Tag Archives: Amao Isaac Oluwasogo

Governor Ajimobi’s Daughter And The Deserving Koboko – By Isaac Oluwasogo

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Power, especially in a confused society like ours spread like gangrene. It becomes an insoluble dilemma to explain how the opportuned minorities that rides on the wings of the majority tends to confer the same power on their family members. Over time, there have been an un-constituted and assumed level of power that is being given to either the wife or the children of Nigerian leaders. Powers are unnecessarily arrogated to them, thereby leading to creation of money-gulping offices.
This unfortunate development makes them look sacred, untouchable and have an unrestrained regard or respect for the masses. It is in our democracy that you cannot distinctively separate the overbearing influence of the family from the supposed elected leaders. A country that over emphasizes immunity clause beyond the boiling point- a double barrel trouble for the helpless and hapless common men- as they (masses)  suffer verbal abuse from the father, the children or the wife without a proper reconfiguration of their cerebral grandstanding also delve into an unthinkable intellectual assault of the souls of men clamoring for their rights.
This is a social malady that has outlived its age on our terrestrial ball as a nation. The very undoubtedly known reason why the daughter of the Governor of Oyo state could hurled a verbal abuse on the protesting students. This imbalances and wrong sense of judgment that emanated from the odociferous mouth of the Mr. Governor’s Daughter seems to be a general syndrome of Nigerian leaders. These occurrences are products of the wide gap differences that exists between the leaders and the led.
Ajibola Ajimobi labeling the protesting students as “Generation of mannerless children…..” is a statement that is far from the Centre of deep reasoning. And a show of utmost disrespect for the unfortunate development that ransacked the smooth running academic program of the institution. She belongs to a class system that has completely eroded her level of human reasoning vis-a-vis the reactions of the aggrieved students. After all, she might not have experienced what it means to have a school closed down for a month not to talk of about eight months. She only reads or hears about it has a natural phenomenon in Nigeria education system.
I wish the Governor’s daughter will do well to put herself in this condition and stop suffering from the incessant diarrhea of the mouth. She can take a deep reflection by picturing herself among the number of heads that took to the street to demand for their future. May be if she can think like an evolved Homo sapiens that is made up of a well-developed brain, she will be human enough and not spit out such a gall. And may be if she did not understand what it means to be mannerless, history is there to judge. What about her sibling that was caught in sex scandal?
This and many more are the debilitating results of living on the masses common wealth and still have the gut to run bad mouth on why they have decided to be liberated from the siddon – look approach given to the closure of the school.
Mr. Governor’s Daughter, I am trying to borrow you some currency of common sense to know that silence weighs more than untutored courage in the public sphere. Do well to know that life only gave you a chance to be heard because of the poor political structure that we have. You are not in any way different!
This will however remain a reoccurring decimal unless the Nigerian leaders begin to enroll their own children into the same system that they destroying. And until there is no class system again as suggested by Karl Max, it is then that this show of absurdity would be brought to a staggering halt.
“Egbinrin ote, base n pa ina okan lokan n ru” (The seething cauldron of rebellion; the death of one rekindles another.
@isaacsogo

LAUTECH: Of Constituted Authorities And Their Cosmpolitan Wahala – By Isaac Oluwasogo

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In a democratic system of government, leaders are meant to be responsible for every of their actions and inactions. The citizens are also constitutionally right to make certain demands. . Essentially how they are being governed and how the resources that are meant for the public consumption are being harnessed.

This is the expected and obtainable modus operandi in any ideal society. However,  this seems not to hold true in our own clime because of how democracy has overnight been transformed into Autocracy.

 

Whatever leaders does are thus seen as a show of kindness and mercy and not a function of their responsibility.  Most of the masses show of displeasures over time have persistently met with a roadblock and an undeniable abuse of their intellects. The same people that voted them in amounts to nothing. Their struggles and clamours are seen as a mere noise and distraction. That is the irony of the society we find ourselves.

 

To an average American leaders, the masses concerns is a top list of their priority. Their leaders also may have their flaws, but at least to a reasonable extent, they have a listening ear and heart to their followers. The more reason they are democratically stable than we do and are termed developed world.

 

The opposite of the above is what is obtainable in our states. A retrospective look at the address given by the Governor of Oyo state to the aggrieved students of LAUTECH who have been on an incessant strike of eight month justifies the truism of this piece.

The video which went viral seemingly sounds and looks incredibly ridiculous that a friend of mine have to confirm if it is real. Well, I told him that, that is the sad reality of the nation we have found ourselves. When leaders become intellectually abusive, we only need a miracle to wriggle out of the whole mess.

 

That the school was closed for eight months does not even sound like a news in the hearings of our self-acclaimed constituted authorities. And these are men that rode on the wing of ‘Awolowo ideology’ when it comes to education in order to be trusted with power. How sad is it to see that they betrayed the ideology of this great sage?

 

For the Governor of the state to have said that, “This is not the first time the gate of the school will be closed and that it is not his problem”  and many others is very sad and show the level of importance attached to the education in this part of the world. They cannot really know how wasteful eight months could be in the pursuit of one’s educational career since their wards are flown out of the country to study. And one can ask if this is the same manner in which schools were being closed down during their time.

 

The body language is a clear pontification to what may be the fate of education in this country in years to come. That a country can conveniently joke with the future of his youths is a pathetic development.

