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Conscience, Crime-Fighting & the Nation's Cup
Related to country: Nigeria
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

There is something curiously masochistic about Nigerians that is a puzzle to observe. When the Super Eagles lost to Cote d’Ivoire’s Elephants courtesy a virtuoso strike by what’s-his-name, it seemed like the beginning of the end for Nigeria’s Nations Cup dreams. The very next day, every local channel I flipped to had a replay of the Eagles’ show of shame on air. The same obtained this morning, after yesterday’s lacklustre draw with the Eagles of Mali. Watching the tactless attack of our forwards bounce off an indomitable wall of Malian defence renewed the sour taste of disappointment that killed my appetite last night, and for a moment I wanted dearly to wring the neck of the program schedulers responsible for this interminable torture. But as the 90 minutes played out, I realised a slight step-down in my vitriol level, and before I knew it, I was laughing at some off-the-wall technical gaffes our players committed with no trace of previous bitterness.

Then it struck me. Repeated exposure to the unpleasant experience had dulled my acerbic reaction to it and made it bearable, even laughable. Something else I discovered: this mood-reversal therapy is actually a mainstay of Nigerian society. It’s how we deal with the desperate squalor that assails and surrounds us. It’s how we pull the rug over the regular police brutality and impropriety meted out daily to unsuspecting citizens. It’s how we pat down with pride our wilted fabric of social morality, sewn through with the rotting thread of corruption. And for the present context, it’s how we’ve glossed over the recent spate of institutional upheavals that could in the long run threaten the oft-touted rule of law this administration seeks to espouse.

I speak of the compulsory dispatch of the EFCC boss for a one-year professional course by the IG of Police. This peremptory course of action, effected while EFCC boss Ribadu was in the middle of prosecuting an unscrupulous motley of very slippery and very influential former administrators, was instigated under circumspect circumstances and prompted a momentary public uproar of dissent. Still, that’s all it was, a momentary, flash-in-the-pan uproar. After media pundits steamed and stewed the subject for a week, it slipped off the front burner of critical commentary and became instant fodder for cartoonists and comedians. Then even the jokes grew stale, the guffaws lessened and gradually, it assimilated into society’s dregs of yesterday’s news, without any constructive remediation proffered or seen through. One big “poof!” and it was gone, just like that.

The EFCC boss has since been replaced, blockades installed to prevent his reinstatement, and while all appearances to the effect of continued prosecution are kept up, the wheels of crime-fighting seem to have stopped turning. Tomorrow, we’ll be saying “Ribadu, who?” You can never underestimate the convenience of a comatose public conscience…

I guess that’s why a global survey declared us the Happiest People on Earth.

January 26, 2008 | 10:26 AM Comments  2 comments
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THIRD WORLD STEPS TO SOLVENCY: SUPPORTING TECHNICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Related to country: Nigeria

A telling mental image that springs to mind when the Third World is mentioned is that of gangly, pot-bellied minors tramping through the muddy filth of ramshackle hamlets, a rural backwater overrun by drought and disease. For centuries this haunting spectre has been the gruesome reality for 1.2 billion of earth’s humanity living in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and parts of Eastern Europe and Asia. The global response to eliminating this malignancy of squalor has been to champion the cause of private enterprise as the primal motivator of sustainable economic growth and self-sufficiency.

