Obasanjo

Obasanjo, Mass Communication, Sociology And The Real Issues

David Olom Nkpe

President, Nigerian Sociological And Anthropological Students Association (Nsasa)

University Of Jos

One veritable and basic fundamental human right man has been endowed by natural law, which municipal law has adopted copiously is ‘freedom of __expression’. We all have the freedom to speak out our minds frankly (?) especially in a “democrazy” apology to Fela Kuti of blessed memory. Undoubtedly, the present democratic experiment offers ample opportunity to respond to issues of misgivings such as the one that joggled up this piece. This is even so if it involves reacting to an ill-informed President of the most populous black nation on earth. This work does not seek to describe our President in demeaning language neither is it concerned with addressing the issues “ad huminin”. Remember this president is a “messiah”. Mind you! I didn’t say self-styled and self-appointed messiah.

As I was saying Mr. Matthew Aremu Obasanjo displayed his fundamental human right of freedom of speech when addressing Nigerians in the Diaspora recently by saying it is a ‘mis-education’ for anyone to ‘read mass communication’ and ‘sociology’ in the university. On hearing ‘Baba Iyabo’s’ statement, at first, I was surprised at Mr. President and then I quickly recalled that he never had the opportunity some of us are having now at least to be educated. Probably that is responsible for his avowed pathological hatred for academics and the educational system in general as manifested in his anti-university postures since he was released from the Yola prison to become president of Nigeria.

Sociology and Mass Communication are not courses offered at the primary school education where our beloved President stopped in terms of formal education. These courses are taught at tertiary institutions, which Mr. President never experienced. So, how do we expect him to know when he never had the benefit of hearing about these courses until these proverbial men, who went to him for employment mentioned the courses to him for the first time?

However, who will blame a president who holds a trade test diploma in road maintenance gotten as an army man without education? The level of thought of Mr. President and the way and manner he talks is quite laughable. Again, who will blame him? He was socialized into the vulgar military language characteristic of the dysfunctional aspect of barrack life. What is bad though, is the fact that he carried that gutter language into the civil society thereby saying so many things and nothing in particular since 1999. The regimented-military authoritarianism of standing attention, facing up, hands down and saying “yes sir” to offenses and attacks, which the President grew up with must have blended sublimely into his personality since he has continued to manifest and display messianic arrogance in the way he handles issues that hinge on the plight of the common man. One is convinced beyond the balance of probability that the President needs to unlearn this culture in order to fit into his new image as a civilian. He also needs to roll-back the vast citadel of prejudice, military superstition, lies, exaction, abuses, violence which still loom over him enclosed within his tower of hatred for education.

It would have been better if Mr. President simply admits he does not know the relevance of these disciplines since he was not fortunate to go to the university himself. Mr. President should have asked questions such as what is mass communication and what is sociology all about and not publicly showing his crass ignorance.

For mass communication, this is an era of information and communication technology, an epoch characterized by information Hi-Tech, a world described by many very sane and sound minds as “a global village” because of the information technology revolution. Only Obasanjo is ignorant of the fact that state house correspondents who beam his programmes to the world through careful news reporting are performing as Journalists and Mass Communicators. How can the President be so uninformed?

In the case of Sociology, the Nigerian nation is a society going through so many transitions at the same time. Nigeria is a society characterized by political instability, high rate of divorce, prostitution, abject and absolute poverty, hunger and starvation, increased peasant suicide, heavy debt burden, unacceptability of census figures, risky sexual behaviour, endemic culture of corruption, deception, falsehood, high level of crime and debauchery, ethno-religious mayhems, xenophobic expressions, threat to Nigeria's security, peace and unity and an extreme sense of intolerance requiring urgent Sociological solutions. Yet Aremu does not seem to comprehend why anyone would read sociology. What a pity?

From the time of the French political revolution and bourgeois/industrial revolution in Europe through the colonial era and the struggle for independence to the present neo-colonial dependency state of our society where our president goes ‘cap in hand to the imperialists for whatever, scholars have recognized the import of Sociology as a systematic way of handling zillion of problems that bedevil our system. But with leaders like our dear President who does not understand the working of the system other than trial and error approach, one wonders whether we will ever get out of this vicious circle of underdevelopment.

