It is yet another 1st of October. For 62 years, ‘most’ Nigerian roll out their drum to celebrate our dear country’s Independence Day anniversary, and today is not an exception.
While some people are optimistic about the future of the country, others are pessimistic. For me, I am neither of the two. I prefer to be a realist or what some people might term a pragmatist. I see things as they are by reflecting on how we got here and what we can do or should have done better.
In essence, rather than see the glass as half full or half empty, I prefer to see a glass that can be filled and wonder why it hasn’t been filled by the groups that either see the glass as half empty or half full.
One of the challenges confronting us as a country after 62 years of ‘NATIONHOOD’ is that of the inability of our leaders, knowingly or unknowingly, to promote or address the SOCIAL INJUSTICE in our SOCIETY. There is evidence that lack of social justice is responsible for most, if not all of Nigeria’s woes – poverty, inequalities, insecurity, lack of patriotism, corruption, unemployment and above all our state of DEVELOPMENT.
So, what is SOCIAL JUSTICE? Perhaps a thought experiment by economist and social philosopher Amartya Sen, in his book “The Idea of Justice” can help us flesh out this abstract concept.
THIS IS THE SCENARIO:
You are the President of Nigeria or an an authority figure and you come across three children (3 states one each from the North, South West and South East) – Amina, Bola and Chinyere – fighting over a flute (national resources, resource control, VAT, etc). The trio cannot decide who gets the flute and so you want (have) to decide for them. One by one, they make their respective cases for you.
Amina says: “I should get the flute. I’m the only one here who can play it. And after all, the point of the flute is to make music. The other two can’t play, so why should they get it?”
Then, Bola says: “I made the flute. I provided the materials for it. I spent time and effort making it. It is the fruit of my labour. How could you possibly take this from me and give it to someone else?”
Finally, Chinyere says: “Of the three of us, I am the poorest. I have nothing in this world. Even though I don’t play the flute and I didn’t make it, you should give me the flute. Because, then, you would have improved my lot in life immeasurably.”
Which child (State) you give the flute to, and the reasons and qualifications behind your decision, says a lot about how you define or see social justice and fairness.
You can assign the flute only to a single child (state). Sharing the flute is not an option, nor is selling it and splitting the proceeds.
I can imagine that if you are or were a pragmatic leader, you would give the flute to Amina. Meaning that you would be compelled by utilitarian logic to match the flute (“resources”) to the flautist (“talent”). You might even go further to justify this on the grounds of efficiency, and by saying that social welfare is maximized because everyone, including Bola and Chinyere, gets to enjoy the music.
I can also imagine you giving the flute to Bola because it resonates with your dominant narrative of meritocracy and deserved reward. After all, Bola’s case – using the language of desert and entitlement – rests on the notion that the flute is naturally hers, and that it is wrong to dispossess her of it for whatever reason.
What of Chinyere? Alas, Chinyere rather inconveniently puts some of you, and indeed most Nigerian leaders in unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory.
Two years ago, I adapted this thought experiment for the NATION BUILDING training program for an Abuja-based CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATION. When I ran this experiment, the majority of participants did not give the flute to Chinyere. The reasons typically given are that it creates moral hazard and a culture of dependency, that it is a waste of resources (the utilitarian argument), and that it is unacceptable to deprive someone (Bola) who merits the flute through effort (the meritocracy argument).
Furthermore, those who reject Chinyere also start to “fill in the gaps” in the story -for example, by saying that Chinyere must have been lazy and hence deserved her lot in life. Very quickly, the platitudes like “give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime” are uttered.
Some participants, though, catch on very quickly, and they start to distinguish the “house view” they feel prompted to hold, which leads them down the paths of utilitarianism and meritocracy, onto the arguably more compassionate choice of giving the flute to Chinyere.
