Development of Regional Identity
Regionalism is the theory or
practice of regional rather than central systems
of administration or economic, cultural, or even
political, acting as a subject with distinct
identity, language, culture and tradition.
Regionalism is an ideology and political
movement that seeks to advance the causes of
regions. As a process, it plays a role within
the nation as well as outside the nation i.e. at
the international level. Both types of
regionalism have different meanings and have
positive as well as a negative impacts on
society, polity, diplomacy, economy, security,
culture, development, dialogues, etc. Northern
Nigerian’s rich diversity sometimes looks like
an obstacle to unity. But the election of
President Buhari's first tenure has proved that
a commitment to resolving differences peacefully
and democratically can transform diversity into
a source of strength.
Nigeria’s representative
democracy has moved closer to the people who
feel more involved and show greater concern for
institutions of local and regional governance,
in the economic sphere, however, the situation
is quite different. The process of
globalization, although partial and variable, or
the idea of restructuring is creating an
increasingly autonomous economic certainty that
interacts directly with both national and
regional realities. The formation of regions
takes place at the interface between global
economic and technological forces and regional
realities. Actors may perceive regionalism as a
defence mechanism against the competitive
pressures arising from globalization or
otherwise and thus the clamouring for regional
restructuring, a new form of “new regionalism”.
The new regionalism and multi-polarity are, in
fact, two sides of the same coin. The new is a
more spontaneous process from within the
regions, where the constituent states now
experience the need for cooperation to tackle
new local and security challenges. Regionalism
is thus one way of coping with global
transformation since most states arguably lack
the capacity and the means to manage such a task
at their level alone. The new is often described
as “open”, and thus compatible with an
interdependent world economy. It is a more
comprehensive, multidimensional process. This
process includes not only trade and economic
development but also environment, social policy,
security and religion, just to mention some
imperatives pushing countries, states and
communities clamouring for the new types
of regionalist frameworks. The New regionalism
concept forms part of a global structural
transformation in which non-state actors (many
different types of institutions, organizations
and movements) are also active and operating at
several levels of the system. In sum, the new
regionalism includes economic, political, social
and cultural aspects, and goes far beyond free
trade, although very important. Rather, the
political ambition of establishing regional
coherence and regional identity seems to be of
primary importance. The new regionalism is
linked to globalization, as it is seen as a
reaction to the selectiveness nature of
globalization. So, in future, new regionalism
could be the basis for multilateralism.
Although it is easily seen how
regionalism could be good or bad for a nation as
well for states, Nigerian Constitution gives
every citizen a fundamental right to move around
and settle down peacefully in any part of the
country. And, as a citizen of Nigeria, everyone
should respect this fundamental right of every
person, avoiding clashes like calling certain
ethnic groups to leave certain regional areas.
The need of the hour is to
develop each region of Nigeria, through
devolution of power to local governments and
empowering people for their participation in
decision-making and citizen engagement. The
governments at state levels need to find out the
alternative resources of energy, source of
employment for local people, use of technology
in governance, planning and for agricultural
development and education, etc. In the future,
further integration of the different regions, on
their willing terms will give every nation due
respect and due importance to their needs. Their
exotic and unique things are getting exposure at
the international level and no one will feel
left out. The whole world will be a global
village with a unique regional identity and
vision within.
The Agitation for Restructuring
of the Nigerian Federation
Just as regionalism is an
ideology and political movement that seeks to
advance the causes of regions, democracy is a
political system of representative government,
while federalism represents a governmental
system of the political, economic, social and
administrative organization of States for
effective management of diversity. Federalism is
said to be effective when cooperation, mutual
relationship, shared rule and shared
responsibility in a constitutionally premised
autonomous climate exist between the central
government and constituent units. While
democracy is the general condition under which
federalism thrives, it does not owe its
existence essentially from the federal
arrangement, but the two principles complement
each other.
Arguably, while on one hand,
democracy can prosper independent of a federal
system, on the other hand, the practice of a
federal system under a democratic system of
government, if fully utilized through fairness,
equity and balanced development, can engender
the greatest satisfaction for the greatest
number of individuals and groups. This is
possible because the ability to provide
platforms on which to express both collective
and group interests, and also minimize social
dissent mostly finds expression in a federal
system that practices a democratic system of
government.
