From My Archives: The ‘troblems’ with Nigeria… as at 1979, 44 years ago! - Ik Muo, PhD.

 

On Saturday, 29/7/23, my friend and classmate at UI, Mr AA Falade, an insurance guru of no mean repute, sent me a copy of ‘The University IKONOMIST, Vol5, No1’ a publication of Association of Economic Students, UI Chapter. It was published in 1979 when I was in Year2 and the PRO of the Association and Chairman of the Editorial Board. (that time, I was also the Commissioner for Information & Propaganda at  Ziks Hall as well as the Editor of the ZikMag). He then referred me to my article in that publication ‘Issues of the moment, My frank views {(The IKONOMIST,5(1) 26-28)} and asked: ‘Ikonic Ik, what has changed between 1979 when you wrote your iconic article and the present day’? Later that same day, another of my UI class mates, Stan Ukeje, sent me the same article and remarked: ‘problems identified in 1979 are still plaguing Nigeria in 2023, 44 years later’! He asked me to compare the 44-year-old article with my present interventions. He went further to accuse me of being Jeremiahic  in my writings (Jeremiah is known as the ‘weeping prophet’) but I will leave it at that for now!

 I started my ‘media activism’ in 1978. My objective has always been to provide a framework for comparing the past and the present by documenting ‘history on the go’, to take a picture of today and keep it for tomorrow.  Issues of the moment…, which I wrote in my Second Year in the University is among my earliest public interventions. By the way ‘Issues of the moment’ became the title for my collection of poems (or poem-like articles) written between 1978 and 1990. So, I looked at the 44-year-old article again and decided to share it with Nigerians of today so that they can partake in the challenge thrown by two of my UI classmates.   The readers’ task is simple:  compare and contrast how things were in Nigeria in 1979 as documented by a 21-year-old Year2 Nigerian undergraduate with how things are today. The original article follows.

The aim of this piece is to have a critical look at some of the pressing socio-economic problems of the present-day Nigeria. It is also aimed at making it known to those in authority that they have not been able to solve these problems because in many cases, they do not know (or pretend not to know?) the actual causes of these problems and resultantly they approach them from the wrong perspective.

 

Inflation

 

Inflation: corn-sellers now sell in parts!

Inflation may be defined as a high and persistent rise in the price level.  Nigeria - as a part of the world- has not been finding it easy with inflation. It has been estimated that prices rose by between 5% and 88% in Nigeria from 1963 to 1972, and that annual rate of inflation by 1975 was above 35%. Many factors have been advanced as the causes of inflation in Nigeria - the aftermath of the civil war, the unfortunate Udoji awards, the oil boom (or doom?) and imported inflation. Government efforts to cure this sickness have yielded no dividends. The now dormant Price Control Board was set up but how can one control the price of commodities when he has no effective control over the supply of same commodities? With the bribery in Nigeria the board members on most occasions go in search of the road-side retailers who cannot offer much in terms of bribe while leaving the large-scale hoarders.

Another side of the show is that the Government has not been serious in its efforts to deal with inflation. Its policy has been that of "one-step-forward-three-steps-back- wards’. How can the same government, which wants to reduce price levels turn round and double the price of fuel, increase school fees in multiples of three, and raise taxes, water rates and air transport fares? The traders who have goods to sell try to cover some of these increasing costs by charging higher prices and as the Price Control board is ineffective, the inflation gets worse. The civil servants, pensioners and the unemployed are those who bear the brunt of the situation. The government should stop cutting its nose to spite the face (trying to raise revenue and thereby worsening inflation) or leave inflation alone!

Public Corporations and Inefficiency

 Public corporations are government owned entities established for the purpose of providing essential services to the people. They are not profit-oriented but they have to operate in such a way as to be self-financing. Allowing private entrepreneurs to undertake such essential services might keep them out of the reach of the common man and this might derail the fulfilment of certain government objectives. Some of these public corporations in Nigeria are National Electric Power Authority, the Water Corporation and Posts & Telecommunications. In some areas, you are lucky if you have an hour of uninterrupted power supply. Many parcels get lost in transit while at times letters become faster than telegrams. Water shortage is almost a constant in many parts of this country. What baffles the son of man however is that this water scarcity and power failure do not always affect some areas of the various towns. The areas inhabited by ‘those who are’ do not experience such inconsistent supplies as experienced by the "people" who live in the other areas of town.

