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Parents and Guardians have been advised to take very good care of their children and wards as the positive cases of Coronavirus increase in Nigeria on a daily basis.

This advice was given by Pastor Opeyemi Ajayi in a chat with Federationews2day.

‘’Parents and Guardians must ensure that they take good care of the children and wards and must also ensure that they cater for their needs. In addition,children must be conscious of the happenings around them and abide by all the guidelines to prevent the corona virus disease. Self preservation is the watchword,’’ Pastor Ajayi stated.

Teach a child the right morals and values and the child shall never be a disgrace and burden to his or her parents.

The Federal Government is in the process of recruiting 774,000 Nigerians through the National Directorate of Employment(NDE). Those recruited shall come from the 774 Local Governments in the country-1,000 per Local Government. The jobs are direct labor in nature and the beneficiaries shall receive N20,000 per month for three months.

However, Nigerians have have expressed worries that Senators, House of Representatives members, Ministers, State Governors and political party stalwarts may influence the recruitment process.

They lament that the jobs are temporary and the number of those to be recruited is insignificant considering the very high unemployment rate in the country.

In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke opines that the N-Power, Tradermoni and the Direct Labor schemes are not remedies for the worrisome state of unemployment in the land. Excerpts :

Do you think that recruitment of 774 Nigerians as direct labor workers shall address the high rate of unemployment in the country ?

Unemployment saga in Nigeria as it affects mostly the youths and graduates has aggravated sinister development in terms of banditry, insurgency, armed robbery and rape for rituals to mention just a few, leading to the general state of insecurity even amidst the panic of the coronavirus pandemic.

The partial pittance of distribution of palliatives which was highly short lived exposed Nigeria’s poor state of welfare and high poverty level in terms of our population as if we are just recovering from famine and war.

Unfortunately, there is no sense of remorse or state of regret on the part of the elite, whose contribution to the impoverishment of the masses are obvious and with no place to hide as in billions of Naira worth because of the advantage of either been in government or the corridors of power. Nigeria today is known as the world headquarters of poverty and corruption, instead of addressing this, they care less about the North which could be said to be the epicenter of poverty.

The great challenge before government is to redouble their efforts in working on this for Nigeria to be more habitable.

 Government pretends to be responding to the cries of the people by rolling out a plan to solve the problem of poverty by initiating employment opportunities for 774,000 Nigerians with 1,000 candidates per Local Government.

However, the feasibility study for its effectiveness is yet to be done while the modalities for identifying the poorest of the poor continues to be a game of political jingoism because during the palliative distribution to cushion the effect of the lock down in the scanty and selected areas, even within each state’s geographical contraption.

The faces of most of the people who received the pittance of token were known to be working class and well fed. The society is yet to know how government was able to fish out the poorest of the poor.

During the N-Power program meant to reduce poverty by cushioning the effect on the unemployed youth in the society, most especially the unemployed graduates, research statistics showed that most of the beneficiaries were already engaged in various places of work, making a jamboree out of the exercise.

After two years of benefiting from the program, the beneficiaries flooded the already saturated labor market, thereby making the exercise to have no impact, while their counterparts with lesser certificates and grades, who happen to be offspring of the elite and people in government easily get absorbed into choice places of work-CBN, NNPC, NSE etc.

Government’s gesture of employing 774,000 Nigerians, though of very low impact, would have been commendable, if not for the fact that it is menial in nature, the wage of N20,000 is not impressive and the number to be recruited is too small compared to the number of unemployment youths, graduates and artisans alike.

This situation makes one wonder why successive governments have always been failing to promote the cause of our future leaders.

Unemployment became an issue in Nigeria in the year 2006 when it rose to 6 per cent, by the year 2011 it rose to 11.6 per cent , 2014 it was 19.6 per cent, in 2016 it rose to 23.9 per cent.

Despite all policies leading to the emergence of various economic interventions like OFN, Family Support, Better Life for Rural Women, DFFRI and Sure P, policy somersault rendered all of these ineffective and useless in the face of institutional indiscipline, corruption and lack of patriotism for Nigeria.

Till date our attitude has never changed, but grows worse under every government despite their campaign for positive changes.

The areas of international embarrassment included the recruitment process with over bearing influences of the State Governors, Ministers, Senators, House of Representatives members and party leaders.

Since the poorest of the poor are expected to reside in the Local Governments and communities that are remote, one should expect in a sane society therefore that the responsibility of recruiting candidates should be that of the Local Government chairmen, but for their questionable autonomy. Sadly, in Nigeria the masses are only relevant during the voting period, but are inconsequential after the elections by the people who they voted into power. Is this not a costly paradox of life ?

