ADVANCE THINKING AND MERITOCRACY

 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: my great audiences, after reading and re-reading of the interview brouhaha of the NDSC controller of a whole Lagos state and his ignoramus lauding exclamation of , " my Oga at the top" during a media public interview, I then say to my very self how, why and when do we get ourselves to this very sorry state and conditions where every responsibility and wisdom for our national growth must only be addressed by the only“oga at the top”.

 Are there is no more educated ,cultured, accomplished intelligentsias , well refined proactive minds again in our civil service organisations ,that can pilot the affairs of these very nation in all phases, why must mediocre and hypocrites, low intelligent beings continues to advance the course of our national development.


 On this note, I choose to discourse with you today on the theme: ADVANCE THINKING AND MERITOCRACY, of which I sensed that, is lacking in our individualism and collective projections towards our national evolution since independence has come to be the major challenges to our national enterprise and development.

The question now is, how can we infuse these notions into our national wellbeing.
First, let us start with the advance thinker and the definitions of what he should favour.

My concept of advance thinker, whom I double as the modern thinker of our time, probably must be in favour of universal liberty -- that is to say, he will be opposed to all outdated ways of thinking that corrupt the minds, He will give to all others the rights he claims for himself, he will neither bow nor cringe, nor accept bowing and cringing from others.
He will be neither master nor slave, neither prince nor peasant -- just an idea simply operator.
He will deliberately choose to be the enemy of all caste, no matter whether its foundation is wealth, title or power, and of him, it will be said: "Blessed is that man who is afraid of no man and of whom no man is afraid."
For the fact that the modern world is now governed by ideas and universal knowledge ,He must then be in favour of both where science ,investigations and demonstration will act as techniques to good governance and his mind will be opened to the suggestions of nature where he will be a learner and listener at the same time . He will believe in the duty of every person to shed all the light he can, to the end that no child may be reared in darkness. By education and self-improvement, he will direct the gaining of useful knowledge, the development of the mind along the natural paths that lead to human happiness and liberation.

This very thinker will always find his greatest joy in the happiness of all and he will know that the home is the real temple. He will believe in the democracy of the fireside, and will reap his greatest reward in being loved by those whose lives he has enriched.

 In the other way round, meritocracy model of governance, which am advocating here is simply a political ideology that holds that power should be vested in individuals according to merit.
The advancement in this very system is based on perceived intellectual talent measured through examination and achievements demonstrated in the field cum leadership management, all implemented in one fold.

 Through this very concept has existed for centuries, but one time British politician and sociologist Michael young first coined the term meritocracy in his 1958 satirical essay, in his book young questioned both the legitimacy of the process used to become a member of elite ruling class and the outcome of being ruled by a narrowly minded group.
Michael young's fictional narration explained that, on the one hand, that the greatest contributor to our society are not always the mass or majority, but the “creative minority” or members of the restless elite” On the other hand, he claims that there are casualties of progress whose influence is underestimated and that, from such stolid" adherence to natural science and intelligence arises This problem is encapsulated. In the phrase, "Every selection arrogance and complacency of one is avail for rejection of many" therefore, merit should be a yardstick.

Wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or examinations.
In a more general sense, meritocracy can refer to any form of government based on achievement. Like “may be used to refer to any government run by "a ruling or influential class of educated or able people."

A MORE ADVANCE DEFINITIONS OF MERITOCRACY FROM CIVIL SERVICE POINT OF VIEW
The Civil Service Reform Act stipulated that government jobs should be awarded based on merit through competitive exams and annual performance evaluation reports, rather than ties to politicians or political affiliation.
The essays of Michael Young were based upon the tendency of the then governments to strive towards intelligence and to ignore shortcomings and failure of education systems and utilize correctly the gifted and talented members within their societies.
Our old aged great philosophers like Plato and Aristotle also advocated meritocracy, Plato in his book The Republic, arguing that the MOST WISE SHOULD RULE, and hence the rulers should be philosopher kings.
So, if Plato and Aristotle are right that the deliberation is best if participants are numerous (and assuming for simplicity that the voters are the deliberators) then this is a reason for giving all or many citizens a vote, but this does not yet show that the wiser subset should not have, say, two or three; in that way something would be given both to the value of the diverse perspectives, and to the value of the greater wisdom of the few. This combination of the Platonic and Aristotelian points is part of what I think is so formidable for us today" adherence to natural science and intelligence and lets the wise men come and rule us.
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In summary of what I think that, the implementations of Meritocracy in our system will be able to achieve:
1. A perfect system in which every child will have an equal chance to succeed in life — there should not be elite private schools for the children of the rich and lower quality public schools for everyone else, NO! “good schools should be for all”.
2. The abolishment of party politics for the parliamentarians — in fact, the Meritocracy system wants to make it obsolete; all members of Parliament should be independents, elected for their specific expertise and merit where jobs should be assigned based on his or her grinded knowledge on the related field.
3. Only those with a relevant education and work experience should be allowed to vote, rather than just anyone who has reached the age of 18 — there should be citizen exams through which everyone can obtain the right to vote on a certain issue. For example, those who wish to vote for the next minister of finance should have a certain diploma, which shows they have enough understanding of this field to make an educated vote.
4. To replace free market capitalism with social capitalism and to replace democracy with a fully transparent meritocratic republic colored with democratic principles, under a meritocratic constitution.
5. The end of nepotism, cronyism, discrimination, privilege. and unequal chances

