Nigeria: Present, Past and Consequences
Nigeria’s future, as it is, is predictable and…
Nigeria has not been building for the future for a long time. And the evidence could not be more apparent. Primary education in Nigeria is generally free. Like many contradictions that appear to hold this country together, amidst that state of free education, over 10 million Nigerian children, aged 5–14 years, who ought to be attending these free schools are out of school. This would be a crisis if we weren’t such a country that has learnt to abide with crisis like they are part of the furniture of what it means to live in Nigeria.
Think about the many crises that ought to be emergencies that aren’t; the state of insecurity in our country, the entire system of education, the criminal justice system, sports development — this is not just because of the zero showing at the Paris Olympics — , housing, food insecurity, petrol scarcity, child and maternal mortality, etc. It is kind of understandable that we have come to live with these things like they are meant to be. Because really, when almost every facet of existence appears to be a crisis, may be crisis is the norm and normalcy the anomaly.
Whilst we may wish away some of the consequences of these challenges, we cannot escape the outcomes of having the entire population of quite a few countries without basic education. We will pay and from what we have been paying in insecurity for the better part of this latest democratic experiment, we will pay so much more than we would have needed to take these children off the streets and put them in school.
We have traditionally been the country where almost everyone is happy to damn the consequences of today’s decisions, as long as we appear to be fine today. That’s fine, we have no qualms paying the same amount for petrol subsidies in a year as we would pay for a superhighway that’d last across generations. It’s our way, choosing the easy way out and leaving the future to find its way.
It is why it is never not funny to me when people who were in government tweet, consistently wishing and aspiring for the day there will be a revolution. Like if the revolution comes, they will say, “former minister? Oh please we are sorry, you are free to go”. “Former commissioner? Apologies sir. Please, take this lap of honour and go”. “Mr ex-Special Adviser, sorry for the inconvenience, you may proceed please”. Because these people are so far removed from the part they played in the decisions that have compounded to put Nigeria where it is today.
Where we are today is the accumulation of every decision, policy and action that was done in the past. The economic cycle moves slower than the political one, so there are even good outcomes today that were on the back of decisions that were taken before now. As there are bad results on the back of same. Do you think 20- year- old, 30- year- old and 40- year- old who can’t read and comprehend simple text are the products of education policies of President Jonathan or Buhari? Were they in secondary school during those times? What they didn’t learn in secondary school, is it in university they’d be teaching them tenses and comprehension? Didn’t JAMB test for those?
There are people in government today who themselves will become pseudo-activists in the 2020s and 2030s. The irony is that they will become activists when some of the decisions they are taking today start to bear fruits. But they won’t have the understanding to see the irony. Because, of course, previous governments are always better than the government of the day. That’s the rule. And every outcome you see today is caused by the government of the day. Except good outcomes. Those are on account of, “the great work we did when we were in government”.
I know sarcasm wasn’t the forte of our academic conditioning, at least after a certain generation when education started to become an afterthought. Let me just make it easy and say that some of these texts have been laced with sarcasm. Those who can see through them are welcome, apologies to those who can’t. The good thing about reading is that, we all don’t have to end up with the same inferences. There will be those who’d get it and be angry with the writer and then those who’d do same but direct their anger at the subject matter. There are then those who are left confused and out of that state decide they have been done an injustice. So again, they direct their anger at everyone but themselves.
Everyone is right. They’d come to that conclusion or another when they face their own truths whilst looking into the mirror. Generation after generation, we look back and conclude we always had it better in the past. We do this without nuance or context. It is easy to miss the days Nigeria handed out cars and jobs to fresh graduates. The days of cheap fuel and even cheaper dollars. The days when government was ready and artificially able to provide everything. What would one give for such privileges today? Not much. We can always just borrow more money. And why not? Public servants are ordering new cars, increasing their salaries, allowances and estacodes, the president just got a new plane, the VP had his residency renovated, surely, this country cannot be poor.
It is poor. Poorer per capita than even our neighbours. The opportunities are ever more limited. The japa-trend is in its early days even today. Tomorrow’s numbers will be even more astounding. Because of a truth, government and people alike, we haven’t really come to see it. That for every decision we take or do not take, there are costs to be paid. Like those out of school children. We cannot wish their future away, because those Nigerians who happen to be alive when they come of age will pay their own part in the education these kids are getting denied.
This piece appears in the THISDAY Newspaper of 23 August 2024
