15 Feb 2009 |
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CHIGBO’S STORY With a name like Socrates, you almost expect a man to be a philosopher. Ebo Chigbo Socrates is. In 2004, he left Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) with a First Class Honours in Philosophy. In many institutions, students who nail down such honours are given special consideration for jobs and further studies. Nonetheless, he has gone on to acquire a Masters’ degree, he told The SUN last week. But with that higher degree, it would seem that Mr. Chigbo graduated fully: into both irrelevance and joblessness. A true reflection of the nation of our time, even his alma mater, UNIZIK, which automatically grants graduate assistantships to students able to wrest First Class Honours from its grasp, has failed to grant Chigbo that right. In case you are wondering where to find Chigbo today, he is a Clearing and Forwarding clerk in Apapa. While one must be grateful to whomever has given him that opportunity to keep himself busy, C & F is almost a metaphor for hustling and frustration. It is where you go when you are coming back from nowhere. But this young man has refused to fall down and die. He told the reporter that even Peter Obi promised him a job five months ago. The Obi in reference is not my former roommate. Not Obi, the vulcanizer. Not Mikel Obi, the footballer, but the very Governor of Anambra State. Governor Obi must have seen and heard something in young Chigbo, yet he has failed to honour his promise. Perhaps Chigbo is too young to understand the nature of public life: when you are hungry and a well-placed Nigerian tells you he will give you food, it often means he will come to your funeral. Such Nigerians measure time by the calendar, not the clock. Chigbo would also like to hear from the Minister of Education, Dr Sam Egwu. Two weeks ago, the Minister said that graduates turning in First Class Honours will enjoy automatic employment as graduate assistants. Chigbo would be pleased to learn from the Minister where people such as he should go and cash this cheque. But remember, the Minister was probably just reading a speech given to him by someone in his office, with no idea what he was saying. Said Chigbo of his hopes and fears: ““I know I am a gifted scholar, and I’m pained seeing my talent (go to) waste.” It is not difficult to feel his pain. It is the pain of every Nigerian who finds himself on the wrong end of our decaying country. I write this article in honour of the Chigbos of our country: talented and ambitious youngsters that are being taught the meaning of rejection. Other societies nurture and celebrate their talent, but we push ours to the brink where frustration and resentment are fertilized. Perhaps all of this is perfectly in order in a country where our values are so warped the president hurries his 21-year old daughter off to be married to a man already overloaded with three wives. Yar’Adua’s new son-in-law, Isah Yuguda, is the Governor of Bauchi State. In a normal situation, one would wonder what time a man with three wives and a poor state on his hands has to run after a 21-year old within the fortified walls of Aso Rock in the federal capital. But it tells the Chigbos of our country how sad our nation is. Last week, Yar’Adua, clinging to health as to power, was continuing his game of the sporadic and the ad hoc. He announced a pay cut for some government officials. Someone must have told him that Nigeria will be impressed. We are not. We do not want to know about pennies saved publicly for our benefit. If he wants to impress us, let him speak about the billions that keep disappearing, and programmes that are not implemented. We want to know why the Chigbos have to beg for a chance to grow and thrive, and for water to drink. Last week, the Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin invited Nigerian doctors abroad to return. He perhaps meant well, but he is in the game too: Has he spoken to those Nigerian doctors who, having returned to Nigeria, eventually had to flee back abroad? The Minister did not say where, should they return, they are supposed to find electricity, since his government cannot provide it. Of course, he can sell to them the Federal Government’s new power policy, which is to flood the nation with generators. That would guarantee those doctors jobs for life to treat ailments respiratory and probably genetic ailments arising from pollution! Also last week, the Minister of Information and Communications, Mrs. Dora Akunyili, announced a new national image-management scheme, the Private, Public, People’s Partnership (PPPP). It will replace the scandalous Heart of Africa of the previous government, but the PPPP promises to be equally scandalous. Mrs. Akunyili said the government was re-branding Nigeria in order to “inspire a rebirth in the country's belief system, repackage Nigeria and present her to the world in a more acceptable manner.” She is further quoted as saying: "It is only when we believe in ourselves that we can truly make the changes needed in our society, and be in a position to project Nigeria positively to the outside world". No, Mrs. Akunyili. On the contrary, it is only when we (first) make the changes needed in Nigeria that we can re-brand Nigeria. Those positive changes will project Nigeria to Nigerians. We do not care what the rest of the world thinks if we are true to ourselves. The truth is that government after government lies to us. They start expensive elephant projects of their own to enable them spend money at will. The PPPP, given its faulty reasoning, is obviously one of them. It is the changes that need to be made first. Such changes will permit talent and excellence to shine through. They will not permit mediocrity ahead of industry, nor protect criminals, nor project contradictory and negative values. At the moment, that is what Yar’Adua’s government, with which Mrs. Akunyili seems determined to go down in flames, is doing. What we need is governance that serves as a vehicle for using Nigeria’s resources to develop our country. What we have, instead, is governance that nurtures and protects the greed and indolence of our hypocritical, self-serving political elite. That is why Nigeria’s top criminals are not in jail: they have personal keys to presidential privilege. They can drop by to drink their favourite champagne. This contradiction is the stage on which the PPPP will be exposed for the fiction that it is. Mrs. Akunyili may have missed it, but also last week, while she spoke glibly about the PPPP, the European Union served notice it would stop supporting the anti-corruption idea in Nigeria. It basically stated that further assistance to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was throwing away money, because there is no anti-corruption offensive going on. Just like there is no service to the Nigerian people to support the propaganda. The Chigbos of our nation know it when they dream about the most basic of necessities, and jobs. P.S.: I do not know Chigbo, personally. But if the President of Nigeria, or the Governor of Anambra State, or the Minister for Education, or UNIZIK, or anyone with good news wants to find him, he can contact the Publisher of The SUN, or me.
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