Yes, it does not sound too good but it can be practicable and much better than picking leaders at random or having some dictator appoint his drinking friends as we are witnessing today in Nigeria. However, having said that, there is no requirement in the definition above for the Meritocracy system to guarantee that everyone has an opportunity to fulfil his or her potential for success.

With Meritocracy, it will give us confidence that the people we appoint to lead are actually competent within the constraints of the system; it is simply about avoiding false positives (incompetent people rising or being appointed to the top). That is not a bad thing per se; it is just a bad thing if we presume that calling something a “meritocracy” means more than what it actually means, for Nigeria, is very simply to march advance thinking with meritocracy which is one of the easiest ways to get out from this abyss and attain the greater height as the true giant of Africa.




 

THE MAKING OF AN OZO...

  This very subject is so dear to me for so many reasons and for the mainly fact that too many people have been asking me so many questions about the Ozo, its meaning and worth to me as a young person, and also because ...a lot of people conflict the Ozo title taking with Nze title and the rest, I think I do own all, some piece of explanations about this trend called Ozo title taking, at least for a better historical reference.
Here, I will say first that the feeling of honour and prestige are the major principal features of an ozo. It makes a man to feel great and honoured among his very people like a master in the act of assurance insurance. Being a master, you cannot complain nor lack, with the same sense of responsibility, and direct action as a master, you can redress and guarantee your future by insuring them with great backups like a man of power and influence through a led down automatic dividend options, which is only available in stock buying.
The deep meanings of ozo, can only be well understood if we do trace it from its starting point from our Igbo historical evolution, where all started.
First in the olden days, there was no insurance scheme or banking system in the Igbo land to save their surplus wealth for children to inherit from their neither parents, nor economic insurance for wealthy elderly people as well. It was the dire need for these schemes that inspired the first king of nri clan, the Eze NRI Ifikwanim (eze nri 1) around 1008 to institute ozo title taking in the nri town to serve the above purposes. Ozo was then graded into various classes, ranging from the lowest to the highest classes. Each of the classes was distinguished by a different name depending on the dialect of the particular community or clan. A male citizen can take the ozo title of his choice in his community depending on his wealth of financial capability.
Like the buying of company shares in modern times, the more shares a person buys, the more dividends he gains at the end of the year. So also the higher the grade or rank of the ozo title, also the higher the wealth a person has to invest, and the higher the benefit he will get from it until death. Some rich men acquire Ozo title as an insurance scheme for their young male children. Some even acquire the title In advance for their yet to be born male children, this is known as Ozo ntogbo or Ozo nchido. The major benefit is that the prestige conferred on the Ozo titleholders made it to become very attractive and admirable to both the ancient and modern Igbo men join with the white dressing regalia display by ozos during their outing activities. In addition, for this simply fact that the elite class are all involved in the Ozo society, it has gained very great influence in many Igbo communities and town until date.
While the Nze title started from Aguleri where the first Igbo king rule with Ndi-Nze as cabinet chiefs before Ozo thing was finally introduced, Nze is mainly a responsibility and honour awarded to a person by a community to represent and serve the community as a member of the Eze-in–council, its membership are determined by morals and character assessment , while Ozo title is a prestigious traditional title taken by choice by a man who can afford the expenses .so Ozo society or club has nothing to do with how the king runs the community with Ndi-Nze or with any deity , yet an Nze can as well choose to become am Ozo as a matter of choice where he can then be address as onye Nze na Ozo as well.
Am here saying that Ozo society as an institution has its own ideology, guiding principle and laws, which are quite different from other title taking in the Igbo land, therefore to merge this very institution with others is to cause the clashing of ideas, which always lead to conflict in reasoning and logic.
There are no point in combining Ndi-Nze with Ndi-Ozo as if they are all one institution ,they are two different things ,the Nze must be chosen and given the mandate by his community based on merit while one becomes an Ozo titleholder by self-choice based on his financial capacity to invest or acquire Ozo shares as the case may be.
Yet some of us has join this very club of Ndi-Ozo at a very young age, with so many great visions on how we can reform and modernized it, make it a sole property of the town union as well as making it a source of revenue for the general community where the town union can earn some certain percentage as a premium from the ozo proceeds that will be used for the community development. Please friends this time to join the Ozo society so that we all can reform it for better, it has nothing to do with idolatry or any deity, it mainly a social class organisation that deserve preservations, modernity and innovations.
 

