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20 years of democracy and human resource management

Nigeria has chalked 20 years of unbroken democracy. The feat deserves applause. It feels good to be free from soldiers, who, without training in governance, had arrogated the power to rule to themselves for 29 years of the 58 post-Independence years. It feels good particularly for being free from arbitrary detentions and killings; for the freedom of speech and the experience of participatory governance.

But as the nation is inching up the years of free rule, so are the problems of governance rising.

Nigeria is beset with challenges of incompetent and corrupt leadership; poor economy and infrastructure and insecurity. The consequence is that majority of the citizens has yet to feel the positive impact of democracy. In fact, the situation has gone so bad to the extent of the country being declared the poverty capital of the world in a report released by the World Poverty Clock last year.

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The report stated that Nigeria had overtaken India, as the country with the most people, living in extreme poverty in the world. Up to 86.9 million Nigerians were estimated to be extremely poor, representing nearly 50 per cent of the country’s population. Beyond the report, signs of poverty are visible among the multitude of the citizens across the land.

Nigerians in their thousands line up the streets of major towns and cities, to hawk all manners of articles, to eke out a living, without regard to their health and safety. For as many as struggling to make ends meet, there are more idling away at home or at street junctions, unsure of what to do with their lives.

The economy is in bad shape. Resources of the state are deployed more in funding consumption by few at the expense of the majority. The resources are even leaner because many of  the citizens lack the wherewithal to contribute to the public purse. Worse still, most of the state governments are unproductive and lacking in creativity to improve the living conditions of their people without recourse to federal allocations.

The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the unemployment situation in the country had climbed by to an unprecedented level in the last quarter of 2018. The bureau gave the figure of unemployed at 23.1 per cent, a 30 per cent rise.

The failure of the governance to reflect positively on the lives of the citizenry is more visible in the resort to religious extremism, as exhibited by Boko Haram, banditry, kidnap for ransom, drug trafficking and other anti-social behaviours.

With the inauguration of the president and 29 state governors, Nigerians eagerly await the constitution of the Federal and state executive councils. We plead that in the new dispensation, the executive councils at the federal and state levels should give utmost attention to developing the vast human capital that the country is endowed with.

Banditry, kidnapping and other forms of anti-social behaviours being exhibited by Nigerians are the consequences of long years of bad governance and, particularly, the dangerous neglect of education and well being of the citizens.

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We, therefore, call for a synergy among the governors and between them and the Federal Government to give the education of Nigerians more urgent attention that they currently do.

Our education system, which makes many fall by the way side and confined to existence as dregs, and also leave those who struggle through to tertiary level, roaming the streets after graduation, cannot make Nigeria great.

As long as the vast majority of Nigerian youths are without the right education and training, they will remain jobless. And citizens who are not gainfully employed, will rather than contribute to the growth of the economy and society, remain mere leeches and nuisance.

Recently, Professor Deji Omole, Chairman of the University of Ibadan (UI) branch of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, observed that Nigeria’s future looked bleak with the attitude of the country’s political leaders to funding education. He also attributed the increasing wave of insecurity in the country to the fallout of the Federal Government’s failure to properly fund education and educate children of the masses.

We agree with Prof. Omole’s observation and urge President Muhammadu Buhari and the governors to make education and human resource development a prioritised strategy for enhancement of the country’s development beyond 20 years of democracy.

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