National Political Science
Association (NPSA), North-west zone posits that
indeed, it is within the context of establishing
a nexus between the process of achieving
democracy, that is democratization, in a plural
society and the practice of federalism in an
ethnically diverse society like Nigeria that one
can appreciate the agitation for and resurgence
of demand for political restructuring since the
return to democracy in 1999. But going back in
memory lane, the Nigerian population has changed
beyond recognition. From about 50 million in
1960 to 200 million now in 2020; and growing;
and in 1960 there was only three regions and 24
provinces, subdivided into divisions and
districts. The country went from three regions
to four. In 1967, States were created;
abandoning British Parliamentary System to
Presidential System modelled according to the
USA. The States were later increased to 19, then
21, then 30, then 36 plus one Capital called FCT
– Federal Capital Territory. In 1976 when the
country restructured Native Authorities into
local government areas [LGAs], there were 300 of
them. Over the years these ballooned to 774,
each with its bureaucracy that mostly functions
but once in a month, on payday. So, needless to
say, political agitation is both a universal
phenomenon mostly in plural federal states, but
in the case of Nigeria, it is exacerbated by
real or imaginary false outcries of
marginalization.
One would recall that, with the
return to civilian rule after a prolonged period
of the experimentation of a quasi-federal
system, which was guided by an elusive federal
construct characterized by Unitarian, agitation
for political reforms becomes obvious. Loud
voices of groups calling for the restructuring
of the Nigerian federation become strident from
the Southern part of the country.
In an eight-point communiqué of the South-West
Zone on August 18, 2016, the region posited that
“meaningful progress and socio-economic
development of the Nigerian nation is
unattainable without restructuring the extant,
largely Unitarian geopolitical arrangement”. “It
is by such re-arrangement, leading to genuine
and true political and fiscal federalism that
the innate energies of the people of Nigeria can
be released and new vistas of human development
opened up.” Similarly, the
South-East and
South-South geo-political zones (region), have
called for the restructuring of the country to
allow each region to feel equal and to control
their resources for the betterment of their
people while the separatist movement from the
South-East
is advocating for the independence of Biafra
from Nigeria.
Although the concept has been
challenged by some, especially from northern
Nigeria, perhaps due to globalization and the
fact that there
is no ideal federal system or true federalism
across the world, the central questions
to ask about restructuring the Nigerian
federation in the face of the country’s
democratization are:
-
What are the catchy points in
the call for restructuring by southern
interest groups and civil society
organizations in the country?
-
Are the calls for
restructuring exclusively dominated by the
aggrieved politicians whose political
interests are at stake or patriots in favour
of a united Nigeria?
-
Does the Nigerian federation
need restructuring in the 21st century?
-
What are the economic,
political and social implications of
unbundling the structural and systemic
configurations of the Nigerian society?
-
What is the position of the
academia, the civil society organizations,
the labour union, the business class and
investors; and other interest groups in both
Northern and Southern regions on the issue
of restructuring?
-
What would be the best form
of restructuring for Nigeria? Can that still
be realized through a sovereign national
conference or referendum?
These and many other questions
need to be answered within the context of
theoretical, empirical, historical and
circumstantial bases of the Nigeria society; and
to discuss the various issues raised in the
bewildered questions around the political
restructuring of the Nigerian federation, which
have been nagging in the minds of Nigerians, or
rather the South-West. Already, the South-West
is pushing for restructuring and strategizing
for their regional growth plans
with the constitution of a Regional Technical
Working Group (RTWG) to tackle integrated
infrastructure development on the multi-modal
transportation system to take care of highways;
rail and water sectors and have adopted the
south-west Regional Integrated Commercial
Agriculture Development Program (RICADP), with
Lagos state to champion a structured regional
food-exchange-program. All these clamours are
based on the fact that many Southerners
erroneously believe that Northerners are
backward and uneducated and think that the North
is dependent on the south simply because they
have oil. The reverse might be the case,
because, presumably, the North has oil too and
so many natural mineral resources, like Gold;
and so many more. Also, the south depends on the
north for staple foods as about 80% of the
staple food consumed in the entire South of
Nigeria, asides from cassava, is produced in the
North. This is not a mere conjecture; it is
borne out of deliberate institutional
researches. Ordinary onion, the entire South is
incapable to attain sufficiency in its
production. Rice, beans, maize, guinea corn,
yam, wheat, tomatoes, pepper, onions, spices,
meat and other essential commodities are
produced and grown locally in the North.