SURVIVAL AS THE FIRST RULE OF NATURE

All of us were born kicking, crying and fighting to live from the day of our birth, as the time goes on we become used to the soft life that turn us all into creatures of comfort and finally we come to dislike inconveniences and discomforts, yet everyday now and then I still ask myself, what will happen when we all are faced with a survival situation with its stress inconveniences and discomfort, when the will to live, will becomes most essential specifically when we are rowed out by forces of nature to the stumbling oceans of life.

The experience and knowledge I have gained from my life of soldiering, training and combatant, which am sure must always come to my way, those my stubbornness and constant refusal to give in, to problems and obstacles, must I turn into mental and physical strength for me to endure the tough time.

My always mandate is that I must survive ,in the foreign land I must survive, I will act like the natives, I must feel the area, I must eat their food ,drink water and wine with their kings and friends, still with the thought of my root back in my mind I will live to survive.

Toffs, there is no guilt in survival, cause the living who abandon their chance to survive accomplish nothing, such an act would be the greatest tragedy. We are all born and created to survive no matter our place of our birth, be it in the palace or by the street side ,we all are destined to survive. 

THE TALES OF THE ALMAJIRIS

                                 Trials of the Almajiris vs the Northern Governors

ADDRESS TO THE COURT OF THE PEOPLE’S FACEBOOK PALIARMENT (PFP)

GENTLEMEN of the Facebook Parliaments, I first of all apologies           
 for my brief absents from this very writers forum for too long a time and at the same time I will be presenting to your body of assemblies, a case of social cum criminal negligence and incalculable disasters by the name ALMAJIRI that is about to happened before our very eyes if not well address in time:

I regard this as one of the most important cases that I will be submitting for public scrutiny and evaluation in resent time. It is not really a case that involves property ownership, pension fund stealing, armed robbing and kidnaping or PDP governors forum power tussling , it is one that involves the liberty of every man. It involves the freedom and the future security for me and you, it involves the right for social equality for every of citizen of our beloved nation, it involves how we can now arrest this very encoded programed poverty cum violence here in north and now sliding down to the south which was created and encourage by our pass Rock leaders just because of their selfish mind set of continuous ascendance of the political space against the general freedom and participation of every other Nigeria through this very calculated and manipulated army of poverty riddled neglected and misinform youths, this is on how we can promote intellectual simulations of every citizen of Nigeria and for the open understanding of the sufferings of these bamboozled impoverished Alamajiris and their negative repercussions to our national security if allowed unchecked.

