The All in One Action Programme for Our Good People of Nigeria

The All in One Programme of Action for Our Good People of Nigeria

The All in One Programme of Action is the articulation and advocacy for a direct and immediate intervention for the enforcement of the constitutionally and universally guaranteed provision of the basic, minimum, irreducible welfare package that any Aspirant to public office, be it at the local, state or federal level should be ready to implement for the good of our great people of Nigeria before he/she could receive our mandate come 2011 elections.

Today, our Federal Legislators earn more than the president of the United States of America, while majority of our people live below one dollar per day, a situation that qualifies Nigeria as about the one fifty-eight poorest nation in the world. Yet, Nigeria is the sixth largest producer of crude oil in the world. The most apt and succinct way to capture the situation is that less than one percent of our population, consisting mainly of politicians and their cronies, spend more than ninety-nine percent of our national earnings, while the remaining ninety-nine percent of our population scramble for less than one percent of our income. What a shame! We just cannot continue like this. The time for change is NOW! Hence, the need for the urgent implementation of our All in One Programme of Action as enunciated below:

The thrust of this programme shall be the Security and Welfare of our good people of Nigeria in terms provision of basic amenities such as Food, Water, Education, Health, Shelter and abundant Wealth in our quest for the maximum human dignity, patriotism, fuelled by a sense of belonging, equity and justice, and above all personal and societal fulfilment.

An average of one million naira per a Nigerian will be contributed at the ratio of 40/30/30 between the Federal, State and Local Governments into the National Social Security Fund, to be managed, like the pension fund, by participating Banks, to finance this project.

The All in One Programme is designed basically to focus on three broad categorisation or segments of our teeming populace, who are usually most vulnerable. These are the Children who must be protected from neglect and abuse and whose universal right to good education and access to standard health facilities, must be guaranteed at all cost.

The Youths who are the most vibrant, productive and creative segment of our populace and so constitute the engine that drives our Economy. These active qualities of the Youths must not be allowed to waste, be frustrated or misdirected into crimes and unproductive ventures but must be fully harnessed for their personal fulfilment and the over-all benefit of the society and the economy. There must always be avenues created to utilise and harness their productivity. They must not be allowed to become parasites and unwanted menaces.

The third group on our focus list are the Aged, Elderly and Retired, a number of who are always forsaken and treated unfairly by the society to whom the have given their all when they now become dependent. It is their inalienable right to be rewarded and taken care of by the society and not abandoned. Their wealth of experience could still be tapped in consultancy forms.

What then shall be our modus operandi for actualising our goals as enunciated above? The Blue Print shall then be unveiled based on a principle the late sage Obafemi Awolowo described as doing the Maximum good to the Maximum number of people at the Minimum cost. So, let’s start with the Children.

The Programme of Action for our beloved Children will be based on understanding and believe, as it is done in America and the civilised world for instance, that they are the greatest hopes for a re-branded tomorrow and as such they constitute the greatest potentials of any nation. Therefore, we must position our society to influence, be part of the part of, take proper account, be ready to play the fall-back role, at least, and so supervise or superintend, the upkeep, welfare, health, training and education of every child.

This means, we must not allow any child to be deprived of a dignified upkeep in terms of good nourishment, access to health facilities, adequate shelter, welfare, and most important of all, education as a result, either of poverty or loss of parent. These are the basic, God-given, universal, inalienable right of the child. And, that is why every decent and civilised society takes responsibility for the child. Little wonder, therefore, they grow up to be so inflamed with passion of absolute loyalty and patriotism to the country that cares and loves them so much. And if we are truly committed to re-branding, then this is our roadmap to evolving a responsible and committed citizenry.

As for the Youth who is the engine room and driving force of our economy being the strength of any nation, he must be empowered with the maximum education he is capable of receiving, along with appropriate skills or craft to earn a living for himself and to channel his productivity and creativity into the growth of the economy. No Youth must be allowed to be dependant; never. The economy is mouth-wide-open, yearning and gasping for his youthfulness, resilience, vibrancy, emerging talent and creativity; all which it cannot do without. These must be harnessed and welcomed into the economy.