As one participant put it: As a public servant, I should give the flute to either Amina or Bola. But as a human being, I would rather Chinyere have it.” As if public policy enterprise, or even the Nigerian condition generally, requires that we suspend our humanity and compassion, and opt for utilitarianism or meritocracy
Now, of course, the reality is far more complex than this thought experiment. Over the past 61 years, Nigeria has had more than that one flute to give out, though she is accustomed to always assigning the flute in a particular way rather than being governed by an uneven blend of utilitarianism, meritocracy or egalitarianism; an approach that has helped widen our fault lines and made some Nigerian to resent the state.
Anyway, the point of Sen’s experiment, however contrived, is to make explicit our biases in national discourse (or moral reasoning, if we prefer), so that we can unpack that blend of logic that governs our allocation decisions, and openly debate why one particular logic dominates rather than others if indeed we want to build a Nigeria where peace and unity reigns.
This thought experiment asks us – if there is a chance we turn out to be disadvantaged by our default choice, would we still make that choice?
Nation building is not simply an isolation exercise, but that of transformational leadership and good governance. Similarly, public policy is more than assigning funds to various policies or programmes, but rather the social injustices that are addressed. Meaning that what leaders do, why and when, should speak to how they think and act on the fairness of opportunities and outcomes.
On a final note, as we approach the 2023 general election, it will be nice to see citizens electing politicians who can, without hesitation convince them which child they will give the flute to and why.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Happy Independence!!!
Focusing on human development is considered to be an incredibly significant factor that not only accelerates economic growth but also promises a better quality of life for the public at large. Ensuring persistent and efficient spending on human development helps build up an educated and healthy workforce, increases productivity and growth, the benefits of which are equitably distributed.
In order to determine the level of human development in a country, three main components — per capita income, level of education and the level of health — need to be gauged.
Unfortunately, Nigeria, a lower-middle-income nation, has been performing quite abysmally in these social indicators. Decades of inconsistent and incoherent economic policies adopted on the part of successive political setups have inevitably resulted in deteriorating quality of education, worsening health infrastructure and declining per-capita income.
According to the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) 2021, Nigeria’s ranking stood at 163 among 191 countries, lower than majority of her regional peers. Worryingly, the dismal performance of Nigeria in social indices indicates structural impediments grappling with the economic governance of the country.
Although the Federal Government’s 2022 budgetary allocation to education is 5.39 percent, which is N923. 79 billion out of the total budget of N17. 13 trillion, the efficiency in spending nothing to write home about.
Education has remained one of the highly neglected social services in Nigeria as the federal and most states has failed to ensure the effective provision of free and quality education equally accessible to all and sundry. According to a 2022 report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Nigeria now has about 20 million out-of-school children, the highest globally. The implication is that these children are being deprived of the opportunity to become literate and productive members of society.
Undoubtedly, Nigeria needs to work towards 100 per cent net enrolment of boys and girls in primary, middle, and secondary education if the country is to achieve massive increase in literacy rate. Two, instead of establishing new public universities or polytechnics, there is a greater need to emphasise recruiting highly qualified faculty staff that can impart education of high standards, in line with the ever-changing educational dynamics of the 21st century.
Three, since government expenditure on education, is 5.39% of GDP, undermining its ability to ensure the development of critical infrastructure, it must be enhanced to 10% with greater efficiency in spending. Not only this, effective governance — checking teacher absenteeism, ensuring availability of sufficient teaching materials, building school infrastructure — will also play an instrumental role in turning around the education sector in an unparalleled manner. Besides, both the federal and state governments should (must) work out a plan to provide technical and vocational education to students in an attempt to equip them with market-demanded skills, expertise, and qualifications.
There is no denying that the health system also confronts several challenges that have been compounded in the wake of Covid-19. It is increasingly observed that health crisis has become a potent threat to national progress, curtailing the potential of the country to emerge as a prosperous nation in a global village.
Being a victim of the highest infant mortality rate in Nigeria with one of the lowest life expectancies globally, the country has also been facing one of the worst health crises. What is worrisome is massively unequipped infrastructure: a) far too few hospital beds — six per 10,000 population; b) doctor to patient ratio — 4000; and c) declining population coverage by child centres, maternity, and dispensaries (PBS survey).
