Takeaways at the NBA conference -By Tife Owolabi

Nigerians joke virtually about everything and while we have serious men and women as comedians who put in the most energy into their crafts on the other hand we have jokers as state actors driving us into the precipices. If you ask most people what are the takeaways from the NBA conference other than the side distractions cum comic relief you will be shocked at the answers.

For me, a few I could glean are; One said their leadership will bring to bear the dynamics of economic growth, particularly with IGR from 700m to 51billion of what his presidential candidate did in Lagos state.

Another said he will increase the burden on the states with university education becoming their responsibilities. Passing the buck. That’s suck!

While the showbiz presidential candidate who was greeted with a rousing welcome at NBA’s 62nd conference canvases for production with his slogan ‘we will increase production and reduce consumption”. Novel!

And because we are a joke of a country we lose sight of the fundamentals but chase the shadows. A talk shop such as an NBA conference shouldn’t be for unserious comments or distractions and by the way where are the other presidential candidates or as NBA-ready chosen those can vote for? Id this not discriminating? Well, what more can you expect from those (NBA ) who have already discriminated against their female colleagues in a prize for a football match save for Chimamanda Adichie who correct the bigotry.

According to a Punch Newspaper, Adichie gathered N3.2m for female footballers. The initial prize was pegged at N500,000 for the male team while the female team would get N200,000 as winning awards. Is that not ridiculous? Females are weaker vessels even in a noble profession.

Hear what Chimamanda Adichie has to say and what formed parts of the takeaways during her speech on accountability.
The award-winning writer and speaker, Chimamanda Adichie called on the citizens to hold themselves accountable before holding the leaders responsible.

She said, “A bold transition must embrace audacity and innovation. They have called me troublesome. Although it is never enjoyable to be called troublesome. I never set out to provoke for its sake. But I refuse to silence myself for the fear of what I might inadvertently provoke. It has always been important to me to say what I believe, to call out injustice.

“As long as we refuse to untangle the knot of injustice, peace cannot thrive. If we don’t talk about it, we fail to hold leaders accountable and we turn what should be transparent systems into ugly opaque cults.”

She noted that there was “injustice” in the monetary compensation that the male and female NBA teams would receive in the football competition.

The PUNCH gathered that the male team would get N500,000 while the female team would get N200,000 as winning prizes.

However, after Adiche’s charge, several personalities contributed to increasing the women’s football prize to the sum of N3,200,000.

Personalities, who made the donations included the Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, the Federal Minister of Works and Housing of Nigeria, Babatunde Fashola, SAN, and Paul Edeh, among others.

In her closing remarks, she advocated for an uncorrupted judicial system and called on the NBA to leverage technology in the judicial process and the administration of justice in the country.

All said but lastly, my takeaways are NBA talk shop may accord all presidential candidates the opportunity to her event and limiting it is framing or micro zoning the minds of the electorates not to see beyond PDP, LP and APC candidates whereas there are plenty of options. A body such as the NBA whose duties are to engage in the promotion and protection of human rights, the rule of law and good governance in Nigeria shouldn’t be selective or appeared to discriminate against female folk or presidential candidates.

Tife Owolabi
Journalist
Niger Delta
@tifeowolabi