My children just started a new secondary school this term. But their current secondary school was not their 1st or 2nd choice as a matter of the fact it was not among our 6 choices. Now, how this happen? The borough of London that we are living in likes to give the impression that it interacts with parents and takes their concerns into consideration when placing their children into its secondary schools. It seems they don’t actually, we were not given any of the schools we had selected, that we painfully investigated, we went to this school as parents, walked around and inspected their sites, talked to their teachers, looked at the websites went through their documentation and after all that was given an under-subscribed secondary school which was nearest to our front door, the bureaucrats had calculated this, using a complex algorithm - well not that complex, just it was the nearest. Another thing was that had made this particular school was undesirable because of its relatively low score in its recent OFSTED Report. OFSTED is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, and it does hundreds of inspections and regulatory visits to various schools throughout England and publish the results online. Once a school has a bad OFSTED report, concern parents begin to withdraw their children in droves, on the other hand, an outstanding grade from OFSTED would lead to that particular school being oversubscribed. Although a lot could be said whether these reports were fair, sometimes politically motivated or whether they actually mean anything but it seems the majority of parents feel they do. Then whether the schools were actually teaching the students and producing developed citizens or just companies whose main aim was producing outstanding OFSTED reports. That it another topic but on the whole, we made our judgement based on our own personal experience when we visited the schools with the children, based on the judgement of the general environment, facilities available, the enthusiasm of the staff and students, listen to the students who were going to the schools, advice of friends who were living in the area, the response of our children whether they liked the environment and school, etc. and the fact that they just happen to have an outstanding OFSTED report was a mild bonus. Hence, we decided to appeal against the choice of school given, based on the fact that were we not given any of the schools we selected. As we were going through the appeal process one of the outstanding schools we initially chose wrote us, indicating although we could not be able to get into the school, there is a sister school which is some miles away which has the same system and teachers would we like to be considered for this school.
Now there is the reason why this other school was undersubscribed, the former principal was said to be weak. There was a period in which the school was failing and had to be placed under “special measures”. The former head was said to be uninterested in the students or school. The teachers were showing poor performance and the school had every characteristic of a failing school. As at the time we entered the school we have just been informed of the former principal had "retired" and it started doing some changes and when we visited the school, we saw the desire for improvement, the dedication among the students and teachers. The most recent OFSTED report was positive and it seems the school was on its way to an outstanding performance. The students and staff now have a more general propose and the outlook was very much more positive, it was so much so better than the previous schools we have visited.
We all know the story of Nigeria under Goodluck Jonathan, but with some credit, to the man, it is a situation he inherited. Corruption was the order of the day, the leadership seemed to be weak. Allowing certain people to barrow away trillions in banks and oversea accounts. Not only was corruption endemic it was said to flourish and thrive under him. Goodluck is said on record that "stealing is not corruption", although he might be correct if you are talking about English syntax. This is not what people on the street want to hear as when they see government officials stealing government money, to them it is the same thing. It was as in the last days of Shehu Shargari and it was said that whenever it came to his attention that his brother-in-law and Transport Minster, Umaru Dikko had embezzled huge amounts he would go to his office and shake his head and gently say, “What you guys are doing is not good!”. Goodluck pardoned a known criminal Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (DSP) who was arrested in London on money laundering charges, DSP jumped bailed and reappeared in Nigeria, because it was alleged that former President Goodluck said that “he is my Oga”. Also, there is the case of James Ibori who was freed by the Nigerian courts later to be arrested in the UK and is now serving at her majesty's pleasure. Now this Buhari is the very same guy who would cleaned after Shagari, with the Work Against Indiscipline (WAI), he appeared harsh and unsympathetic, arrested and detent a lot of his government opponents and some journalist, he executed drug dealers even some of these people were caught long before he passed the law making the punishment death. He has given long jail terms to corrupt politicians. It was said that he and his deputy Major-General Tunde" Idiagbon never smiled. He was soon overthrown by a palace coup due to his unpopularity and widespread discontent. Most of the gains made against corruption were reversed, many corrupt politicians were released and the army developed a human face, for one thing, the general that overthrew them did start smiling. He had problems with the economy and the fact that oil price was falling. This is the same Buhari with his tough stance on indiscipline and corruption that many Nigerians felt he could save us in 2015.
Soon after Buhari became the civilian president public officials became more responsive. People said it was because of the ‘fear of Buhari’. They remembered the executions, imprisonments, punishments, etc. that happened during his first tenure as head of state. The refineries that were not working before now suddenly started working. Petrol queues that were present in years gone by just seem to vanish into thin air. Electricity seems to be more regular and constant. The war against corruption seems to have shifted gear, especially after a lot of noise and what seems to be political manoeuvring. When Buhari and his deputy President Osinbajo declare their assets publicly and within 100 days. Nigeria seems to be running again and for business. Buhari has also made it a crime for a government not to pay its workers on time. And as my sons' school, it was to do with the leaders. By just changing the principal made a failing school an outstanding school. And changing our leader made a failing country full of corruption into an effective one.
However, running a whole country is much more complex than a secondary school. And one of the problems that Buhari had in his first instance was the Economy. “In a nutshell, Buharinomics set out to arrest the decline in the economy and refocus it towards recovery. Buharinomics was to wean the nation off consumerism and profligacy while channelling it towards frugality and productivity. To accomplish this, the government was to cut down on its expenditure, engage in more efficient restricting and controlling of foreign exchange outflow, undertake the revival of the country's productive capacity (concentration was on agriculture), and broaden the government's revenue base irrespective of the limited earning potential of Nigeria.” It goals were high but its implementation was very weak and they tried various draconian measures. One was expelling all the illegal immigrants at short notice and with only 22 Naria. Then the sudden change of the currency at short notice hence leaving all those with money under their mattress with worthless paper, because you were only allowed to exchange only a certain amount. He refused to engage with international bodies, leaving Nigeria isolated. Also, the WAI was affecting average Nigeria the environmental sanitation “antagonised pretty traders, traders, roadside mechanics and hawkers whose stores were often demolished as ’eyesores’. Due to the ‘Dikko Affair’, (Where the Nigerian government was said to have attempted to kidnap, a former allegedly corrupt politician from the UK to Nigeria to answer for his crimes against the Nation) the UK responded negatively to Nigeria attempts at debt rescheduling. Also, his government was insensitive to Nigerian tribal and religious sentiments of Nigerians as both number one and number two persons in Nigeria were both from the North and were Muslims. It is like in the words of Yogi Berra “deja vu all over again”. He is still said to be insensitive with all the Ministers being elected. The Economy is still the problem and he is placing draconian rules in place to deal with it. Restricting the foreign exchange and restricting certain imports causing artificial storage of the dollar cause it to be more expensive hence affecting our Imports. Nigeria needs importation especial for goods at the same time to encourage our local industries. Hence a ban on textile, furniture, etc will certainly encourage our local industries and job creation but by removing these items from the ban list and by taxing them - Import Adjustment Tax (IAT) is a work of genius it may seem as in essence, you are artificially banning them but just financially.
Buhari has still a long way to go, they are signs of improvement and people have noted signs of progress. People have noted that he is "born again" as he is now allowing the courts to play their role. Got rid of corrupt judges who bottlenecked certain cases for years and ending up suspending the cases and allowing the corrupt individuals to walk free. Set up special courts to deal with corruption and tax evasion cases. But "Winter is Coming", and things are going to be far worst as the price of oil is falling we have to come up with an income generation plan quicker.
Comments
Post a Comment