There is no doubt about the passion and determination of the incoming government to transform the fortunes of Cross River State. The governor elect has ceased every opportunity since the elections, to reassure every citizen of the state of the need to remain confident in the capacity of the state and her people to consolidate on the gains that previous administrations have made and return the state to its glory days.
He has pointedly expressed his readiness to industrialize the state and change its status from a civil service state. But the first step in taking Cross River away from remaining a civil service state is to change our attitude of wanting to have things, ‘here and now’. All the wealth, just for now in our pocket; for me and my family, without selfless and gradual development for tomorrow. Anything that will not reap immediate reward for us now is useless.
We often feel that, after all, I can accumulate enough to keep my family capable for life. But all we enjoy today are sacrifices of our fathers gone. We are a generation that lack capacity to plant and water then allow God make it grow. I may not be all too right but could create a link to reality. We need to consider our origin as a people.
Our culture, language, the way we dress, the way we carry out our activities and the kinds of jobs we do. All have a very strong connection with our environment. Our whole life is influenced by these factors. Our first set of contacts is with our family, which is a catalyst of culture and environment.
Therefore, our entire lives after birth are influenced first by our immediate family, we learn the language of our parents, like the kind of jobs they do and we are guarded on how to grow later and become like them.
The environment later gives us broader and wider chances yet based on what is common but probably in different approach and areas. So practically speaking, Cross River State has two kinds of jobs, Agriculture and Civil Service.
Our parents work hard in their farms to train their children in schools with the hope of helping to make their future brighter, and that is for true, not to come back to the farm but to be Doctors, Lawyers etc. Because when farming was still just alone, men marry many wives to have many children to help in their farms. But later, the mindset was shifted from agriculture to education.
And with the advent of farming, we began to distance ourselves from farming and embrace only our studies to graduate and take a job with government. So our entire life is dependent on thinking of graduating to come and get a job, and today where are the jobs?
Civil Service cannot meet up with the demands of graduates year by year. Another big problem was when Civil Service started, people were made to look at it as the only way to good life, mostly, to take you out of the farm and make you a civilized person.
Civilization came with its’ own orientation. White collar jobs even with no regular pay attract more value and respect in our clime than farming. This can still be seen today among bank workers, who are prisoners to their jobs yet are perceived as more important in our societies.
This among other reasons should make the acquisition of skill very compulsory for school leavers.
First, parents have to look at the skill the child acquires as an additional qualification before gaining admission into University. Parents should formalize this in their minds and consciousness. And if that is achieved in the minds of parents, they participate in choosing the best suited for their children. This in turn makes them study the benefits of such a trade to the child and society at large.
With early skill acquisition, the child’s mind is open to other opportunities and is empowered to start thinking creatively and focus, which can in turn help the children choose careers better. Children learn direct discipline from these organize training centers and gain maturity through independent creative thinking rather than other negative vices that come with idle minds.
This will create a sustainable pool also for the society to start generating other skills and expanding old ones. The environment starts welcoming many persons with creative minds to take advantage of availability of patronage and add more to what already exists.
Then and then we start a new generation with a diverse mindset and ready to accept tomorrow outside civil service. We can get people who look at government efforts in infrastructures as an added advantage to propel their talents and grow their opportunities.
My grand father once told me, “son, sand is useless to the man in the desert, it is only an obstacle to get a fast move”. Let us all start thinking of ways of getting this state out of this bad situation. It may not be for us today, but for those to come tomorrow. No knowledge is wasted.
That little idea of a child turning nothing to something recognized as a toy car, is the same idea that an adult used to turn nothing to something, car, to move people from one place to another. This is my Cross River State of tomorrow, make your own and together we will make this State proud. Let put workable ideas that may not benefit us today but will for sure our children tomorrow.
The best house, car, furniture, clothes, etc. you get today, will be out of fashion tomorrow; so what future are we keeping for our children that will still struggle to have what is in vogue tomorrow more than, “A Better Society?”.
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