Independence Anniversary Speech: The President Died

By Msonter Anzaa

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter". 

-Rev. Dr.  Martin Luther King Jr

"The man dies when he keeps silent in the face of tyranny". 

-Prof Wole Soyinka.

In line with the age-long tradition of delivering speeches at various national rituals which go by various nicknames, Nigeria's President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan has presented a speech on the nation's 51st independence anniversary. What should an independence anniversary speech look like and what did the people of Nigeria expect to hear from the President?

Ordinarily, the term "independence" especially where it applies to nation-states, evokes a feeling of joy accompanied by great positive expectations. In the Nigerian case, it was expected that the oil flowing underneath the Niger Delta was going to create wealth that would be more beneficial when managed by Nigerians. It was a promising moment of hope, and refreshing to the soul that suddenly without any revolutionary war, a new nation was being born into the world; a virgin nation, innocent at heart and free of the evils of mindless bloodshed and political hate. The natural thing was for promises to be made and deadlines to be set for achieving national goals. While there may have been some elements of sincerity and good will among our founding fathers, subsequent leaders have grossly deviated from the vision, thus destroying the innocence of the nation through disvirgining processes of tribalism, religious intolerance, violence, political animalism, bad governance and corruption.

Forget the digression. Now returning to President Jonathan's speech, a number of issues have arisen. One that is on my mind however, is education. Of course, I have argued articulately elsewhere that education is the foundation for economic growth. The President spoke about the economy and said it has attained a fast growth rate of 7.8 percent. "I have taken several measures to address structural weaknesses which stand between us and economic growth and prosperity for all," he also said. Though he admitted that ". . . without fundamental reforms in the key sectors of our economy, we will not be able to fully unlock our potential as a nation," the president did not include education on his list of key sectors. He spoke about agriculture and power but failed to appreciate that achievements in these sectors can be made through a vibrant research-based and innovation-driven educational system.

It is annoying but not strange that President Jonathan, PhD did not say even a word about education in his entire speech. In Nigeria, we have long decided that what matters is the certificate with which every one can qualify to be appointed Personal Assistant to the PA to the PA to the PA . . . on Breakfast. And what does it take to get a certificate? Four, five or six years in school depending on how long and often ASUU goes on strike. With that you can become a politician, chieftaincy titleholder and soon, a "statesman" and "stakeholder" in "cutting" the "national cake". So when people complained that the universities could not accommodate all qualified candidates, the man simply ordered the establishment of nine new federal certificate printing canters also called "universities". If President Jonathan does not agree with this philosophy, what then explains his complete silence on the educational system even at its crisis stage when ASUU is on strike and every year hundreds of thousands qualified by JAMB have no admission? Does the President, a "son of the soil" who has had all his "education" and pre-political job experience in the neglected educational system not know its problems?

However, in consonance with the hypocrisy that has become a leadership symbol, the president advised that, "we must take pride in our scientists. This week Nigeria released eight new high-yielding cocoa varieties. This will help to transform cocoa production across . . . the nation". Yes, typical Nigerian thing! We must not adequately fund education and yet "take pride in our scientists" who labour like slaves in over-crowded, ancient-styled, ill-equipped and poorly ventilated laboratories. If UNESCO's 26 percent of the annual budget is given to education, would "our scientists" not also release more "high-yielding" rice, yam, fish and cassava "varieties"? Would they not also provide a lasting solution to the "power challenges"? What we have are Chemistry students who verify Faraday's laws of electrolysis as a final year project because there are no funds and therefore no apparatus to venture into anything new that could be a solution to a national need. Are those the kinds of students and conditions from which the president expects "eight new high-yielding cocoa varieties"?

"Our economy will grow faster and our hard working small businesses will thrive when we finally fix the power challenges we face," the president said. He did not remember that in the 21st century like this when nations are tapping into their abundant human resources to devise new and improved energy sources, the Nigerian state should not be talking about turbines that do not turn fast enough in the dry season because of low water levels in our dams. We should be talking about how to industrialize a research finding from our science students in order not to just solve our “power challenges” but also that of other African states. This kind of innovation would grow the economy at a rate faster than 20 percent, can provide more than 10 million jobs and make Nigeria one of the 10 biggest world economies right away. This is the magic a well funded educational system can perform.

That can not happen in Nigeria because we are blind. And what Jesus told his disciples about the teachers of the Jewish law applies to us: “blind leaders of the blind; wherever they go, they will perish”. Indeed wherever we have gone since independence, we have perished. We ran the parliamentary system of government and perished. Today, many years after we changed to the presidential system, we are perishing. In the power sector in 2007 when President Yar’Adua came, we learnt that despite 16 billion dollars spent in the sector, our dream of stable power supply perished. President Yar’Adua himself promised 10 000MW by December 2009, but that too perished and the current level of generation is put at a little over 4000MW.

Now, when he looked the other way while education continued to decay in the country; when he ignored the fundamental issue of funding the system, and when he “became silent about things that matter” to education and the future of Nigeria, that was when the president’s life began to end.

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