For this project to be of any meaningful impact, the Federal Government must increase the numbers to key into satisfying at least on third of the verifiable number of people suffering from the saga of unemployment, while their remuneration must be to the least value of the minimum wage or that of the National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) members. N-Power, Tradermoni and the direct labor schemes are not remedies to our state of poverty and unemployment in the face of the gruesome level of the challenges of insecurity confronting the nation.

Much as the number of universities are not sufficient enough, the number of graduates who are unemployed should be reduced drastically either by providing jobs or establishing vocational training centers under TIVET to accommodate large numbers of people who are unemployed and to justify the teaching of entrepreneurial courses in our institutions of higher learning while government must revisit the poor state of our Technical colleges for facility update in order that we are able to produce more craftsmen, whose graduates would be able to source for loans through accredited people’s banks for the purpose of becoming job creators for others to patronize and for them to be self employed.

Besides this, most of our artisans are highly unskilled, they have caused a lot of damage on projects assigned to them.

Revived Technical colleges equally come to the rescue of giving them short term courses that would improve their proficiency with some elements of rudimentary level of managerial skills.

Only such holistic approach which is youth focused and centered can solve the challenges of the dependents which every expected working class should bear to satisfy their socio-spiritual responsibilities for peace to reign.

Above all, the issue of stable and regular electricity supply is equally germane to the survival of small and medium scale industries for the realization of genuine industrialization to be realized. 

The All Workers Convergence(AWC) has advised parents and guardians in Nigeria to  physically assess and evaluate schools before allowing their children and wards to resume. 

The AWC gave this advice through its National  Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze. 

''The AWC advises parents, guardians, Parents Teachers Associations(PTA) and the civil society at large  to challenge the purported  reopening of schools in order to save our future. They should physically  visit the schools to ascertain if these schools have complied with the guidelines for resumption  before releasing and allowing their children and wards to resume. The idea to reopen schools is the  most dangerous step to take at this critical period, when the positive cases of coronavirus pandemic  is on the increase all over the country.'' Our Government  is attempting to experiment  with the lives of our children, especially  when schools  eventually reopen'', Comrade Emelieze  noted. 

 Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that coronavirus  is becoming endemic.

The University College Hospital (UCH) has declared that since the Oyo state Government did not pay any money into its  Treasury Single Account(TSA) no money was received by the hospital.

The UCH made this declaration last Saturday, through its  Public Relations Officer, Mr. Toye Akinirinola(PRO)during a radio program monitored in Ibadan, Nigeria.

''If you are paying any money to the UCH, you have to pay into the UCH TS Account and send us a financial pay advisory. Since this has not been done by the Oyo state Government, the state Government should not say it has given the UCH  any money.''

''We still  insist that we  have not collected  any money from the Oyo State Government. There are no contradictions about this. On the N118  million, the UCH  in anyway, should not be connected. We must take every step to make sure that the UCH is not roped in. We received 250 pieces of Protective Equipment valued at N800,00. The Oyo  State Government said that we should do a shopping list  for them, but as I speak, it is only 250 pieces  of Protective  Equipment they have given to us,'' Mr. Akinrinola disclosed. 

Remembrance- Chief D.A Adewumi (1924-1994)(B.A Econs. Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone/Electoral Commissioner, Lagos State Electoral Commission-1979-1983).

26 years gone by, you are still in our minds. Bisi, Nike, Funke, Tayo

A number of State Governments are desirous to reopen schools, even though there is already an unusual increase in the positive cases of the coronavirus in several states of Nigeria.

Already worship centers have been reopened, with a sizable number of them contravening the guidelines for reopening. Sadly government officials are among the several personalities who have violated the guidelines put in place to check the spread of the virus, while several common Nigerians have been prosecuted for same. In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke warns that reopening schools at this time may be catastrophic. Excerpts :

Do you think it is reasonable to reopen schools now, considering the increasing positive cases of the coronavirus ?

Across the lines of the three spheres of life, namely educational, religious and government institutions, only the last is functional-playing the big daddy role overbearing authority of instructions. Expectedly, it is the power house of society because the wealth and the might of the nation rests squarely on its shoulders under its control. But disappointingly the spread of the coronavirus pandemic is going on at such an alarming rate as if to say that no efforts have been made to curtail the spread. The first question is why are the educational and religious institutions rendered inactive in the control of the pandemic both in the areas of spread prevention and in the areas of cure for victims. The reason is not far fetched.

The religious institution has lost bearing of its focus in taming the wildness of the evening times, empowering adherents to have immunity against hunger and poverty as well as against spiritual attack which the coronavirus represents. Religious adherents and their leaders are more into rhetoric and entertainment part of religion because of their economic driven commercial focus and without readiness to sacrifice for fellow human beings. Qualification to meditate or supplicate on to God, for divine intervention is therefore lacking, may be this is why government has the audacity to close down acclaimed houses of God, without repercussion or remorse. With the daily increase in the number of positive cases, which has now gone beyond an international contagion to that of community based transmission, reopening of the houses of God may be regarded as a costly mistake of the century by government, more so when they can bear witness that houses of God can become havens for fraudsters, prostitutes, kidnappers, drunkards, drug addicts and those who are spiritually dead and socially decadent, contrary to the demands of the scripture on the issue of integrity, fear of God, soul purification and body preservation from sins and crimes correct adherent illumination and radiation as preconditions to effect divine intervention on matters concerning humanity.