Questions are asked, “who will suffer, in terms
of food security, between the South and the
North if Nigeria should break”? Some southerners
have never, in their entire life, stepped out of
their zone. Yet, one finds them propounding
uninformed hypothesis and theories on social
media on how the North is the parasite that
should be dealt with. It is not a crime if one
is ignorant or doesn’t know, but the real crime
is when one doesn’t know and keeps pontificating
based on half-and-ill-baked knowledge on a
crucial matter like this. Instead, it is argued
that its best if the government is pressured to
come up with sustainable agricultural programs
on food security and peaceful co-existence with
one another. For someone to say “Northerners
are parasites and that the north feared
domination by the more advanced south, and,
hence, was unenthusiastic about independence” is
an insult to the intelligence of the northern
peoples; as clearly pointed out by President
Muhammadu Buhari on
Sept 20, 2014,
saying “it is the highest level of an insult
considering the contributions of the region to
the growth and development of the country in the
areas it has comparative advantages”.
But new development from the
south-west on Thursday, October 1, 2020,
showcased the Congress of Oduduwa Descendants
(COD), holding a one million-man rally in Lagos
in solidarity with a united, indivisible
Nigeria. On the occasion of the country’s
diamond jubilee, the group said it is not a case
of east, south, west or north, but one Nigeria.
President-General, Otunba Arokoyo Olumide
Peterson, speaking on behalf of the group
pledged total allegiance to the country saying
“the enemies of Nigeria have attempted to fester
conflict in our polity. They have made
insinuations and postulations to divide us, but
we have remained united to the chagrin of the
enemies of Nigeria”. While admitting the
challenges confronting the nation, the group
expressed confidence that together it will
triumph over her adversaries. The Congress of
Oduduwa Descendants, however, called on
Nigerians to “consolidate on the unity of
purpose and diversity of strength of our dear
country”. It assured that Nigeria shall stay
united for many years ahead in its quest for
greatness. “The words of Sir Tafawa Balewa on
1st of October 1960 still resonate in our
consciousness”. “Words cannot adequately express
my joy and pride at being the Nigerian citizen
privileged to accept from Her Royal Highness
these Constitutional Instruments which are the
symbols of Nigeria’s Independence. It is a
unique privilege which I shall remember forever,
and it gives me strength and courage as I
dedicate my life to the service of our country.”
But in a new twist, the north,
which appeared to be against restructuring, has
come out clearly in support of it, advocating
for a return to the 12-state federal structure
of 1967 and 100 percent resource control, this
has suddenly made the south-west and the
south-south jittery. They, in a memorandum to
the National Assembly Committee on the Review of
the 1999 Constitution had, among other
recommendations, said: “The 12 states shall be
designated as regions and shall have control of
their resources while paying appropriate taxes
to the Federal Government.” They also canvassed
that “mining should be reassigned to the
concurrent list with on-land mining under the
federating units and off-land mining under the
control of the government of the federation.’’
While according to Dr. Baba Adamu, restructuring
is good for the North...” the North has so many
Potentials”. He further postulates that the
potential of Solid Mineral Exploration in the
north is so great that by the time the northern
Governors realize it they will almost forget
about allocation funds coming from FG (FAAC) and
too much Taxes on its citizens to generate more
internally generated revenue (IGR). The
potential is great and better than crude oil of
the south. Gold, Uranium, Iron Ore, Gemstones,
Columbite/Tantalite and other precious minerals
are everywhere across the north, but also
Lithium brine rocks (lithium-bearing pegmatite
and spodumene), a critical component for making
electric car batteries. By 2030, the oil will no
longer be that important as electric cars will
take over, lithium batteries will also be used
for powerhouses and so much more. The potentials
for export of these natural minerals and local
use in manufacturing from the north are
unparalleled. “The Southerners are just
beginning to realize the potentials and if we
begin to explore them, what it will mean to
their so-called oil; and clamour for
Restructuring”. That is why some of them are
beginning to downplay the issue of restructuring
now: every region to control its resources, but
the north must insist on Restructuring Now.
