progress and should be implemented.”

The security chief
called for a collective effort toward security for the nation, adding
that security challenges have ethical, traditional, religious
colourations and they are taking dangerous trends like the Boko Haram
sect and the new trend in bombing. “For security to be addressed issues
like poverty, corruption, unemployment and other elements of governance
should be looked at,” he said.

Way forward

“Concerning the
October 1st bombing in Abuja, we have arrested some suspects and they
are being prosecuted,” he said. “We are on the trail of those behind
the Jos and the Mogadishu Barrack bombings. There is need for a
national database, and our SIM card registration, the voters’
registration and other registrations in the country can be integrated
into a national database; from my office we will begin to do something
about it.”

Fola Arthur Worrey, the Managing Director of the Lagos State
Security Trust Fund, advised that the police be properly funded, adding
that political responsibility for security of lives and property lies
with the president. “We must identify who the constitution says is
responsible for the security of lives and property and we must use the
ballot boxes to check them,” he said. “There is need for effective
policing all the time and we must move away from reactionary policing
to effective everyday policing of life and property. Since most states
now bear the burden of security in their states, more allocation for
the police in the federal government budget and the constitution should
be amended so that the state and local government have more money to
invest in security so to further localise the process.”

The Alliance for
Democracy (AD) said yesterday that it has been excluded from
participating in the April polls by the Independent National Electoral
Commission.

The national
chairman of AD, Okechukwu Obioha, who stated this yesterday, said the
commission deliberately delayed the issuance of CF001 and CF002 to the
party, making it impossible to beat the January 15 deadline for the
submission of list of candidates.

CF001 and CF002 are nomination forms issued to parties for candidates contesting elections.

He stated that
though the party complied with the directive of INEC acting director of
Political Party Monitoring, Regina Omo-Agege, to come to the
commission’s headquarters from December 15, 2010 to pick the forms,
they were never issued to them until January 11 this year, a few days
to the deadline.

“We hereby finally
bring to the notice of Nigerians that INEC has through the
instrumentality of her acting director of PPM & L, Mrs. Regina
Omo-Agege, excluded a major political party, Alliance for Democracy
(AD), from participating in the 2011 General Elections,” he said.

“Mrs Omo-Agege
religiously asked us to come every day from the 15th December, 2010 and
we piously complied until 11th January, 2011. This was after we warned
of grave consequences of excluding AD in the 2011 general elections,”
Mr. Obioha said.

He added that on
December 6 last year, the party gave INEC notices of its state
congresses and national convention, which was acknowledged by the
commission two days later. The congresses and conventions, he added,
were originally fixed for January 8 and 14th, respectively, in
compliance with section 85 of the Electoral Act. The national chairman
also alleged that despite giving it sufficient notice, the commission
feigned ignorance of the congresses and convention and never bothered
to attend.

According to him,
“Candidates and members of Alliance for Democracy have been
disenfranchised in the 2011 General Elections by INEC’s letter of 12th
January, 2011, in reply to AD’s letters of 23rd and 27th September,
2010, requesting our party to hold a convention to field candidates
three days to the close of INEC’s sacrosanct timetable of the 15th
January, 2011 party primaries and conventions.

“The PPM & L
officials of INEC are allegedly giving vent and approval to non-members
of Alliance for Democracy namely one Rafiu Salawu, Okezie Friday
Nwankwo, Iyke Ibe, etc to conduct an illegal National Convention of AD,
contrary to Section 85 of Electoral Act, 2010 and submit candidates of
non AD members for 2011 General Elections.

“These names are
never in AD’s INEC list of NEC or membership list. The PPM & L is
feeling frustrated that AD was not merged to ACN and determine that the
person, Okechukwu C. Obioha, JP that fought them to a standstill from
actualising this dream, is denied the leadership of this party.
Whatever convention that is notified and held now cannot fulfill the
requirement of Section 85 of the Electoral Act, 2010.”

Warning that the
Presidency, National Assembly, judiciary and the human rights activists
should step in to stop the alleged breach of laws by INEC, Mr. Obioha
also demanded that the AD should be given up till February 15th to
submit her candidates, in fulfillment of section 31 of the Electoral
Act.

