BY M A C ODU
In January 1964, after a successful secondary school career at St. Finbarr’s College, Akoka, Lagos, I gained admission to School of Agriculture, Umudike, Umuahia for in-service training as an Agricultural Assistant in Training under Governor Michael Okpara’s Agrarian Policy. I experienced a policy that was directed at food production in appropriate idiom. Straight from secondary school, graduates were taught rudiments of farming. Experts were on hand to prepare us for a productive future with gusto and dedication. Target was to make us self-motivated and productive farmers for the needs of Eastern Nigeria in the future. It was a great year for me. I became acquainted with the various Farm Settlements which Eastern Nigeria had programmed for revolution in Agriculture. Ohaji, Igbariam, Ulonna Farm Settlements among others were mapped out. We travelled through to see potentials in food production well conceived after Kibbutz system of Israel on effective display. Palms had been planted. Land had been set out for settler-young farmers, hybrid seeds were provided, White Leghorn and Rhode Island Red poultry species were supplied, vegetable seeds were supplied for planting, root-crop land was laid out, cooperatives were formed for mutual aid and for marketing of produce to off-taking entities far afield. Eastern Nigeria was almost there. The bubble burst so soon.
In Northern Nigeria there was emphasis on groundnuts, cotton and cattle (Hides and Skins source). Northern Nigeria Marketing Board took care of winning produce from farmers, storing them and exporting them. My Late brother-in-law Chief Sunday Dankaro, was an executive there. He moved on to industrial concerns with the military intervention. Plateau had minerals, Enugu had coal, Western Nigeria had Cocoa and Kolanuts and organized education well. International Agricultural institutions found haven in the west and till this day Western Nigeria leads in agricultural value chain how-be-it with monopolistic undercurrents. We were on our way to self-sufficiency in food production before the army struck. The Third National Development Plan was hardly underway when the military struck and our roller coaster ride to no where began. Indolence took root.
Two years shortly after, the military struck and that brilliant policy thrust was thrown out by an ignorant horde of adventurist soldiers, who knew little about governance. They were so bereft of statecraft and so haughty and spontaneous in their carriage that they threw existing policies overboard and kept to untested whims and fancies. I gained admission to University of Nigeria propelled by the commitment I had seen to read Agriculture. It was like an augury of the future that I changed my course from Agriculture to Estate Management in my second year at University of Nigeria. My third year was the year the military struck.
Civil Service Rules were thrown overboard and the struggle for control of the soul of Nigeria started. Sharing took the place of production and indolence was born among the power elite. What mattered thereafter was who got what and not who produced best. The public service dropped into jeopardy untold. The super-permsecs The Damcidas, Asiodus, Ciromas, and Ayidas held sway temporarily to guide the military on the uncertain terrain they had visited. They were to be worsted by the military adventurists further down in time. Murtala sacked the life wire of public service. Indolence was on the throne. Greed took centre stage and vanity was the finisher of our productive processes. We have been on the steep slope to trade in products of foreign lands ever since. Our farms ceased to produce. Farm Settlements were over-run with weeds. Governments came and went in quick change of musical chairs. The world was invited to Nigeria for Festac 77 and our vanity graph hit the roof. Cement Armada led to clogging of our ports. Nigerian National Supply Company was born to rationalise importation of goods. Local Production went into suspended animation and emphasis was placed on consumption. The military top brass ordered vintage wines with their name-tags and these were flown in for parties in Lagos and major cities of Europe. Dreams of future agricultural productivity were shelved for various glamorous schemes like River Basin Authorities that ended up not shoring up production. Jobs for people who were in the good books of the military came and went without a ripple on productivity index. It is still the mode till this day of writing. The military has since hugged power and pretended at changes. One age group just ahead of mine has dominated the landscape for the second generation now. In spite of poor vision, they are not about to yield power to more visionary and more digital generation.
It became apparent that the soul of Nigeria was lost by the military.
Professor Gordian Ezekwe attempted to engineer productivity through Projects Development Agency PRODA in Enugu just after the war. The leaders were not farsighted enough to understand the dire necessity of technological advancement as a necessary tool for economic development. University of Nigeria, my Alma Mater, was sufficiently motivated to devise hands-on tools for various chores that would alleviate drudgery. I set up Town and Gown Concourse in 1984 to display attainments of UNN in the area of Industrial Production. Town and Gown Concourse was a partnership deal between Conference of Alumni Associations of Nigerian Universities (CAANU), National Universities Commission (NUC), National Association of Chambers of Commerce Industries Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) and Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) while I was Chairman of CAANU and Deputy President of APBN. The result of the joint venture was woeful failure. The nation had already been excoriated by greed and avarice. Leaders had no vision. We are still there till this day. The major corporations that saw to power, productivity and growth were now handed over to people with neither breath of cognate training nor vision and the entire structure metamorphosed into a consumption morass. We have been unable to save ourselves from trade in products from foreign lands targeted at recycling goods and industrial products meant for a large captive market that chooses little.
Cocoa Industries Limited that packaged cocoa for beverage production export died. Palm Oil export is dead. Groundnut is dead in comparison with the early sixties. Civil Service died as control levers to excesses of adventurists. The nation has been adrift with spiraling inflation and consumption of goods from foreign lands. All real production efforts are in limbo. Onitsha and Aba are no longer attempting forging tools and equipment which they had dared in the seventies. Aba is worse, infrastructure is deplorable for sensible productivity. Young men no longer want to study or get into apprenticeship to learn trades. They want to hit it big without the culture of management of resources. Information and Communications Technology has not helped matters. It has made them busy bees for enriching themselves fraudulently. Acquiring appropriate education with its disciplinary components has become difficult. Ignoramuses now throng our streets with certificates that mean nothing in terms of acquaintance, not to talk of horned competences for fitting into professional positions or skill-demanding jobs or vocations, save pastoral work that have to do with fortune telling praying and guiding of the indolent majority. The Devil himself loves to prescribe modes for arriving at humungous wealth. He prescribes sacrifices of life to be made for quick riches. Our sons are game for that option. No industrial or commercial concern can take any risk with them. Something is about to give. Restructuring is in the air for valid reason. Sharing is running its full cycle. People who desire to lead must brandish competence to produce in the immediate future. The flipside is of course doom for all in the geographical expression called Nigeria.
I am now in my third generation as a citizen of Nigeria. At 73, I have nothing but hope in restructuring of the contraption called Nigeria so that productive energies can be unleashed for real growth. It will certainly require two generations of consistent effort to change the level of indolence which we have acquired through the past three. It had better be started quickly or dog eat dog syndrome will be our shared lot.
.Odu wrote from Mbaise.