A major sickness associated with these corporations is inefficiency or the inability to deliver the goods. This is mainly caused by the absence of self-interest on the part of the managers. The manager is a civil servant and must earn his salary however bad the financial situation might be. Resultantly, he adopts an "I don't care" attitude, which would not have been the case if he were a private business man because poor financial returns mean winding up the company.

Furthermore, these corporations are monopolies. Surely, NEPA would not have been messing around if there was an alternative power supplier because even the wife of the General Manager would have switched over to the alternative.  Also, if NEPA had to pay for damages through the courts, sanity should have returned to the corporation. So far as these corporations are monopolies and salaries are independent of performance, inefficiency will continue to be a part of them.

Bribery

 

Bribery

  From Kickback to kick-forward; from 10% to 100%+

Bribery is now a norm in the Nigerian society. Many people, especially those who have, are now of the opinion that nothing can work properly in this country without bribes while some are even bold enough to argue that it is un-Nigerian to reject bribes or to expect something without it.  Personally, I am convinced that the act of giving or taking bribes is not an inborn "quality". Many people resort to offering bribes as a result of their bitter experiences in our society. Thus, a person whose files have "disappeared" three times in the passport office learns bitterly from others that if he gave N200 to somebody somewhere, he could have his passport delivered to him within one week. Most of those who offer bribes at the slightest opportunity are those who have excess "bread" (some of them through foul means) and as such throw the "thing" around anyhow.

The office boy or clerk easily accepts the bribes offered him because he finds it very difficult to keep body and soul together with his meagre monthly salary. It is almost impossible for a person who is on a salary of N720 per annum to reject a bribe of N1000 "cash down". He would accept it because 'God has buttered his bread'. Some of these unfortunate civil servants are not too happy with the manner in which their colleagues in the private sector throw their money around. They must have their own share of the cake and so the next time the trader comes to seek for import license, those in such an office give thanks to God because the golden opportunity is around. In any case, I am not exonerating them, damn them! But also damn the government for keeping some people on a salary of N720 per annum while also creating the conditions which allows some to make ten times such an amount in a matter of days.

Armed Robbery

 

 From robbery to kidnapping to banditry & criminal entrepreneurship

Armed robbery has assumed greater dimension in recent times in this society of ours. So far, it has stubbornly defied all sorts of treatments by social doctors. One journalist put it vividly by saying that armed robbery is the most modern profession in Nigeria because it develops new techniques as soon as the old ones are discovered. I am convinced that none of the armed robbers in this country is a kleptomaniac. The civil war gave great impetus to the development of this lucrative profession. Before the war, armed robbery was very rare. During the war, many people mastered the act of human butchery and lost all regards for human lives After the war. Most of those fellows who had become accustomed to the raw life of the warfronts found it very difficult to go back to offices and start answering ‘Sir’ to the arrogant bureaucrats. Most of the arms used for these operations were also acquired during the war.

Many others take to robbery out of frustration from joblessness and non fulfilment of self. The increasing trend of armed robbery is also caused by the inequitable distribution of resources. For instance, they find it very difficult to comprehend why a fellow (emergency businessmen and the like) should have 3 flashy cars and housing estates while another fellow has no roof over his head and is not sure of the next meal. Since the social system has not allowed them to survive, they conclude that survival must only be through violence.

In any case, armed robbery is rampant today because of the paucity of the policemen. There are few policemen because the miserable looks of those who are already in the profession scare away potential policemen. The problem is that even the few guys available are ill-equipped as such some of them just steer clear of armed robbers' way because it is very difficult to face someone who is armed with automatic weapons while armed with "cork and shoot". There have also been instances when policemen connived with robbers. The public is also no longer too eager to cooperate with the policemen because if you report a case to the police, they might turn round and arrest you.  So, armed robbery stays with us unless the police improve on their performance, stop conniving with armed robbers and learn how to treat and reward informants.