The seductive ideology of marketization, or the use of market-based solutions to resolve socio-political or economic maladies, has captured the imagination of many a nation desperate to divest itself of under-development, motivated further by the advice of financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. That these bodies should endorse such a capital-oriented viewpoint is fairly obvious, but there is some scepticism as to the effectiveness of the various aspects of marketization practised, namely deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation. The concept itself has held sway in many econometric schools of thought from the ‘invisible hand’ of Adam Smith to the much-extolled Keynesian economics, finding credence even in realms of political philosophy where Hobbesian proselytes maintain that man is inherently and incurably selfish, less concerned with the common good except insofar as it serves his interests. It is quite the irony, though, that the solution reached by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) to counteract the consequent conflict of individual interests would be absolute feudalism, especially since feudalism itself was on the decline and giving way to capitalist tendencies in the 16th century, the period during which he lived. As it turns out, the anarchy he had anticipated has never really actualised due to the now well-known dynamics of spontaneous order. First expounded by Bernard de Mandeville in his “Fable of the Bees” (1714)1, it theorises that when the personal pursuits of individuals make them prosper, society permits their activities and encourages their emulation. Just as equally, fruitless pursuits are discouraged, slowly building a pattern of collective behaviour, or social order, conveniently attained by allowing individuals to pursue their own ends and by so doing, meet the needs of others. Thus the ideological defence for ‘dealership economies’ was established, and has been fiercely advocated by Western democracies to the straggling sovereignties of the Third World ever since, particularly in recent times with the agency of globalisation.

Nonetheless, the verdant fields of idealism rarely withstand the scorching singes of reality very well, and such economic restructuring as the entrenchment of private enterprise requires has proved successful largely where the bureaucratic tools ensuring a transparent market system are available. This is evident in regions of macroeconomic cooperation like the OECD and the EU, where the absorption of the east-European countries of Poland and the Czech Republic immediately reflected positively on their GDP and general quality of life among the populace. Other countries who attempted such an economic overhaul have had to grapple with the marked expensiveness of such a convoluted process, which in turn diminishes the prospects of competition on a level playing field and has resulted in the emergence of corporate oligarchies, a trend discernible in Mexico, Brazil and countries in Africa like Nigeria. The telecommunications market in Nigeria, for instance, is split three ways between two multinational concerns and a substantially-backed indigenous enterprise, primarily because the need for profit prevented the Federal Government from proffering licences at rates other potential competitors can afford. Furthermore, to meet the tremendous capex sacrificed to secure their licences, these companies are offering their services at rates averaging 50 cents/min call-time, that in a country where people thrive under a dollar daily. Nor does this string of market inequities end in telecommunications. Further encouraged to drastically truncate on public spending, the Federal Government is relinquishing more public enterprises in the sectors of power and water supply, usually in notoriously obese conditions, into private hands, whose penchant for profit has entailed that several livelihoods daily face the chopping block of downsizing. The ones left are dispossessed of the accustomed job securities of gratuity and pension, and the hurdles to secure employment are now raised to Herculean standards. Ultimately, competition is stifled, profiteering bolstered and the gaping chasm between fending hands and famished mouths is further widened, defeating the purpose for which privatisation was originally intended. The practice of deregulation fares little better, as the process of removing statutory trade restrictions have, rather than increase the level of competitiveness, placed the market under the control of the stronger private corporations and spawned de facto market monopolies. It created the software giant Microsoft, and even when state intervention splintered its corporate mass to prevent its exclusive dominance of the software market, the effect was like a superficial sloughing exercise and it bounced right back. If these antecedents are to be presumed precedents, then the prospect of eradicating poverty by equitable distribution of wealth generated via the path of private enterprise is bleak indeed.

Proponents may argue that the Microsoft illustration in fact validates the flexibility in the practice of marketization within liberal economies like the United States, where the tactful use of state control curbs the potential abuse of a free market scenario, protecting the rights of consumers and weak competition. In other words, if bureaucratic intervention is shackled strictly to consumer security and regulating competition, forging a fair, impersonal economy system is possible. This thinking, postulated by Nobel Laureate and economist Douglass North2, however underestimates the overarching reach of the state in system control; indeed, its claim of the system’s ability to shackle state arbitrariness is discounted daily, even in so-called established free-market economies of the West. The constant tussle between the USA and China over cheap imports from the latter due to its undervalued Yuan (a squabble that delayed China’s entry into the WTO), or the steel stand-off between Europe and the US, to recall an earlier scenario, prompted some string-pulling and trade-throttling to protect the domestic industries in America and exemplifies the wishful bent of this idealistic position. The sobering knowledge garnered from this cursory overview is that private enterprise can veritably multiply the rate at which wealth is generated, but presently lacks a proven means of equitable allocation of resource; hence the material extremes of profligate opulence and pernicious penury remain the antithetical bedfellows of our economic reality. It may be posited that socialism and eventual communism sought to bridge this divide, albeit to deplorable effect, as historic annals recount. This paper explores however a methodology through which the avenue of private enterprise may negotiate this seemingly intractable quagmire, by means of a daring but doubtlessly effective move – acquiring the arena of academia.