In an attempt to improve the health sector, a national health policy needs to be reviewed or a new one effectively crafted and vigorously executed at the national, state, and local government levels. With the exponential growth of the population facing Nigeria, health facilities have to be increased. For that to be realised, state governments ought to augment their health sector allocation to at least 2 – 3 % of GDP, particularly development expenditure, as the provision of accessible healthcare is a key issue states must delivery.
While mobilising female health work to ensure greater coverage of vaccinations is needed especially in the northern region, it is equally important to encourage inculcating necessary education on family planning in women. Moreover, primary healthcare (PHC), a basic foundation of a health institution, has to be strengthened so that fundamental health services in the shape of treatment of health conditions, and minor health issues at a community level can be dealt with timely. In order to improve PHC, the incumbent government will have to devolve administrative and financial powers to the third-tier of government.
The daunting economic crisis invites the attention of a ruling cliché to carry out a robust agenda for economic reforms that can bring about a rise in economic growth, improve social indicators, do away with growing public discontent over skyrocketing inflation, soaring joblessness, and most alarming, decay of economic governance.
Brain drain is certainly not a new phenomenon, migration has forever been a part of the dynamics of
human life; reading through History, you will recall that man has been migrating from way back. From
Africa to Asia, to Europe and even the farther Continents, migration is ‘routine’; I guess it is when the
numbers are seemingly high, that people notice and begin to make an issue out of it.
I recall back in the ‘80s when Nigeria witnessed the massive brain drain in the health Sector, at that
time, all roads seemed to lead to Saudi Arabia, even though there were Doctors and Nurses migrating
to Europe and America as well, that of Saudi Arabia was more obvious. Did the Health Sector collapse
at the time? No. It certainly created huge gaps, but it equally brought on new opportunities – openings
for other hands to rise into, and the home remittances that came through those who had gone and
had to send upkeep for relatives left behind.
As the Country battles another huge economic challenge, largely brought on by our own inactions and
irresponsibility, coupled with the global financial challenges, it appears we are at that point again. This
time though, the seeming mass exodus has been very well rebranded, it actually has a localized name.
It is not uncommon to hear people use the word ‘Japa’ (Yoruba translation for run/escape) in different
grammatical forms – Babatunde has japa’d, Nneka is japa’ing. Scrolling through social media, it is now
commonplace to find a ‘japa’er’ announcing their departure or arrival; only recently, I read a story
posted by a CEO of a Tech Company in Canada (a ‘japa’ee’), announcing the arrival of a new employee
from Nigeria, with a beautiful photo of the employee and his family sat in the aircraft.
Nigeria’s current population is approximately 218.5 million (source: Wikipedia), there is also a live
figure on nationalpopulation.gov.ng; with emigration rate at an estimated 0.29 per thousand, as at
2021 (source: www.statista.com), you will agree that the number of people emigrating is only a minute
proportion of the total population.
Why is there so much drama, particularly with the labour force? Did we miss something in the
past? Did we fail to plan?
I transited fully into HR in 2021, working mostly as a Recruiter, and it is from this perspective that I will
address this topic, coming through three critical parties in this discussion: the Government, the
Applicants, and the Employers.
The Government: our government, has over the years failed to provide an enabling environment to
address critical issues that go on to become ‘monsters’. The repeated and consistent strikes by our
university lecturers have automatically created an extended school period, where students end up
spending much longer for courses than expected and most of them already ahead of entry level
employment age before graduation. The dearth of quality lecturers also mostly due to poor conditions
of service, have seen students going through school and coming out mostly unprepared for
employment. The school curriculum that has remained unchanged, particularly in the Public
Universities, failing to adapt to the evolving expectations of the workplace. They, i.e., Government,
remain the least affected, whether people leave or stay, things remain the same, …unchanged.
