2016 World Poetry Day

PROMOTING THE UNIQUE ROLE OF POETRY IN LITERATURE AS THE 2016 WORLD POETRY DAY IS MARKED TODAY, MONDAY MARCH 21

        

        Poetry – a genre of literature, which is a collection of series of poems, can be defined as a literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.

        Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre, to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

         Poetry has a long history or lineage, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics. Ancient attempts to define Poetry focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated mainly on features not unlike repetition, verse form and rhyme, as well as emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively informative, prosaic forms of writing.

          From the middle of twentieth (20^th) century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act that employs language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses.

          In poetic presentation, devices including assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony or sarcasm, and other stylistic elements of poetic diction invariably leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, figures of speech to include metaphor, simile and metonym create a resonance between otherwise disparate images – a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived.

         Some poetry types are not unconnected to particular cultures and genres, and respond to features of the language in which the poet writes. Most modern poetry reflect a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing among other things, the principle of euphony, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm. Perhaps, in today’s increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages.

         Because of its nature of emphasizing linguistic form rather than using language purely for its content, poetry is notoriously difficult to translate from one language into another. A possible example of this is the Hebrew Psalms, where the beauty is found more in the balance of ideas than in specific vocabulary.

        In most poetry, it is the connotations and the weight of words that are majorly important. Such attribute can be difficult to interpret thereby causing different readers to hear or understand a particular piece of poetry differently. While there are logical interpretations, the truth of the matter is that, there can never be a definitive or specific interpretation attached to a particular poem.

        So far, by painstakingly considering the use of poetry in various artistic areas or fictional works such as folk tales, advertisement, music, short stories, children’s literature, drama or play, prose, and what have you, anyone can easily assert that its significance in both human and societal development cannot be overemphasized. Poetry has indeed created an enormous positive impact on literature, and has contributed immensely in the promotion of languages, cultures and education in general.

        No doubt, poetry has succeeded in awakening man’s quest for learning or discovery as well as his interest to educate, entertain or inform his immediate society through the use of any language within his reach. Apparently, the use of sarcasm or irony in poetic presentations is one of the yardsticks that signify how far poetry can go while conveying messages irrespective of its content.

        Today Monday March 21, the world over is commemorating the 2016 World Poetry Day. A decision to proclaim 21^st of March as an annual World Poetry Day was adopted during the 30^th session of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conference, held in Paris, France in the year 1999.

         One of the main objectives of the Day is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expressions, and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their respective communities. In celebrating World Poetry Day, UNESCO recognizes the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.

         As the global community marks the World Poetry Day, I enjoin every individual across the globe, especially Nigerians, to endeavour to promote the unique role of poetry in literature by understanding the fact that poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals, anywhere in the world, share the same questions and feelings. Thus, we ought to comprehend that poetry is the mainstay of oral tradition; and over centuries, can communicate or convey the innermost values of diverse cultures. Above all, we should always note that poetry is the only genre of literature that saves time, space as well as energy, and can be written or expressed in any language as it pleases the writer.

          On this background, I urge every concerned sector and stakeholder such as the parents, guardians, counsellors, teachers and various citadels of learning, to vigorously contribute their respective quotas towards ensuring that the unique art of poetry will no longer be considered as an outdated form of literature, but one which enables any society to regain and assert its real identity. Think about it!

Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor

Twitter: @mediambassador  

The Sorry State of Nigeria's Education Industry

THE SORRY STATE OF NIGERIA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM

     The other day, a respected Nigerian reacted on his twitter handle, saying that foreign education was never the bane of Nigeria’s foreign reserve or her economy in its entirety. He went further to state that our forefathers including Dr Azikiwe and Chief Awolowo invested in foreign education, thus the practice shouldn’t be seen as an economic menace; rather, ought to be celebrated. According to him, Nigerians and Nigeria need to continually invest in foreign education with a view to bringing enhancement in the country’s educational system and its economy at large; in other words, Nigeria needs foreign education if she must grow. I strongly sensed lack of patriotism in his words; needless to say that the unpatriotic nature of most Nigerians particularly the so called stakeholders, remains the bane of Nigeria’s education industry.  

     The last time I painstakingly checked, without mincing words, the survival of any nation as a people depended solely on the health status of its educational sector. In line with this singular fact, the inevitable role of education in the development of any society has been vastly documented in series of global academic journals.

      Presently, unequivocally Nigeria which is widely regarded as the giant of Africa is still uncertain where she is headed regarding her educational system. Suffice to say that, her destination is yet to be known by the concerned citizenry. It is against this backdrop that the minds of many of our young ones are preoccupied with the intention of leaving the country for elsewhere for their academic pursuits.

