By Jude Atupulazi
The gateman is an important personnel in any environment. He determines who comes in or goes out and generally, keeps the environment secure. In our daily lives, there are always people who play the gateman. They are people who we expect to take care of our safety and wellbeing. In politics, the gatemen are those we elect to perform certain functions for us since we cannot all do such.
Such functions vary, depending on the kind of office they occupy. Those who perform the most important functions are the president and the governors. They are in the main saddled with the responsibility of making life livable for us. They have what can pass as the number one responsibility to us and that is protecting our life and property.
In Anambra State, we have a man saddled with that task in the person of the Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo. Sadly, however, he is struggling to acquit himself creditably in this aspect. Security in his state has virtually collapsed and it has become what we call ”oke n’ofia, ngwere n’uzo”, a native idiom used to portray a chaotic situation in which it is every man for himself.
The killings last Monday in Ukpo and Abatete, two communities in Anambra State, once more demonstrated the hopeless security situation in the state. While it has become customary to tag anyone who blames the government as an opposition member, that should however not stop anyone from telling the simple truth and that is simply that Governor Chukwuma Soludo has woefully failed in securing the life and property of his people.
What even rankles the more is his seeming I-don’t-care attitude. Save for the Nibo bloodbath after which he reacted, probably because it happened very near him; which must have embarrassed him, Soludo has mostly kept mum after every killing. It is an action that bespeaks of either his cluelessness or his having been overwhelmed by the criminals.
What we’re now hearing in muted tones is that the “opposition” is fueling the killings. All well and good. But my take is that if the government thinks it’s the opposition that is unleashing the terror, let the government expose them and take action, rather than conveniently resorting to just accusing them. Methinks it’s a lazy way of doing things.
It doesn’t do to just generalize. Soludo has very woefully failed in securing his people’s safety, I repeat.
His body language screams it, his actions (or is it inactions?), shout it. He’s completely clueless and Anambra has become a safe haven for these hoodlums as they know that “nothing mega” (slang for nothing is going to happen). I’m sure the criminals here in Anambra may even be extending invitations to those outside to “come home”. That’s how bad it has become. Anambra is now “Home for all criminals”.
It’s now a feat to go out and return in one piece. If you’re not kidnapped, you’re shot at by sit-at-home enforcers who now ride roughshod over us. The killings last Monday were perpetrated by those trying to enforce their Monday sit at home directive. And despite the state government’s continued call for people to be coming out on Mondays, the call has yielded little fruit and it is because the people know the government cannot assure them of their safety.
For sure, many people don’t like staying at home but they also know that the state government’s assurances are as empty and as meaningless as a dog baying at the moon. Soludo doesn’t even commiserate with victims and their families. He seems ensconced in the safety of his heavily protected convoy and merely sits and watches in the same manner Muhammadu Buhari used to do which always drew the ire of many Nigerians.
Although some people in government will try to rationalize this and even attack those who criticize Soludo, the fact is that it’s no use defending him because no one is safe, as the defender will just as soon become the victim as others.
I hear the governor doesn’t sufficiently empower the security agencies with his security vote. I don’t know how true this is, but such talk is gathering momentum that it’s now becoming a refrain.
If Soludo’s best response to the alarming security situation in his state is to appoint one Kenneth Emeakayi as his Special Adviser on Security, then nothing more can reveal his cluelessness. I’m sorry to say this, but I say it because I’m involved as a citizen. Even his people know he’s not doing enough but they won’t admit it publicly.
The situation in Anambra State has so deteriorated that kidnappers now take filling station attendants on their way home and collect half a million Naira from their families, plus a carton of beer and packets of cigarettes. I’m not joking as this actually happened along the Enugwu Agidi axis. So it’s not just “big men” that are endangered but the hoi polloi too. Where do we run to?
Seems as if we have hired a gateman who snores while danger lurks. Something very drastic should be done by government soon and very soon before we all perish, God forbid.
Move by Anambra Assembly to end high cost of textbooks, uniforms, is heart warming
Recently the Anambra State House of Assembly called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo to direct the Commissioner for Education to engage the Public, Private and Mission Schools in addressing the exorbitant cost of textbooks, purchase of school uniforms from particular vendors and mandatory holding of extramural classes in the state.
In a motion sponsored by the Majority Leader and member representing Ekwusigo Constituency, Hon Ikenna Ofodeme, and 18 others during plenary in Awka, the House said the motion became necessary since education was a fundamental right, hence the need for every child to get equitable access to learning materials.
Moving the motion, Hon Ofodeme regretted that the current practices in Anambra State primary and secondary schools of using textbooks as workbooks, uniform purchase from exclusively designated vendors and mandatory extramural classes, placed undue financial burdens on parents and guardians, particularly for families with multiple children in the same school or class.
He expressed worry that those trends were counterproductive and that the new introduction of textbooks/workbooks in one single volume, especially, was gradually killing the good culture of use of school libraries and families creating library in their homes.
Many lawmakers had supported the motion, noting what they described as the huge financial effects and attendant burden on parents in the face of the current economic hardship in the country.
They saw the practice by these school proprietors as rubbishing Governor Soludo’s administration’s efforts to make education affordable to all, from Nursery to Senior Secondary schools.
The Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Somtochukwu Udeze, while appreciating the sponsor of the motion, observed that as lawmakers they had three responsibilities to their constituencies, viz: lawmaking, representation and oversight.
He therefore suggested that it be made a law by reviewing existing relevant laws, either by amendment or enacting another law.
His words on the matter, ‘This is something that happens every day. Most times, if my daughter is preparing for school, I will be wondering if she is going for a church service; because you keep on changing school uniforms, one apiece for each day of the week. Five different School uniforms in a week, including sportswear, all were bought from the school. We have to make it a law to address this problem,’ the speaker concluded.
I’m sure many cannot wait to see this law made against these heartless school proprietors. Growing up, I recall that pupils and students used to either inherit textbooks from their siblings or relations or give theirs to them. That way, parents saved money and ploughed the money saved into solving other needs of their families. Even school uniforms which had not spoilt much, were inherited by younger siblings.
Today, however, it is no longer the case; no thanks to wicked school proprietors who have contrived to add to the burden of parents by making money for themselves. They have come up with this system of having textbooks designed in such a way that students write inside them with pens.
This ensures that once they move to another class no one can use the textbooks again and parents have to buy new ones, often from same schools. With the economy as it is, you can imagine how difficult this will be for some parents.
Not quite done, these proprietors have also come up with compulsory extra mural classes, not because they love the students, but because they make more money from it. And where it is not compulsory, they contrive to teach more at the lessons than they teach in normal classes. Isn’t this wickedness? I don’t even want to go into the propriety of saddling students with much academic workload which ends up having diminishing returns.
This act by school proprietors is very wicked and I align fully with the state assembly members and pray that the proposed law should include appropriate punishment for defaulters. I cannot understand why we daily cry about the inhuman treatment we get from our leaders while we are no less wicked than them.
Once more, kudos to the members of the Anambra State House of Assembly for your thoughtfulness.