Greetings brethren! Honestly, even when I
don’t think of you, I still see you in my dreams. This is simply because our
hearts are connected to each other via covalent bonding.
For those of us who weren’t opportune to offer Chemistry while in
Secondary school, you may not comprehend what I meant by “Covalent bonding.”
Let me use this avenue to throw more light on that. Covalent bond is a form of
bond between two or more atoms or ions of different elements in which the atoms
in question share electrons among themselves. That is to say: in covalent
bonding, the elements involved benefit from each other.
In biology, such occurrence is known as symbiotic relationship. A
symbiotic relationship is one in which the animals or people involved stand to
benefit from each other regardless of the circumstance. I want us to note that
whenever there’s relationship of this kind, there is always absolute love among
the animals/persons concerned. And if you truly love someone, you would end up
seeing him/her in your dreams. It is a natural phenomenon.
Penultimate week, I was opportune to be in Akwa Ibom State, Uyo precisely. And during my three-day stay in the state, I discovered a certain anomaly taking place among Nigerian public/civil servants. I was able to fathom the irregularity due to the fact that a friend of mine was personally affected.
My friend, who works with one of the state ministries, confided in me and
told me that one of his colleagues had been away from office for almost a week
without any tangible or serious excuse. He made me know that he had been
defending the miscreant’s absence with series of lies since he embarked on the
uncalled emergency leave. Thus, my good friend was an accomplice and he was
really disturbed about it; that was why he disclosed the incident to me.
According to him, the young man in question had been known as a truant for
quite some time now.
Regarding this recent observation, I’ve concluded that truancy is indeed the order of the day in the Nigerian labour sector having witnessed same abnormality in some other states in the country including Imo my home state.
Most English dictionaries including the Oxford
Advanced Learners Dictionary define truancy as the practice of staying away
from school by pupils/students without any permission or legitimate excuse. It
is worthy to note that truancy can also be applied in other fields of human
endeavour, such as civil/public service, teaching, military/paramilitary,
political terrain, et cetera. Let’s ride on!
Frankly the current degree of truancy among government workers in
Nigeria is a scenario that requires drastic and severe measure towards ensuring
that it is allocated to the history book where it rightly belongs. Without
mincing words, the ugly phenomenon which seems like an indelible societal
cankerworm has really eaten deep in the nation’s socio-economic sector, that,
if apt approach is not taken to eradicate it, the nation in its entirety stands
to be savaged by famine in no distance time.
Just take a minute and imagine a situation where every worker in the country decides to follow suit as regards the unacceptable practice. Don’t you think that such unimaginable scenario might result to thorough penury amongst the overall populace? I encourage us to think about this.
To this end, I’m using this
medium to urge the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to forward a bill with regard
to the termination of this aberration in earnest to the National Assembly. If
forwarded, our law makers are expected to encourage the crusade by ensuring
that the bill is rapidly signed into law without any iota of delay.
The members of the Executive arm of the
government are meant to contribute their anticipated quota in regard to the
implementation of the law as soon as it is signed by the legislators. In
addition, they must endeavour to release adequate funds that would help to
facilitate the said law to ensure that it is not swept under the carpet.
On their parts, other fractional labour unions like National Union of
Local Government Employees (NULGE) must also play their role towards ensuring
that the proposed law or regulation is observed at the grass root.
Inter alia, all hands are equally expected to be on deck as regards the
eradication of this socio-economic menace. We must contribute our individual
quotas in this regard if we actually pray for the betterment of this
country.
As we benefit from Nigeria, we should also allow her to benefit from us in
return so that she would invariably see us in her dreams, because everyone
definitely wants to be involved in a covalent bonding or symbiotic
relationship.
Mind you; if Nigeria ceases to see us in her dreams, I’m afraid, we
would be liable to embrace both physical and economic nervous wreck soonest. Think
about it!
FDN NWAOZOR
frednwaozor@gmail.com