More specifically, what is proposed herein is a major-scale investment in technical education. At first glance this may seem chartered grounds, as several privately owned institutions of learning already exist around the world. Furthermore, the third world is not exactly teeming with what would be the targeted demographic, i.e. wards of affluent patrons, so venturing their proliferated establishment in developing countries also appears an ill-advised incongruity. But this tier of learning, which focuses on specialization of technological skills by its students in various fields such as machinery workmanship, mobile telephony, business management, electrical/electronic engineering, food processing and the like, not only equips its graduates with the requisite expertise to be easefully assimilated into knowledge-specific companies or industries, but also enables them pursue entrepreneurship using their expertise in these disciplines. Thus by providing qualitative technical education in developing countries, private concerns are simultaneously ensuring a steady string of direly needed professional recruits into their staffed rank and file, hence saving on employee orientation and re-training courses, as well as enabling an early conversion of academic certificates into paying vocations.

Undertaking the setting up of qualitative technical schools is an expensive prospect, however, more so due to cost of installing workshop machinery, laboratory equipment, research modules, pilot stations and other training exigencies. It is thus advisable that only multinationals or cooperatives engage this proposition. Companies most preferred are multinationals with considerable product stake in the domestic markets of these countries that will thus serve as credible drivers of the venture and equally motivate associated banks to proffer their services. Examples may be drawn from the sectors of cellular technology, food, refreshment and household electronics, namely Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Phillip, Coca-Cola, Guinness and Nestle, companies with instantly recognisable trademarks whose products are used the world over. To generate requisite capital for the initiative, a Technical Training Trust Fund (TTTF) will be put in place and primarily financed by a float of company stock conducted every three years. This fund will also subsidize tuition when students enrol by a marginal requirement that will prevent fee values from exceeding the cost of normal secondary school tuition within the given area of establishment. Business management and economics will feature as compulsory courses in the school curriculum, commenced from the first year. Prior to graduation, students will be instructed to submit a final-year business bid detailing what entrepreneurial aspirations they envisage to pursue after graduation and how they intend to bring these aspirations to commercial fruition, citing practical merits and potential pitfalls of their proposals. Selecting submissions noted for the exhibition of foresight, feasibility and sound business acumen, the TTTF will make available loans to their authors upon graduation, enabling them set up small credit establishments that best realise their venture objectives and exploit the skills acquired from their technical training. On the other hand, promising graduates who opt to further should be offered scholarships to the tertiary level, appended with a 5-year staff enlistment caveat after studies are concluded.

The students involved in the loan scheme will be required to repay their loans within a stipulated timeframe, and where repayment is met within schedule, the students will be entitled to what will be referred to as a Post Study Share (PSS) Option, which offers them the opportunity to purchase a limited number of company stock at half unitary value. Half the repaid loan is reserved to support the TTTF. However, these shares shall be annotated as common stock, with only subsequent purchases if allowed varying between common and preferred stock. Preferred stock, sometimes called preference shares, have priority over common stock in the distribution of dividends and assets, and sometime have enhanced voting rights such as the ability to veto mergers or acquisitions or the right of first refusal when new shares are issued (i.e. the holder of the preferred stock can buy as much as they want before the stock is offered to others)3. Those who default on prompt repayment will forfeit the PSS Option and have their businesses repossessed and liquidated by the banks coordinating this loan initiative.