Because the southerners erroneously believe that
northerners are backward and uneducated and
think that the north is dependent on the south
simply because they have oil while forgetting
that the south depends on the north for its
staple foods. 80% of food consumed in the south,
apart from cassava comes from the north: rice,
beans, maize, guinea corn, yam, wheat, tomatoes,
onions, pepper, meat (cow, goat, donkey),
spices, etc. Also, the north has oil too but
abundant of natural resources: solid minerals.
“The North must get its act right and the future
will be much brighter, more prosperous and
better. The teaming Youths will have ample jobs
and things to do; and for every mining job, 4
more jobs will be created and the north will
virtually have near-zero-unemployment”.
The North must respectfully ask
President Buhari to do these for now before
2023:
-
Complete the dredging of
River Niger up-North so that ships can dock
and berth in Kogi, Kaduna, up to Sokoto.
Arguably, the dredging was 80% completed in
2015;
-
Complete Mambila Hydro Dam
Power Project, which is expected to provide
3.05GW, the largest power-generating
installation in the country, one of the
largest in Africa and the largest water
reservoirs in West Africa;
-
Complete the Kashimbila Dam,
which when completed will provide 40MW and
drinking water to 400,000 people. It was
arguably, 90% completed in 2019;
-
Complete the Katsina Wind
Mill Farm Project, many FG northern
infrastructure projects initiated like:
railways and rail-lines, roads, water sopply,
health centers, gas pipelines; and other
smaller dams like Itisi in Kaduna, Kiri in
Adamawa; and others all across the north.
The northern demographic shifts
will fuel the growth of new sectors, markets and
service lines. They will begin to innovate and
with creativity build viable businesses in areas
of the business supply chain, and in
agriculture, livestock mainstreaming, no more
transporting live animals to the south but
slaughtered and freight in refrigerated trucks,
renewable energy like solar farming, ICT,
Business Processing Outsourcing and in
healthcare, manufacturing and revitalize the
Kannywood entertainment industry in partnership
with Indian Bollywood. Staple food commodity
would no longer be transported to the south but
buying-zones can be created along the
borderlines between north and south for
southerners to come and purchase there. “Wallahi
it is a matter of time and the time is very
soon, it has already begun. The unity of
northern diversity is the power that will propel
the business communities and consequently, the
northern upcoming industries into new dimensions
of performance. Soon there will be on the
horizon, more northern banks, northern media and
corporations; and northern intelligentsia that
will meet every contemporary challenge; build
capacity and human capital knowledge-pool; and
the end of youths banditry, kidnappings,
communal crises, terrorism and religious
violence because everyone will have work and
meaningful things to do under strong,
compassionate leadership, propelling the country
to a Greater Height as a whole. ICT-enabled
solutions in healthcare, agriculture, education,
financial services and States-public services
will drive socio-economic inclusion of everyone
in the region and the country faster, cheaper
and more efficient than traditional methods.
Indeed, the North; and Nigeria will be Great
Again. The PAN-Niger Delta Forum said that the
news that Northern leaders, who identified
themselves as Friends of Democracy, advocated a
return to the 12-state federal structure of 1967
and 100 percent resource control was
thought-provoking but calls for restraint and
further cross-questioning. The Pan-Yoruba
socio-political organization, Afenifere, said it
agrees with most of the views of the northern
leaders and hoped to inter-face with them later,
but said for a group of northerners to now be
advocating for 100 percent resource control,
calls for caution and further interrogation.
The question been are asked is
that who will suffer if Nigeria is restructured
or in the event of a break-up of the country in
terms of food security or development? Some
southerners have never, in their entire life,
stepped out of their zone. Yet, one finds them
propounding uninformed hypothesis and theories
on social media on how the North is the parasite
that should be dealt with. It is not a crime if
one is ignorant or doesn’t know, but the real
crime is when one doesn’t know and keeps
pontificating based on half-and-ill-baked
knowledge on a crucial matter like this.
