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From: Akinjide OUNTOKUN <josuntokun@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2015 16:09:43 +0100
To: Ambassador Haruna Wando<wandoharuna@yahoo.com>; ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>; akinosuntokun@yahoo.com<akinosuntokun@yahoo.com>
Subject: Fwd: Let us begin .my column for Thursday 4th of June 2015
Regards,
Prof Jide Osuntokun
Emeritus professor of History and International Relations
Sent from my iPadBegin forwarded message:
From: Akinjide OUNTOKUN <josuntokun@yahoo.com>
Date: June 2, 2015 at 8:36:55 PM WAT
To: fola osuntokun <fola.osuntokun@gmail.com>, "tosuntokun@hotmail.com" <tosuntokun@hotmail.com>, Seyi Osuntokun <seyiosuntokun@yahoo.com>, Yewande Osuntokun <wande_osuntokun@hotmail.com>, Tee <adeponle@hacari.com>
Subject: Fwd: Let us begin .my column for Thursday 4th of June 2015
Regards,Prof Jide OsuntokunEmeritus professor of History and International RelationsSent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:From: Akinjide OUNTOKUN <josuntokun@yahoo.com>
Date: June 2, 2015 at 8:34:11 PM WAT
To: "sanyaoni@yahoo.co.uk" <sanyaoni@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Let us begin .my column for Thursday 4th of June 2015The journey of a thousand years begins with the first step ,so let us begin the journey of the Buhari presidency. I think it was president Muhammadu Bihari who himself said to the cheering crowd who went to rejoice with him on his electoral victory that ,you want change now change has come !. It has come indeed . The Jonathan crowd like Egyptians have disappeared hopefully never to be seen again in the corridors of power . Some of them will try to come back but Nigerians are wiser than they used to be . The total collapse of the state the last week of Jonathan in power showed us clearly how close we were to total melt down of the state .it was frightening to say the least. In IBADAN where I live we witnessed total paralysis . There was no fuel .,no light and to diesel to power the generator ,the mobile phones stopped working because there was no diesel for the power they needed, banks shut down because their computers broke down the ATM machines were not working so we could not get money and I could not pump water from my dug out well in the absence of municipal water supply . Hospitals could not function and the civil service was and is still on strike because members claimed they have not been paid for six months. In some places desperate young people took to brigandage and robbery . I had to ask myself whether life was worth living and also if it was not time to check out of the country. But where will I go in my evening years? . In all my years of living in this country I had never seen this kind of hopelessness . The interesting thing was that I was not angry, Even if I was ,who will I direct my anger against? Everybody around me was abusing the outgoing government and head of state but I felt our problem goes beyond this outgone administration . I see it as a systemic problem and to solve it will require fundamental approach to governance . But are will really prepared to face the problem squarely and if necessary bite the bullet!I do not expect any radical changes in this regime because honestly speaking the time is too short and there is so much damage to the country and our individual and collective psyches that palliative measures are what we can take now while radical measures may have to wait for perhaps the next two tears . We need to make the systems work first, take care of our immediate needs of security, jobs,salaries , electricity,water ,roads, hospitals ,schools ,municipal and urban cleanliness . As a university teacher I sympathize with many of my colleagues in state universities who have not been paid for months and as a father I am sad that children in closed down universities are roaming around and some are getting killed in accidents driving their parents cars around without permission and with youthful exuberance .These are simple things in most countries but not in this overpopulated country of ours.Not all these things belong in the province of the federal government or what a president should ordinarily be concerned with. But their absence poses existential challenge to our people and therefore to the president . If there are institutions or people that are charged with the duties required to make things work and they are derelict in the performance of such functions they are to perform then somebody must call their attention to it . There may be need for strong armed tactics to force some people to behave properly or to obey the dictates of their assignment. Any body not working for the corporate good of this country must be challenged and forced to do what is right. This is the essence of being in a national community which confers rights on us as citizens .if we all believe in the good of this country then we should work towards its attainment because it is by this that we as individuals can fully realize our full potentialities . A situation in which individuals turn themselves into local governments providing themselves ,water ,by digging boreholes ,electricity by having generators, security by having our houses wired with life electricity and surrounding our homes with tall fences and killer guard dogs and maiguardi is in the long run not sustainable . Our efforts as individuals are futile because they are selfish and not based on the general Good of our people
Take for example the state of education in this country . It is the norm that everybody who can afford it and those who can not have boycotted sending their children and wards to government or public primary , secondary and tertiary institutions . Their preference is private institutions where there is discipline and apparently more dedication and certainty of duration of years of study . Yet people like me went to public schools and we are not the worse for it . If we are serious about reform we should focus on primary and secondary education and if we get it right it will have positive result on tertiary institutions with vast opportunities for improvement all round . I am not against private institutions but it should not be at the expense of public institutions going to the dogs so to say . I do not know any country in the world where primary and secondary education are mainly in the hands of private business people as it seems Nigeria is destined to experience . This is just an example of all that is wrong in Nigeria .
I was amused when I read what professor Nebo our erstwhile minister of power said as an excuse for his failure as minister . He then went on to advice Buhari to use force to put down those vandalizing gas pipe lines and also to compel oil companies to cooperate in the area of gas supplies . Why did he not tell Jonathan whom he served for about three years this simple truth . Has he just recovered his voice or was he simply afraid to speak truth to power! The time those who serve in government are able to stand and be counted is when we will be getting near finding solutions for our myriad of problems
President Muhammadu Buhari has a full plate and as the saying goes he has to start from the begining . I was delighted that his first trip outside the country as president is to Chad and Niger. And perhaps Cameroon later on perhaps in one fell swoop. He is taking the security challenge facing the nation as first priority . I also like his statement that the HQ of the army itself may temporarily be in the North East of Nigeria presumably in Maiduguri . I will suggest he follows this by posting senior officers of the N.I.A as ambassadors to the these three countries so that they can be providing government with good intelligence reports about movement of insurgents in the border areas. The mercenaries from South Africa brought by the last regime have to be withdrawn . If we need fighting support we should ask our traditional friends to assist .Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty this should be inculcated to our people in the North of Nigeria and the whole country as a whole ,defense is too important to be left to the armed forces alone . We as citizens should be ready to provide information and to make whatever sacrifices will be necessary to rid our country of anarchists . There was a time in this country when we contributed financially to the liberation of Southern Africa . Charity needs to begin at home .If needs be we should again be called upon to contribute financially to the defense of the realm. We should also call on friendly countries especially our friends in the west to assist in whatever way they can and we must kit our armed forces well and supply them with most lethal and modern weapons and ensure that they are trained regularly . If we need support in this regard we must never be shy to ask in this increasingly interdependent world . Everybody knows that terrorism knows no borders when humanity suffers somewhere man suffers everywhere . There is so much tremendous good will for our newly elected president and we must not fritter it away or refuse to strike when the iron is hot . In spite of the current situation of near bankruptcy and impecuniosity of the moment we must put on our thinking caps and put the right people at the helm of affairs while still oblivious of whatever political debts owed and ethnic configuration we have to bear in mind
Regards,
Prof Jide Osuntokun
Emeritus professor of History and International Relations
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