In da club

Nigerians are truly the happiest people in the world. Just check out the clubs on weekends and even weekdays when we have a free pass for drinks in Abuja. Maybe the richest in Africa too. I hear we burn mor champagne money than a praire on fire. A bottle of Hennessy in the club costs 18,0000. Market price is about 6,000.00 Naira. Red Label costs 13,000.00 Naira, market price is 2,600 Nigeria. Keep on walking Nigerians. For a country where we earn less than a dollar a day, you wonder where this people come from. Maybe not Nigerians. Sometimes, we even talk funny lingos. Maybe we are not from here. If i earn less than a dollar, how could i spend premium money on a temporary high. I think is time we start seeking for a permanent high that won't cost so much but would touch more lives. Albeit positively. I predict an increase in liver problems in te next 10 years. This would be my shortest blog I guess. It is linked to my thoughts on The One School Initiative. More on that soon. Summary, Nigerians need to stop wasting so much money while we subconsciously set ourselves on fire.

The One School Initiative

It is time to get serious. Enough errors, enough distractions, enough i cants. Time to get serious. This country is in dire need of help. We talk, complain, scream and criticize Government from now till the end of time. Every Nigerian has the solution to fix Nigeria. the only problem is we have not been allowed to wear GEJ's shoes. I guess the chance of that happening is quite slim. Well off course unless your name is Goodluck or you have the ears of the powers that be or you want to dedicate your life to politics. It is obvious we don't need to be in politics to change the system. We always believe the only way is politics. If it was a criteria to fixing Nigeria, then Nigeria would be awesome. I have nothing wrong with our politicians. Something within the system drives us to take selfish decisions. Not sure what. Not trying to find out now. Politics and Economics mix just varies from here to there. We need to find our own little way to assist. I picked education. I have found time to teach a primary school. Not like I have all the time in the world but I took it upon myself. I must say it was the best 2 weeks of my life and I did not get paid. Wow. Why not take it a step further. My friends and even enemies (i am sure they would put aside diferences) all showed interest in this cause. This made me realize, people want to help. We just miss out on involving them or probably are yet to find who to Bell the cat. There have been many NGOs and agencies trying to fix our health care and educational system. A big shout out to them. It is definitely not the easiest job in the world. Te OSI is designed to also support the educational system. However, it seems we have missed out something. A failure to transform public schools to private schools (half way won't be bad too). The government talks about a transformation agenda. A transformation is a complete change. We don't however transform situations. We just find ways to meliorate and patch things here and there. This is very noticeable in the education sector. there are NGOs who have provided books to schools, maybe uniforms or even sanitary materials. These can be considered laudable effort and like i earlier acknowledged their efforts. However, this not not help the transformation agenda cause. What the schools need is a complete over haul. It would surprise you n=to not that a primary school can be transformed with as little as 10,000,000.00. Ok, maybe i exaggerate, let us say 15,000,000.00. With that figure, you can buy new uniforms, books, computers, fix the infrastructure (buildings, toilets etc.). Let's even say it would cost 20,000,000.00 to fix a public school. Why do we frown from it. 300 children, 20M Naira. That is approximately 66,000 Naira per student per term. Don't forget, approximately 70% of this figure is a CAPEX. So it would not reoccur. Best we would do down the line is buy new uniforms, books and hopefully provide food. Probably spend another 5M Naira yearly to provide for 300 children. An average Nigerian in the middle class earn same a year and some earn as high as the earlier figure estimated to fix the school (20M Naira if you have forgotten). The next question is can we afford it? The truth is the future and stability of this nation and any nation depends on quality education. I can safely estimate that 80% of Nigerians go to public schools and the remaining 20% go to schools where they wear funny hats and blue ties. By the way, i like the hats but it is a signal of a private school that functions. I went to a private primary school back then but looking at our uniforms, there was really not much separating us from public schools. It seems the system has gone an extra mile in creating the US and THEM culture. We are conscious in showing all animals are not equal. It is sad to know the lower animals out-number the higher ones probably 8:2 (i estimate again) Mrs. Bertha Abumere an Educationist warned that the gulf between the rich and the poor would only get wider if something is not done about the public schools. We need to make a conscious effort to reduce the Us and Them divide before it gets too wide and find our loved ones on the wrong side. The OSI has 3 clear mandates: 1. Provide public schools with adequate infrastructure similar to private schools 2. Provide students with books and uniforms to encourage learning 3. Provide teacher support services from the middle class I believe these are the 3 missing links in fixing the public schools. The first two are so obvious but the 3rd might need further talks. It has already been observed that there is already a wide divide between the rich and the poor. This has crept into the educational sector. There is a need to consciously mix the middle class with school teachers. This is strictly a volunteer arrangement. I did it for 2 weeks and I did not get paid. As a matter of fact I paid by providing the children funding for materials and even did support the teacher through transportation. I have not remained the same ever since and I doubt any Nigerian will after such an experience. This is the last bit. We need to immerse ourselves in the problem else we would keep throwing money at a problem that never goes away. This is the summary of the One School Initiative. I would give you more details on what inspired the name and initiative. It is worth understanding where this journey started. yes, I jumped the gun but I am sure you get the point. I pray you all join this initiative in your own little corners soon. God bless you all.