What is fairness? Without much grammar, fairness in a laymans understanding means treat Mr. B the way you treat Mr. A. Recently, I saw the cut-off marks for entrance into federal unity schools (i.e, federal government colleges) as released by the federal ministry of education. I was shocked when I read that the cut-off marks for states like Cross River, Anambra, Ekiti, Imo, Rivers and other Southern states ranged from 128 to 135, whereas that of Kano, Yobe, Borno, Jigawa and other North East and North West states ranged from just 9 to 25. In this context, a Cross River state candidate with 125 marks failed the entrance examination whereas his counterpart from Kano with just 9 marks passed. This is quota system and federal character in practice. Is this fairness and will this Cross River state candidate believe in one Nigeria? This does not happen in federal unity schools alone. Its also application to admission into federal tertiary institutions and employment into government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Military and para-military organisations are not excluded. Tell me how a country can move forward with these type of policies that emphasise less on merit. In my last post, I posed a question that some should tell me a state created by a Southern leader but no one did. All the 36 states were created by past Northern military leaders. This is why Kano alone has 44 local government areas and Katsina 34 wheras Lagos with its intimidating largest population in Nigeria has just 20 local government areas and states like Cross River with such population has just 18. To the best of my knowledge, the major criterion for creating local government areas is human population and not empty land mass. For those agitating for more states, may I inform you that your effort is going to be fruitless because the Hausa/Fulani military imposed constitution makes it so difficult for a civilian government to create additional states. Even the constitutional review which our National Assembly (NASS) have spent billions of naira to organise conferences and hearings will not see the light of the day because that NASS is dominated by Northern law makers. For those who think GEJ is the major problem, the fact is that even if GEJ loses 2015 election, Nigeria will still remain as it is because no nation develops in the face of injustice caused. Hausa/Fulani oligarchy would not want Nigeria to disintegrate but does not want to address the structural imbalances in the country which have kept Nigeria backward for years. Since for 53 years, our attempts to live together hasnt given a common man hope, should we continue this way? Lets say yes to Sovereign National Conference (SNC) that will give birth to true federalism or outright break up of this forced marriage called Nigeria.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 06:53:59 +0000
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