The applicants: our students, graduates, most of whom just go through school, graduating and
entering the labour market largely unprepared. Please do not get me wrong, I am not generalizing, as
I do get to see extremely competent entry level candidates during interviews; but I must mention that
these are mostly very few and far between. I guess the qualified and prepared ones are hurriedly
taken. I typically say after most interview sessions, that more than an unemployed labour market,
what Nigeria has, are unemployable applicants – I do stand to be corrected, and I can explain my
position. For those in this category, some of them with good results have left (are leaving) for further
studies, a few with relevant skills and/or work experience have also left to secure jobs abroad.
The Employers: our drivers of the labour market. It is here we seem to be hearing the most noise from.
I heard recently that a particular Bank had an extended downtime because staff had resigned and had
either japa’ed or preparing to. It appears as though when one staff secures a job and relocates, they
tell their new employers that there are so many more capable hands from where they came and then
more are beckoned upon to join the relocation train. It suddenly seems as though the employers never
saw this coming – they sat high horsed, some believing they were the highest paying employers and
so their staff could go nowhere; there was no plan in place for succession, nor a pool. It has suddenly
dawned on most of them to quickly start to recruit, the once upon a time ‘rejects’ in the employment
market.
When we get briefs from some of these employers, they list all the ‘nice to haves’, clearly stating
barriers below which they would not accommodate. Today, we have briefs drag for over 2 months,
still seeking suitable candidates. Earlier in the year after a difficult and tiring search, we concluded a
brief with a client and offer letter was sent to the candidate; the candidate came back almost
immediately demanding a lower compensation package, with the option to work from home. Yes,
suddenly the tide is turning, and the applicants are having the upper hand especially if they have
prepared themselves.
So, for me, I do see this exodus, scary as it may appear, as a huge opportunity for us as a Nation and
for so many of us, as individuals. If we sit back and honestly look at the reasons why and how we got
here, see the gaps that have been created and how we can work to fill these gaps, and possibly avoid
them going forward. I will highlight a few critical ones that readily come to mind.
When the government and the university lecturers sort out their issues (matter for a separate
discussion), the ministry of education should work with these schools to revamp their curriculum
completely. The curriculum should be tailored to the needs of the evolving world of work; students
should not just go through school learning theory, there must be a tinge of real-life experience and
building of needed skills. Some of the private Universities are already going down this route, but there
are still plenty grounds to cover. Work experience and internships should be made compulsory for
every tertiary education study.
The applicants, students, graduates, must see the real reason for going through tertiary institutions.
Firstly, we must be mindful of the fact that attending a tertiary institution is not compulsory and
certainly not a prerequisite for getting employed. Whichever route an individual opts for, they must
be ready to put in their best and be prepared for the world of work. Going through school, and seeking
employment with neither knowledge, skill, nor experience, is a total disservice to self and all others
involved. It is no use sending out CVs and attending interviews, only to be unable to discuss the
contents of your CV, nor the expectations of the role.
Then the employers, the ones in whose hands the bigger expectations lie. We already notice that some
have begun lowering the existing entry barriers – suddenly the age limits are being extended, while
some others are willing to consider lower degree classes; reality is dawning. The truth is that most of
our organizations, particularly the larger ones with bigger commitments, should be stepping
backwards(some do already), to commence pipeline recruitments. Partner with the higher institutions
to search out students with potentials and start to groom them to be work ready. Internship slots
should be readily available and made competitive to attract students, who are then motivated to focus
their studies and come out ready to take on jobs. Train employed staff adequately, to guarantee that
there are people to pass on the batons to. That mentality of ‘what if we train them and they go’, which
some organizations have used to hold certain category of staff ‘hostage’, is turning around to hurt
them – staff are training themselves and japa’ing. The general conditions of work must be reviewed
and reworked.
