The value system of the old, emptiness, delinquency of the new: The story of our tragedy (III)

One of the features that defined the generation of General Gowon is the fact that their mind is always thinking of the future generation, just like all Statesmen do. They see the wealth of the nation not as exclusively theirs to be blown off as they wish. Rather, they see the wealth of the nation […]

One of the features that defined the generation of General Gowon is the fact that their mind is always thinking of the future generation, just like all Statesmen do. They see the wealth of the nation not as exclusively theirs to be blown off as they wish. Rather, they see the wealth of the nation as a trust to be used for their immediate needs, but also to be invested in the welfare of generations to come.

That is why they crafted the National Development Plans but since they left the scene we have not heard about the National Development Plans and since then, the quality of life has continued to take a dip and has never recovered. Politicians have apparently taken over from the Statesmen and their focus, unlike the Statesmen is only the next election. Let me use three incidents to illustrate this serious, indeed dangerous deficiency.

 

Population growth and food security by UN projections

Nigeria’s population is expected to be 300 million by 2030, just five years away. By 2050 we are expected to be well over 400m and that will make us the third largest population in the world, after India and China. Already, today we have a deficit of 30MT of grains and most of our silos are empty.

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It is a given, that if we can’t produce enough food to feed our population we cannot have peace. If today we have this much deficit, how much more is it likely to be in the next five years? What are the measures taken to bridge this deficit? Where is the discussion about this big issue in political circles?

What bothers most of our politician is not so much the future of food security like their immediate gains as they prepare for 2027. This is dangerous, to say the least.

Early this year (2024), some of you would recall that, there was acute shortage of tomatoes, the kind we did not see in a generation.  Some of you may also recall that in 2014, Nigeria was the largest importer of tomato-paste in the world. Our yield per hectare has been between 5-6 metric tons, way below the African average of about 20MT. Cuba, a tiny country in the Caribbean, produces about 120MT per Ha.

Cuba had made an offer through the Accra-based African Union body, the Forum for Agricultural Research for Africa (FARA) to train our agric personnel tuition-free. Despite our efforts, no government has taken the offer seriously. Meanwhile, it is business as usual. Insensible, indifferent and incognizant lot?

One of the dangers of the lack of appreciation of the future is that when things are happening that have consequences in the immediate or distant future, most of our self-seeking politicians cannot see them, much less prepare for them. They cannot read the signs because they seem to lack the presence of mind and sense of responsibility to read the signs on the wall.

Alerted by some of our students teaching in tertiary institutions this year, we conducted by a rough survey of students in tertiary institutions in the North – Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges for Education, Colleges for legal Studies. We found that nearly 60% of students in these institutions could not return to school this academic year. Reasons being either because they could not afford the registration (tuition) fees, or they paid the fees but could not afford the transport fares, or they secured campus accommodation but could not pay for food on campus.

This we found alarming and with serious consequences. One of this, and perhaps the most dreaded of them, is that if this should continue, we may unwittingly be creating urban bandits, like it happened in Brazil about a quarter century ago.

Because of this phenomenon in Brazil, 25 years ago, the elite could not drive on the streets of Sao Paulo. The city was tagged the Helicopter Capital of the World because it had the highest helicopter density, as the elites took helicopters to work, helicopters to events and helicopters to the airport.

It took President Lula the whole of his troubled tenure to clear this mess. Here, then we are unable to deal with our rural banditry and now creating another wave of urban banditry. [I am not unaware of the efforts of the current Ministry of Education, which is yet to come to fruition]

(To be continued)

Text of speech delivered to mark Gowon at 90, organised by Barewa Old Boys Association (BOBA) on November 9, 2024, in Abuja