How do we then go about working out this Blue Print?

Our Blue Print then must be predicated on the ideal that every youth must be equipped with the necessary education and training to thrive and aspire to his maximum potential. Having thus invested so much in him/her, this investment must be given opportunity to yield. What this then translates into is that we must work out how to automatically engage every youth in productive ventures after training and counselling. This will not only ensure that the youth leads a self-reliant and dignified life, we must realise that this is the only option for a self-reliant, prosperous and crime-free society.

All our youths must then be accounted for, counselled, grouped, empowered, supervised and backed-up with necessary facility and environment to succeed and to plough back into the economy.

Some will be empowered with the necessary tools and environment to set up their crafts, while some will be employed, and others will be empowered with necessary facilities to set up small scale businesses some of which given the right environment will grow into big industries. The basic line, however, is that, pending the time the youth is sorted-out, the society must engage him profitably, at least, to provide the basic necessities of life. A model close to the present National Youth Service Scheme will be expanded to include agriculture, road repairs, laundry services, food processing and preservation, seed cultivation, state security service, policing, cultivation for plantations and other productive ventures that will directly benefit the society.

As for the Senior Citizens, there must be a solid plan to take care of them in their old age. These are the people who have served their country meritoriously and who for one reason or the other, especially that of the bad economy and incapacity, are now dependant and in dire need of our understanding and willing assistance, if only to compensate them and to send out a clear message to the youth that if they give their best to the country now that they are young, the society will take care of them when they are old and possibly in need of assistance.

Certainly, not all our old people will be in need of this assistance but a plan must be in place for as many of them who may find this plan helpful. All interested old people will be registered to enjoy welfare services which include free heath facility, feeding and accommodation, recreational services and Peer Company plus a moderate but befitting burial when they transit.

Those of them who can still contribute meaningfully into the economy from their wealth of experience and/or expertise, at least, in consultancy capacities will be thus engaged. A number of them who still mentally alert will be engaged in marital and general arbitration/counselling services. Old people will be useful in community policing as informants as well

Elders’ Council will be constituted to advise government at all levels on major policy formulations. Banking and pension payment services will henceforth be to old people in their respective homes.

All the above Programmes of Action and more will make growing old a great pleasure and privilege. It will further inflame the passion of patriotism in the entire citizenry as young people, especially, will be eager and willing to give their best to the nation that cares and has a rock solid programme of succour for them in times of trouble or in old age.

Above all, the nation will engage a comprehensive insurance/security system that will cover every Nigerian citizen from cradle (in fact, from conception) to the grave.

This is why our politicking must change. According to Thomas Hobbes in his doctrine of the Social Contract, governance should be a contract between the governors and the governed where the people surrender their sovereignty to government and pledge their loyalty in exchange for their protection/social security and the provision of certain basic social amenities such as those enumerated above.

That is why the citizens’ rights which include our Programme of Action as enunciated above are guaranteed and listed under the Fundamental (God given, inalienable and natural) Rights of citizens in every modern constitution. They all emanate and are contained in the Universal Declarations of the United Nations on Human Rights of which Nigeria and the absolute majority of Nations in the World are signatories.

I know the pessimist and possibly the ignorant or greedy (and self-centred, who does not believe in the equitable distribution of the vast resources of Nigeria) politician may say alas! Where are we going to find the enormous resources that will definitely be required to fund this laudable Programme of Action of yours? But my sincere and researched answer to such people is in the vast resources which are presently being mis-prioritised, mis-appropriated, looted, wasted and siphoned abroad. Less than half of the resources which fall into the category just described will abundantly suffice to successfully underwrite our espoused Programme of Action. And there is absolutely no gainsaying or exaggeration in our expressed position on this matter. Please check it out!