Instead, it is argued that its best if the
government is pressured to come up with
sustainable agricultural programs on food
security and peaceful co-existence with one
another. For someone to say “Northerners
are parasites and that
the north feared domination by the more advanced
south, and, hence, was unenthusiastic about
independence” is an insult to the intelligence
of the northern peoples; as clearly pointed out
by President Muhammadu Buhari on
Sept 20, 2014,
saying “it is the highest level of an insult
considering the contributions of the region to
the growth and development of the country in the
areas it has comparative advantages”.
The former Kaduna State governor,
late Balarabe Musa’s take on politics of
restructuring and power rotation in the country
took a very interesting dimension. “Which part
of Nigeria do they own? He said. Igbo people are
richer than Fulani people; Yoruba people are
also richer than Fulani people. There are more
Igbos and Yorubas in federal civil service than
the Fulanis. Does any Fulani own a bank, does
any Fulani own a media house. Does any Fulani
own a hotel; all the hotels in Abuja and land
are owned by the Igbo; is Abuja Igbo land? Can
Fulani own in the East what Igbo own in the
North? No. If you have never been to the North,
come and see the landed properties that the
Igbos have in the north, which the Fulani do not
have and cannot have in Igbo land. “Whoever that
says Fulani man owns Nigeria, let him come and
say how. Fulani man occupies Aso Rock, and so
what? An Igbo man should come and occupy Aso
Rock and give the Fulanis all the material
wealth he has in the North. That is nonsense.
Igbos own all the hotels, they own the banks,
and Yoruba own the newspapers and banks too,
what do the Fulani own” said former Kaduna State
governor, late Balarabe Musa. There are now more
bandits, more kidnappings and killings in the
North; the entire North is now insecure. The
South doesn’t know what insecurity is; we are
living it, but we don’t hear anything positive
from the Southeast or the Southwest, but they
are talking of Miyetti Allah or how Amotekun is
supposed to protect the Yorubas.
Still on the issue of the
break-up of Nigeria, humanity stands at a
defining moment in history and Nigeria is at a
crossroads. It is confronted with a perpetuation
of disparities between the people as a nation
having the worsening situation of poverty,
hunger, ill-health, despair & hopelessness and
illiteracy, including problems of Boko Haram
terrorism and insurgency in the south, which led
to a hike in the population of the internally
displaced persons (IDPs), the influx of small
arms and dangerous weapons through ports and
porous borders, incessant and senseless killings
and kidnappings, armed cult and youths banditry,
communal & religious violence, herdsmen-farmers
crisis, drug abuse by youths and young women
including the issue of social exclusion of many
citizens, to name a few. There is also the
continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on
which people depend for their well-being, the
environment. These are the issues no
restructuring.
Today, Nigerian ethnic diversity
is not even a static phenomenon. Ethnic groups
change through time in complex ways. Of course,
it is natural to belong to a category or group
of people that are considered to be
significantly different from others in terms of
culture, dialect or tribe, traditions, religion,
etc., and even physical characteristics like
body shape, colour etc., however, it is
necessary, within the nation, and in the
interest of unity, survival and goals, to
suspend chauvinistic views to truly understand
larger issues affecting the interests of all of
the diverse groups that have been wedded
together by God in terms of geographical and
re-settlement of people within the location, and
of course by a deliberate union of
inter-marriages in such a location. Therefore
there is the need for consensus bridges of
understanding, tolerance and cooperation in the
whole of Nigeria if people are to re-model their
future and that of their children. The founders
of our great nation, Sardauna, Awolowo and Zik
wrestled with that understanding and
concentrated on that which united them and not
that which divided them although the younger
generation has tended to neglect it. Successful countries today, were those whose
citizens, at one time or the other, under strong
and unselfish leadership, rose above personal,
sectional or religious differences and worked
together to build a viable nation to guarantee
the welfare of its citizens in a new and
improved ways. God created us from a single pair
of male and female, into nations, races and
tribes so that we may cherish and differentiate
one another. In His Mercy and Wisdom, He gives
us diversity to test our capacity for friendship
and accentuates the need for unity and
self-esteem. The days of ignorance were the days
of feuds and falsehood attitude of trying to
forget these differences rather than understand
them
“Today, communities within States
are grappling with long-term unemployment,
environmental challenges, widening economic
disparity, growing social unrest, generational
shifts in the workforce, and a more complex
economic development playing field that offers
compelling opportunities and poses significant
challenges. Spurring the movement
of ideas into action in an agile manner and
creating a single standard would
define the promise of economic development
for the entire northern region
through the creation of wealth and attraction of
Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs)” said the
Chairman of Arewa Center for Regional
Development (ACRD).