Lynching

 The Aluu 4; mobbed and burnt alive!!!

Lynching is to "put to death without the official process of law". It is an act usually perpetrated by an infuriated mob and it is the most serious aspect of mob justice. In recent times, the rate at which such ugly incidents occur is becoming quite alarming. The law enforcement agents have been doing and are still doing all in their power to curb the excesses of these   mob. However, those in authority will never find a solution to lynching until they realize that lynching is a sign of peoples’ "vote of no confidence" on the police force in particular and the system of justice in general. The "ordinary" people have lost confidence in a system where you can send a thief to the police station only to see him drinking in the most expensive beer parlour the following day or where a case of bag snatching takes up to two years to try. After all, justice delayed is justice denied. Mind you, I do not support lynching.

Students' "Riots"

Apart from consultations (which are fruitless in most cases), all other forms of expressing grievances by students in this country have always been termed "riots"; be it in the forms of carrying placards peacefully around the campus or chanting "fire for fire" along the streets. Despite the fact that many armchair government functionaries have always been busy denouncing and castigating students' riots, these 'riots' have not ceased to occur because it is a part and parcel of students' lives. What are the causes of these riots? The official version is that present-day students are not disciplined (I have argued in another article that discipline is a subjective term), lack home training, are not book-conscious, have no atom of patriotism in them want to live above the society, or that some of these riots (e.g. "Ali must go") are foreign-engineered. The onlooker easily joins the government in chastising the students having accepted the official version of things.

However, for those who want to face facts, the main cause of these 'riots' is the "I don't care" attitude of those in authority towards students' problems. The Principal, the Vice- Chancellor, the Permanent Secretary or the Commissioner are all always of the opinion that students are comfortable enough and as such should have nothing to complain about. Consequently, any peaceful representation by. students are treated with the left hand". Some irrational ones bluntly tell the students to do their worst.

Some people think that closing down (or closing up) of schools, rusticating the so-called ring leaders, banning student union activities. or the bullets, will solve the problem. But I say No! What is needed is an accommodative attitude towards students. Riots will continue to dominate the history of Nigerian student unionism until the attitude that protests are evil, that students enjoy more than the "common man" and as such should not complain, are changed.

Shortage of Teachers

There is no doubt about the fact that teaching is one of the most essential services being rendered by man to man in the world.  It is the primary school teachers who lay the foundation upon which a person can - with the refinement of the secondary school teachers and the guidance of university lecturers - become a doctor, engineer, permanent secretary or a commissioner. But Nigerian teachers (especially the primary and secondary ones) are notoriously ill-rewarded. The 'rewards are poor salaries, lack of respect (because they carry chalk), no-payment or delayed payment of salaries, poor promotion prospects and frustrative decrees and directives. Those in the ministries (though they are not much better off) enjoy their benefits to the full but do not care one bit if some teachers have not received their 1973 leave allowance in 1979. The result is that as frustration continues to mount, those teachers who are still young in body and spirit look for more gainful employments; the old ones regret their lives, curse their fates while the impression is implanted into the young ones that teaching is not worthwhile, when they see teachers wearing tattered trousers and shoes that resemble those of the Victorian era in this late 70s. All this culminate in the acute shortage of teachers in all our institutions of learning, and this is becoming a serious national problem Unless they realize the importance of teachers and make it an attractive profession by improving their lots, then I am afraid of the future. The path will be anything but smooth.

 The 1979 article is concluded. You can compare and contrast. I have also aided your assignment by including some images of recent scenario.

 - Ik Muo, PhD. FCIB. Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye. 08033026624

Like| Comment| Share

“Find a great mentor, someone who has already been through the many challenges of being an entrepreneur..” -Jodi Levine

Entrepreneurship in Practice: Cases, Challenges and Lessons By IK, MUO PHD is now available on Amazon, since 14/5/21. Click here to view  Available for order  +2348033026625 | Delivery : Worldwide