The problem is that our nation has been largely bedevilled and seemingly cursed with bad governance and mal-administration of our vast resources. Probably due to the rate of poverty in the land and the lack of such Programme of Action like the one we now propose, to provide succour to societal and individual deprivations, those who gain access to national resources through governance immediately see it as an opportunity and ticket to banish poverty and deprivations for ever from their immediate, and possibly, extended families. This is the bane of good governance in our nation. The time for CHANGE however has come.

We must earnestly begin to change our attitudes and perception to things in order for our nation and people to fulfil our destinies collectively and individually.

Our free consultancy services shall be available to all incoming governments at all levels, local, state and federal. In actual fact, we will be willing to convey summits in all the six geo-political zones to train relevant officers from all three tiers of government on the modalities for programme implementation.

Truly, some may wonder, is this a socialist ideology of some sort? Especially since the main doctrine of socialism teaches; from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs. My reply to such inquisition is a definite No! The inspiration for this Project comes, absolutely, from the Almighty God, Jesus Christ, and the blessed Holy Spirit of God. Hence, for the purpose of economics, one will discover that it is a blend of Welfarism, Capitalism and Socialism. So, if you like, call it a mixed economy.

Benefits:
The Society as a whole, apart from beneficiaries, stands to gain a lot from this All in One Programme of Action if well implemented. A few of them are the underlisted;
A Buoyant Economy ;

The all important contribution of Youths in terms of energetic and creative services will be channelled into the economy and not wasted or frustrated. The situation of things presently is that many of them who are unemployed and are dependent, merely suck from the economy without any input, and are therefore parasitic.

Patriotism; a citizen that knows his/her country cares for him/her will be so grateful to that country and will be ready to die, if need be for that country. This is the direct solution to the prevalent lack of patriotism in our country.

Building Useful, Healthy and Enlightened Citizens from Cradle; a situation where every child has a dignified up-bringing in terms of good access to education, health facility and general welfare will lead to his/her growing up to become a useful, enlightened caring, responsible and healthy adult citizen/leader of tomorrow.

Crime Free Society; most of the crimes, like armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution, hooliganism, assassinations and frauds would have been drastically reduced if this programme is well implemented.

Stable Polity; a satisfied citizenry in the face of equity, justice and fairness will bring about a lasting peace and a stable polity.

Egalitarian Society; a situation where every citizen is aware through education, healthy, productive, meaningfully engaged and enabled to develop to maximum potential will produce an egalitarian society.

Curse-free Society; a merciful and caring society will readily invoke the mercies and blessings of both God and our elders.

Caring Society; we will truly become our brother’s keepers in this atmosphere of caring and sharing.

Food Sufficiency & Agrarian Society; massive youth deployment into Agriculture and food preservations, with a good number encouraged and empowered to go into professional and large scale/mechanised farming will restore us back to an Agrarian society with sufficient food to nurture our economy and extra to export.

Industrial Revolution; Read, affordable, skilled, strong and healthy hands, spurred on and empowered by society will lead to an industrial revolution.

Good Roads; our army of youths will be galvanised and supervised by works departments to fix all our roads at much affordable and rewarding costs to the youths themselves. They will be trained in the art and science of road constructions and maintenance for a living. It will then become abhorrence to locate pot-holes on our roads.

Provision of Basic Amenities; our youths will be engaged in the provision of all basic amenities such that these good and services will not only be available but also affordable.

Low Rate of Inflation through Cheaper & more Affordable Services;

Highly Skilled & Job Mobile Youths;

Education for All;

Health for All;

Employment for All;

Equitable Distribution of Wealth;

Prosperity for All & Wealth Creation;

Elimination of Corruption;

Compassionate Leaders;

Fulfilled Citizenry;

Courts and Prisons Decongestion; through a highly reduced rate of crimes resulting from constructive youth engagements and involvement of retired elders in Arbitrations.

Immediate accomplishment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

For further enquiries, please call:

Ayo Akintayo on;

+234 803 347 5035
+234 807 731 7028
+234 808 218 7145
+234 809 888 7755
ayoakins@yahoo.com
ayowole.akintayo@gmail.com