When contacted,
Kayode Idowu, media aide to the INEC chairman, said he was not in a
position to respond to the allegation. He, however, said that the
commission will respond later.

The second batch of former militants
from the Niger Delta, prepared for the federal government’s
rehabilitation exercise to be held at the National Vocational Training
Institute, Ghana, were on Thursday unveiled in Lagos prior to their
departure.

According to delegates from the Niger
Delta Amnesty Programme, the 212 former militants will undergo training
in wielding and fabrication techniques, and are expected to acquire
skills and knowledge aimed at empowering them both economically and
mentally. “We are very much on course and today’s gathering is premised
on the need to present to Nigerians through the media the second batch
of delegates set to travel offshore for vocational training,” said
Kingsley Kuku, the new Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta
Affairs. “Just last month, on the 8th of December 2010 to be precise,
38 transformed ex-militants were deployed to South Africa for
vocational training in marine related courses. This was the first set
of trainees to be deployed offshore in the ongoing reintegration phase
of the amnesty programme.”

Making them useful

According to Mr Kuku, the training will
take place in six different city locations in Ghana: Kumasi, Winnaba,
Kokomemele (Accra), Takoradi, Abetifi, and Biriwa. The campaign began
more than a year and half ago after the militants were pardoned and
granted amnesty by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Mr Kuku added
that a critical success factor of the amnesty initiative depends
largely on the success of the reintegration phase, which has kicked off
already with the allocation of trainees to centres across Nigeria and
overseas.

“Learning Resources Limited, a
Nigerian-based integrated education and vocational service provider,
partners the amnesty programme in facilitating the training of the
delegates in Ghana,” he said. “The initial number of 212 is a portion
of an estimated 1000 transformed ex-militants who have been short
listed to benefit from the similar training programme in Ghana. Since
the commencement of the Amnesty Reintegration phase in August 2010,
more than 7,000 transformed ex-militants have been allocated to both
local and offshore training centres, with more than 2,000 allocated for
education and vocational training offshore. In the coming weeks, more
delegates will travel to countries such as Malaysia, Romania, U.K,
U.S.A, Egypt, Poland, Netherlands, etc, to commence various types of
training.”

Happy with process

In an interview with journalists, Beggi
Fidelis, Camp Support Staff and an ex-militant, expressed hope that the
training will positively affect him and his colleagues. “I am happy to
be among those going for this training in Ghana, and we expect that we
will get the best from the institution that will help us to be able to
stand and make money on our own,” he said. Another former militant,
Egbine Robinson, assured Nigerians that they will be of good conduct
during the period of the training in Ghana. “We have gone through the
non-violence principles and as people that want to receive training to
better our lives, we are not going to misbehave in Ghana,” he said.

The Jigawa State
governor, Sule Lamido, on Wednesday, dismissed the resolution of the
Arewa Consultative Forum, which criticised the recent People’s
Democratic Party presidential primary election that produced President
Goodlcuk Jonathan as the candidate of the party. The national working
committee of the ACF met in Kaduna on Tuesday during which it rejected
the emergence of Mr. Jonathan as the PDP flagbearer in the April 9 poll.

According to the
communiqué, “In particular, ACF is disappointed with the outcome of the
primary elections in the ruling party, the PDP. The emergence of Dr.
Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate is legally and morally
wrong because it is a violation of that party’s constitution which
clearly requires that under the zoning/rotation formula, a northerner
be returned as candidate in the 2011 general elections.

“In this regard,
and in the light of its principled stand on fairness and rule of law,
the ACF rejects the outcome of PDP presidential primaries.”

But speaking with
journalists at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja, Mr. Lamido said
there was no fear about the resolution of the northern organisation,
saying it is free to meet and make observations on national issues.

According to him, there are over 60 parties in the country and every party cannot clamour for a northern president as ACF.

“They (ACF) are
free to meet and discuss like Ohaneze Ndigbo or Afenifere,” Mr. Lamido
said. “There are 60 parties in the North so there can’t be 60 parties
all clamouring for the North. They can meet, they can advise, there is
no problem. There is no fear over anything. Just relax, stop getting
worried.”

