By FRANCISCA ADIDI

 The situation in Nigeria is becoming too unbearable for the citizens. This is because of the harsh economic situation. Times are too hard that most people find it too difficult to eat three square meals per day.

Everyday, one is faced with having to see different sets of people coming to ask for one thing or the other, all with the hope that one’s situation is better than their own. Meanwhile, they do not know that other people had already come before them. At the end of the day, one is left with so many requests of different kinds to settle.

Come to think of it, these people coming around are not even known faces, but with such situation, no matter how little, one must sacrifice because who knows when angels may come knocking at your door just like Abraham in the Bible who received Angels one afternoon which brought about the conception of Isaac.

It is no longer news that, everything is on the increase in the market. The prices of food items , commodity and every aspect of living is no longer friendly whereby salaries that is taken home cannot meet every demand in the homes, not to talk of payment of bills.

About 3 to 4 months ago, a 12.5kg cylinder refill of cooking gas was about ¦ 4,500. Today it is ¦ 8,000. When you feel it is better to use the electric stove/cooker, you find out that they have been increasing electricity tarrif quietly almost on a monthly basis.

There is almost nothing in the market today that is not double the price it was being sold at the beginning of the year or 3 times the price less than 4 years ago. Yet we are still burdened with increased VAT, stamp duty, excessive bank charges, etc. At the moment, they are considering bringing back toll gates and considering further fuel price increase up to ¦ 300 a litre.

CBN is attacking Fintech companies and cryptocurrency traders thus, making life difficult. NIPOST is killing logistics companies with excessive taxation. EFCC is now raiding hotels at random, chasing away their guests. Where are we heading to with such situations cycle of violence?

Up to this moment, most of the states in Nigeria have not been able to start paying the 30,000 minimum wage as agreed long ago, and nobody is talking about it anymore. The salaries collected have become stipends because they don’t take care of feeding at home, not to mention school fees and other utility bills.

Our public hospitals have been closed for about 50 days now, and the government doesn’t seem to be bothered. While many Nigerians cannot afford private hospitals bill, that is why many people are dying because of lack of medical attention. You have to pay through your nose to get any health care in the country.

We used to sit and talk about insecurity in the North West, wondering how it managed to get to Nigeria. Now you can’t drive within Nigeria freely or from Jos to Kaduna, Jos to Abuja or Aba to Orlu without the fear of being killed or kidnapped along the road. What a country Nigeria has become. We are no longer free in our own home country. No wonder people crave to go out of the country these days. A country that eats her people. What is the future of Nigeria?

Even when many Nigerians are battling with the economic situation, kidnapping, banditry, Boko Haram and all forms of evil is worsening and making life too miserable for people to bear.

Many Nigerians are seriously praying to see the end of the in the hope that would better their lives. Nigerians believe that the too much shedding of blood in the land has offended God hence the too much suffering in the country and the world in general. The situation keeps worsening day by day even with change of leadership and new government’s efforts in providing succour.

This is and should be the time for decisive leadership that would present a profound national vision and sincerely show the entire nation a clear path to a new Nigeria. The country at this point deserves nothing less than a sincere, generous, bold, visionary, large-hearted, courageous and competent leadership, whose dream is nothing short of a first-world societal order and national development.

Nigeria therefore, needs to think deeper and bigger about its citizens and the society as a whole beyond what we are currently facing or have had these past years and decades as a country. With the kind of unprecedented social problems and the various symptoms of psychological dysfunctions experienced mostly by our youths across Nigeria today, we have to have a rethink about our socio-political, cultural  and ideological standard to expand our imagination in terms of how the society should be organised, governed and well instituted.

Many Nigerians have faced too many psychological harassments and are mentally affected and inflicted by the man-made or societal problems in the society. These problems which do not allow self confidence to prevail and as a result, many people are sick and tired of the current situation.

