El-Rufai, Education and Ramadan Iftar things
(conclusion)
The twenty-first century is a
century of knowledge. It is so far a century in which information doubles every
other year, and, at the pace things are going now, it will even be more than it
is now in a few years. The society that is able to get its people sufficiently
equipped to cope with this deluge of information and knowledge, by being able
to process and profitably deploying them, is the one that can be said to be fit
to compete, and if it does well, be a leader and an economic power house.
So far, leadership in Kaduna
State, and the nation at large, has mostly been about grabbing creature
acquisitions and most of the people at the helm have only been too happy to
give the masses anything to distract them and opiate them into not paying
attention to what government should be doing. That way they, the leadership
class, will continue unabatedly in their ravaging and plundering of the
commonwealth. Yes indeed, some of the political leaders we have had have
literally fed our energetic youths with drugs and other harmful substances in
their quest to hold on to power and access to the commonwealth: it was an
expedient strategy and they stopped at nothing to deploy it. Any wonder, then,
the rate of drug and substance abuse among youths in northern Nigeria?
In some instances, that expediency
demanded that they sponsored pilgrimages and shared foodstuff during Ramadan and
other periods of religious festivity; it also demanded that they spent state
resources to wed divorcees so as to appear to care about the spiritual lives of
the people they were leading. But the truth of their actions lay in the crypts
of their sinister minds. Those policies were as good as the drugs they supplied
the northern youths even to the grave in order to tighten their hold on power.
Alas, Karl Marx was true on this one: religion is the opium of the masses.
It is however refreshing and
heartwarming that El-Rufai, again, has seen the lie and moral injustice, and
even the sin, in that status quo and, thus, decided to make a clean break to
the point of putting his political future on the line. It is also exhilarating
that he has identified, as a cardinal thrust of his government, the development
of the immense human capital in Kaduna state through education instead of, say,
the exploration and exploitation of the huge deposits of the many solid
minerals in the state.
Let me digress here to refer to
the clamour for solid minerals and even oil by northerners that has been on since
some two or three years ago, in response to the persistent posturing of
Niger-deltans regarding “their” oil. I did a piece to that effect in November
2013, entitled “Oil and Gas Exploration in Northern Nigeria: Playing with
Fire”, in which I argued that “for
a people to want to build an economic base on natural resources in the 21st
century, which is an age of knowledge, is nothing short of a tragedy. It is
even more so when one considers the story of Nigeria and oil – the Niger-Delta,
particularly – in the last fifty or so odd years. It has been a story of tears
and blood. There is nowhere in the global south that petroleum, and any other
natural resource for that matter, has been explored and exploited that such
activities have not left tears and blood in their trail. They have always
served to fuel wars and more wars.” The piece may be found in the online
archives of this paper or on my blog, www.zwahus-cathartics.blogspot.com.
Indeed
the northern Nigeria and her leadership have got to think smart and, like Chief
Obafemi Awolowo did in his day, Governor El-rufai has blazed the trail in
Kaduna State. In his inaugural speech on may 29, 2015, education featured most
prominently: “Without education I will not be standing before you today,”
he said, “a poor boy from a hardscrabble village who lost his father at a young
age but who nevertheless got the opportunity of a decent education, which took
me from a village school to Barewa College to Ahmadu Bello University and
ultimately to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United
States of America. That educational journey prepared me for this day.” He went
on to add that “I cannot emphasize this point
enough, especially to all our children from however poor a home and however
distant a village… no matter the inevitable mistakes that we make from the
decisions that we take, I promise you today that I will work myself to the bone
in the service of our children.”
The governor
ended his speech by saying that “the fate of Kaduna is in our
hands. The future of our children depends on our toil… Four years from now, by
the grace of God and the active support of you all, we will all be able to say
that the leaders in whose care you have placed your affairs today have given
their all for the brighter future that we all seek.”
Is it too much for northern
Nigeria as a whole to, for the future of their children, give up these
ephemeral political gratifications and opium wrapped in religion?
BLUEPRINT Newspaper; Thur July 2, 2015; p2
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