This loan strategy is a trendsetter on many levels, but it does have a precedent in the informal institution of layman apprenticeships already practised in most third-world countries. In this system, children who desire to pursue a trade pay to be apprentices and serve under their masters without remuneration for between 5 to15 years, at the end of which they are sent off with substantial venture capital. Layman apprenticeships usually are the only form by which the drive of private enterprise has been perpetuated in developing countries, and while the process has been for the most part successful, its relatively primitive nature and limitation in scope required the invention of a more progressive, result-oriented variant as described in the foregone paragraphs. This variant, which shall be termed the Support for Technical EntrepreneurshiPS (STEPS) programme, gives a boost to the private sector in a myriad of unique ways. It provides an agency for directly investing in the fostering of medium credit businesses without, for instance, risking the channelling of funds through the questionable conduits of government parastatals. It offers genuine opportunities for trade multinationals to contribute in fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of eradicating poverty and hunger by concurrently promoting the advancement of literacy and engendering domestic resource mobilization within developing countries. It encourages capacity building of their host economies and stimulates the drive for entrepreneurship, which is crucial to sustainable development. The STEPS programme also accrues a binge of benefits for the investors. Besides free advertising, it elevates the corporate image of these companies and procures possibilities for markedly enhancing their market credibility and stock valuation. It also offers an opportunity for significant capital base expansion through the PSS Option and increased patronage of company merchandise, a vogue that doubtlessly will motivate the competition to adopt the programme and ultimately assure its longevity. But perhaps more importantly, it enables these companies shed their excess resource to the benefit of the neediest places of the world.

STEPS is hardly risk-free, though, and among the questions which will be posed as to its feasibility include the issue of possible prohibitive state restrictions, coordination difficulties, candidate (country) selection for pilot studies, and, most importantly, the willingness of these companies to assume the onus of STEPS instigators. Beginning with the last-mentioned concern, it would serve the interests of the United Nations’ bureaus on education and development, namely UNESCO and UNDP, to arrange the mandatory solicitous liaisons with these potential financiers from the private sector, given that the targets of the programme dovetail with their stated objectives and the overall aims of the MDG. Placing them at the helms of programme coordination also conveniently mitigates other complications regarding candidate selection, as they already possess the necessary data to sort out and identify what countries qualify for pilot studies and the skilled manpower to conduct them. The impediment of undesirable state interventions however tend to be very arduous to remove, and immense international pressure must be brought to bear if this is to be surmounted. It is especially critical to involve an institution like the IMF in the advocacy endeavour as well as in monetary leveraging of the TTTF, since it already serves an authoritative advisory role on finance in most of the countries affected. It simply will not do for both parties to be at ideological loggerheads as has obtained in the past4. With a synergised approach, the host states will be better persuaded to embrace the initiative and soft-pedal on imposing opportunistic levies or demanding undue trade concessions which might discourage the financiers and scuttle the programme before it even begins. It must be realised though that some barriers may prove impossible to scale. Isolationist nations like Zimbabwe may be counted on to vigorously oppose such ‘foreign intrusions’ as is proposed. Another issue that might also prove a pickle concerns the sales of company stock to sustain the TTTF, whether to the enterprising school leavers or the public, a prospect some partners may find unsavoury to contemplate either due to the nature of their corporate framework or for fear of potentially devaluing their asset base or stock value. Append that to the condition of tuition subsidies and the fact that the loans are to be repaid sans interest, and one gets a whole cavalcade of unresolved complexities without ready answers. Research to fully surmise all the angles is by no means exhausted yet.

In the end, the range of success will depend on how well we cooperate, and it is ardently anticipated that whatever course of action taken shall attest to the triumph of the human spirit by the concerted annihilation of desultory deprivation in the Third World.

REFERENCES

1. Ashford, N., “Core Concepts: Spontaneous Order”, available at http://aworldconnected.org/article.php/870.html

2. Philips, L., “Core Concepts: Institutions Matter”, available at http://aworldconnected.org/article.php/932.html

3. “Stock”, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stock

4. “Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals,” UN Millennium Project 2005. Overview. 2005. p.36, available at http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/fullreport.htm.