Furthermore, anywhere in the world including America where our President once served as a courier man to a former President to deliver a birthday card to another former President, Sociology has proved to be reasonably useful to institutional administrators and decision-makers, particularly in solving complex problems that beset urban communities, large-scale organizations, and deeply troubled institutions, such as education. Sociology has continued to be useful to society in providing a Sociological perspective by which larger publics can interpret the significance of cultural and social events. Sociology provides meaningful clues to what is going on around us, to the outlines of a complex and changing social reality. Without mincing words, Sociologists are among the highly educated people sharing professional expertise and viewpoints that make Sociological research beneficial to a wide range of clients namely; constituted authority, government agencies,, school boards, police departments, juvenile agencies, human relation agencies and others who are the organizational consumers of social research- the military, the law, corporate management and the like.

In addition, Sociology makes a significant contribution to people’s efforts to understand themselves and their social world, their problems and their dilemmas, it attains a significance that is unmatched by its value to people of practical affairs. This is why Sociology is always found in trendy versions, and why its vocabulary moves so quickly into the mainstream of contemporary discourse. Concepts such as socialization, alienation, social status, peer group, identity, power structure, power elite, subculture, beauracracy, and a host of others have become part of the intellectual tool kit of contemporary generations. They are means of constructing interpretations and explanations of the ongoing social processes of modern society and for constructing reality.

More so, in developed societies where things work fairly well, Sociologists have distinguished themselves as captains of industries, administrators, customer relations managers, researchers, consultants, demographers, criminologists, counselors, analysts, social commentators, scholars name it.

Nigerians have got a whole lot of troubles. Please let no one laugh at our dear President. We must rise up to the challenge of dis-schooling and resocializing Mr. President and now. Can somebody tell Mr. Obasanjo that his counterpart in Mexico Henrique Cardaso is a Sociologist? People like Andre Gunder Frank, Prof. Onoge, Governor George Akume, Dr. Iyochia Ayu and host of others are all sociologists who have made marks in their own right on the sand of time using the knowledge of Sociology. Many world-class leaders read Sociology. In fact, Americans owe the survival of the United States of America to the contributions of Sociologists. So do many other developed societies including Germany, France, Britain, and Canada.

The real issue however is how come Obasanjo does not know anything about education so badly? I thought Aremu claim to be omniscient? Why should a President talk as if he is often hallucinating? I am tempted to agree with those who hold the view that this president talks before he thinks most of the time. May be I should inform Mr. President that he must realize that leadership is a big road between the Jericho of fear and anxiety and the promise of a Jerusalem of peace, justice and love. In between, there are hills and valleys, sharp bends and rocks inhabited by dangerous charlatans. On this road, we must beg for the eyes to enable us recognize the differences between good and bad, peace and war, freedom and slavery and, above all, between justice and injustice. Let no man think that he is in a privileged position for life. Leaders come and go but our nation by the grace of God will live forever. Leaders mus t say and do what history will remember them for. Once all books about Nigeria become open, history might inflict uncomplimentary condemnation on the current President of Nigeria for using his privileged position to oppress and insult us. Somewhere I was tempted to think that even if people cannot revolt against oppressive state policies they may one day decide to all move away from the jurisdiction of the state.

Another real issue is if a people truly deserve the kind of leader they get, then Nigerians must have all done something bad to deserve leaders who do not care for them but rather oppress, exploit, insult and pauperize them day in, day out without respite. Somewhere, I also mentioned that there is no leadership that can be successful if it is corrupt, kleptocratic, deceitful, discriminatory and basically ignorant. It needs also to be understood by future leaders that power is a trust from society and that its exercise demands accountability. Consequently, accountability has both an intrinsic worth and a restraining influence in that it strengthens the resolve of leaders to act within the provisions of law, Self-control, moderation and etiquette. President Obasanjo should learn to talk less, listen more and may be, enroll for GCE, sit for JAMB, enter a university and get a degree in Sociology or Mass Communication. No! Let him be admitted on the basis of his age to do a degree in Sociology or Mass Communication even if it is on part time basis. It will do him a whole lot of good.

Moreover, the actual issue in Nigeria today is justifying the reason behind contemplating a hike in the prices of petroleum products at a time when we are making over double the price budgeted in the 2005 budget from the sale of crude oil (which is at all-time high price) in the world market. Elementary knowledge of Sociology would have led the operators of our state system to channel the excesses from crude oil sales into profitable investments with a view to strengthening our economy and alleviating the sufferings of our people. This is the relevance of Sociology.

This article seeks to educate our Leader (Obasanjo) to understand that in Nigeria, we need leaders that would come to serve and not those that would come to chop. We need a leadership that would roll up its sleeves and work hard to provide an optimum direction for economic development and actual empowerment of the people and not one that will engage in vainglorious utterances and idle talks.

May be we have kept quiet for so long. Yes! Silence they said is golden but not in all cases, obviously, not in this case. Anyway, let's pray for our President.