Nigeria’s albatross is its name – Presidential aspirant
By CHIDI OBINECHE
Thursday, May 11, 2006

A presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic party ,PDP, Mr. Sam Nwanti has said that the first thing he would do if voted into power is " to change Nigeria’s name to " central kingdom." He believed the name " Nigeria" is jinxed.

Nwanti told Daily sun in Lagos "if President Obasanjo’s campaign for foreign investors continues for another 20 years, he will not get it as long as he campaigns in the name of Nigeria.

l was in the meeting were it was established in the United States, therefore, if, l, Sam Nwanti is elected as the president of Nigeria, I will change the name of Nigeria to Central Kingdom and the capital will be called the Kingdom, and before the international community will realise that a new Nigeria is evolving, l will use my vast American connection to flood Nigeria with foreign investments that will benefit the youths, mostly, thereby eradicating robbery as well as other social vices, and crimes".

Nwanti, a security professional from Imo State based in United States of America said he would place serious emphasis on security.

Security
Security shall form the pivot of my government. There shall be full and gainful employments for the youth in the police, army, air force, navy, prisons services, teaching services etc. Salaries and allowances will be paid promptly, and it shall be at par with those of the staff in the Presidency. Workers will be quartered in nothing less than a standard three bedroom apartments. Personal mobility will be provided as incentive to ensure dedication to work.

It may not necessarily be provision for individual car for people, but we are working on plans to ease mobility problems for Nigerians, Hunger will be tackled from totality. If you have a well-paid working force, which could afford decent shelter, better health, good meals and cater to their children.

Today, we have different organisation doing the work of police, the EFCC and ICPC. This is because confidence in the police is not there anymore, Really, the system is warped. You cannot owe law enforcement agents and expect the best from them. Where I live, in America, police allowances are not paid in arrears. If you pay them in arrears, what do you expect them to feed on? Workers salaries, especially, security operatives will be promptly when due.

The economy
Since my stay in America, I have never seen a financial institution asking for more than 12 per cent interest. Here, banks demand as much as 24 per cent. The worst part of it is that these companies and banks retrench millions of Nigerians, sometime without any form of severance pay. Yet nobody cares to ask why. It is appalling how the elite treat unfortunate citizens.

If I am elected president, all these will be properly managed and controlled. In fact, I intends to fashion the society and system after what obtains in the US. The rich and the poor should live side by side, without one tramping the other to extinction.

Every aspect of the societal enterprise would come under the price control ministry. For a nation with such poor salary regime and labour situation, cost of living is so prohibitive.
In Lagos, for instance, a sub-standard three bedroom apartment costs at least N200,000 while such in the Federal Capital of Abuja cost about N800,000. Who lives in these houses? Are they not salary earners in the depressed economic environment?

Now, what do they do or how do they pay these rents? Where does an average worker get the money? It’s really crazy to have someone build a house and say that he wants to recover the cost within five years. Why? If his plan works, what happens after five years? Is he going to demolish the building? Of course, not, he literally holds a knife to the jugular of fellow Nigerians while he continues to live in splendor of crude exploitation.

When a young graduate forces himself to pay the shylock rent, how then would he feed? Do you expect him to starve? So, our poor guy either joins a 419 group or do some bank frauds. Don’t forget this young graduate has aged parent who look upon him to live longer.

A lot of these criminal preoccupations like 419, bank fraud are crimes that could easily be eradicated by giving the youths full and gainful employment, provide jobs for the youths and watch the transformation of the society from corruption-prone to integrity and self esteemed conscious being. The youths are turning to crime as a by-product of the corruptive influence of the elite and their lust for wealth. After all, most of these people at the corridor are deeply involved in 419. The so-called big guys in 419 and bank fraud are in the Senate, House of Assembly, etc.

Education
There is not gainsaying the fact that the standard of education is falling in Nigeria. Today, we have such anomalous development of students paying fellow students to write their examination. Even some college graduates cannot write simple sentence in English.

Literaly, education is on her knees in all the tertiary education and students spends more time at home on forced holidays occasioned by industrial unrest of the academic staff, and the reign of terror unleashed on our academic system by such distressing developments like cult activities, as well as the corruptive influence of idle times. It is so sad that corruption has spread its tentacles to encompass our academic citadels. Being a firm believer in the axiom that education is the bedrock of development in any society. I will reorganise the entire academic system in the country. The whole system will be restructured to make it growth-conscious.