It’s time old people took the back seat in Nigeria —Lawoyin, good governance advocate

 An entrepreneur and advocate of good governance, Mrs Jumoke Lawoyin, in this interview by OLUWOLE IGE, bares her mind on how Nigeria can get around challenges inhibiting national growth, gerontocracy in Africa and other sundry issues.

 

Can you give an insight into your background, your professional calling and your growing up?

My name is Jumonke Olawoyin. I was born in Ejigbo but I grew up and went to school in Jos. I had always thought of not working for anybody and that is why I have been an entrepreneur. I have never worked for anybody. I got into skills acquisition because I believed Nigeria could do well with the life of young people. I don’t believe everybody is supposed to have university degrees. Certificates are good but there are people who are naturally creative and can use their brains and hands very well, and there are jobs that can be provided for such people. I have consulted at skills acquisition centres in Zamfara and Kebbi states where we trained young women and men. Then, I went into my own programme and in Osun State. I believe that is a major solution to Nigeria’s problems. Literally, Ilesa is sitting on gold and Osun State can’t pay salary. It is ridiculous. Osun State just needs somebody who understands the system. I think our governors and leaders win elections for free. They go in without really understanding their job description, which is, to look at how they will generate money for the state rather than going to Abuja for allocation.

 

The belief in some quarters is that Nigeria’s problems are multifarious, ranging from leadership to culture of impunity. What do you think is the solution to these challenges?

Education. And not just classroom education. You see, in our own cultural system, if we back to the way the Yoruba used to live, you have several places where you take care of all menaces but we have borrowed a system we don’t understand. We are in-between the American and British systems. We can’t even afford that system with followers with no direction. They have no jobs and no food. I think Nigeria needs to marry the cultural setting with whatever else that is the best from other countries to form our own type of government, a kind of homegrown system, because at the end of the day, it will work.

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I could remember when I was in Jos, there was a Hausa house in front of our house and next house was an Igbo family. If we were caught in truancy, the Igbo man would beat us. It was not a matter of being Igbo or Hausa, he would deal with us and we would not go home to tell our parents and there was no cause for alarm over this. We were each other’s keepers. But now, things are so bad that you know your next-door neighbor is a thief and you honour them. Now, if a young girl stole a car and she is driving it, the parents go to church for thanksgiving for what ‘God has done’. What has God done for you? What about teaching your daughter and son about values? What about teaching them that if you work hard, you are much likely to succeed but we have emergency millionaires in Nigeria.

We need to revamp our whole system. It is not working. We have too much power in the hands of governors and the president. If the government is about the people, why can’t the people have a say? And the Obas are compromised. Of course, the Obas have their own challenges but with the compromise, they lower the standard of kingship. So, there is a huge problem in the land. I don’t see a future for us in this nation if we continue going the way we are going.

 

Corruption is a recurring decimal regarding the myriad of problems in this nation. What do you think is the solution?

There is corruption in every country. The only difference is that in other countries, they shame the corrupt. There are consequences for corruption.

 

What should be done to corrupt persons in Nigeria?

Nothing. Because you report them in your newspaper and people talk about it for a day or two and then dump the matter and use the newspaper to sell popcorn and groundnut, and that is the end of the case. But in other climes, even if it is one scapegoat, they use it and it changes things. So, I don’t think Nigeria is more corrupt than any other country but in our own case, there is impunity; no consequences. If you know that if you engage in corrupt practices and get caught, you will just settle the police and others, then it won’t matter. But in other places, you can’t settle like that, because they are afraid for their jobs. They won’t be settled and that brings about consequences for some of these irresponsible behaviours.

 

In Africa, we have cases of old people presiding over the affairs of nations. When do you think the continent we will get out of this?

I think Nigeria has a problem. It is not enough for us to clamour that we want young people; you need to train the young people as well. A 22-year-old man in Britain is likely to have a mortgage, his own home and know the responsibility that comes with adulthood. In Nigeria, on the other hand, the parents buy the car, the house, the food and do other things and the young person is really not an adult, considering his level of responsibility. Having  said that, there are many grown, mature adults in Nigeria who will do much better jobs than this older generation, but I think the problem is that the young people don’t have such money that politics demands. For example, if you say you want to buy a presidential nomination form for N45 million, how many people have that kind of money?

Another problem is that our old people don’t know when they ought to take the back seat. I think President Muhammadu Buhari would have done himself a favour if he had taken the back seat but there are those who actually believe in him, and there are good things every leader does. But at his age, he would have been more successful as a back-seat statesman giving young people in charge direction. But the problem is that there isn’t that kind of money that is necessary to get young people tickets. President Buhari even said some young people bought him his nomination form. That is even worse. He should have donated to a young man to get the nomination form but they contributed for him because that is their meal ticket; it is an investment.

So, the truth is that the old people should understand that they need to leave room for their children to grow and the children cannot grow when these old people take up the whole space and suck in all the oxygen.

 

What do you make of the performance of President Buhari?

I think he made a fundamental mistake by saying his wife should be in the kitchen.

President Buhari came on board with very good intention but intention is not enough. You have to deliver the goods and to do that, you need a competent team. He has some competent people around him but the problem is that mediocres are the ones in the front and when you have a bunch of mediocres advising you, what do you expect?