Government ought to have capitalized on this by instructing the religious houses to do the needful for acceptable religious relevance in the scheme of sanitizing the society and developing the nation.

A critical monitoring of the reopened houses of God so far, reveal partial compliance with the guidelines for their reopening, while most of their adherents are yet to believe that the coronavirus is real because their immediate neighbors are yet to die.

The basic question is that are the religious leaders ready to replace profanity with sacredness to ensure value restoration into the houses of God ?

A clean body without sincerity of purpose and purified souls is more of a time bomb that may aid further spread of diseases of which the coronavirus is a current case study. The coronavirus like HIV has come to stay with humanity, its proper management to prevent it becoming a terminal disease is what matters most now.

2021 has been slated for the reopening of schools in the United States of America, when it is most certain that the environment must have been free from the pandemic. Working on how the community transmission would stop and how to prevent congestion at the home front to be able to avoid been infected with the disease is what should preoccupy everybody as stakeholders, while government should facilitate urgent reforms in the education, health and religious sectors, since they all have standards of practice based on the sustaining curricula. Most religious organizations are now resorting to virtual learning through zoom and some other internet facilities including Skype. The rigorous pursuit of these internet facilities would be a good adoption by government and owners of schools as a functional social educational interaction between the teachers and parents for the students not to be unnecessarily idle at home. However, parents must be on guard to instill discipline and prevent waywardness of their children.

Opening of schools under whatever pretense during this period may be catastrophic. Government must avoid a situation whereby some people would start insinuating that it is aiding and abetting the rapid spread of the virus as a modern day sacrifice to appease some diabolic cults. The present situation calls for caution in reopening schools as well as religious houses considering the rapid spread of the virus.

The grand design of God and how best to keep humanity and our societal interaction in a state of equilibrium and peace, is the best for mankind but our different attitude and disposition towards the set objectives of God on giving him just worship in an environment of love suggests otherwise.

The scriptures provide right inferences on this — Quaran 51 : 56 ‘’ I have only created Jinns and men that they may serve.’’

1 COR 13 ‘’ So these three things continue, faith(religion)hope (derived from just worship) and love(enabling environment for the realization of hopes and desires).

The design of God spans through the unions of education for civility and development, religion for character formation, good moral code and institutional discipline and the loop of government through various political formations, dispositions and dispensations. 

Al these are planted on the seat of cultures which vary from one tribe to the other, races and other in-built social virtues.

For humanity to be groomed into ethical practices, the three unions must be built on trust for generations to be able to ensure its value continuity.

Unfortunately for mankind, we are divided into opinions to lose focus of the scriptures in building for us right attitudinal values even within the same denomination of religion, we lock horns. making sects to rise against sects through antagonistic teachings that lack the backing of the scripture for various religious adherents to disagree and lose the battle for unity which education, religion and politics are supposed to give us to have respite in the land.

In this 21st century, adherents must not allow their venom of hatred for others to override the true scriptural teachings which are addressing the same issues of love and harmony, morality and discipline, if we want God and Godliness to be truly served, to serve us.

No religion teaches evil and all religions co-exist in concept and principles, at the point of quintessence that promotes minimum energy with love and harmony in addition to moral discipline resulting in peace.

Every religion, has the potential to give adherents tranquility of the mind and the peace of the environment for the society, but only through just worship dictated by the upheld religion, with the fear of God which ultimately provides Godly protection and immunity against life’s hazards.

The epitome of belief are Jesus Christ and the Holy Prophet Mohammed, who we all profess as Christians and Muslims to follow, in humility we learnt of them as they served humanity through sacrifice, visions, transparency and exemplary lifestyles of discipline and beneficial development for others. For example the Holy Quaran states ‘’ Oh ! ye who believe enter into Islam wholeheartedly and follow not the footsteps of satan, for he is to you an avowed enemy.’’

John 4 : 34 ‘’ Jesus said my food is to do what the one God who sent me wants me to do. My food is to finish the work He sent me to do.’’

Quaran 33 : 21 ‘’Ye have indeed in the messenger of Allah, an excellent exemplar, for him who hopes in Allah on the final day, and who remember Allah much.’’

With all the advantages and facilities for correct learning , let us emulate our religious holy prophets or true masters to resuscitate the already eroded ethical values to be able to promote an environment of institutional discipline, active and reliable change agents, as well as a corruption free society for true development to emerge.