The fact is that we have more than enough people to fill the vacancies created by the many exits, but
overtime, we sat not really thinking that this day will come, particularly in certain sectors; now the
days are upon us, and we must be creative in seeking out better ways to ensure that continuity is
assured, with seamless transitions that leave very minimal downtime along the way
Meanwhile, let me go and arrange myself quickly before I fall victim.
Have a good day, as we all faithfully look forward to our Nation rising again!
RITA UNUIGBOJE
Lagos, Nigeria
August 21, 2022
His Excellency is my friend and brother. I met him through a mutual acquaintance who over the years have won his trust and confidence.
Since then I have had some verbal interactions with His Excellency bothering on his vision for Kwara and the huge impact he has been making in the state especially in Education and Health.
The indices are incredibly amazing especially if you confirm with what was on the ground as at the tine of his take over.
In our conversations, I have mentioned to him that his communications was doing him a lot of disservice. States that have not achieved this level of engagement continue to shout all over the place, while he remains almost silent with his.
His achievements on Health especially shows a remarkable almost 300% improvement in the area of Human Capital development in the sector.
Anyways, I invited him over to see my Play Babakekere and he accepted to be my Special Guest. But due to the several postponements by the Lagos State Government he could not make it.
Then the opportunity for Emir Sanusi came up and I invited him also. He said he will make it and I smiled with a little doubt.
Emir Sanusi was received with huge acclaim in both Lagos and Abuja. Pulling in a lot of dignitaries and over 3000 Nigerians combined.
It is the biggest play this year with over 36 corporate sponsors including Access Bank, Zenith, First Bank and Sterling to mention a few.
So there was I sat at the Agip Recital Hall of the Muson Centre tired out. The first show had just closed and the Hall was filled to the rafters.
Khalifa Muhammadu Sanusi II had taken the stage at the end of a brilliant performance to hold the audience spell bound with a speech that has created a media frenzy all over the country.
The second show had immediately filled up and we were struggling with hundreds who wanted to get in but couldn’t.
The crowd was huge. The love for the 14th Emir of Kano was beyond belief. Nigerians from all hue came out and at that point our divisons paled into insignificance. Sanusi was now a unifying symbol and his weapon was truth.
Tired and exhausted, I sat in a booth set up by Artsplit – a neo- Classic platform that distributes modern Nigerian Art – trying to catch my breath.
All of a sudden, a dark man with average height in a brown kaftan and a mask on his face walked up to me and greeted me.
He looked quite simple and almost non descript. Thinking it was one of the many admirers of the Khalifa who had come from very far and couldn’t get in, I shooed him off politely.
He went and came back. Edgar, I am here . I have tried to enter with no success. I looked up at him and said, ‘ sorry we are full. ‘
By this time, we had started refunding people and I wasn’t liking it. I hoped and prayed that this gentleman would quietly go home to his family and not ask for a refund.
He still stood there looking gently at me. So I said ok sir, do I know you? And he said yes you invited me.
I said, ‘ ok can you take off your mask. He did and I still did not recognise him. Over 3,000 people had come to shake and hug me in the last 2days and I was already jaded. So it wasn’t strange that I didn’t recognise him.
So he opened his phone and the phone was the first sign that this was not just an ordinary ‘Mallam’.
He showed me our chats, the pictures of the Abuja play that I had sent to him and where he saved my number as Joseph Edgar…….
Then it dawned on me. I opened my mouth and covered it and exclaimed – Ohhhh My God. Ohhh my God. Your Excellency, I screamed.
He smiled very gently and hugged me. I held his hands and took him into the Hall and begged a gentleman to vacate his seat.
The gentleman wanted to protest and I said sorry, this is His Excellency The Governor of Kwara State and he said, ‘ wow, I’m from kwara state. It’s ok.
After the play, I escorted him out and asked why he appeared like this. He responded by saying, ‘ Duke, there is no need for noise’.
I agreed. I walked him to the lone Toyota Camry parked outside the Muson. The area boys not knowing who he was converged on me instead of him.
I just smiled to myself and said, if only they knew’.
