Simple solutions to Nigeria’s ‘complex’ problems

Nigeria as a country thrives on complicating very simple matters until they become ominously complex and difficult to untangle. Unfortunately, we are also endowed with a form of collective and selective amnesia that miraculously makes us forget the way and method by which we complicated mundane things until they became the mountains that have now defied the prayer and fasting of the 170 million Nigerian ‘faithfuls.’ This forgetfulness is reflected in the continuous misfortune of having to spend precious time relearning how to crawl, walk, and run our race of economic development. So, here we are, almost 56 years after independence still grappling with, and bedevilled by the most basic of problems known to mankind.

Let’s begin with the simple issue called education. By definition, good education seems like the easiest thing to achieve. After all, it is just the process of imparting knowledge, developing powers of reasoning and acquiring skills. At some point in the history of Nigeria, we could actually boast of a good educational system, whose products were able to compete anywhere in the world. That era seems a distant past, with most of our graduates now effectively destroyed by the same institutions entrusted with the building and development of their capacities. The proliferation of private institutions has worsened, rather than improve the system. Any country is as good as its workforce, and a country as dynamic as Nigeria will not attain the desirable heights of development through ‘imported’ workforce.

How do we stem this rot in our educational system? We need to go back to the basics. We need to tear down the system and rebuild one fit for the current and future challenges. For starters, kids should be allowed to be kids rather than walking encyclopaedias without the ability to think. Rather than belabour primary school pupils with assignments that their parents will need to befriend Google to solve, why not build their ability to reason and be creative? We need an educational system that emphasizes knowledge and skills application rather than certificates and knowledge acquisition. The government also needs to show it recognizes the importance of education by channelling more resources to the sector. This isn’t achieved by subsidizing the payment of international school fees through the foreign reserves, neither will the pittance budgeted annually to the sector raise the standard. To put this pittance in perspective, the 2016 budget for the National Assembly of 469 people is about 24% of the budget for the ministry of education.

We have also heard repeatedly in recent times that the country is broke, that we do not have enough money to prosecute our 2016 budget, and so we will need to borrow. The rational expectation for me, therefore, was for us to do away with those conspicuous consumptions that we gloat over. It is, however, increasingly clear that being broke is defined by our government as their inability to fund the excesses they have become accustomed to, as there was never a time the more than 70% of the populace living on less than a dollar a day were rich. Shouldn’t the president of Nigeria reflect the image of the average Nigerian? Should the president of a broke country be able to afford the luxuries that his rich allies can’t? A case in point is the size of our presidential fleet when the leaders of many of the countries that we seek handouts from don’t have any.

Much is also being said about unemployment in Nigeria and how Nigerians need to be patriotic by patronizing made in Nigeria products. The last time we checked, the outgone administration initiated something called the national automotive policy, yet there is no indication or directive that any of the vehicles to be purchased by the government be assembled in Nigeria. When my president has been patronizing UK physicians since 1978, and continues to do so, why should I do otherwise if I can afford it? If there is subsidy on FX for healthcare services abroad, what is the incentive to develop the domestic segment? How do we intend to end the vicious cycle of poverty when the leaders and the led remain colonized body, soul and spirit?

The solutions to our problems are very simple, yet they have the capability for multiplier effect that the grandiose plans lack.

Olugbenga A. Olufeagba