Governors Versus Harvard MOU - Nigerian Village Square

Jun

2009

Governors Versus Harvard MOU

By S. Njokede

Governors Versus Harvard! MOU: The To And Fro Of Counterforces

By S. Njokede

In the aftermath of understanding the MOU as a makeshift between them and Rotberg, why have governors taken MOU with the grand passion of an article of faith? As if all sunniness would blackout in Nigeria without their 419 MOU!

Rotberg educated them enough for governors to realise that MOU had nothing to do with Harvard in its hurried and toothy shape: what are these ho-has all about, about MOU by some laggards, corrupt and morally bankrupt governors? Well, there’s no doubt that despite their swell and yet crooked degrees, most Nigerian governors are functional illiterates, who cant apart orange from apple. And worse still, most lack emotional intelligence otherwise, we couldn’t be here debating an ordinary civil MOU to and fro.

Harvard should sofortwith announce governors as persona non grata and the U.S.A. should for modesty sake, ban them from entering United States for life. They’re economic hit men as they’re scavengers to the socio and economic well being of Nigeria and Her citizens.

I blame Edo State governor Oshimhole, for being amid that bunch. I doubt if Lagos State governor Fashola, has any issue with those bunch of layabout loser-governors.

Oshiomhole should err on the side of caution how much he pal along with godforsaken bunch of fast money and political con artists. I know Oshimhole like to mix and mingle with movers and shakers since he was NLC ace person and still, he likes to dress down in every occasion instead to the nines. He likes to cut for himself the image of a hardcore and diehard conservative socialist in the shape of the uniform-wearing Fidel Castro. Time shall tell whether he’s for real or just another faker hustling his place in the crowd psychology of the bad and ugly.

While I think there are some existing apartness between Oshimhole and his co-schizos, wackos and out-of-control governors, he need check his compulsion to mixing and mingling with the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. He’ll do well anyhow. The less he knockabout, the graver chances he has to focus, excel and improve the Edo lot.

What stop governors and their grandee, the chief anarchist President Yar´Dua, from empowering an institution with the wherewithal to assume the functions those governors are now shopping abroad? How about asking Harvard to send their teachers to Nigeria to lecture governors instead of organising such wayward sweet dilly-dally yonder, in America, with taxpayer’s monies in pretension for further enlightenment?

These governors cum Nigerian political and church leaders don’t understand the working dynamics of the 21st Century Internet Age. Nigerian Print Media and co. might look the other way to leadership dalliance and buccaneering nature of our leaders: but, be rest assured that Nigerian blogosphres suchlike Sahara Reporters, Nigerian village Square, Pointblankness.com and co. would report them if they lie or fail to report themselves.

With the Internet in the palm of our hands political Maradonas and evil geniuses of leaders have no chance to thrive. This time and age, call for amends in the positive. For their personal betterment and good of all, politicians, church leaders and monarchs in Nigeria should try to walk on a straight line.

I do hope that governor have learnt their lessons. They deserve the badmouthing from Online bloggers and the Nigeria-wide participation in cursing and wishing them harm’s ways.

Let me remind our governors and leaders in Nigeria that there is another meaning for RICHES: “if we had enough groceries, and a nice place to live, plenty of room to keep and feed my bird dogs, a place to play tennis, and means to get the kids good educations---that’s rich.” Said Samuel Walton, grounder of Wal-Mart and the richest man on this Planet in 1985 according to Forbes Magazine. You’ll find this quote in page 7, line 31 of Sam Walton’s book tiled ‘Made in America.’

The greed-inspired looting going on amid governors and their cohorts in Nigeria is primitivism. It’s not their basic needs that goad them onto the massive looting and profanity that have become their second nature.

S. Njokede writes from the European Union

www.punchbadleaders@yahoo.com

Your Comments

Please make The Square an enjoyable experience for everyone by refraining from gratuitous ad-hominem contributions, defamatory comments and off-topic posting. Such posts will be removed.

Robot

# 1 | 17.06.2009 07:42

	With the Internet in the palm of our hands political Maradonas and evil geniuses of leaders have no chance to thrive. This time and age, call for amends in the positive. For their personal betterment and good of all, politicians, church leaders and monarchs in Nigeria should try to walk on a straight line....Read the full article.

M. Akosa M. Akosa is offline

# 2 | 17.06.2009 17:02

	Thank you and God bless you Mr Njokede. Yes, the corrupt and evil leaders of Nigeria must be hounded, chanted and pushed over the cliff. How we then develop Unilag, ABU, or UNN to world class institutions again, when our Governors are scheming and plotting of how to ship their loot overseas, in the guise of attending Harvard for a one day certificate course of on the job training? Yes, so many over qualified Nigerians, and yet under employed are in their own country and around the world suffering with their children and families. They will not be in those circumstances today, if their rightful places were not snatched away from them by semi-illiterate corrupt Governors who manipulate and rig elections to impose themselves on Nigerians. Can Harvard or Oxford ever suceed in teaching a crack head Nigerian Governor how to build and manage basic hospitals, schools, roads and housing for their poor? Corrupt and morally bankrupt fools who tarnish and destroy any thing they are entrusted with.

