What should be Done (1)

Nigeria
urgently needs a total free
education system for all her children
of school ages. Since God created
talents in every child, the free
education should not discriminate in
the areas of study; it should be for
all talents and faculties. A child’s
talent should be discovered at the
conclusion of his/her secondary
education and that should guide
what the child is to study in the
university. If a child is passionate
about knowing more and
developing his/her religion, he/she
should be given full free education
to pursue same and this should be
the case with all other areas of
talent/faculty. Talent development
should not continue to be on ad-hoc
disconnected basis as implemented
by corporate organizations under
their corporate social responsibility
(CSR) programmes.This will help to discover
earlier the talents in our children,
train them along their talents, and
teach them how to apply their
talents as a business, become
entrepreneurs and reduce
unemployment. Unemployment is
chiefly caused by the talent-
education-productivity
disconnection occasioned by the
irrelevant nominal education system
adopted in Nigeria and indeed most
Third World countries.
Nigeria needs a social revolution
that will seriously address the issue
of discipline. Lack of discipline or
indiscipline (that is doing things
that are wrong) is what is
destroying Nigeria. It cuts across
every strata of the Nigerian society
especially among the elites. Nigeria
aspires to be among the best 20
developed countries by the year
2020, but she does not have the
discipline that should support,
realize and sustain such an
aspiration. To be there, Nigeria
needs a fundamental change in
behavior. That change is simply to
do the right things. Bring back the
war against indiscipline (WAI) in a
more civil manner and Nigeria may
work again. Nigeria also needs to
address the issue of how they can
respect one another, love
themselves and live together in a
true federalism. She also needs to
determine what type of
development she needs? Does she
need to have the American or
European or Asian or Arabic or
African development? The issue is
not about capitalism or socialism or
communism: it is about any one of
them or a combination within an
African milieu. These determinations
will help to appropriately focus
Nigeria’s social, political and
economic efforts.
The key to resolving
sectarian agitations is dialogue and
not force. Nigerians need to do
things that are right. Ethnic Nigeria
needs to sit together in a Nigerian
Peoples Conference (NPC) and
determine how to stay together.

Excerpts from Okachikwu Dibia