November 4, 2007 | 12:48 PM Comments  0 comments
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Eggs' Tales from Shakespeare - Clarification on TIG-CLCWA Conf., Day II
Related to country: Nigeria

Firstly, I’d like to clearly state here for the record that this blog is a private record of opinion, and that in no way, manner, shape, or form conceivable is the CLCWA, TIG or their affiliate organisations responsible for its content. Any future responses to the posts submitted on this blog should please be entered through the comments section or communicated via my email address (maestro2000ng@yahoo.com).

Secondly, I unreservedly regret offending Dr. Etokidem’s sensibilities over a difference in opinion concerning my recounting of the TIG conference, specifically the entry wherein he was referenced. There was absolutely no intent to misrepresent the gentleman doctor; in fact, I did confess to having thoroughly enjoyed his informative presentation in the contentious post in question (http://zonerator.tigblog.org/post/269261), and consider the accuracy of his medical observations unimpeachable. I also regret whatever discomfiture was experienced by the TIG/CLCWA team as a result of this unfortunate misunderstanding.

Now to the topics of contention. The first I want to handle is a medical question where I intimated of the respectable doctor thus: “He denounces habitual egg-eating which induces obesity.” The assertion itself that the inveterate eating of eggs contributes to obesity is not incorrect. Japanese sumo wrestlers have been known to build up bulk in this manner. The gentleman doctor nevertheless maintains he was not the source of that fact. A closer look will reveal that the adjunct “…which induces obesity…” does not in the least ascribe him as the source, but is simply parenthetical. Perhaps I should have enclosed it for clarity, definitely an oversight on my part.

But where the ‘cauldron boils and bubbles’ is the Shakespeare question, where I labelled the doctor’s conviction that Shakespeare was indeed Francis Bacon as “utterly erroneous”. Now this, in retrospect, was a strongly worded opinion, and appropriate alterations have since been made to redress this. But it was never designed to be irreverent, and remains an opinion I still strongly hold to academically, even in the face of the “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt” undersigned by such notables as Mark Twain, Sir John Gielgud and Charlie Chaplin, which cited several reasons why they believed Shakespeare hadn’t written his plays, one of which was that very little was known about him, suggesting instead that better-recorded authors such as Francis Bacon must have written the plays and used ‘William Shakespeare’ as a ‘nom de plume’.

To my mind, however, these protestations are for the most part speculative, and there is extensive incontrovertible evidence to substantiate the true authorship of Shakespeare. Whereas there is little surviving correspondence by the playwright, William Shakespeare was regularly referred to by well-known contemporaries such as English writer and lexicographer, Ben Johnson, who remarked that he “loved the man” and complained of his wordiness, a self-evident reputation of his plays. He was even satirized by poet J. Marston in “The Scourge of Villainy” and several other works of his time give mention of one such playwright distinctly known as Shakespeare. He had a wife Ann and a daughter Judith, and the grave monument in his hometown Stratford clearly depicts his vocation. Furthermore, the individuals that doubting scholars assert to be the real Shakespeare change inconsistently with the prevailing times, from the eminent statesman and philosopher Francis Bacon in the 18th and 19th centuries, to a lesser known blue-blood Edward De Vere in the 20th century, until present. Their arguments are not helped either by the fact that the writing styles of these respective candidates are by stark contrast inferior to Shakespeare’s distinctly free-flowing, superlatively flamboyant compositions, however intersected their chronologies were with the playwright’s.

There is talk of anagrams, queries concerning his literacy and class, and several other shadows of doubt cast on his true origins, some creditably diligent, some curiously dubious. In the end, nonetheless, it is merely a question of opinion and counter-opinion, and purely from an academic standpoint, I find it untoward that anyone should infer fact from the hypothetical musings within a literary debate, however persuasive. Personally, I elect to disagree.

But that is what I think. To make up your own minds, check the following links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_authorship_question, http://www.shakespeareauthorship.com, http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com, http://www.shakespearefellowship.org.