katampe katampe is offline

# 3 | 19.06.2009 05:44

	June 18, 2009 PRESS STATEMENT ARG TO GOVERNORS’ FORUM: IF YOU MUST GO TO HARVARD, RESIGN! Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) has been slow to make any comments on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) purportedly signed between the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Harvard University to train our governors on good governance after many of them have spent between 2-6years in office, dispensing bad governance and helping themselves with the treasury of their states. We had thought that the initial furore generated by the media, which prompted Governor Adams Oshimhole of Edo State, to dissociate himself from the arrangements would have made these governors to see reason and backed out of the deal. Also, with the Harvard’s Head of Intra-State Conflict Programmes, Professor Robert Rotberg, saying that no binding MOU was signed between the governors and the University, we had thought that the governors would have had an escape route and jettisoned this odious deal. But, in a characteristic display of impunity by our rulers, Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State, and Chairman of the Governors’ Forum, has come out to defend the Forum’s stand, an indication that our governors might have been fleecing the treasury of their states through this phony project called Harvard Training and not ready to stop it. We are opposed to this Chicanery ARG is opposed to the governors’ Harvard Training project for the following reasons: (i) Such a project at this time when most of the governors have spent between two and six years in office is nothing but an admission of failure on the part of the governors; nothing but a veritable pointer to the fact that Nigeria has been run aground by those in whose hands its destiny has over the years been bequeathed to. It is sad that, after 6years in office, those who are supposed to provide an enabling environment for Nigerian youth to become governors tomorrow are still the ones learning how to govern. Take for instance, Kwara, interestingly, the state where Saraki holds forte as governor. The State’s Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Alhaji Bolaji Abdullahi, was recently said to have become worried at the systemic failure in the education sector in the state; where only seven teachers out of the 19,125 crossed the minimum aptitude and capacity threshold in an aptitude and capacity test organized for teachers in the state's public school; and only one out of the 2,628 graduate teachers passed the test while 10 graduates scored outright zero. And, as if these were not enough, "nearly 60 per cent of the teachers cannot read information or use the information in preparing a simple lesson." Not that alone, statistics from the last annual Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC), revealed the scandalous attitude to governance by our rulers. For record purposes, 77 per cent of the candidates failed to make the Credit grade in Mathematics while only 35 per cent passed English Language at Credit level. But, rather than confront the national dilemma posed by this national embarrassment, all our governors are interested in doing is to further task our tolerance. Without doubt, Kwara State is a metaphor of the decadent system that has sadly become the lot of the Nigerian space. But, rather than face the challenge thrown up by the quality of governance nationwide, all our governors are interested in doing is to further insult our collective intelligence by embarking on this shameless jamboree that will only end up selfishly swelling their purses with the taxpayers’ money. Again, like in Kwara State, it is because Nigeria has all along had wrong people at the helm of affairs that the future of our country has continued to be in jeopardy. ARG is therefore perturbed that, in this age of global scientific and technological development, Nigeria still revels in gross underdevelopment encapsulated in fake and feigned promises, faint and unattainable dreams; as well as inconsistent and incoherent policies. Educational system in Nigeria is dysfunctional. Teachers remain untrained and unpaid. Our institutions of higher learning remain glorified secondary schools. Health sector is in shambles. Here, corruption and incompetence have taken over the affairs of the Nigerian state and it is as if the country is living on its glorious past. Indeed, the nation's future is bleak. Yet, all the governors want to do to reverse the tide which of course they have been part of its creation is to further unleash socio-economic mayhem on Nigeria in the name of overseas’ training on governance. Were it not for the fact that they have run down our educational system which they can no longer trust their children with, they would not have thought of running abroad for any training on governance. Rather, they would have found a local institution here to organize it for them. (ii) In this period of global meltdown, when other forthright governments are cutting cost, our own governors are thinking otherwise. There is no doubt that any training, be it local or overseas, embarked upon by our governors will only end up further depleting the already-lean purse of their respective states. We say this because we are not unaware of the characteristic ego-tripping of our rulers where trips like this carry along with it a retinue of aids who also are interested in following their masters’ footsteps. (iii) Any training at Harvard at this time will only contribute to the corrupt nature of these governors. In truth, it is in climes like ours that provision of pipe-borne water, supply of electricity, good roads, healthcare services, among internationally antiquated promises, are still classified as dividends of good governance. It should also interest our rulers that America has crossed this threshold well over 200 years ago. Again, let it be stated here that the solutions to our problems as a nation state are here with us. Even, a hawker on the road knows what good governance is all about. But we ask: do we need any Harvard Training before realizing that, unless absolute caution is applied, the nation is heading for the precipice? What further proof do our governors need before coming to terms that they have failed us as a nation and as a people? Is this the way the United States of America, Harvard’s home state runs its affairs? In any case, the governors have already known that the best way to rule here is to corner our resources. Here, elections are a ‘do-or-die’ affair. They are about votes snatching and ballot-stuffing. They are about the deployment of state might. The only profession one doesn’t have to prepare for in this clime is governance. Is that what they want to go and learn at Harvard? Is that what they do at Harvard? This is our dilemma. In times like this, the ideal thing is to call on the superior authority to call these governors to order. Hence the reason why ARG is therefore calling on President Umar Yar’Adua to prevail on his governors to jettison this unprofitable venture called Harvard Training. However, we are also worried how a president who, in his first meeting with former President George Bush in Washington DC, felt humbled to a state of inferiority, can prevail on his subordinates to put a stop to a non-profitable project. Again, we call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, to investigate this phony scam with a view to unraveling whether or not the taxpayers’ money has already been sunk into it. Finally, all lovers of good governance are passionately enjoined to prevail on these governors to abandon without further delay this Harvard Training project that is particularly destined to further enrich our rulers who erroneously call themselves our governors. All said, if these governors still insist on going to Harvard, let them resign en-masse. ‘Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary, ARG,