As he sped off into the Lagos Night, I wondered allowed, ‘What manner of Man?
Duke of Shomolu
Dr. Mohammed Bala Liman is a public sector analyst, and a critical thinker with strong political, policy, and economic risk analysis skills. He has a bachelor’s degree in Economics and an MBA from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He also has a master’s degree in Social Policy & Development from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Doctorate in Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
Dr. Liman has extensive experience in the public and private sectors where he developed a keen interest in the intersection between development and politics and the challenges that have made it difficult to achieve the desired national growth and development.
Dr. Liman is a keen commentator on social and economic issues and is a member of the Centre for African Studies, Royal Africa Society, Development Studies Association, and International Association for Islamic Economics.
THE political culture of a country always evolves. But not necessarily in a positive direction. As elsewhere in the world, politics in Nigeria has long had unseemly dimensions. Political leaders have often acted from a zero-sum view of political competition and were far from respectful of their opponents.
However, the political culture in the country today is a departure from the past in many respects. Even if some features were present earlier, they were not as dominant as they are now. Today both the language used by political leaders and their conduct has fostered an environment that is permeated by such extreme positions and incendiary rhetoric as to render any meaningful political conversation impossible. Rarely has the public discourse sunk to the low level that it has now. True that past political behaviour also exhibited some of these traits. But it is their pronounced nature and the angry environment that politicians are playing off and reinforcing as well as using multiple media platforms for aggressive messaging that distinguishes the present.
Four overlapping aspects of the ‘new’ political culture stand out: the language of politics has taken on a form and tone that is excessively harsh; the accent by politicians is on demonising opponents rather than articulating their own positions; the political middle ground is being steadily eliminated, and the ethic of war has been injected into politics by an attitude that sees opponents as enemies to be eliminated rather than competed with.
The impact of the confluence of these factors has been to create a toxic political environment that is sharply polarised and dominated by invective, not an argument. Insults are routinely hurled by government and opposition figures against each other. Polemics by both sides have assumed an intensely personal nature, involving character attacks. Extreme partisanship has also made the political centre-ground disappear with little effort directed at bridging differences.
Political leaders spend more time vilifying the other than conveying what they stand for and how they propose to address the country’s challenges. Those in power seem to equate government performance with humiliating rivals while opposition leaders return the compliment by using equally offensive language. This has become habit-forming. The result is that an unedifying new normal has been established.
A number of factors might help to explain what has contributed to this new normal in Nigeria’s political culture. First and foremost, political parties no longer seem to represent any set of ideas or have coherent programmes — except as platitudes. The lack of distinct party platforms has in fact fostered a phase of issueless politics and personalised power struggles. There is no debate on ideas or policy alternatives. This makes the resort to shallow and provocative rhetoric an easy option and becomes the political weapon of choice.
It can be argued that the rise of a new political force, the OBI-dent and Kwankwasiyya movements, has also contributed to a more combative political culture by leaders who used language and engaged in conduct that upended traditional political norms. This became its way of challenging the political status quo, which it had no ability to do in any substantive sense. The point is that once established norms are discarded, they infect the whole body politic and contagion spreads across all parties who adopt the same language and behaviour. This is what seems to have happened.
Other factors are also important in understanding this change in political culture. The proliferation of broadcast and social media has in recent years made numerous information platforms available to leaders and their followers to communicate and direct polemics against opponents. The era of the print media (when TV was a government monopoly) imposed sharp limits on what was fit to print and thus inhibited most vitriol from being uttered and published. By its very nature, the independent broadcast media did away with these constraints and encouraged a no holds barred discourse. Talk shows provided adversarial settings, accentuated polarised debate and preferred heat over the light in exchanges between public representatives.
The explosion of social media exacerbated this trend as intemperate language could be used without consequence or retribution. It made it easier for political leaders and activists to say what they wanted, with no check on the propriety or veracity of their assertions.