The question to be tried by you, the Facebook parliamentarians nobs, is whether the Alamajiris should have the rights for the basic needs of life such as shelter, food , clothing as well as proper educations that will help them in expressing their honest thought which can only be freely achieved through good sound educations that will make them objectives instead of them remaining subjective to the wishes and distort teachings of the semi illiterate mallams over issues that defines their destiny and life decisions, and also whether the Rock governors should as well be hold responsible for neglecting the security risk pose by continuous existence of Alamajiri class system in their states and our nation as a whole. Although some friends may want to argued me that almajiri is system of education is of its own and should be allow some space to exist, yet I refuse to buy into this very argument cause the major reasons for education is to make one objective and productive in a society, of which almajiri system, of today has failed woefully to address on both ways rather it have become retrogressive for our national security and collective interest. My toffs; let first look further into the Almajiri system of education, its pre-history and to see to the major factors that still prolong its existence in our today system. Almajiri as it stands, is a word borrowed from Arabic for someone who leaves his home in search of knowledge in the Islamic religion, In this very system male children are sent to faraway places to acquire Islamic education at the tender ages of between four and nine years with parental guides. This system of Islamic education has been in existence since the inception of Islam in Northern Nigeria in the 11th century AD. In the past, the host communities catered for all the needs of the almajirai and their Mallams. However, today, especially in northern Nigeria the almajiri are left to their own devices to cater for themselves and now indoctrinated into a life of poverty and violence. Without any formal system to take care of them, these kids end up on the streets as beggars. As a result, the word “Almajiri” has come to stand for street-children. As street-children without any form of parental care, they easily fall under the sway of any one who is willing to “provide” for them. This is how the Almajiris are now turning into instruments of sectarian violence, biddable pawns in the hands of politicians and mischief-makers .The impression has taken hold that the elites were tolerating this army of mendicant urchins, if not remote-controlled, as a useful addition to its arsenal for political wars. The major factors encourages almajiris are: · Government negligence: By not making much effort to reform, regulate or incorporate the system into the mainstream educational system. All these have helped to perpetuate the system. · cultural structures of the people and Rock people´s feudalism: By the act of over empowering of the aristocratic and upper super class of the Rock people at the very expense of the poor dweller which penury are the natural condition of these pitiable class where the economic-skills of survival can only be transmitted from parent to child, where one can only take after his own father. This was the case in the north, the noble learned the ways of nobility, and the peasant learned the trade of their peasant-father. This ensured that children of farmers, gardeners, and beggars could only end up as farmworkers, gardeners, beggars and bumpkin from one generation to the next. They could not aspire to become teachers, doctors, engineers, lawyers or professors; because their parents could not communicate those skills to them and now psychologically forced to believe that, they can never be better than their fathers can. This system has kept both classes apart for centuries until this very day. · socio-economic motives: The Mallams also derived direct economic benefits from the almajirai by taking part of what the latter obtained from begging and performance of other menial jobs and also the host communities whom as well enjoy their services because they provides cheap and often free labour for them. · politics: for the main fact the senate president David Mark challenged the Rock governors openly to urgently ban the Almajiri system that has seen millions of children abandoned by their parents roaming the streets of the states in multitude shows clear case political in-responsibilities and counterproductive by these politicians, it was encouraged by the political class as a political means without considering its political ends. · Poverty and family compositions: such as polygamy and the extended family system and having more male children in a family are serious strong determinants , children of almajiri system are found to be the children of the poor peasantry and other low-income earning strata. The fact that most of the almajirai were young age are strong evidence that they were sent to such schools before they reached the age of reasoning and are indoctrinated to accept the almajiri system of surviving. The Consequence and end product of not addressing the Almajiri problems for now, will only throw us into more anarchy, lawlessness ,rebellion, mobocracy and more harams, a crime free society can only be achieve when the majority of the masses have been lifted up through quality education that will empowers the poor and brings hope to the oppressed ,education that will turn the “Almajiri” masses into a population of stake-holders .An education system that is capable to co-exist with other forms of education ,as have been proved by the Yoruba Muslims of South-Western Nigeria and also through the introduction of vocational skills acquisition programmes to these class of people. Resistance to “Western” education is not about religion; it is about the manipulation of an ignorant population by the Rock feudalists. This system of segregation must be stopped now, be remodelled and integrated into our educational system. The people of the Rock must put their heads together, through their Rocky Governors Forum, to tackle this phenomenon. The solution may not be a one shot solution, but a gradual one. The private sector should be encouraged to set up Islamiyya primary and secondary schools to complement the efforts of the various tiers of governments. logics and realities as my reasons

It is obvious that the Almajiri only means of substance is through begging and other provisions avail them by the semi middle class people of their host communities and with the continuous global economic meltdown which are now a reality, these very middle class with little means of substances and incomes may not have enough in the nearest future to provide for these army of Almajiris as usual and because man must survive as nature advocates , the Almajiris will have no options than to take laws into hands in order to survive , so earlier we start to be projective and plans for these neglected army, then the more better our future can be secured.

For these greater reasons, there can be no case of greater importance for me to submit to this very open parliament now than for me to make case for the alamajiris and I sees no reasons why our Rock tenants of today cannot be found guilty and blameable as part of this conspiracy of holding down some certain class people in name of Almajiri in this very twenty first century, it is a pure act for casus belli which the Almajiri are left with no choice.

Here I rest my case, my nobs.

This intend to be a satirical dramatized presentations for every open minded individual, which emanate as a result of the conflict of mind in my very search for a better answers to the threats pose to our national security by these set of over long neglected people if not addressed in time.

THE TRIALS CONTINOUE NEXT WEEK; WITH MY FURTHER PRESENTATIONS INLINE WITH THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS AND CHILD’S RIGHT ACT FOR ALL THE ALMAJIRIS

THANKS AND REMAIN BLESSED AS YOU FOLLOW MY DRAMA