HALF-BAKED… OR NOT?

The Nigeria of these days is rather amazing. It is one that is quite disheartening. We toil and struggle to go to school in this present day Nigeria, yet we are derided and called different names, addressed in different uncomplimentary ways, ways unbefitting of people of our standing.

People of the generation before mine went to school in Nigeria when it was convenient to go; they went at a time when one would be very happy to be a student of tertiary institution. They were students when dear Mama Naija was great enough to cater for her youths, cater for her students.

They did not bother about cooking their meals while in school; they never bothered about doing laundries. They did not go through the stress and hassles of transportation on campus or having to live off-campus because the edict establishing their school made it non-residential, like some of our new institutions of higher learning.

The students of these present-day Nigeria go through a lot of stress. Apart from having to gain admission in manners harder than that of a camel passing through the eye of a needle, they face a lot of problems. Lectures are fixed arbitrarily, fixed in manners that are only comfortable for the lecturers without any bit of pity for the students.

The lecturers get to call the students all sorts of names. They do these for reasons best known to them. Students are hounded and victimized, they are grounded and vilified. They only find solace in the hands and hearts of some colleagues of like minds and of course, their sponsors and loved ones. It may even be one of the reasons students are engaged with ‘that very close someone’, they may need to share their burdens with one of them who is ready to give a shoulder to lean on.
Now who is to blame for all these katakata (confusion)? The generation before us had it so good. In some parts of the country, it was free education at all levels. With the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the saddle of leadership, one had no cause to worry about going to school, or not. It was a matter of not going and feeling so inferior to those who have gone.

It was easy to go to school; they made it easy for you. You just wanted to be in school and work your socks off. You wanted to work your fingers to the bones because you knew it was all about lots of reading and then some, or lots of socializing, depending on where you belong.

That has changed now though. With all sectors progressively deteriorating, education and morals also gave way. Schools became a shadow of themselves right from primary to tertiary. Private institutions now top the chart and the mere mention of you attending a public institution sees you looked down upon, as if those that now send children to private schools attended one.

All that does not bug me anyway. The major thing that pisses me off is having someone refer to me derogatorily as ‘half baked’. The folks responsible for the decline are those that parade themselves as reformists. They are the ones now crying and shouting, panting and puffing that they want to reform the educational system in my dear country.

They will not come out straight to address issues; they will not come out plain to say that they and their fathers caused the rot. The fathers will only call us names while the sons nod in agreement. They will just raise their voice to get the silly attention they desire from the media.

The generation before mine wants to impose standards on my generation, standards of back then without actually making everything they had available to us. They had it so good, they enjoyed every basic necessity from water and electricity to good roads, they had all the equipment needed for practicals in their laboratories and will not go and rent a skeleton in town, like what obtains today. Everything worked in their favour.

I can go on and on about everything they had and how it was in place while they were growing. Let’s place both generations side by side. How many truly brilliant students get scholarships these days? How many?

If you showed a bit of promise back then, you were considered for scholarship. These days, you are not considered if you have nobody in the corridors of power. Everything was on merit then but what do we get now? They employ someone worse off than you while you walk about the corners of your neighborhood in your well-worn slippers and trousers, waiting for a miracle to happen.
Employment opportunities waited for them back then after their school. In fact, as a high school graduate, you were accorded respect. God help you and you finish Polytechnic or University, a good job and then a brand new Peugeot 504, 505 or Volkswagen beetle car was waiting for you. You had no stress getting the cash needed to get settled.

Place the Naija youth of today in the same shoes and you’ll see wonders. What we get however is the exact opposite of what they experienced, yet they show-off their agbada and babanriga in front of the television cameras and belch nonsense that we are half-baked. They forget that they caused it all.

After the pre-independence and first generation of leaders came those ones we can call bastards. They destroyed our common heritage and today, they shout themselves hoarse because they see a newspaper guy and a television lady, they have nothing to say but they want their face to be seen on TV and newspaper pages, saying something. That ‘something’ which in many cases is outright rubbish and balderdash.

Have they bothered to ask themselves why Nigerian youths thrive in well-organized societies? They will not. It is a question too hard for them. There is a particular Vice-Chancellor in Nigeria today. His school is in the place that calls itself the north, despite being closely affiliated with the South.

A lecturer who was a colleague back then questioned the guy’s moral right to do some things which he presently does. He said they had full chicken for their meals and the day it was reduced to half, this particular VC, then a student, led the protest. He is today one of the voices that stifle student uprising. He is the one who champions double-standards and injustice in his school today.