Although most Southern Senators
have refused the
ratification of the Foreign Investment
Protection Agreement (FIPA) signed between
Nigeria and Canada in 2014 because Canadians
have expressed willingness to invest in northern
Nigeria in the areas of mining, information and
communication technology (ICT), oil exploration,
mechanized agriculture and education. “The
signing of the Africa Continental Free Trade
Agreement (AfCFTA) by President Muhammadu Buhari,
is in line with the northern Nigeria global
agenda”, said Arewa youths. The Southerners have
also advised the government against signing the
EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the
American version of AGOA, simply because the
north stands to benefit more. “Our northern
leaders (Governors and Senators) are looking at
this critically as more countries in Europe,
America and Asia will come on board when they
see new revitalized northern Nigeria ready for
business” according to
ACRD.
Access and Equal Opportunities
for Everyone
More than ever, the advent of the
knowledge economy and global economic
competition compel governments to priorities
educational quality, lifelong learning and the
provision of educational opportunities for all.
Policymakers widely accept that access to
information and communication technology (ICT)
in education can help individuals to compete in
a global economy by creating a skilled workforce
and facilitating social mobility. It has been
argued extensively that each century has its
unique challenges and educational qualification
and requirement, which must evolve as well. The
20th-century educational system was designed to
prepare people to work in offices and farms, and
unfortunately, Nigeria still runs this type of
educational system in the 21st century, when the
developed nations have spaceships, electric,
driverless cars, the internet of things and
where human intelligence has now turned to
artificial intelligence (AI); and much more. In
this era, of constant learning and skills
development, education is not exclusive to
school for one to be known even those that go to
school, what they learn from school become
out-dated quickly.
Access to smartphones gives more
computing power and access to education has
never been so level yet today, a teaming large
number of youths in the country are illiterates.
In today’s job market, “we no longer need
workers who can retain and reproduce a large
amount of information, what we need are people
who can sort through information and organize or
use it effectively. We need a new form of
intelligence: learning must be reformed to
enable us to change the way we see and approach
the world”. If the government can strategically
subject our educational system to an
individual’s passion, style of learning and
chosen timeframe, people would be surprised by
what we can learn within a short time. If people
can be judged by their skills, application,
comprehension and motivations, the unemployment
rate will be reduced significantly.
As postulated, once we subject
employment to grade, then everyone will compete
for the grade instead of skills and
comprehension, and without skills, people will
have to keep waiting for the diminishing
white-collar jobs, and more graduates are being
produced daily, flooding the labour market,
unemployment rate rising. The competition should
be on skill acquisition, talent, access,
opportunities and knowledge application, and to
do this, one would need a shorter time, and
would not have to go to school all the time. In
this century, the emphasis should be on
innovation and creativity; and the ability to
apply the knowledge with tenacity. Technology
has replaced the human requirement for growth,
so human beings must do what machines cannot do,
and this cannot be achieved by just competing
for who can remember facts better. Life skills
have changed due to technological advancement,
new economies and opportunities. So, the
school’s curriculum must prepare students for
these, otherwise, the students will remain
unemployed. Most of the skills that would be
needed on a job are not being taught in
classrooms, and that’s why most job seekers are
not fit for the job. That’s why there is high
structural unemployment. On the other side, some
people didn’t finish school or do not rely on
their certificates creating jobs, and even
employing graduates, an example is the
Billionaire Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft.
