By Dele Sobowale

Mr President, just in case your administration proves to be forgetful of recent history, let me remind you of something I wrote last March, on mindless violence, and what followed. Another anniversary is round the corner- just 13 days away as a matter of fact.

JOS TO WARRI: IN THE SHADOWS OF DEATH-2

P.S. The warning below was issued in March of last year on this page. It has been slightly amended for obvious reasons. Like many such predictions from outside the corridors of power, it was ignored.

Two days after the Warri episode (bombing of the VANGUARD organised summit on peace in the Niger Delta], a call from Jos foretold of another round of killing that would occur even with the heightened security in place. He was calling me because he reads my column and was aware of my recent visit to Jos. And, so it happened. But, that occurrence has resulted in the unintended consequence of the text message (from Southern Militants).

With this unfortunate convergence of hostilities and hatred, the framework for nationwide spread of mindless mass murder of innocent citizens, north and south, as well as across religious divide had been established at a time when there is a yawning leadership vacuum. If the Devil had intended to give this nation a disastrous 50th birthday celebration; it could not have prepared the groundwork better.

Unless better heads prevail to put a stop to it, our 50th birthday anniversary cards will be signed with human blood.

As the whole world would recollect, our 50th birthday anniversary cards were indeed signed with human blood when a bomb exploded in Abuja on that day. For President Jonathan and all right-thinking Nigerians, a word is sufficient…

SOFTLY, SOFTLY PROF. NNAJI; MINISTER OF POWER.

“He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good”.

Confucius, Chinese Philosopher, c511 BC_c479 BC.

(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 162).

Another translation of the same statement by Confucius ended with “will find it difficult to eat his words”. Since the shabbily conducted Senate confirmation hearings, Professor Nnaji, our Minister of Power, had never stopped talking about the additional megawatts of power we can expect in the future. He is on record for promising 5,200 Mw by Decembe. That is a mere four months away -including New Year’s eve.

The great Prof has not accomplished this and he has since been talking about what to expect in 2012′ 2015 and now 2020. His forecast for 2020 is 40,000 Mw. We still cannot achieve 4000Mw steadily in 2011, which was the level attained in 1999 before three PDP governments got it stalled at that level for 12 years.

In a paper, entitled, “NIGERIA: A MIRACLE WAITING TO HAPPEN”, he then proceeded to place an obstacle in the way of the miracle – “Nigeria needs $100 billion” or N15 trillion. That is almost four times our total budget at present. Nothing was said about how to get it and the fact that this government terminates on 2015. Does Prof know something we don’t about tenure extension?

WE ARE DOOMED!! — 1

“Numerous are the streams that lead to social prosperity, but all spring from the same source and that is public (as well as private) education”.

Gaspar Jovellanos, 1744_1811

(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 46).

To this Trevelyan, 1876-1961, has added: “Education…has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading”. Another slave trade has started in the new millennium. Like the first, the slave masters are white people, now joined by the Chinese, Indians, Japanese and Koreans. The slaves, naturally, are Africans. And since more than half of the black people on earth are Nigerians, our country might as well change its name to SLAVE COAST.

Why the alarm? The answer lies in taking a critical look at how our kids, the losers of tomorrow, have adopted several pieces of ICT to their own and our collective detriment. For the last five or six years, we have received reports of massive failure in the West African Examination Certificate examinations conducted annually and the trend has been downwards.

As usual, superficial analysts have attributed the cause(s) to government under-funding of education; teachers less conscientious than in the past; the lack of parental attention _ among others. To be candid, there is some merit in all these.

However, even if our investment in education is adequate and every teacher becomes a model educator, it is becoming clear that a great percentage of our kids will still fail their examinations. Why? They have become slaves to two monsters _ abuse of ICT including mobile phones, facebooks, twitters, iPods, the internet and the games they invariably provide to amuse and arrest our kids – irrespective of gender.

For the boys, one must now add another “god” they now worship – European football games; especially the English Premiership and La Liga especially since the ascendancy of Barcelona Football Club and Messi – their star striker.

If as Karl Marx, 1818 -1883, once told us, “Religion..is the opium of the people”, European football is proving to be more addictive than opium and it is destined to claim a whole generation of Nigerian youth – unless we recognize it for the security threat that it is.

For comparison, let me return to my own Form Five class of 1962 at Igbobi College, when we started to prepare for the same West African School Certificate examinations. If memory serves me right, 49 of us sat for the examination that year in late November to early December.

Only two dropped outright and for Igbobi College, accustomed to 100 per cent success rate, this was an embarrassment. Today any school achieving that feat will make headlines in every newspaper and perhaps CNN as well.

Continues next week.