How much did they pay in government institutions back then? Today, we are made to pay through the nose. Sometimes last week, the papers were awash with stories of an institution neighboring the one earlier mentioned. They increased their fees to N100,000. Yet they come out and shout that the economy has been destroyed.
While I was in that school, I did not pay up to N30,000 as my fees for the five years I studied there. Yet we say the students are interested in getting rich quick while forgetting that we give them no choice because they are from indigent homes.
They have made education a luxury for people that are struggling, it is totally out of their reach now.

Mission institutions are not left out. The story I heard was that they were the ones that were readily available for everyone back then. The St. Andrews and St. Joseph schools, the Anwar-ul-Islam and the Ansarudeen (popularly called AUD) schools, were cheap enough for everyone. What do we have now? Costly schools some people dare not near. Yet they open their mouths and call us half-baked. Who baked us half way? No be them?

Leave me, let me vent my anger. I’m bitter at these people. Why should I suffer in school for years only to be called ‘half-baked’? In my first year, well over 5,000 students cramped inside two halls to receive lectures. In my second year, we had to wait for one set to finish their practical before we did our own. In my third year, we had to take lectures in the laboratory, because there were not enough lecture halls available for use.

In my fourth year, we used primitive tools for our practicals. In my finals, I had to combine my research project with class lectures, there was finding no balance. I graduate after all the stress and still get labeled ‘half-baked’? Total nonsense!
Me I get luck o. Some folks did not even see their laboratories or how it looked like. They struggled all through school for no fault of theirs. They had extra year or years as the case may be because one dumb fellow say they are not serious. One dumb man, called a lecturer says more than three-quarter of his students are not serious and he fails them. Is that not a half-baked lecturer? Nemesis catches up with people and has caught up with this ‘bad news’.

I have sworn that if anyone, I mean anyone from the sixties, seventies and early eighties refer to me as half-baked, I’ll give that person a piece of my mind. Tell him or her it’s their generation, a generation of waste and rape, that set the tone for what we experience now.

Is there anyone who calls you that derogatory name (half-baked)? Tell them you are righting their wrong. I’m outta here. Let me go do something that will improve my mood.

SENATOR(?) DORA AKUNYILI

Quite a lot is happening in Nigeria these days. From the deaths to the funny politics, it just leaves you scratching your head to know which of the things to actually do the writing and blogging on.
Events have actually overtaken some of them but it does not mean I cannot still reflect on them, or does it? From the Sanusi versus House of Representatives thing, to the Atiku consensus thing and even the various verbal wars going on all because of the 2011 general elections.
This week however, some other events joined the already long list. The first noteworthy event this week was the passage of elder statesman and father of modern Nigeria, Pa Anthony Eromesele Enahoro at the age of 87. The man sure lived a good life, leaving his marks on the sand of time, even if the ruling class has made the Nigeria of his dreams a mirage.
Joining Pa Enahoro later in the week was one of Nigeria’s foremost Fuji musicians, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Balogun, popularly known as Barrister. He was said to have died earlier in the year only for the press to recant. We thought the worst was over but it was not to be as Barry Wonder finally bade the world bye. My tribute to this wonderful duo will come in due course.
The other event that interested me and I’m sure, a few others is the resignation of Mama Dora. Prof. Akunyili, resigned her post as Information Minster to contest as a Senator come 2011. That in itself was the major attraction for me this week.
With all due respect to Pa Enahoro and Barry Wonder, I’d prefer to talk about Mrs. Akunyili for now. i’ll then come back to do a tribute for the departed. We are still on the same side with Akunyili while the celebrated duo has taken their bow, breathing their last.
I had earlier read during the week that the former NAFDAC boss would resign to contest but I just read the story in passing. It finally happened and there was this banner headline two days later – “Akunyili Resigns”. I saw Mama Dora all smiles, handing over to Mr. Labaran Maku, her erstwhile Minister of State who has been promoted.
I don’t know what prompted the patriot who has served meritoriously while in NAFDAC. The amazon who laid her life on the line in the war against fake drugs leaving the Ministry for the hallowed chambers, that is if it is ever hallowed. I shudder at the thought of Prof. Akunyili rendering herself useless in the Senate.
I had always known Mrs. Akunyili would one day join mainstream politics but I did not know it would be in a fashion like this. I did not expect her to vie for a Senatorial seat. I did not even know it would be like this. She has made her decision and no one can change it.
Someone asked me the post I expect her to vie for if not the Senate considering the fact that there is no gubernatorial election in Anambra, her home state in 2011. I actually am not a fan of Akunyili in the Senate. I would rather have her in a place where she’ll have more impact.
I do not want her to join set of people in the National Assembly. I’d have loved to see Dora in better company than in the Red Chambers where those self serving bigots hold sway. I do not want to believe Mrs. Akunyili is drawn to the Senate by the megabucks Nigerian Senators earn. I just want to trust her sense of judgment, fold my hands and see what will happen.
Something tells me Akunyili is preparing herself for something bigger and only wants to start from the Senate. It all remains to be seen though. I hope she would not be dragged in the mud along with the others.
Meanwhile, as we all await the unfolding of events, I rest my case and see if one more appellation would be added to the ones Professor Dora Akunyili already carries.
On a final note, I want to celebrate the departed- Pa Anthony Enahoro, the last of the titans and Mr. Fuji, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Balogun. They made impacts on the lives of people around them and quite a lot of good would be said about them.
I need you to ask yourself what would be said about you when you die. Enahoro has done his bit, Barrister has done his bit, make sure you do your own.

