By Collins Ughalaa
Ndigbo should adopt ako bu ije and support Ohaneze’s restructuring agenda as the best way forward. Most people believe Nigeria is not working. That is why former Governor Ikedi Ohakim during his lecture at the Bold Step-4D Conference of the Youths Alive Fellowship of the Living Faith Church, aka Winners Chapel, Owerri, on Saturday, September 23, 2017, said that Nigeria has nothing else to do but to restructure. He warned that if Nigeria does not restructure, it will not be able to warehouse or husband the new changes in the world for the benefit of her people.
Restructuring is what is good for Nigeria and Ndigbo should not be found outside the restructuring negotiations because the outcome could be perilous. Among all the peoples of Nigeria, the Igbo people are the most republican.
A restructured Nigeria will guarantee food security. Food security is the first line of defence. Any nation that cannot feed herself is unworthy of being called a nation. Even third world countries should be able to feed themselves. With the size of land mass, the best vegetation in Africa and abundant mineral resources, Nigeria should not be talking about going hungry or going to borrow at any level.
Have successive governments in Nigeria done enough in tapping the potentials of this great nation and navigate her way to bliss and splendour? Is the present system where governors go to Abuja with bowels in hand every month working? No. Do I think restructuring Nigeria will change this arrangement? Yes. I believe it would.
The monthly bowel-in-hand arrangement before the Almighty Federal Government has only created indolence. Our leaders and the people have become unproductive as a result of the monthly money sharing arrangement in Abuja. People are now waiting for manna from heaven with the backward entitlement mentality. That is why Nigeria must restructure, to make the people become productive.
The western world we joyously admire today reached their peak because their people are productive. In the western world, the people work for up to eight hours and some work night hours too, to make ends meet. The people are eager to work because there are job opportunities there. But how can we have job opportunities when we have this choking arrangement where even Agriculture is not working? The little agriculture we practice here are done by individual farmers who don’t even have the required funding and machinery to engage in modern agriculture.
If we must drive ourselves out of hunger and stop borrowing, mechanised farming is the best way to go. The Federal Government should, therefore, quickly make funds available to the real farmers and agriculturists to go into mechanised farming. Having done so, a restructured Nigeria will give the states the opportunities to pursue policies that work best for them, including mechanised farming.
Recently I heard the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) say that Nigeria needs more policemen. No one can really be talking about insecurity and unemployment when the police and other security agencies are in dare need of manpower. I want to suggest that while the Federal Government takes cogent steps towards restructuring Nigeria, it should nevertheless take very prompt actions to ensure that more people are recruited into the police and other security agencies. It is unfortunate that in Nigeria it is one policeman for 600 citizens, whereas the international standard is one policeman to 100 or 200 people.
This is one of the problems a restructured Nigeria would address.
Many people have lamented that roads in Nigeria are constructed without a plan for maintenance. This lack of maintenance culture on roads has led to serious and unpardonable depreciation of our roads. When contractors are allowed to construct roads without a maintenance culture, the people make no gain from the project because it would soon break down.
The government should go beyond the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) policy but embrace Build, Transfer and Manage (BTM), because in the process of managing what has been transferred, the government would build the capacity of the people for maintenance.
Can the BTM policy work now in Nigeria? No. Because the Federal Government is too powerful, but by restructuring Nigeria the units can properly manage themselves and shock the world.
The Igbo man must, therefore, make great efforts in having confidence in their leaders. It is their duty to make sure that only credible people with track records of verifiable achievements are elected in different positions of authority. This is more crucial now that elections are around the corner.
The level of political indifference among the Igbo is so much. Once they are united and determined to elect credible people, the solutions to their problems begin to appear. The Igbo man must do away with money politics and tilting to the highest bidder. I remember writing on the dangers of choosing leaders based on the size of their purses. This has inevitably discouraged would-be good leaders to participate in governance in Igbo land. In other climes, money-men search for credible and hard working people and support them to emerge as political leaders, but it is sad that the situation is different today in Igbo land. Once people make money, they offer themselves for political contests with little or no experience.
It is the political cross of the Igbo man. Any race where the primary qualification for political participation is money will never get it right because this is a pure attempt at merchandising politics, and once it is this way, we should blame nobody but ourselves. Secondly, It is a great irony that the independent mindedness of the Igbo that has made them great successes in commerce is their bane in politics. Politics is a different area and unity and orderliness are required. Those who want to discuss with the Igbo must have a body that they should talk with without another group claiming leadership tomorrow, because they have funds to throw about.
The way the Senate leadership and National Chairmanship of a major political parties that were zoned to the Igbo were managed are still embarrassments to the political psyche of the Igbo. The time to get it right is now.
– Concluded
Ughalaa writes via [email protected]