AS Nigerians make projections for year 2012, the Taraba State chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Jonah J. Kataps, has urged those in authority to urgently find lasting solutions to the numerous problems in the country. Particularly, he wants attention given to the education sector so as to stem youth restiveness.Kataps is sad that a larger percentage of the nation's 2012 budget was voted of defence instead of giving priority to education, which, he believes, would go a long way in bringing the people out of the dungeon of 'poverty' and 'ignorance'.While fielding questions from The Guardian, he said: 'If you look at the 2012 budget of the federal government, defence alone is the combination of the budgets of 12 ministries. That is scandalous. That is a signal to the international community that this country is not safe for investment.'So, as far as I am concerned, why would you send that kind of signal and state of panic in that manner' It is not necessary at all.'He continued: 'Let us not send a signal that we need high budgetary provision for security. The problem lies with us. What do you mean by insecurity' Is Nigeria at war' Why will you allocate the budget of 12 ministries to one ministry' Is it the issue of the Boko Haram' Boko Haram is not only the security threat in this country.'We have the Niger Delta issue, with so many reports talking about pollutions and all the rest. Is it being addressed aggressively the way it should' People's environment where you extract the country's wealth is being degraded day in and out and you don't seem to come out with aggressive policies to tackle it''Yes, the OPC are coming up; the Boko Haram is there. But these are problems that we have created by ourselves. Let us find solutions among us here. Let us discover why is it that these youths are restless and they have decided to take bombs into their hands'Kataps traced insecurity to inadequate plan for education, stressing that a people well-educated would know their rights and responsibilities.Blaming the nation's successive leaders for coming in to loot the treasury, he wondered why Nigeria, 'as the sixth largest oil-producing country in this world, and with the natural resources that God has endowed it with, should be in this kind of sorry state.'He queried: 'I was just sharing with a friend on Facebook that each time we are talking, we claim to be the giant of Africa; giant in what' In corruption' In making her education the worst' Almost everybody is taking his or her children out of this country.'Ghana has suddenly become the destination where everybody is taking their children to acquire education. In the early 70s, we saw how these countries were sending their children to Nigerian universities to acquire higher education. The giant for what''This year alone, all our major soccer bodies failed to qualify for any major tournaments. So, it is high time for us to sit down and say look, these things are not working. Identify the major causes of our retardation and then look at how best we can address them and then move ahead.'On the state level, he said: 'I have sung in many public places that post-primary schools in Taraba State are completely empty. We don't have teaching staff. They (government) have deliberately refused to recruit teachers. Are we performing well in the nationally-conducted examinations' Of course, no! Every year, the performances are dwindling.'We will not stop talking. We shall continue to talk until the day we get people, who are prepared to listen, get into positions of power and do the right thing for the people of this country.'The solution, according to him, is to declare a state of emergency in the nation's education sector.Notwithstanding the security situation in the country, Kataps implored the government to discard the clamour for state police, stressing that 'governors and other well-to-do individuals will end up using it as a tool to oppress their opponents.''The idea of state police is very beautiful and brilliant but unfortunately, my brother, under the climate we operate now, it is not welcome; it is not ripe at all,' he said.'Some of us, the governors, would have used police to chase us out of this state. In fact, they would have smoked us out of this country. So, I want to tell you that state police should not be allowed in this country now. But it is a good idea. It is a very brilliant idea where people are more mature, people are more educated, and everybody knows their rights and no one's right is trampled upon.'Having state police is brilliant because they will be very familiar with the peculiarities of our particular states or localities and that would be good. When other institutions are functioning, it would be good for us to have a state police. But as it is now, my brother, I would advise that let just keep that one aside and concentrate on our federal police because we would be inviting disaster for ourselves in this country.'State police is not healthy for us now. Let us embark on certain things first and have them put in place before we can sit down and think of having a state police.'Kataps also wants the government to sit up this year and learn 'to work with recommendations made by panels, especially those that they set up by themselves.''How many probes have the National Assembly conducted in this country' We have seen so many of these probes conducted but at the end of the day, what happened to the reports' Nothing happens to the reports.'However, one thing I am so excited about is that the media have decided to made it a live event where some of us, who are not opportune, have been able to follow proceedings through the media and we can now form our opinion on what this country is.'It is a shame that when the Minister of Petroleum Resources and the Group Managing Director of the NNPC were asked certain questions, they were stammering and fidgeting. And that shows you the sorry state because right now, nobody in this country knows the actual barrels of oil that are produced and by who and how much money is accruable to this country.'All this nonsense they give us on the pages of newspapers are not the actual truth on ground. A lot of wrong things have gone on in that very outfit (NNPC). At one time, former President Obasanjo decided to annex the Petroleum Ministry, which is very unusual.'I want to look at these probes, if their recommendations and everything were to come to life, then the National Assembly is doing a very brilliant job for the people of this country. But on most occasions, they do such public hearings or inquiries but at the end of the day, the reports are swept under the carpet. So, I am not surprised to hear that they are being pressured into watering down on such huge revelations.'If that allegation is true, then it goes to tell us that what the Senate President told us: that there is a cartel holding this country to ransom is true. My question is: if a cartel holds this country to ransom and the federal government does not have the might to dismantle this cartel, then we are finished a s a people. That is just the truth about it.
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