National Orientation Agency: Change thyself first!
The one thing which is generally agreed upon as regards government agencies in Nigeria, is that they are allergic to criticism of any sort. Those who manage such agencies fail to appreciate that there are far more intelligent and knowledgeable people who do not work for government. In spite of the fact that so many […]
The one thing which is generally agreed upon as regards government agencies in Nigeria, is that they are allergic to criticism of any sort. Those who manage such agencies fail to appreciate that there are far more intelligent and knowledgeable people who do not work for government. In spite of the fact that so many government agencies are inefficient, unnecessary and staffed by incompetent and corrupt employees they feel they is no need to justify their continued existence. Living in a world of their own, their public relations departments always jump to the defence of their organization irrespective of their performance.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) is a prime example of an agency that isn’t required, struggles to seek relevance, has lost public support, is replete with corrupt and undisciplined staff and is at the same time full of self-importance. Apart from their hair-cutting and drunken staff scandals, the increasing demand from bribes from their staff, inefficiency at driving licence issuance, and concentration on revenue generation rather than accident prevention has brought their reputation in the eyes of the public to an all-time low.
The Oronsaye Report stated unequivocally that many agencies such as the FRSC were created to carry out normal policing functions and are simply a drain the treasury. It’s crucial to bear in mind that not a single one of the nations with the best road safety records in the world has a specialized road safety organization. As the daily carnage on our roads continues unabated the FRSC becomes increasingly unnecessary and irrelevant. However, one agency that is very necessary and relevant, but which has also failed to live up to expectation is the National Orientation Agency (NOA).
Established by Decree 10 of 1993 it’s an agency under the Ministry of Information whose focus is supposed to be the orientation and re-orientation of Nigerians to issues of nation building. The agency’s stated role is “to develop a Nigerian Society that is orderly, responsible and disciplined, where citizens demonstrate core values of honesty, hard work and patriotism; where democratic principles and ideas are upheld, and where peace and harmony reign”. At this critical juncture in the anti-corruption war a lot more is expected from the NOA. In addition to discovering stashes of currency, the anti-corruption war is also about preventing future corrupt practices. Apart from the superficial and unarticulated “change begins with me” slogan, there is little on ground to justify existence of the NOA. They are in dire need of the change they seek to promote.
The Director-General NOA Dr Garba Abari has announced a new initiative called the local government assembly, which is a feedback platform to enable the agency communicate government policies and programs to rural dwellers who aren’t aware of or don’t understand government policies and programs. Herein lies the problem with the NOA. Its objectives are too wide. In addition to the vital task of re-orientating Nigerians to develop a better society by promoting the spirit of dignity of labour, honesty and commitment to quality production; promoting the consumption of home-made products, commodities and services; arousing the consciousness of all categories of Nigerians to their rights and privileges; and re-orientating the populace about power its use and proper role of government in serving the collective interests of Nigerians; the NOA is also burdened with the task of communicating government policy. In this regards they are meant to enlighten the general public on government policies and programs; mobilize favourable public opinion and support for government policies; collect, collate and, provide feedback from the general public to government on its policies, programs and activities; and propagate them.
The objectives are laudable but ask yourself, when was the last time you heard of a public enlightenment campaign organized by the NOA? It’s supposed to be a major player in the change process but they are silent. Our crooked and selfish political class are in need of orientation far more than the citizenry. The only thing ordinary Nigerians need to learn is to stop respecting ill-gotten wealth. There is no logical reason why we should be patriotic.
Our leaders leave us in darkness while using our money to run generators for themselves; they refuse to pay pensions or salaries while at the same time paying themselves outlandish remunerations; they neglect our outdated dilapidated hospitals while they travel overseas for medical treatment; they make inadequate provision for our education system while their children school abroad; and they abandon the citizenry to marauding herdsmen, armed robbers, kidnappers and militants while surrounding themselves with compliments of police and security officials. The infractions by the political class are too numerous to mention and it makes no sense to expect Nigerians to be patriotic when the nation cannot provide them with even the most basic amenities and government does virtually nothing to enhance their standard of living. The silent NOA has needs to become more vocal and the talkative Minister for Information less so. In order to become an effective and relevant the change agent NOA must first change itself.