Another factor that might explain the changing political culture is rising anger in society. This has been the consequence, over time, of rising but dashed public expectations and frustration with the inability of successive governments to meet their demands and aspirations. In confronting this growing anger leaders and parties have increasingly struck a severe tone to channel this public sentiment while strengthening it further. At times it seemed as if political leaders by speaking in harsher tones saw this as their principal way of assuaging an angry public.
What then are the consequences of this kind of change in the country’s political culture? For a start, it has debased the public discourse and detracted from meaningful or informed discussion of the country’s challenges, much less generated solutions to its problems. If most of the political conversation consists of invective, diatribes and allegations of malfeasance and venality against one another it denudes the political system of the ability to conduct reasoned debate on issues. Most significantly, it has shrunk the space for compromise, which is so essential to building consensus to make the democratic system work smoothly and effectively.
A polarised environment marked by the constant exchange of tough rhetoric is hardly conducive to evolving consensus on key national issues. It has also sucked oxygen from the government to engage in a sustained manner in serious, policy-focused activity. This distraction and the lack of political consensus have ended up making governance more difficult.
But it also risks undermining the democratic system by generating public cynicism about constantly squabbling leaders and their immoderate conduct. This not only erodes public trust but can also mire the country’s institutions in controversy as they become the centre of attack by politicians themselves. Moreover, if political institutions are rendered dysfunctional by political leaders’ own actions this can end up delegitimising them. The big loser in all of this will inevitably be Nigeria’s fragile democracy.
My egbon and main supporter of Awo the play Bimbo Ashiru, has just been announced as the Chairman of the massive indigenous conglomerate, ODUA Investments. With over N300b in Assets, Mr. Ashiru is in the core of the economic hub of SW Nigeria. In a call this morning with The Duke he mentioned the strategic role of Odua in the emerging economic revival of not only the region but the Nation. Congrats my Lord.
We are excited to announce that today, June 30, 2022, a new product is unveiled. Not just any product but one that can change the life of every African youth, and the trajectory of the African continent as a whole.
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STEM:
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GetBundi is a resource that provides significant tools for the African Union to achieve their Agenda 2063, particularly, Goal 2 of Aspiration 1.
Singapore used science and technology in turning from a developing country to a developed country. China went from having a no-flush problem to being a global leader in science. These countries have flourishing economies as a result of the critical role scientific and technological advancements have played. What China and Singapore have achieved in less than 50 years, Africa can also attain using STEM Education and STI Skills acquisition, especially when one considers the abundance of human capital and the resilient nature of Africans, especially the youths.
GetBundi is owned by Wings of Justice Africa Limited. A company dedicated to improving the lives of Africans through STEM Education and Digital Skills acquisition. The CEO/Founder of GetBundi Mr. Osita Oparaugo is a lover of Africa and all things African. In 2019, he built Ogéllé, Africa’s first User Generated Content platform, also dubbed Africa’s YouTube. In 2021, the idea of GetBundi sparked from an understanding of the fact that only countries with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) citizenry are free countries.
“We are communicating and will continue to do so with The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), The Southern African Development Community (SADC), and The African Union (AU) regarding the GetBundi product because there is no better time than now for Africa to rethink and refocus education towards STEM and to embark on STI skills acquisition,” Oparaugo said.
Wings of Justice Africa Limited also has a Foundation, Wings of Justice Foundation. Mr. Oparaugo acknowledges that not every family is able to afford the product, GetBundi, and so the Wings of Justice Foundation has been set up to partner with global NGOs and multinational companies seeking to impact in Africa to cater to youths and schools who need the product the most but are impacted by poverty, terrorism, disease, war, socio-economic maladies, or even their gender, as in the case of discrimination against educating women and girls.
We enjoin all Africans to support this product, as it is time for Africa, the sleeping giant, to awaken to its full potential.
Chidi is the main force behind the huge GIG Group. Their GIG logistics and motors are huge market leaders. With over 4,000 Nigerians under his employ, my friend and brother deserve this accolade. Happy Birthday, Sir.