RAUF VS LAGUN IN OSUN: MY TAKE

15:26 hrs, November 29
What is good luck? As I stepped out of my office a couple of minutes ago, I heard a splat on my head. Lo and behold, it was a passing bird that sent a message to me. It showered me with some droppings right in the middle of my big, coconut head. This is another issue for another day anyway.
In my part of the world, it is said that when a bird flies over your head and dashes you some faeces while moving, it is a sign of good luck. If that is the good luck that some people have recently been enjoying, I’ll rather welcome it. I’ll welcome it because I need it in every part of my life, especially in the love, loving and relationship aspect of things which has been a bit turbulent in a while.
Perhaps, that was the good luck that has smiled on the Action Congress of Nigeria in the past few weeks. That political party and her members have had to fight tooth and nail for every post they presently hold, especially that of state Chief Executives.
Like it happened sometimes in October in the South west Nigerian state of Ekiti, the breeze, or better put, wind of change blew across the land on Friday November 26, 2010 and blew away the Olagunsoye Oyinlola led-PDP government in Osun state. It was received with glee. Folks were happy all over the place – shouts of joy, screams of happiness, leaps of victory and other expressions that cannot be adequately expressed in writing were the order of the day in Osun, my home state.
Justice Clara Ogunbiyi and her colleagues have unwittingly written themselves into the good side of the record books of Nigeria. Conversely, one gentleman that answers the name Thomas Naron and members of both the first and second Osun state 2007 Election Petition Tribunal have written themselves in the other side of the history books.
I keep looking for a way to rhyme Naron’s name with something significantly negative. If it would be Thomas Aaron, then it would be that part of Aaron, the Israelite High Priest in Bible times that made the golden calf for Israelites to engage in idolatry.
Mr. Justice Thomas Naron had the chance to write his name in gold like Justice Ogunbiyi and her learned colleagues but chose to go the naira way, the way of perdition. It is an open secret, a common knowledge, that the retired Brigadier General who held sway in Osun state until last Friday and his boys did well to grease the palms of the first Election Petition Tribunal that was set up in the aftermath of the 2007 general elections.
Rauf and his team headed to the Appeal Court after Naron and his team turned the blind eye to all weighty allegations of electoral fraud before them. I remember sometimes shortly after the elections that a friend called me from Osogbo. He told me point blank that PDP and Prince Oyinlola openly used brute force to win the elections.
I stand on the fact that elections are not won in Nigeria anyway. It is rigged and the announced winner is the one who has out-rigged his rivals. I do not want to be corrected though. This is an issue for another day anyway.
The then ruling PDP had things in her favour – cool, hard cash, incumbency, federal might and a lot more. They made their money speak for them, gave the hungry members of the bench something to chew, and reduced them to young people begging for recharge cards. Or are there no evidences in the Tell Magazine that printed their call and S.M.S logs?
The then AC had a lot of doggedness, as exemplified by Rauf Aregbesola, the former SUG President of The Polytechnic Ibadan; the financial and physical backing of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the immediate past Governor of Lagos; the good side of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as used by the late Adrian Forty, their forensic expert and lots of other monitoring devices which came from the InfoTech world and the support of majority of the Osun people among other factors.
We voted, they voted, everyone voted. PDP rigged, AC rigged, thugs clashed, touts fought and at the end of the day, everyone knew whoever won had fought a keenly contested battle. The bald-headed Iwu’s INEC and OBJ said PDP won. AC went bunkers, claiming a lot of irregularities and pronto, went to the Tribunal. The Tribunal was fruitless for AC and they went straight to the Appellate Court.
Good luck smiled on Aregbesola, his party, and their appeal and they went back to a new Tribunal. The new Tribunal, cousins to Thomas Naron’s, also said it was the honey man, Olagunsoye Oyinlola that should continue his hold on power, and that the ex- Lagos MILAD did.
He changed from honey to the bee and stung quite some folks who were never in his support, openly denying them the small dividend of democracy he had to offer. In stinging in different parts of the state, the paramount ruler of Aregbesola’s part of the state was the first to have a taste of the bee’s sting. He was being stung while others were enjoying the honey.