      It is no longer news that most educational programmes initiated by the Nigerian government, have ended up serving as mere siphons to transfer money to the bank accounts of the corrupt political officers and their allies. To start with; since the commencement of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1976, the programme has failed to perform effectively as anticipated as a result of lack of funds necessitated by corruption, among other related factors.

      Furthermore, the Universal Basic Education (UBE) initiative launched by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in Sokoto State precisely on 30^th September 1999, which was intended to be universal, free and compulsory, has in the long run seemed incapacitated due to the ongoing troubling revelation of shortage of teachers as well as employment of half-baked tutors in our various schools, which is also attributed to the aforementioned socio-political cankerworm known as corruption. These and lot more similar programmes taking place in the Nigeria’s educational sector have been hampered by corruption thereby crippling the nation’s socio-economic system.

      It is obvious that most of our school structures are in dilapidating states, which shows that Nigeria has a weird value system. Indeed, Nigeria is a society where priorities are considered to be less-important. For example, the monthly wages of the less/non - educated local government councillors are far greater than that of university professors. Of course, something is apparently wrong with any society that doesn’t take its educational system seriously.

      As the disgusting culture of corruption persists, the public tertiary institutions have been left to rot away. Some of the loans received from the World Bank and other related institutions towards the revitalization of the nation’s education industry, were rather used to purchase inconsequential equipment that could not be properly installed or sustained, and several institutions received irrelevant books and journals in this regard, thereby making our various universities that are meant to be research-oriented centres seem not unlike hockey pitches. Due to this anomaly, each year the nation’s tertiary institutions send-forth hundreds of thousands of half-baked graduates in different fields of endeavour to the nation’s labour market.

      Sincerely, to restore the Nigeria’s economic sector, there is an urgent need to revitalize her education industry, and this measure can only be actualized by revisiting all the factors that currently affect the industry in question such as lack of infrastructure, teaching facilities, social amenities, poor wages and incentives, substandard teaching curriculum, high tuition fees, just to mention but a few.

      First and foremost, we must begin from the grass root. The government ought to as a matter of urgency rehabilitate all the dilapidated technical colleges situated in various locations across the country as well as provide adequate facilities required to run the schools, and sufficient funds to sustain the said structures and equipment. Honestly, the country’s anticipated technological development or enhancement shall remain a mirage if the grassroots are not properly addressed.

      It would interest you to note that most of the technical works presently done in China is being carried out by the school children. Nevertheless, barely few years ago, China was recognized as one of the third-world countries in the world alongside Nigeria and other developing nations. But today, China is among the world’s ruling class as regards science and technology.

      In a similar spirit, there is an urgent need to reintroduce History subject, which has abruptly vanished, in the Nigeria’s school curriculum. And, a law mandating every tertiary institution in Nigeria to offer History as General Studies ought to be enacted by both the National and states legislators. It is pathetic that most of our young ones barely know their past or lineage, and such anomaly is solely as a result of the sudden disappearance of History subject in the nation’s education curriculum. It is worthy for us to note that without knowing our past, we can never comprehend where we are meant to be headed.

       More so, world-class libraries, laboratories, and research centres, should be establish in all the existing primary, secondary and tertiary institutions across the federation, which would go a long way to enhance both the reading culture and the practical method of teaching faced by the pupils and students.

       The medical and engineering undergraduates ought to be meant to pass through befitting teaching hospitals and workshops respectively, to enable them acquire the desired skills. Also, well-equipped national engineering workshops are expected to be established at strategic localities in the country, so that, any graduating engineering student would be meant to pass through any of them; and it shall serve as a prerequisite to  the ongoing mandatory National Youth Service programme, just as it is observed by the medical grandaunts.

       In the same spirit, the ongoing Industrial Training and Teaching Practice schemes embarked upon by the students of our Universities/Polytechnics and Colleges of Education respectively, must be taken more seriously by the concerned authorities. The officers assigned to supervise the students or to visit the various firms or schools where they claimed to be, should endeavour to pay regular sudden visits to the said establishments. This measure would help to eradicate any form of insincerity found among the trainees since most of them prefer to dodge the training, thereby enabling the institutions to actualize the primary aim of the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES). And the institutions involved must on their part endeavour to encourage the supervisors by providing sound vehicles and other logistics for the national concernment.

      On the other hand, the tuition fees of all the public citadels of learning in Nigeria must be revisited by the appropriate authorities with a view to reducing the fees to their barest minimum, so that, it would be affordable by every parent or guardian. Due to payment of high tuition fees, some of the less-privileged students often indulge in menial jobs to enable them assist their parents/guardians, or to supplement what they receive from the said benefactors. And by so doing, they would pay less attention to their studies thereby indulging in examination malpractices, cultism, armed robbery and other kinds of criminality which ends up affecting their academic statuses negatively; most of them even become dropouts at the long run due to the financial challenge.      