As mentioned, the mentality of
running after good grades in school to secure
jobs after graduation is unfortunate. Pursuing
knowledge is the ultimate. The first and major
thing education should do in a person is
behavioural reform. Everyone should be able to
see and say that one is educated through one’s
behaviour. One’s actions, decisions making
process and choices should reflect behavioural
reform, that what education is first foremost
about. Secondly, as an educated fellow, securing
a government or private job is a plus. If this
does not come or has not come, it does not mean
that your education is a waste. Rather, look
deep into your wealth of knowledge and figure
out what you can do. Humanity needs ingenuity.
Skills and skill acquisition are and have always
been key, and one’s education should be a boost
to success in it. Everything in today’s world is
the packaging. Also, your personality comes into
play. There is no skill that is not fruitful.
Shoemaking, hairstyling, tailoring,
fashion-designing, farming, catering,
carpentering, plumbing, tiling, roofing,
watch-repairing, ICT services like handset
repairing, computer-repairing, food and
beverages among others are examples of viable
skills. Everyone should learn at least, a skill
or set up a trade. Every paid job has a
retirement date while one’s established skill or
trade continues after one’s exit.
It is said that instead of being
a good fortune, however, certificate
metamorphosis into a source of misery for many
Nigerian young graduates; it blocked their view
of the world, they completely lose sight, and
blind to the fortune around them, thereby unable
to utilize the prolific opportunities knocking
on their doors. Creativity is gone; skills are
dissipating; vision is blurry, confidence is
eroding; ideas and reasoning are disappearing,
innovation and inventiveness are lost in the
brain of most of these graduates. It is
disturbing and even a pity to watch these
contemporary graduates wasting their precious
time looking for a job whose take-home pay can't
afford to put a decent meal on their table
instead of self-reliant toward wealth creation.
Conclusively, conventional
schooling is an out-dated system, education is
the new system, and for education to take place,
one doesn’t need conventional schools. So, to
address illiteracy, there is the need to create
education beyond school taking the benefits of
new technologies, especially information and
communications (ICT). Schools do not have space
capacity to accommodate educational needs. Most
of the valuable education is not acquired in
school. The school learning system is not always
fair, because it teaches what may not be needed
- teaching what to learn not how to learn. A
school grade makes students redirect their
energy towards grade competition instead of
skill competition, and as a result, graduates
become unemployable. There are no enough
opportunities to absorb the graduating students,
they have to be trained to create opportunities
for themselves, and otherwise, the unemployment
rate will only be on the rise. So, it is
necessary to reform the school system and the
perception about school and taking benefits of
new technologies, especially “ICT” (UN).
Moreover, while not mentioned explicitly in the
education for all goals, arguably ICT plays a
pivotal role in achieving these goals, including
broadening access, eliminating exclusion, and
improving quality, according to UNESCO. That is
why, more than ever, there is a need for a
comparative analysis of ICT integration and
e-readiness in schools across the country.
Citizens Engagement as Conflict
Prevention
In today’s increasingly
interconnected world, citizen engagement can
have a great impact on development outcomes and
conflict prevention. Around the world, it has
been observed that when citizens are engaged,
when they participate, they can improve
policymaking and service delivery by government,
of course, when the government has a sound
economic policy, because as documented; peace is
linked to development as development is the
satisfaction of needs, which, if they remain
unsatisfied, will propel people into conflict.
Kin-based societies from East
Africa to the Amazonian rainforest have
traditionally made decisions by consensus and
persuasion rather than by top-down diktat. Some
2,500 years ago the city-state of ancient Athens
rose to unprecedented political and economic
power by giving its citizens a direct voice and
an active role in civic governance. Countries
that are not democracies, such as China, have
also sought out forms of citizen engagement.
History has shown that engaging citizens has led
to more sustainable, open and just governance
thus preventing conflicts from arising. Whether
formally integrated into documents such as the
Magna Carta and the Code Napoleon, or informally
presented at local levels, the concept of
citizen engagement is widely global. Going back
in history, the first Islamic State has based
its “Medina Compact” on a social contract
whereby it clearly explains the nature of
collaboration and accord between the citizens
and the state, shaping the relationship
governing them. World Bank also draws on a long
history of advancing governance reforms,
multi-stakeholder engagement, citizen
participation, social accountability, and
government transparency. An important
development was the establishment in 2012 of the
Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA),
to enable civil society organizations to work
together with their governments to solve
difficult governance problems using citizen
engagement and social accountability mechanisms.