The truth is, even from the richest person to the ones occupying the highest position in the society today, to the very common person on the streets, they are all essentially ‘poor’- the poverty of lacking truly committed principles and values turning to God, many of which would do us no good at the end. It is safe to say we are all essentially “poor”, good and bad as a people. It seems that what we have over the years, as a nation and people, is the zero-sum model of leadership, management, or governance. Instead of focusing on expanding our collective capacity to produce, and empower more Nigerians to be self reliant, rather, it is the syndrome of ‘me’ ,I myself and family. We need to consider the sacrificial of our heroes past.     

 Protecting the fortunes of education

By NAOMI SANTOS

THE United Nations (UN) in recognition of the global threats to education and its disruptive impact on the lives of students has designated every September as the International Day to Protect Education from Attack.

This year’s event, which was the second edition, was marked to raise awareness to the plight of millions of children and young adults who were denied education. They are growing up without the requisite skills to contribute in developing their countries.

The theme for this year’s event was Education, Security and National Development. Education is one of the components of national security, and it is as important as defence of a nation.

It was one of the factors that contributed significantly to the national development of a country.We must acknowledge that Nigeria has drifted to a situation of low academic standard for quite some time. We must remind ourselves that the power of a nation is determined among other factors by the large number of educated people it can train.

Education plays a vital role in shaping successful people. It gives us the opportunity to become productive members of a civilized society to acquiring all the necessary skills. We learn how to handle challenges and overcome obstacles. People learn basic norms, rules regulations and values through education. Moreover, a high quality education enables us to live a successful life, enhance our intelligence, skills, knowledge and bring positive changes in our lives.

Education lays the foundation stone for our future. An uneducated person can find it very difficult to cope with some aspects of life. Education expands our vision, mission and creates awareness. It helps us develop a disciplined life and provides us with better earning opportunities. It enables us to know the world beyond our own surroundings.

Education is also a prerequisite of prosperity and modernization of any country. With rapid changes in technology, the world has become a global village which has made education become the driver of human development. How are we going to be active participants in the 4th Industrial Revolution with the declining quality of education?

Quality education is a key component for any nation that wishes to enhance the standard of human resources create new skills, cultural values and behavioral patterns required in the industry.

Education is the fourth pillar of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN, which specifically demands that nations should ensure that their people acquire quality education and skills to promote sustainable development by the year 2030.

A nation whose people are not educated, disciplined and organized cannot develop. Attacks on schools, students and their teachers in my view are attack on national development.

Attack on education, students and teachers started about four decades ago. But we did not pay much attention to it. Inadequate funding of public schools, teachers’ unpaid salaries and incessant strikes by lecturers particularly at the tertiary institutions, decay of technological infrastructures in universities, polytechnics, Colleges of Education and secondary schools constitute part of the attack on education.

Banditry, kidnapping, terrorism are big time businesses in the country as ransom are being collected from victims before they are released. Some state governors are helpless even when schools and students are being kidnapped in their states.

They will ask us to pray over it without taking stringent measures for the rescue of the students. The common slogan is that we will bring the perpetrators to book after which nothing is done. We need to be proactive in any solution chosen.

We need to bring all elements of national power on deck in fighting insecurity; Diplomacy, Information, Military and Economic (DIME). All these elements should be applied collectively.

The role of the military is clear as expressly stated in the 1999 Constitution. However, the federal and state governments must provide good governance, ensure equity and justice, and curtail the circulation of arms.

Likewise, increase funding to schools, improve welfare of teachers and upgrade technological infrastructure.Our citizens can provide the necessary information that will assist the government and the military to succeed in the security of the nation.

All state governors must collaborate with security agencies to save schools and students from bandits and terrorists. Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Niger, Plateau and others particularly those states that were considered flashpoints of terrorists must work together in finding a lasting solution to their security challenges.

All components of national power must be deployed to see the end of attacks on schools. Also to give our children the opportunity of benefiting from education so that they do not become spectators in a world that is in the 4th Industrial Revolution.