      Most importantly, government ought to endeavour to employ qualified applicants to teach in all the public institutions regardless of their levels, including nursery, primary, secondary, as well as tertiary. Engaging quack teachers in our public schools has cost the nation a very grievous harm and we cannot afford to pay more for the damages. Thus, formidable and trustworthy agency must be set-up in earnest by the government in this regard in order to put to stop nepotism, lack of due process, and all forms of corrupt practices.

     The governing bodies of the various tertiary schools, must on their part, endeavour to fish out lecturers in their respective schools that are accustomed to such any social scandal as, but not limited to, blocking otherwise known as sorting, sexual molestation, sale of handouts, or what have you, that are currently on the rampage. These governing bodies ought to be meant to be answerable to the aforementioned proposed agency regarding discharging their duties effectively and efficiently.

     Above all, conducive or enabling environment should be provided for the teachers at all levels. At the tertiary level, befitting offices ought to be allocated to both the academic and non-academic staff to enable them discharge their duties as required. The teachers, especially the lecturers, should be meant to receive reasonable amount of money regarding their levels/cadre as salaries and they ought to be paid as and when due; and all their entitled incentives are expected to be revisited from time to time. No doubt, this measure would help to eradicate all manners of corrupt practices namely, admission racketeering, examination malpractices, sorting, just to mention a few, taking place in our various schools as well as help to put a full stop to the incessant industrial actions invariably embarked upon by the teachers at all levels.

     The private sector ought to also be mandated to follow suit as regards revitalizing the nation’s education industry. In view of this, any private institution that is unable to live up to the expectation should be shut down indefinitely by the apt regulatory body, such as National Universities Commission (NUC), National Polytechnics Commission (NPC), Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB), the state ministries of Education, and so on, as the case might be.

     It’s at this juncture needless to state that Nigeria has suffered tremendously in the area of education; thus it’s high time we crucified any monster behind the lingering mind-boggling ordeal. Think about it!

Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor

(TheMediaAmbassador)

-Researcher, Blogger, Public Affairs analyst & Civil Rights activist-

Chief Executive Director, Centre for Counselling, Research

& Career Development - Owerri

_______________________________________

frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056

Twitter: @mediambassador 

      

       

                   

            

     

The Awaited 2017 Population Census

THE AWAITED 2017 POPULATION CENSUS

     
Undoubtedly, you will wholeheartedly agree with my person that every society or locality, regardless of size, is naturally endowed with a certain number of people referred to as its population, which increases periodically based on the birth and death rates of the society in question.

     

 Concisely, population census is defined as an official survey of the total number of persons or animals of the same specie coexisting in a given arena. Similarly, it can further be described as the summation of all the organisms of the same group that are inhabitants of a certain geographical area as well as possess the capability of interbreeding.

     The last time I painstakingly checked, in most cases or quarters, it was the human population that was mainly taken into consideration whenever it called for census, obviously because the said population remains the only mode of population that determines the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) coupled with the overall net worth of a given society or country, and I wish to state categorically that Nigeria isn’t an exception in this regard.

     Based on the United Nations’ recent estimation, Nigeria is regarded as the seven most populous country in the world with about 178, 517, 000 people as at July 1, 2014 which is equivalent to about 2.49% of the entire global population. However, currently likewise many other nations, there’s no exact figure of the country’s population owing to several challenges or constraints, and it’s pertinent to acknowledge that suchlike phenomenon negatively affects the workforce of any country involved thereby disrupting its socio-economic and political strength.

     In view of the aforesaid assertion, it’s imperative for Nigeria to take a severe measure toward ascertaining the exact number of persons that hail from the country as well as ensure that the growth of such population is adequately controlled. So, as the nation awaits her next population census, come 2017, which is usually observed at every ten years interval, the National Population Commission (NPC) is expected to leave no stone unturned towards ensuring that nothing but absolute success is recorded during the awaited exercise.

     Ceteris paribus, the census in question, which its Enumeration Areas Demarcation (EAD) is ongoing, was meant to take place this year being 2016 since the last one successfully held in 2006. This very lapse implies that either the census wasn’t properly captured in the 2015 budget by the immediate administration or that the money budgeted for the project was misappropriated by the said administration. Whichever reason that occasioned the loophole, the present government ably led by President Mohammadu Buhari ought to ensure that the aberration does not repeat itself.

