I have three stories that I consider germane to exploring issues of concern as regards poverty, peace, justice and the vexed matter of mediocrity.

A friend said to me, a few days ago, that when aircrafts were made in the 19th century, one would have thought that all that could be made and discovered in the Western World had ended. But even today, through science and technology in the more developed nations with ambition to conquer and overcome are still making breakthroughs and innovations are still on. Today the western world is talking about new I-phones and Artificial Intelligence.
Where is the black man?
Where is Nigeria?
We are in Benin and one of the greatest earth ramparts on earth, as marvelous as the China Wall, is the Benin Moat. They were started and dug in the days of Ogiso era.
Can you imagine the feat? If you had to dig the same Benin moat today, which extended up to Ologbo and stretched towards Esan Land, how many tractors, diggers, pay loaders would you need?
And with how many men and how much to execute the contract? N1bn, N2bn, N3bn? Can the Benins of today, repeat the same feat of 6000 years ago?
Today, many young Nigerians are crossing the Lybian desert, enroute to Europe. Why? Unemployment, hunger, frustration, not seeing hope in Nigeria. The majority leave from Edo state. But are the Governors ashamed of the situation? Are the Heads of State genuinely concerned? Is there a concern that not only are we having migrations into Europe, in the last 3 years, over 4.3 million Nigerians have lost their jobs. Should we not see it as a total result of Poor Governance, Corruption and an Uncompassionate leadership for the youth and the future of Nigeria?
Coming down now to the issues of concern. Let us look at poverty in Nigeria. Poverty in Nigeria is growing, from the statistics of the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, 100 million Nigerians are poor, in a country of 180 million. That is staggering. Should that not be a wake-up call for the political class, the Governors, the President?
But trust the Nigerian environment. It is pure statistics. Compare that with China which every year, for ten years, 100 million persons, are being moved out of poverty. That is in China, a country of 1.3bn people. That is a serious country with a determined leadership.
I was reading online, a day or two ago, that in Iceland, the unemployment rate is near 0%. A country of 300,000 people. In fact they are looking for people to come and work. Or think of an Island Country in Africa, Mauritius, a country of 1.3m people. Mauritius has not experienced recession in 37 years. Its population growth rate is 0.6 %. Its GDP, $ 20,404 in 2018 and it is the second high income country in Africa.
Or take Rwanda which despite the genocide of 1994, is today reputed to be the poster picture for the new best growth in Africa. In America to show that President Trump is working, every month, they provide statistics to show the employment and unemployment rates and the statistics have shown, that stocks are rising and unemployment is on the decline that to me, is a just and compassionate country, willing to tackle the twin challenges of unemployment and poverty.
Compare those with Nigeria, where a Senator earns N13.5million a month and the average salary of a government worker is N18,000 per month. Is that fair? Is that just? What kind of people are we? Today, people are asking to know, how much does the President or Governors earn? How much is their slush fund, the security vote every month? Why should it be a secret, when an American President’s salary is known. Is that not democracy in action?
Here, poverty is ravaging.
Why?
I give some reasons. A rapacious and greedy political class, who refuse to allow equitable distribution of resources of Nigeria. There is too much corruption in the system. In fact Nigeria is organised around corruption, hence people cannot be creative. People want easy money, unearned money. It is stolen money that makes people who have access to unlimited public funds think that they are wealthy? Hard work is never encouraged. Young people are not taught the benefit of discipline, integrity, honesty and hard work as the route to wealth and success.
Then there is the sad situation- a very bad educational situation, where many teachers hardly know what they teach, hardly spend time to teach, no investments in educational infrastructure, no investments in Research and Development the real keys to expanded economy, employment and international trade. At the end, students graduate either from secondary schools, Polytechnics or the University, after much exam malpractices, knowing little to nothing and hardly can be useful to society, and with many of them unemployable. They end up roaming the streets, while some drift into cultism, crime and prostitution.
Education today is universal and global and not ethnic and extremely local and limited as we practice in Nigeria. What compounds our problem in Education is years of poor governance and extremely poor leadership.
Peace eludes us, because of the poor motivation of young ones, hardly a middle class, urban congestion and a society riddled with injustices. Every four years, we either move North or South for a Presidency slot. When it is North, the south is complaining of marginalization and neglect. When it is South, it is cry of marginalization and neglect.
Every thinking in Nigeria is coloured with religion or ethnicity. Sadly this has been our history.

We have hardly had a true Nigerian leader. Even the so called founding fathers were ethnic leaders. Ahmadu Bello was North for the Northerners, Awolowo was West for the Westerners. And Okpara was East for the Easterners. And when Mid-west came, it was Mid-west for Midwesterners. We have never had a father figure, who gathers us as Nigerians. This is the hardest job of a President or Governor. It is not about tarring 7,000 km of roads or airports or new buses. We have never had a unity of heart or purpose, hence we are not growing. This is why, every leader gathers only those he can trust, his ethnic group and those of his religion.
Today every group feels so marginalized that there is talk here and there of secession and threat to the unity of Nigeria. Today, the Police that ought to be dealing with internal security is more at roadblocks and it is the army that is meant to deal with external security that is stretched in Zamfara dealing with bandits and rustlers, in the North East against Boko Haram, in the Middle Belt with herdsmen or a newer form of Boko Haram, in the East in python dance, in the South in operation crocodile smile. Where is a peaceful Nigeria?
At another level we have insecurity from robbers, cultists, rapists, kidnappers all arising from poor upbringing of the youth, a not too well thought out economic development plan for the nation, bad governance, injustices, corruptive tendencies, and poor opportunities for the youth, and a high level of impunity in governance which increases the level of injustices in the land.
So where is the peace?
Because the environment is not peaceful, the youth are into cultism as a form of peer esteem, the youth in Kano are sniffing codeine and inhaling all types of gases, some from nauseating sources like pit latrine or lizard dung so as to get high. They even attempt such pain killers like Tramadol. There is a high level of indiscipline and immorality amongst the youth and clear rebellion from the youth as a consequence of what they see in the society.
Everywhere in Nigeria, mediocrity is written, especially in the public sphere. Who gets the best job in Nigeria, is never the most qualified, or the selected best, but the most connected. In Nigeria, we have no standards for assessing the best or for measuring the highest quality in achievements. So long as he or she is our town’s person or from our ethnic group or belong to our youth, that is acceptable. We don’t aim for the best global practice. And the world is leaving Nigeria behind.
Where did it all start? You must ask President Shehu Shagari who was leading the campaign in the 1978/79 Constituent Assembly, canvassing for Federal Character. Perhaps it was to address the issue of a disadvantaged North and see to having parity with a more advantaged South.