Like Mr. Lamido,
the governor of Bauchi, Isa Yuguda said that the ACF had the right to
meet just like the Ohaneze and Afenifere. Mr. Yuguda also stated this
in Abuja while answering questions from journalists at the PDP National
Secretariat.

“ACF has the right
to meet just like Ohaneze and Afenifere; they are free to do that,” he
said. “Nigerians should stop getting worried over these things. We went
through a civil war and came out still united. It can’t get worse than
that.

“There is no cause
for worry; these things are about your future and we will secure your
future. Nigeria is a country united by God,” Mr. Yuguda said.

Be warned

According to the
Citizens for Change and Advancement (CCA), the ACF should be warned
against actions and statements that could tear the nation apart, saying
what Nigeria needs now is peace and unity.

Its national
coordinator, Maxwell Abaji, in a communiqué issued, said: “Nigerians
should condemn any attempt to drag this country to another civil war.”

Another group, the Media for Ethnic Equality, in a statement issued
in Lagos yesterday by its publicity secretary, Iyiola Johnson,
described the ACF’s statement as “an unnecessary heating up of the
polity by the northern political group for selfish reasons.” It also
criticised the ACF for putting the unity of the nation in jeopardy.

Nigeria might have
lost 130 billion dollars from 2000-2008 to illicit financial flows, a
new report issued by US-based group, Global Financial Integrity (GFI),
said. The report entitled “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing
Countries: 2000-2009,” said Nigeria has the 10th highest measured
illicit outflows in the developing world, an average of 15 billion
dollars per year.

The GFI report
ranks countries according to magnitude of illicit outflows and
according to the report China is ranked the highest country of measured
illicit outflows in the developing world with 2.18 trillion dollars,
followed by Russia, 427 billion dollars and Mexico, 416 billon dollars.

It also shows the
annual outflows for each country and breaks outflows down into two
categories of drivers: trade mispricing and “other,” which includes
“kickbacks, bribes, embezzlement, and other forms of official
corruption.” Others in the top 10 are Saudi Arabia, 302 billion
dollars, Malaysia, 291 billion dollars; United Arab Emirates, 276
billion dollars; Kuwait, 242 billion dollars; Venezuela, 157 billion
dollars; and Qatar, 138 billion.

Primary findings
from the report said illicit outflows increased from $1.06 trillion in
2006 to approximately $1.26 trillion in 2008. It found that that
approximately $6.5 trillion was removed from the developing world from
2000 through 2008. According to the report, average annual illicit
outflows from developing countries averaged 725 billion dollars to 810
billion dollars per year, over the 2000-2008 period measured.

“Illicit flows
increased in current dollar terms by 18.0 percent per annum from 369.3
billion dollars at the start of the decade to 1.26 trillion dollars in
2008.

“When adjusted for inflation, the real growth of such outflows was 12.7 percent,” it said.

The report put real
growth of illicit flows over nine years in the African region at 21.9
per cent, compared with 24.3 per cent in the Middle East and North
Africa, 23.1 per cent in developing Europe, Asia 7.85, and Western
Hemisphere 5.18 per cent.

The report’s
author, Dev Kar, a former International Monetary Fund economist, said
bribery, theft, kickbacks, and tax evasion were the greatest conduit
for the illicit financial flows.

He said oil-exporting countries were becoming more important sources of illicit capital.

GFI director
Raymond Baker said every year developing countries were losing 10 times
the amount of Official Development Assistance (ODA) remitted for
poverty alleviation and economic development,” “This report measures
the quantity and pattern of these harmful outflows and provides stark
proof of the impact of these illicit financial practices,” Baker said.

GFI said the authors of the report used a World Bank model to calculate developing countries’ missing billions.

An Oyo State High
Court, on Wednesday, ordered the dethronement of Oba Samuel Adebayo
Adegbola, the Eleruwa of Eruwa, 13 years into his reign.

The presiding
judge, Muktar Abimbola, in a three-hour judgement, hinged his verdict
on his findings that the name of the current occupant of the throne was
proposed by a faction of the Ajao Alapinni family, in contravention of
the custom and chieftaincy declaration of the town.