     In the same vein, there’s a compelling need for rigorous awareness campaign regarding the project. I want to firmly disabuse the concerned authority of the notion that every Nigerian is currently aware of the forthcoming exercise. We must take into cognizance that not every citizen of this country, likewise other developing nations, is privileged to listen to the radio, watch television, read the newspaper/magazine, access the internet or the social media, as the case may be. In view of this, I want to notify us that at the moment, at least, about 35% of Nigerian adults are yet to be informed of the awaited 2017 population census.

     To this end, I implore the NPC to employ all the needed avenues with a view to ensuring that no citizen of the country is sidelined as regards information. They should subscribe with the various telecom firms toward issuing regular bulk SMS to the teeming Nigerians. Even at that, not everyone has access to a cell phone; thus, in addition to electronic and print media, we must involve such other means of information dissemination as street awareness, town-hall meetings, and what have you. Town hall meetings would conscientize the traditional rulers or town union leaders to engage the services of their respective town criers thereby enabling door-to-door awareness mechanism. Against this backdrop, collaborating with other relevant corporate bodies to include the National Orientation Agency (NOA), civil society groups, religious institutions, and schools, among others, would be very helpful.

     Inter alia, contrary to the De-facto method of enumeration that’s intended to be used by the NPC during the exercise, which is not unusual compared to the previously conducted ones, I strongly insist that the De-jure method of enumeration would be more reliable and accurate for the exercise. The latter, if utilized, would unarguably enable the personnel to acquire the clear picture of every citizen of the country thereby enabling the commission (NPC) to arrive at a holistic conclusion.

    
The De-facto method is the enumeration of individuals as of where they are found during the census, regardless of where they normally reside. Whilst, the De-jure method is the enumeration of individuals as of where they usually reside, regardless of where they are on the day of the census. Suffice it to say that the former involves head-count contrary to the latter which mainly involves house-count.

     The De-facto method unequivocally showcases that there’s a tangible probability or tendency of not counting every Nigerian as long as the exercise lasts. For instance, if Mr A wasn’t found at his place of residence when the census officials came around, there is also a strong possibility of not locating/finding him at other residences or institutions he is affiliated to throughout the exercise. May be when they would visit his/her home in the city, he/she would be at his/her village home, and vice-versa.

     Besides, what’s the possibility of ensuring that all Nigerians resident abroad would be available during the exercise? How can we be assured that every Nigerian in the diaspora would sacrifice whatever he/she is doing over there for the census? Even if based on their patriotic nature, they eventually wish to return home in order to be counted, how can you guarantee that they will all afford the required flight ticket? Or, are the census officials going to travel abroad to ensure that every one of them is duly counted? These, among other crucial and sensitive factors, are required to be seriously taken into consideration.

      The gospel truth remains that every Nigerian, both at home and abroad, needs to be counted because there’s a tendency that one who’s based abroad might decides to return to Nigeria the following month after the census, and thereafter becomes a permanent resident of the country. Of course, we are very much aware of the socio-economic implication of such decision especially in a situation where the person in question was not counted during the census.

    
The De-jure method, which involves house-count, would definitely ensure that every member of a given home or family irrespective of where he/she resides or is based is duly counted during the census. People shall be counted based on their respective states of origin; in other words, the houses to be visited shall be those that are owned by only the indigenes of the affected state. This approach would also enable us to acquire the exact number or statistics of persons that hail from each state of the federation. During the census, the NPC officials need to request from those present at the houses visited the documents that indicate the authenticity of the membership or citizenship of the absentees or those residing abroad, as the case may be, such as birth certificate, LGA’s certificate of origin and/or evidence of schools attended.

     At this juncture, we’re convinced that this platform (De-jure method), which is result-oriented, wouldn’t be only more accurate and reliable as indicated earlier but cost cum labour effective. In fact, there’s need for the apt authorities to extend hand of fellowship to the cognoscenti towards attaining a hitch-free and successful 2017 population census in Nigeria.

     Above all, we have been reliably informed by the NPC that only its staff would be involved in the exercise; it’s a very wonderful and welcome idea. But the commission is required to use every means to decisively warn its personnel or any concerned body to steer clear from any form of unpatriotic act including cheating and indolence while the concernment lasts.

     Most importantly, it’s obvious that the project in question is extremely capital intensive; therefore, in addition to the budgeted fund, financial assistance is required from concerned individuals, stakeholders, as well as non-governmental organizations. Hence, the commission in collaboration with other relevant agencies ought to set up a competent, formidable and reliable ad-hoc committee strictly for fund raising and other related matters. This, no doubt, would go a long way towards acquiring all the needed funds for the long-awaited wholesome project, as we look forward to seeing that Nigeria in her entirety is perpetually salvaged. Think about it!

Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor

Twitter: @mediambassador