Again, these are merely my informed impressions, no more, no less, and I implore everyone, including the estimable doctor, to view them as such.

November 4, 2007 | 11:55 AM Comments  0 comments
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Day III: The TIG/CLCWA Nigeria Youth Summit '07
Related to country: Nigeria

Oct 14: DAY III
When I walk into the hall today, the air is electric with barely contained anticipation. Everyone is waiting for that magic word to be uttered that will usher all into the sightseer’s heaven promised by the organisers today. No, it’s not “tea break” – that’s not even a word – and while the served meat-pie and drinks do quell noisy tummies that have long rumbled through Jerry Nwigwe’s lengthy last words of exhortation and encouragement to cap an eventful three days, the curiosity of the participants is yet to be sated. Yes, everyone wants to see that tourist delight that has placed Cross River State on the world map, the place that keeps darting across our TV screens when adverts are aired in premier league games, that humongous shopping emporium-slash-gaming paradise: Tinapa…

…But first things first, there are certificates of participation to present. The mood remains boisterous though and several hours later at about 2.00pm or thereabout, we’re hauled in two buses towards the ultimate tourist resort this side of the continent…There’s a lot to be said about the lax scheduling and somewhat shoddy stage-managing of the trip itself, which riles quite a number of people, especially those intending to journey back to their bases that very day.

But all is momentarily forgotten when the picturesque vista of Tinapa reveals itself. Participants swarm into the grounds excitedly and start taking mental inventory of the breathtaking scenery (I’ve already got my trusty camera cocked and ready to roll!). There’s the famous Nollywood edifice, with a statuesque swan overlooking the entrance, its wings crafted cunningly to form the ceiling of the structure. Fabulous creatures bay under its blood-red beak, and further inwards, a spherical quarter of the structure is mounted by a gigantic gorilla holding up the gilded plaque that reads Nollywood. We’re not let in of course; the complex is still under construction in many parts. But the emporia are open- though stark empty, like prettified mausoleums. They’re beautifully situated near serene creeks, and for once the word ‘creek’ finds association with something better than militants and kidnappings here in the Niger Delta…

At long last curiosity is satisfied and all the photos taken. World-weary travellers board the buses and head for home. I guess one could truthfully at the end of it all echo the mantra made famous by Vanguard columnist Victor Gotevbe, “Oh my God! This is good!”

(For more views of the tantalising Tinapa visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/11844614@N02/ and seek pictures tagged 't' in the Day III collection. Enjoy!)

October 17, 2007 | 1:16 AM Comments  0 comments
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The TIG/CLCWA Nigeria Youth Summit '07: Day II
Related to country: Nigeria

Oct 13: DAY II
12.27pm. I’m a little over an hour late, just in time for questions on the first keynote speaker’s presentation on ICT for Development. The APTECH panelist Tope Akinwunmi is responding to a question concerning the alluring success of ‘Yahoo boys’ (the name cyber-fraudsters are known by in Nigeria) and wants to know why they should not be emulated, illegality notwithstanding. The response is less than satisfactory. Another advocates the set-up of free or low-bill cybercafés, while someone else laments the lack of organisation in Internet control compared to countries like Niger (?). The keynote speaker Gbenga, in response to alternatives to cyber-crime, cites other instances of making money like Google Adsense and research consultations. He urges that listeners participate in sites like Facebook, Wikipedia, U-tube and Myspace, and decries the menace of cyber-crime and refers towww.cybercrime.org for further information. Other remarks by participants include the observation of a possible deviation from the drive of this discussion, the request for APTECH to set up centres in support of youth training, and criticism of APTECH’s website content on e-commerce. Meanwhile panelist Razep Echeng points out that while most of the discussion has revolved round the Internet, ICT concerns much more, and could be assisted tremendously by community mobilisation. The CRUTECH reps are peddling their low-cost CISCO training.