The court also
ordered that the Oyo State government, the state attorney general,
Ibarapa East local government, and the chiefs of the town stop
recognising the deposed monarch as the Eleruwa.

It also ordered the
conveyance of a meeting of the kingmakers of the town within seven days
from the judgement where a list of recommended candidates to the stool
will be produced. The judge also said that the list must include names
of Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao and Joseph Oke, who approached the court for
inclusion in the list.

In spite of
protests by other ruling houses that it was not his turn then, Mr.
Adegbola was recommended by the kingmakers to the Oyo State government
which later installed him in 1998.

The court submitted
that he should not have been nominated for the throne since he was from
the Akalako ruling house where his predecessor, Bolanle Olaniyan, also
came from. Mr. Olaniyan died in 1994, and Laribikusi and Akalako, the
two ruling families, had been struggling to produce the next
traditional head of the town.

James Olatunde
Idowu and Rasheed Oyedepo Ajao, who approached the court for redress
over the ascension of Mr. Adegbola, joined the governor of Oyo State,
the AG, Ibarapa LG, Mr. Adegbola, Jacob Adewusi, Femi Atanda, Idowu
Okeowo, E. Ojebisi and Mr. Kasali I in their suit.

They prayed the
court to declare the selection and approval of the monarch by
kingmakers ultra vires, null and void, and give an order to set aside
the purported nomination, selection and approval of the first defendant
(Mr. Adegbola) as the new Eleruwa of Eruwa.

The plaintiffs also
sought an order of the court to restrain the 2nd-10th defendants from
recognising or continuing to recognise Mr. Adegbola as the Eleruwa of
Eruwa, as well as an order directing the 2nd-6th defendants and the
Ikolaba of Eruwa, if any, to reconsider the nomination made by the
Laribikusi Ruling Quarters and select a candidate to the stool of
Eleruwa for approval of the 8th defendant.

Presenting the
summary of his findings on the suit, the judge granted all the eight
requests of the plaintiffs and gave judgement in their favour. He
punctured the claim of the deposed monarch that he hails from the
Ajao-Alapinni royal family, saying that the evidence before the court
proved otherwise as minutes of meetings of the family and records of
attendance of their meetings did not show that he ever attended any of
their meetings.

The judge also said
he discovered that the meeting that produced Mr. Adegbola was factional
and that it gives recognition to Mr. Sanusi Alao as the eldest person
of the ruling house, saying it was unlawful for Mr. Sangotiku to summon
a meeting since he was not recognised as the eldest.

“The exercise by
the kingmakers is ultra vires, null and void. The first defendant is of
female line… I hereby hold that there is merit in the plaintiff’s
case and it subsists that the first defendant being the member of
Akalako which produced the last king, it is a bastardisation of the
customary law of Eruwa. The approval of the first defendant by the
eigth defendant (Oyo State government) is hereby set aside and that it
should not accord recognition to him as the Eleruwa of Eruwa,” the
judge said.

Lasun Sanusi,
counsel to the plaintiff, praised the judgement, describing it as
“brilliant, comprehensive and incisive”. According to him, the verdict
had confirmed the saying that though the machinery of justice grinds
slowly, it grinds surely and fine. The judgement also attracted wild
jubilation at the court premises as those who came from Eruwa burst
into songs of victory as the news was broken to them.

Meanwhile, the deposed monarch had vowed to challenge the judgement
at the Appeal Court. Describing the court’s position as a miscarriage
of justice, Mr. Adegbola told journalists that he had instructed his
legal team to proceed to the appellate court to seek a reversal of the
judgement.

I had a good laugh
when I read the reports of ‘surprise’ that many youth corps members did
not know how to operate the laptops being used with the Direct Data
Capture machines for the voter’s registration exercise. I say that I
laughed, but I was laughing with despair, not with happiness.

For the past 10
years, at least, academics, students, parents, educators, and employers
have raised concerns, expressed alarm, and lamented the state of
education in our country.

In our secondary
schools, classes are over crowded, with about 100 pupils per teacher in
the worst cases, rendering whatever teaching that takes place almost
completely ineffective. Some classrooms are labeled laboratories but
have no Bunsen burners or other basic Science equipment.

