Leonard Karshima Shilgba<\/p>\n
Thanking God for giving each of us another year of opportunities of
\nservice to him would be appropriate. As leaders in our various corners
\nand at variegated levels, we need a pause and self-examination to
\nascertain if we have used our influence well: Have we used it
\nstrategically in the distributive decisions in order to ease material,
\nemotional, and intellectual distresses of the people that God has
\nblessed us to interact with, or we have rather invested energies and
\nextraneous resources to pursue vanities? The stature of a leader is
\nmeasured by two major metrics, namely, the positive power of personal
\nexample, or what is often called moral authority, and the strategic
\nproblem-solving skills. A leader who has become a problem rather than
\nbeing a problem-solver has compromised trust and threatened potential.<\/p>\n
Why do people indulge in vanities? When their understanding is darkened
\nthey are separated from the LIFE OF GOD. The darkened understanding is
\nalso called IGNORANCE. They are genuinely convinced of the rightness of
\ntheir choices and journeys in life no matter how injurious they may be
\nto the common social cause. You may ask, “What is the cause of this
\nignorance?” The answer is simple: The blindness of the mind.<\/p>\n
When the mind of the leaders is blind their society loses direction
\nbecause there is no clear vision, which is the sight object of the mind.<\/p>\n
We must intelligently and modestly determine how much is ENOUGH for us
\npersonally on the recovery trajectory to escaping the crude lusts of
\nthis life. It is only this escape that frees a man from CORRUPTION.<\/p>\n
Quite a number of us leaders in Nigeria profess religion, but not all
\nreligion is godly. If we do not care for the oppressed or keep ourselves
\nfrom the blots of the world, our religion is neither useful nor helpful.
\nWe must learn from history. One generation of leaders comes and goes.
\nOurs will pass one day. Are we ready for the Great Day of Accountability
\n(GDA)?<\/p>\n
Our obscene accumulation of material wealth far in excess of our
\ndiscernible or legitimate streams and means of income is not only a
\ntestimony of the blindness of our mind, but has also become an irritant
\nto the preponderance of neighbours who believe we have abused the
\nopportunities they have given us, and, consequently, widened the lake of
\nmaterial poverty into an intimidating ocean of poverty. Nothing earthly
\ncontinues in perpetuity. Either we have an epiphany of needed awakening
\nor the mass reaction will stop our inner corruption. The latter would be
\nmore damning, while the former would be more self-satisfying. The choice
\nis ours.<\/p>\n
Permit me to be selectively specific:<\/p>\n
The art of legislation requires nifty minds and persuasion, and if our
\nlegislators lack both, social injustice and poverty become prevalent.
\nWhat is the legislative agenda of the present national and state
\nlegislatures? There is no strategic direction I can discern. Yet,
\nbrilliant legislative work can reduce poverty and check the excesses of
\nthe Executive. It is not the work or duty of a legislator to go to their
\nconstituency or district to distribute packages of food and a few wads
\nof money to their constituents (who have been deliberately and
\nstrategically impoverished over the years) while they have not cobbled
\nany pieces of legislation to address, for instance, the excessively high
\ncost of borrowing to finance business ideas; high cost of production and
\nliving instigated, in part, by the cocktail of high VAT increase, high
\nelectricity tariffs combined with epileptic electricity supply and
\ndistribution by a privatized sector that has so been for more than 7
\nyears, hiked cost of common fuel, and official but artificial
\ndevaluation of the naira; disorderly and dismal quality, but high cost
\nof medical care without an effective public health insurance law;
\nhorrible national and state infrastructure such as roads and trap
\nbridges; poor services Nigerians suffer at the hands of service
\nproviders such as telecommunication companies, cable TV companies, etc.;
\ninsecurity in the nation, etc.
\nLegislators who understand their briefs can craft intelligent laws and
\nput up effective oversight signatures to solve the above problems. If
\nthey only lament like the masses, and throw up their hands helplessly
\nwhile passing blame around, they have failed, and are undeserving of
\nboth their present offices and higher ones.<\/p>\n
Many State Governors in Nigeria have killed the local government system
\nand thereby worsened poverty in Nigeria. For instance, they do not
\nrelease the monthly FAAC allocation to the Local Government Councils
\n(LGCs) in their State. Consequently, those councils are unable to
\nprovide the poverty-reducing services required of them by the 1999
\nNigerian Constitution (See the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution).
\nBesides, those governors hardly allow stability or public
\naccountability of the\u00a0 LGCs, as they are often changed soon after they
\nare INSTALLED. No transparent elections hold, and so the people are not
\ninvolved in electing the council members, who are thereby accountable to
\ntheir governor, not the people in their Council Wards! By this impunity,
\nthe governors have destroyed democracy, worsened poverty, and stolen the
\nnational revenues of the Local Governments Areas.<\/p>\n
How can an enlightened mind justify the shutting down of public
\nuniversities in Nigeria for more than eight (8) months? How does this
\nbenefit the students or the university system? I think the National
\nUniversities Commission (NUC), which has the overwhelming statutory
\nresponsibility to manage and oversee federal universities, must sit up
\nto stop such and similar academic compromises henceforth:<\/p>\n
1. If a university (public or private) shuts down in the midst of an
\nacademic calendar (due to staff strike action or student riots) for a
\nweek, due NUC accreditation visitation should be denied for three (3)
\nmonths; if it shuts down for two weeks, due accreditation visitation
\nshould be denied for six (6) months; if it shuts down for three weeks,
\ndue accreditation visitation should be denied for nine (9) months; if it
\nshuts down for four weeks, due accreditation visitation should be denied
\nfor one year, and NUC must not accredit any degree programs at such
\nuniversities until the Vice Chancellor is removed. Furthermore, NUC
\nshould blacklist from its visitation panels (whether Accreditation,
\nResource Verification, or statutory Visitations) professors and other
\nsenior staff from universities that have shut down in the midst of their
\nacademic calendars.<\/p>\n
2. If a federal university has shut down for at least four weeks, the
\nsalaries of its staff who are striking should be paid to its students
\nduring the period as compensation.<\/p>\n
We the leaders of Nigeria (academic, political, religious,\u00a0 business,
\nand traditional) must amend our minds before we are forced to.<\/p>\n
Leonard Karshima Shilgba<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Shilgba<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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