When the government of a state failed, it tends to seek for the lost identity. Leadership authority can only be sustained by good deeds with deep affection for the masses and not trying to earn it by beating your chest that they should know you are a constituted authority. It is just like a father telling his son that, don’t you know I am your father? If this happens, it means that there is a missing link- responsibility.

 

The constituted authorities have done little or nothing to better the situation of the country. Instead, they have caused us more havoc than expected. Their power is a shame to the integrity of a formidable education in the country.

I pray there is a quick sanctuary of reasoning wherein our leaders will be able to rightly evaluate how they have hemorrhage this sector and then put on a thinking cap on how to make things bounce back. Till then, we would continually be in a stupefying retrogression. It is not a curse but an unarguable reality of life.

 

It is time for our leaders to borrow not a modicum of common sense but a large bulk of knowledge from men like Nelson Mandela who believes that, “Education is the only potent tool to change the world” and not what can be treated as a trash bin.  When we get to this stage, we can then say boldly that we are ready for a better tomorrow.

 

@isaacsogo

The Leaders of Tomorrow and the Killers of Today – By Amao Isaac Oluwasogo

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Things have never been the same from the very moment we were told we are the leaders of tomorrow. This is because every unfolding event, as well as the body language from those that hold on tightly to this saying, cannot be reconciled with the truism of the undeniable agonizingly tough reality that we sleep and wake up with. Our education has been reduced to the point that it is not even attractive to the illiterates again.

 

Every administration has only succeeded in drawing and drowning this sector into the Mediterranean Sea. We have not only lived in the deceitful kissing of these Judas Iscariots but have also realized that we are at the mercy of being crucified. This cannot be distant from the lack of a deep sense of leadership quality that every citizen of a country expects from their leaders. A trait found in men like Nelson Mandela whose watchword when it comes to education remains; “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

 

Developed countries have something in common: They are perpetually in the business of investing heavily in their education sector. This is because they understood the resultant effect of quality education on their youths. These investments gave birth to men and women with revolutionary ideas.  And it is with these ideas that they rule the world. Ever progressing while we are here dreaming and wishing without an action that is commensurate to achieve the same feat. Funny enough, we are still busy beating around the minimum requirement given by the UNESCO that is expected to be earned marked for education in our yearly budget.

 

This is the problem of having leaders whose bellies are their gods. Men who lack visions and foresight for the hope of the future and whose mouths are bigger than their cerebral grandstanding. While the future of the nation is rotting away, possessing luxuries and gallivanting the four cardinal points of the earth is all that burns in their hearts. Why won’t our neighboring country, Ghana become a better place to school than ours?  Every year, the numbers of students leaving the shore of Nigeria for schooling is unarguably embarrassing. Yet in all of these, they call us the leaders of tomorrow and emphasize the beauty of education even when it is obvious that they are killing that same future on the altar of today.

 

This story is applicable to virtually some of the Nigeria institutions especially the government- owned institutions, starting from the primary school to the tertiary institutions. The more reason I insisted that our problem is basically fundamental and foundational. The system that should be the hope of reviving the spirit of creativity and innovations in students has suddenly become a butchering ground- dwindling the morale of the students. In the 21st century, we are still satisfied with blackboard, chalk, and duster. The system is so old that it tends to corrupt fresh brains. And when the environment is not conducive, nothing thrives. These bitter scenarios finally walked throughout universities and other tertiary institutions.

 

The testimony that you have come to school is that you used more than expected numbers of years in the university, not because you failed but because of what has turned to be an annual expected event– that is the incessant strikes. For a session to pass without strike makes it look as though the academic calendar of that session is not yet complete. Students can be out of school for months, it means nothing to the spiritual forces and power that be. As a result, the students have seen this abnormality as a norm to go on strike and if attempts are made to protest, it is done at the expense of their lives. It is either they are victimized by the school authorities or be faced with life gun as though they are Christmas chicken. University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) could be a recent example to relate with amidst the innumerable occurrences we have witnessed over the years.

 

The fate of the public institutions is at stake in this nation. If it is being treated with this level of absurdity and trepidation, expect private institutions to take over in years to come. This was not actually a surprise when the governor of my state compared LAUTECH with BABCOCK University. I was poised to ask if this was a nightmare or a product of accidental leadership.

 

How can you use a private university as a yardstick for the State University? This is a school in approximately seven months strike and everything seems as though nothing is happening. Their change mantra is nothing but a fluke from all indications. To say that students and lecturers should go and have a sanctuary of reasoning on how they will finance the school sounds sympathetic. But this is all we have come to live with, leaders of tomorrow in the hands of the killers of today

 

We are at a stage where things are no longer at ease. Those who burn themselves to light other people’s ways are being maltreated. No salary yet their task masters called leaders forced them to work by threatening them with sack letters. How many times have any governor or politicians ever protested of not being paid their salary? It is these same people who do not care that formulate our educational policy. What an irony of life!  You then began to ask, how many research work thrives in Nigeria? Are productive, innovative and creative are our tertiary institutions?

 

We can continue like this and remain the same or put up the necessary measures and join the league of developed Nations. Enough of politicking education in this country! It is high time we started to engage technocrats and scholars with capacities to help rebuild the falling wall. Making it a priority to fund the system by supporting research works will help us as a nation to be great.

 

Until then, we would only live in the fool’s paradise of having a fortified educational system. Of most importance is for every student to equally take their destinies in their hands. Whatever you can take out of the school system not minding its poor state, do in order to better yourself and your future as well as your society.

 

Follow the writer on Twitter: @isaacsogo