I am glad to report
that in recent years, the situation has improved a lot. But not too
long ago, in many of our colleges of higher education, some graduates
of Computer Science were experts in programming but did not have access
to functioning computers in their faculties. They learnt the theory and
had to pick up the practical themselves after graduation.

I recently listened
to a re-intepretation of Bobby Benson’s famous song, ‘Taxi Driver’,
performed during the Ajumogobia Foundation Concert in December by Ibiai
Ajumogobia and Nimi Akinkugbe. The sheet music for the pianos and all
the other classical and African musical instruments was composed by a
professor of Music in Ife. The composition was a virtuoso piece of
music combining high-life, jazz, and classical genres in harmonious
accord.

That this kind of
overwhelming talent and skillful expertise could exist in our public
university system that has suffered such resource neglect with old and
faulty equipment and poorly stocked libraries is a marvel; and our
dogged graduates are a marvel too.

The youth corpers
should be congratulated for having learned within a week how to operate
the machines and get the job done in the face of infrastructure
challenges such as incorrect software, insufficient power from the
batteries, from the grid, or from standby generators; and inordinate
pressure managing large numbers of impatient and irate voters who queue
up mostly in outdoor locations to register. The fault does not lie with
them.

Let me go back to
my laughter. I laughed because it really seems as though our fellow
citizens in positions of power, influence, or in the civil service do
not have a realistic idea of what the prevailing conditions of life are
for the people they serve. If that is the case, then it makes sense
that they would not have planned adequately for the logistics of the
exercise.

In opting to close
all schools down so that public schools could be used as centres for
the registration exercise, perhaps the Ministry of Education is unaware
that the bulk of educational institutions are private not public.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that in Lagos the ratio is approximately 80% private to 20% public.

In closing down all
schools, they have interrupted the education of 80% of our school-age
children in the so-called ‘interest’ of the 20% in public schools who
would be affected.

To respond to some
of the accusations of ‘elitism’ that I have been reading in the press
about the drive to keep the private schools open. 80% means that
students from every and all economic groups are educated in private
schools. The children of street sweepers, cleaners, drivers,
messengers, and domestic staff also attend private schools.

They also want
their children to be taught in classrooms without holes in the roof,
and to be seated on chairs and not on the floor. Since they have to pay
‘unofficial fees’ for their children’s education in our ‘free’ public
schools, they choose to pay official fees in private schools and have
some measure of comfort, care, and a guarantee that teachers will turn
up to teach provided for their children. Get the facts right! Open your
eyes and look around, ask questions.

I am not saying that all public schools are like that, but too many to be comfortable are.

Yes, we have
graduates who enter the National Youth Service Corps. Yes, almost all
of them have a facebook page and one of the popular internet email
accounts. No, most of them do not have a computer at home, have never
plugged in a computer, let alone turned it on, or used multimedia
software other than to upload their electronic passport photographs.
They use computer in internet cafes where they are already switched on
and all you have to do is click on the appropriate icon on the desktop
screen.

Yet, these are a
bunch of very smart, very ambitious young people who are hungry to
learn and to be exposed to the many experiences that a working life can
offer them.

I salute them and
their parents for their mere participation in this major exercise in
democracy that brings them in close contact with their fellow citizens
everywhere in Nigeria, that exposes them to the wide range of
professions, cultures and backgrounds in the neighbourhoods they serve.

I salute their
courage in the face of general insecurity in our country, and the added
risk of political thuggery. I envy them the experience of real
down-home Nigerian care and hospitality.

The neighbourhood
old folks who express concern for their welfare and protect them from
the ‘area boys and girls’. The mamas and babas who bring them cool
drinks, snacks and food unasked for, and unrewarded. The good souls who
keep them company and share the local gossip with them, who keep their
belongings safe while they are otherwise occupied. The homes,
businesses, and umbrellas that are offered to them when it rains or the
sun gets too hot. The laughter, the jokes, the camaraderie, the
arguments, the posing, the fronting – such a diverse and enriching
experience that they will never forget as long as they live.

May they live long, and may this registration exercise, these
elections, and the next administration be better off due to their
participation. Let’s give them all the support and encouragement that
we can.