The 2017 World Bank Development Report, on
Governance and the Law, also highlights the
importance of creating the space for citizens to
affect government policies. The Report focuses
on the determinants of policy effectiveness,
exploring how policies for security, growth and
equity can more effectively achieve their goals
by taking the underlying drivers that influence
governance into account. Given the complex
landscape of citizen feedback with so many
experiments underway around the world, the time
is ripe now for the Nigerian Government to look
at citizen engagement holistically as a
game-changer for national development and very
critical for maintaining the country’s security.
Citizen Engagement: Reduce
Poverty and Improve Well-Being of Marginalized
Communities:
Citizen Engagement is not the
state against citizens or citizens against the
state. Many citizen engagement approaches focus
on building supportive pro-accountability
networks across “state” and “society”. The
approaches need to be tailor-made, designed to
fully utilize the inherent economic, cultural
and even religious challenges and opportunities,
increase economic viability and address the
problem of poverty and despair to bring
prosperity to the people and create wealth while
preventing ethnic conflict or crisis. Engaging
citizens is not a one-size-fits-all approach
that can solve huge problems all by itself, but
it can bolster good governance, especially if it
is combined with other efforts to strengthen
government responsiveness and the rule of law
(justice). Here is the argument: If one unpacks
the impact evaluation evidence, it tests two
very different approaches under the broad
Citizen Engagement umbrella: tactical and
strategic.
·
Tactical citizen engagement
initiatives are those that are short-term,
address a particular issue with just one tool,
and are limited to the very local level, while;
·
Strategic citizen engagement
initiatives refer to long-term campaigns that
combine multiple tactics and are scaled up
beyond the local level - so they are both
broader and deeper at state, regional and
national levels.
So how does citizen engagement
help reduce poverty and improve the well-being
of marginalized communities? Poverty is a
multidimensional process, so engagement isn't
just about dealing with economic poverty, or
income poverty, or material poverty, which is
very important, but it is also about overcoming
social exclusion, it's about overcoming what is
known as voice poverty, it's about overcoming
inequities in who has power and who doesn't. And
how can those multiple aspects of poverty be
dealt with, unless people themselves are
involved, using their voices, using their
knowledge with support from the government with
sound economic policy? To shift to real
export-led growth economic-policy that would
create higher income from exports through the
supply value chain, increasing foreign exchange
earnings that will trickle down leading to
wealth-creation and self-reliance. Reducing
poverty is all about strengthening people's
assets.
Communities can be looked at to
determine what they don't have or an individual
to evaluate his/her capacity and skills and
determine what is required to upgrade the skills
or access, or look at the communities and ask
“where are the assets which they can begin to
mobilize to improve their well-being?” And that
approach gives a different set of answers.
Rather than asking “what we can do to help the
poor”, a question like this can be asked: “how
do poor people strengthen their own lives
starting with their assets, starting with what
they have, to get what they don't have to get
what they need”. And that is the process of
mobilizing one's assets to build the power from
within one's communities to have the power to
act, to make a difference in the long term of
one’s life, to create wealth and become
self-reliant.
Barriers that Impede the Process
of Poverty Reduction:
Often, citizens don't have the
core capacities, they don't know to engage and
those that do have may not have the access or
the opportunities. This is where the government
engagement will not only provide equal access
for example to education, skill
development/capacity building, healthcare,
security, access to finance for SMEs and other
needed infrastructure but also opportunities to
every citizen to pursue and develop his/her
God-given talent to maximize his/her capacity as
a citizen.
Particularly, the government, in
this regard should always be apt in what is
referred to as Social Accountability Support,
building multi-stakeholder coalitions,
partnerships and collaboration and not have
bureaucratic inertia. In light of the need to
build coalitions, maintain strong relationships
across state governments and outside of it and
help solve collective problems that are adaptive
and flexible in this area, recognizing these
multiple pathways for change, and multiple ways
of working to deliver scorecard approaches,
could be a crucial first step to effective
citizens’ engagement. This way will eliminate
barriers that impede the process of poverty
reduction and engagement.
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