Let
us first and foremost congratulate Nigeria on reaching her centenary year.
However, we Nigerians have little or no cause for celebration because most of
these years were spent amidst bad governance and chaotic administration, which
has so resonated into almost all sectors and segments of this great nation,
Nigeria. The result is a culmination and a concatenation of negative and
unacceptable events reaching its apex with the Nigerian Immigration Service
(NIS), recruitment exercise, scheduled on Saturday the 15th of
March, 2014. And what a shame it held. This now brings us to the questions I
have for my fellow Nigerian graduates, youths and the ever faithful Nigerian
citizens at large. “Do we have a yield point? How long will this go on? When
are we going to demand a change?”
Being a Nigerian graduate, youth and
faithful citizen I will like to suggest answers to these questions: To the
first, yes we do and have reached our
yielding point, to the second, no
more and to the last, why not this
day. Why depend on our fathers (past leaders still hovering around the
higher echelons of power), who failed us over and over again to make life
altering decisions on our behalf? The time has come for us the common Nigerian
graduate, youth and citizen to demand and participate in the effort to effect
change.
In a comment on the Nigeria
Immigration Service recruitment ‘massacre’, in which, 16 Nigerian job seekers
in their pursuit of a career in the Nigerian Immigration Service migrated to
the afterlife, leaving 50 injured. The so called “honourable” minister of
interior, comrade Abba Moro made a disheartening public statement, in which, he
tagged the deceased Nigerians ‘impatient’, claiming the death resulted, because
‘they did not follow the laid down procedures spelt out to them before the
exercise’. Before I continue, here are the statistics; an applicant who saw the
crowd and went home at the National Stadium Surulere, Lagos State said “I can
tell you that more than hundred thousand people came for this test” He
continued, “I have never seen this kind of crowd before in my life. Even if
this was a FIFA world cup football match, you will never get this many
spectators”. This is a stadium built to contain 45000 spectators. Taking this
as a case study, we can all agree that we do not need tertiary or even any form
of education to deduce that this is a problem of logistics management.
Every organization should have a
functional human resources department, which in turn, is responsible for smooth
and human friendly logistics management operations. This common and irrefragable
fact is obviously an anomaly to our “honourable” minister of interior, who
underlines and typifies most of our leaders’ lack of respect for human life,
human rights and total negligence of the welfare of the Nigerian citizens.
Thus, equating and relegating this democratic dispensation to a state worse
than a ‘tyrannical elitist government’. In a proper democratic environment,
this gross incompetence and lackadaisical approach towards issues that affect
human life and rights is and should be punishable by law. No ifs, no buts and
no excuses as is obtainable in developed democratic nations.
Having said all these, we appeal,
demand and expect justice in these inhumane, callous and cruel experiences we
encounter on a daily basis. We may have to start with this devilish act of
incompetence displayed by the Nigerian Immigration Service and the Minister of
interior, on ethical and exemplary counts. On the other hand, the Nigerian
graduates, youths and all faithful but concerned citizens who believe we have
reached our yield point, should not seat back, fold their arms and expect a
change to happen, we have to demand it and demand it even more aggressively.
All we ask for, is the prioritization of human lives and security of lives of
citizens of Nigeria. In my opinion this is not too much to ask because without
these fundamentals, all other “successes” we think we have made are null and
void. The time has come for the Nigerian youth to stand up because we are the
ones facing death in droves, we are the ones carrying the unborn children that
die alongside (maybe they are also guilty of “impatience” in joining the living
on earth). We are the ones that government policies are meant for. We are the
ones unemployed and underemployed. We are indeed, the future of Nigeria. The
time has come to ask to be involved in the national decision making processes
starting with the recently launched national conference. The time has come to
ask questions like; why don’t we have a functional emergency operative unit;
Embodying call centers, paramedics and security operatives on demand, amongst
many others? Time has come to put our pen on paper, words into action, talents
and professional knowhow into advocacy.
In conclusion, we need help. I am
a Nigerian graduate, youth and faithful citizen who has survived 23 years of
incompetence, corruption, nepotism and elitism. I am on a solidarity call to
the international community, the United Nations, UNICEF, the Commonwealth of
Nations, the European Union, the African Union, news agencies and mass media
presenters internationally and locally to help propagate this change.
Nothing
can be more important than our humanity. This, therefore, is an appeal for
government and the general public to prioritize human rights and the security
of life over and above any other agenda.
GOD
BLESS NIGERIA
GOD
BLESS THE WORLD
GOD
BLESS HUMANITY