Some others paid the price for being avowed AC supporters. It was quite a battle that nearly consumed the lead fighter himself. At a time, Aregbe, as the new Governor is widely called, was accused of faking the Police report he tendered before the Tribunal.
Mike Okiro did what he could, tagged the gentleman different names and stopped short of calling him a tout. It was a battle indeed. Some people had already given up, they had told dogged Rauf to throw his hat into the ring for 2011 and forget all about 2007. The guy simply refused to give up, his backers did not back down or back out; they were staunch in his support, they stood with and by him and the result is there for all to see.
Olagunsoye Oyinlola has done his bit; his only blot was wanting to cling on to power when he should have left. No matter what bad people have said he did while in the saddle, it is on record that the teachers his immediate predecessor and now ACN Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, sacked while in office were reinstated by him. The fact that Osun can boast of her own state University can be attributed to Oyin, even if he made the school out of the reach of the masses. He had his pluses while he held sway in the state of the living spring. He only screwed things up in his second term, a term which was not his own from the start.
What I think Mr. Aregbesola should do is change the bad impression Akande, his party chair, has created in the mind of many Osun people while he was Governor under the platform of the old Alliance for Democracy, a party which broke into pieces and part of which is the present ACN. Akande would have been a very good Governor if not for some administrative blunders he committed while in office.
It is Aregbesola’s call, his chance to make history in Osun. It is his choice to either continue being celebrated or have his head being called for on a platter after a few months in the saddle. Remember what a section of the American populace is doing for Mr. Obama now; they want him to fix the mess of George Bush’s eight years in just two years. People want miracles overnight and I hope Rauf can do just one that will keep Osun people salivating at least for some time.
I do not think Oyinlola has lost anything save for the fact that he was sacked by the Court. He has been warming up to contest as a Senator next year. The only person who has lost at least for now and who would have lost in a level playing field is one man that is call Christopher Iyiola Omisore.
The young man who won a Senate seat while standing trial (that alone is funny to make you laugh and tumble over) has been nursing the ambition to be Osun Governor come 2011 but may have to wait at least until 2014 to have that ambition realized.
Aregbesola was Commissioner for Works under Tinubu, I hope he has something to bring to Osun so I can brag the more about being an Osun indigene through and through. I want to believe Governor Rauf is not just about power, but about delivery of goodies to Osun and her teeming masses. It is only by doing that that the ousted PDP government would not mock Osun people, it is only by giving us a better deal that we would have our own new Osun state.
The fact that the Court has told PDP and Mr. Oyinlola to vacate Abere for Mr. Aregbesola is not the problem. It calls for celebration in that we may be getting it right. Let those who want to celebrate do it and do it anyhow they like, either moderately or over-the-top.
What I think should be addressed is the issue of holding an office illegally and getting away with all salaries, emoluments, security votes and entitlements. The Nigerian system should find a way of getting back all the salaries that these illegal political office holders have collected over the years.
Youths roam the streets without jobs, some hardworking men can hardly feed their families but some people smile to the bank every month and sometimes weekly and daily for holding offices, political offices that do not belong to them. They get paid for years and are eventually booted out after almost finishing another person’s term. I find it sad.
To make it worse, they would have employed SAs, SSAs, PAs and other unnecessary Assistants and it is government that pays these staffers. I think the new Electoral laws of the land should make provisions for this anomaly.
They would have eaten enough dough over the period of time spent in government that asking them to return the basic salaries they were paid while illegally occupying office would not be bad.
The game goes on as 2011 approaches but for my dear Osun state, I say congratulations. To Mr. Aregbesola, I salute his courage and say Bravo! Nigeria shall be great once again and my generation shall enjoy after suffering while growing.
Enter Rauf, and let the music go on…