Mubarak Aminu: The two way approach to restructuring Nigeria [NEXT]

by Mubarak Aminu

The other day I was listening to an FM station program and they were discussing ways we can restructure Nigeria out of this present state.

All the points brought out by the discussants were valid, such as going back to the regional system, stop dependence on the central government for the share of the national cake and quarter system issues which makes some regions lazy.

But the one thing they all neglected to mention is our mindset.

Restructuring of Nigeria starts from our minds. A clerk in the office will not want to pass your file until you see him, a contract will not be awarded you until you have a connection to someone who knows someone, your people in the village want you to fetch their own share the moment they hear you have resumed office as a minister or director and the worst of it all, people see this thing as normal and if you don’t follow the norm, they will think you are not normal and see you as a threat to their survival.

People literally survive and live on corruption. Even our religious houses of worship are not far behind. We hide under religious and ethnic sentiment in order to loot resources.

We don’t look for competence when appointing public office holders, we base it on region, regardless of the candidates’ qualification- or lack of. The overriding concern is that he represents the interests of his people.

Our educational system has been badly affected by the cancer that is eating us up.

Parents and school principals collaborate with students to cheat during external examination and nobody sees anything wrong with it.

If I may ask, please did anybody help you do examination malpractice during your time as a student?

Our universities play a direct role too, with some departments full of staff from one family. Until we change our thinking about the way we live and start doing the right thing in the right place, whether we like it or not, Nigeria will never move forward.

As a public servant, do the job you are supposed to do in the office, without someone greasing your palms.  By doing so, our national resources will be judiciously utilised and all leakages of corruption will be cut off.

Another way out of this present state is by cutting off the share of the national cake coming from the centre. This is one of the things that make us lazy in this country. We have all that it takes to stand on our own in our various regions if we are ready to remove laziness and work hard by utilizes our resources and manpower at our disposal.

if I had a chance I will advocate that we go back to our regional system, where all the region control their resources and at the end contribute to the centre and not the reserve way we are currently following. Right now, our politicians are only creative when it come to the share of the national cake.

I know some people will not agree with me but this is the only way out, depending on one region’s resources for the survival of the nation cannot take us anywhere. Every day we pray the price of crude oil should not fall, but the reality on the ground is technology is gradually replacing oil across the world, this is just one of the early sign for us to stop depending on it and look for another means.

I mean, do we ever imagine what will happen if oil is no more needed in the world?

Let change our mindset and do the right thing. Forget about your tribe, religion and put the country first, when appointing public office holder, let’s look for competence, not ethnic and religious bias, even if it mean all the public office holders come from one region. This way our system will work right because the right people are in the right place.

Difficulties birth creativity in us.
Good Bless Nigeria.


Mubarak Aminu is founder and lead content developer at techarewa.com; he loves to talk about technology solutions

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