In all, everyone insists there are dozens of ways to harness capital from the Internet honestly, but no one is really speaking in concrete terms. The MC (Victor) thereafter apologizes for the delay in tea break and issues a roll of announcements to dwindle the time. The mob is distracted. The break is then called as promised…
Hobnobbing is a wonderful bonding process. Toluleke (Making Friends, Calabar) hands me a flyer showcasing his organisation- and I am offered a job proposition by another fellow activist! Is this networking thing a cinch or what! It’s a rowdy 45 minutes gone and we’ve still the rest of the day to go.

We’ve resumed the next forum (by this time someone has - perhaps inadvertently - made off with my program). The speaker, Oluwakorede Asuni, seems slightly on edge, an attack of nerves, but soon the motivational talk sails along easefully to the end. Question time. Drawbacks to creativity are identified, primarily funding and familial pressures as the culprits that snag creativity as a driver in pursuing youth initiatives. Panelists in order of response are Ikuru Berejit, Pamela Braide, Emmanuel Igbokwe and Maurice Henshaw. An interesting, edifying story is related in between of how a hawker previously unemployed was empowered with N3000 to commence a business selling fermented corn pap and bean cakes.

Next forum: policy advocacy and poverty reduction with speaker Pamela Braide on board. She laughs easily and chats engagingly, desirous to involve her listeners in the conceptualization of the paper. Her efforts rob her of time however, and she finds she needs to cap her presentation abruptly, which details how policy reformation/development is driven, the advantage of networking to spur youth engagement in policy development, and challenges such as conflict of interest and sustainability issues. She recommends preview and reinforcement of policy documentation, citing the NEEDS program and its follow-up NEEDS 2, which she laments has no real hope of implementation. You get the impression that she is very sceptical of any youth-driven policy reforms overcoming present-day challenges of politicking and bureaucratic red-tape on the road to feasibility…Questions and comments dwell on cases of extortion of NGOs by government officials before their ideas are accepted, overlooking of health care, unsuccessful modalities of approach and the rash of mushroom Niger Delta NGOs complicating matters. The chairperson Okeziem Nwoko identifies another challenge: policy overlapping. Braide cautions on losing sight of monitoring budgetary expenditure in favour of consultative recruitment.. The issue of poverty reduction and business development is handled cursorily, with the usual advice being given, nothing new- wait up, did I hear someone say “lunch break”…?

After the break, the 4th speaker, a gentleman doctor by name Ani Etokidem urges everyone on their feet and takes them through the rites of self-affirming utterances of positivism. Surely he’s got their attention now! Topic: Youth Health and Wellbeing. The speaker is exciting, often spicing his presentation with vivid, often hilarious illustrations, although sometimes his voiced opinions are contentious, like when he says William Shakespeare was possibly the pen-name for 17th century philosopher Francis Bacon. The rest of his delivery is nonetheless quite appealing, error-free and mostly aimed at shock value. He denounces habitual egg-eating which induces obesity, vilifies smoking and launches a measured attack at junk food. He teaches the calculation of BMI (Body Mass Index) to enable listeners ascertain if they are obese or not and points out that 80% of youth health problems are attributed to stress, differentiating between long-term stress and short-term stress. His solution? A- Awareness of the stressor, B- Building up the physical reserve to counter stress, C- Changing unhealthy and stress-inducing habits. His speech is laced with catchy anecdotes – Genes hold the gun, lifestyles hold the trigger; any sweet thing is illegal, immoral or not good for health – and suggests the best safeguard against stress as patience. To imbibe this virtue, he recommends adoption of the cue and count techniques.
He fields questions on the hypocrisy of doctors who persist in unhealthy living while advising otherwise, the dearth of government policies on junk food restrictions and the subject of teenage pregnancy very skilfully and retires from the podium to resounding applause. The participants have been regaled by perhaps the most entertaining speaker yet. There’s still one more to go, but I won’t be waiting to find out. Once again the program’s been extended past schedule…

October 17, 2007 | 1:08 AM Comments  0 comments
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