A Humbling Reality!

By Banji 0jewale

One day in the very near future, naysayers of the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency are going to be confronted with the greatest and indisputable evidence of their error and ignorance: the aircraft in which they travel to take care of their vast business empire straddling the length and breadth of Nigeria and sometimes across our shores will be handled by pilots trained under the Amnesty scheme of the Jonathan Administration! When their jets and helicopters would have flown safely through the turbulence of the sky and landed to the applause of both the passengers and loved ones waiting to receive them at well-lit airports maintained by electricians including trainees of the Amnesty school, the critics would be humbled by a numbing reality: Jonathan isn’t “clueless” after all!

*President Jonathan

But it is not only in that field the president has confounded his captious compatriots. In education he has become the first president of Nigeria to address the vexatious issue of federal universities being the exclusive preserve of some states. By causing the establishment of nine of such institutions in the states that had none, Jonathan has ensured that each state in Nigeria now has at least one federal university either in existence or under actual construction.

He has also gone on to set up modern nomadic schools in parts of the country’s north in order to rid the place of the youth ruthless politicians exploit to terrorise the society. Lack of education has turned these youngsters into almajiris (street urchins) who graduate into members of Boko Haram and other violent organisations. He has ensured that billions of naira are pumped into the project for effective implementation of its objectives, so that the almajiri system can be banished completely.

*Ex-British P.M. Gordon Brown

These were some of the achievements noticed by ex-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently. He affirmed his faith and that of the international community  in the policy drive of the Nigerian Government in the field of education. Revealing implicit confidence in government’s moves to tackle the challenges in the education sector, Brown said he had spoken to the European Union (EU) to offer substantial grant to Nigeria for the development of education over the next seven years. He said he was making the plea because he was impressed with what the Government was doing to reposition education as a pivot of development.

The former UK PM declared: “The Federal Government of Nigeria has made available 250 million dollars for investment in education by the states. What we have managed to do by talking to the individual agencies… is to match the 250 million dollars, making possible new investment of 500 million dollars in education in Nigeria.”

*Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State

Now we are talking of a hefty injection of 77.6 billion naira into the system! The questions: would a reputable European institution pitch with a system it perceives not to be working? Would the EU go as far as granting such a system a princely half a billion dollars to support the efforts of the government in education?

The international community is aware of the security challenges coming the way of the government and the people of Nigeria. But the bigger point to note is that these foreign observers are also noticing the positive measures the government is adopting  to check the state of insurgency. Which is why it has decided to identify with Nigeria under Jonathan for mutual benefits in accordance with the tenets of international co-existence and peace.

This watching world is also pleased with a president who has become the first Nigerian leader to strive to meet Objective 3of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs0 by reserving 35% of all appointments in his administration for women. We must note that the United Nations insists that one of the reasons Africa lags behind in the development process is because we marginalize women in the process of nation building. The global body argues that women are a key component of the productive force. 

*At one of the new almajiri model schools 

(pix: pmnews)

On this score, Jonathan became the first president to appoint a woman to head the strategic petroleum resources ministry. Of course there are some other notable firsts: First President to appoint an Igbo a chief of army staff; first to appoint a Northerner as Head of the Electoral Commission; first to pick a Yoruba as Minister of Defence; first to appoint a female as his Chief Economic Adviser.

What this suggests is that we have a president who thinks out of the box, never mind the attacks of those who are glued to a beaten track, whose focus is blurred and therefore are incapable of sighting the observable achievements around us.

But this:that a blind man does not see the sun is no ground to annul its existence. The brilliance of the sun will assert its reality, a billion denials notwithstanding!

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*Ojewale, a journalist at Onibuku, Ota, Ogun State, is a contributor to SCRUPLES. He could be reached with: bmrtbo@yahoo.com