AN OPEN LETTER ON THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE Psalm 19 says that Creation declares the glory of God to people of all languages. My interpretation, Creation teaches about attributes of God we cannot see. I take time to observe what people do when they believe people are not watching and what they say to see if there is a conflict. Why? we live in a world overtaken by make believe scenarios (Reality Shows). You tend to see the real person when he/she believes there is no audience present. (many of us take advantage of this while singing in the bathroom) Two names jumped up at me at my first casual glance at the list of the National conference delegates, Pastor Tunde Bakare and Mr Atedo Peterside, the former is my Pastor while the latter is the Founder of a bank i have investments in. The relationship i have with these two men says something about the bias i have towards them already, submitting to a Pastoral ministry is not to be taken lightly while giving your money to a man to multiply means some ethical evaluation must have taken place (some level of trust is involved). I have observed these two men over a period of about 20 years and one other thing that i also admire about them is their commitment to Nigeria. Their presence at the conference gives me hope about the level of transparency and seriousness we should expect during the conference proper. This article is in no way exhaustive or meant to bring other delegates in to disrepute but i can only vouch for people i know. The choice of other delegates i pray is based on their antecedents and not lineage only. This article is to the two gentlemen about my concerns on what are issues that must be addressed among others during the conference. Some may say why not direct your open letter: to the National Assembly? My reply is that they are busy debating the National budget and at the billions weve spent per bill passed? spending 7 billion Naira to discuss and fix all Nigeria ills is a deal of life 1. The Humiliation of our pensioners. It is disheartening to see and read reports of the humiliation people who have worked for government and served the country in the armed forces are subjected to. We all know these things that has led to some dying before their time, given over to extreme poverty and debilitating sicknesses. mind boggling are the figures often mentioned kept (saved)in some accounts somewhere while would be beneficiaries starve and wait for death often in high humidity and sunny days queuing to be profiled for pittance that they will eventually be paid, a society that treats the elderly this way is showing the young ones the future that awaits them if they chose not to break orderly processes and ranks. what morals do we expect from them when they know and see the trauma their parents experienced for not breaking the ranks and orderly processes? May i suggest that a one off payment be given to pensioners with good and sound project ideas they can invest in, this should be help renew their vigor, hope and add more value to the National economy. 2. The feeling of hopelessness prevalent among our youth. The disconnect between Nigeria and her youth is phenomenal. Our system is broken, there is simply no Nigerian dream. I have heard it severally in recent time that our 0 - 17 years age bracket form the largest percentage of our population. This speaks volumes about the imminent crisis waiting for the Nation we are all striving to build when our educational system has collapsed, health system are mere consultation system, Security is left to individual efforts and vigilantes, Jobs are mere things to be discussed and imagined because they are simply not available. The effects are already with us with the very high inclination of our young ones to turn to crime. worrisome when a single (ONE) brewer said it sold about 600 million bottles of beer in a single year. Violence towards women and children, constant aggression towards society (kidnapping), constant desire to leave our shores on a one-way ticket, outright reluctance to add any value whatsoever to the Nation. Ready acceptance and submission to all forms of foreign indoctrination and outright denunciation of our cultural values, fanaticism including sports and religious variants. The Army of youth we currently have must be engaged positively and their energy harnessed to turn the nation around. 3. The Public Service Government officials in recent time have turned out worse than the colonial system we were taught to despise, The new nouveau rich in society are now civil servants, every avenue to take earnings from people through multiple taxations, levies with all services now to be paid for even though no value is given. The Nigerian environment is caustic and extremely hostile, there is a joke common among our young ones that when judgment day comes and God talks about hell as punishment for sin, they will simply claim they are Nigerians meaning theyve lived through hell already and cannot be punished twice. How do you mobilize and expect any good from a generation with this mindset? Public servants see government service as means to profit, the value seen in our society bear no correlation to our National income rather our public servants: laundering billions stolen from the National treasury are responsible for the extremely high inflation we are all subjected to especially in the housing sector, to imagine that some homes in Nigeria are more expensive than what we see and hear are in some very expensive suburbs in the US and UK. Of course Political jobbers and Public Servants are among the owners of choice properties in these neighborhoods, most time by Nigerians who worked all their life in public office. To imagine that Public office holders in Nigeria started paying tax in 2013 while all the while signing off on punitive tax laws is downright criminal. I salute the brave ones endeavoring to manufacture or do business instead of being landlords or rent collectors 4. Fix our Electricity or at Least develop a master plan that will fix it. That the epileptic electricity supply in the Country is doing havoc to all areas of our National life is understating the injury. Fixing our electricity will diminish the damage power generators are doing to the environment and health issues that are collateral to it. That people set up Generator assembly plants with Nigeria in mind is shameful and worrisome. Fixing our electricity will strengthen the Naira since more industries will afford to be in production, diesel and petrol importation will decrease since most are consumed at home and business premises for electrical power. Generators importation will equally reduce drastically. Fixing our electricity may make the number of refineries adequate since demand for fuel will drop by an estimated 60 percent. Fixing our electricity will allow our artisans to practice their trade instead of seeking work as okada riders or area boys Fixing our electricity will encourage new business start ups since energy consideration is taken out of the equation Fixing our electricity may also fix our no vacancy situation in the economy. May i be allowed to stop here, others should please writing to delegates they know to consider other serious issues or perhaps improve on what i already wrote about. Thank you for your kind attention Lekan Onimole
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 09:31:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015