‘Iyalaya’ Ghost Workers

BY YABAGI MOHAMMED THE ghost workers syndrome is a problem that is not peculiar to Kogi State, but the nation at large. But first, let’s talk about the use of the word, ‘Iyalaya’ which only the Yoruba-Speaking readers can easily relate to. The word is inspired by a piece titled: “Iyalaya Anybody,” one of the best piece I have read this year by a fellow-Kogian, Canada-based Professor Pius Adesanmi, in a Keynote lecture he delivered at the 5th Innovation Series of Verdant Zeal Group Lagos. If you know the kind of frustration our teeming unemployed graduates go through, it has reached the level where they are saying “Iyalaya Ghost workers”, not only that but, they should also add: “Iyalaya originators of these ghosts.” There is no doubt people are going through hardships, not only in Kogi, my state, but also across the federation because of the ‘ghost workers syndrome’. So again, I say, “Iyalaya Ghost workers.” Some of you may want to know what the term “Iyalaya” means, but a few of our youths who listen to Nigerian music already know that Olamide originated it. Explaining it in the said keynote, Professor Adesanmi pointed thus: “In its pristine cultural background in the Yoruba world, “iyalaya” is an obscenity hurled at your opponent in a brawl to display contempt for his or her maternal lineage. It is usually accompanied by the insulting palm and five-finger flash we call “waka” in the face of your opponent. The consequence, as you all know, is often a bloody nose and an unscheduled trip to the hospital. However, as cultures evolve across generations, new meanings emerge and old words or expressions and are sent on new errands by the human imagination. I must excuse the Prof for the way he used the word: “waka” because that is the way most people use it. But the word is actually of Hausa origin which rightly is pronounced: “Uwa’ka”, meaning: “your mother!” In the Nigerian culture, if anyone could as much as look you in the eyes and tell you “your mother” with the fingers flash; know that you have so much irked the person. As cultured youths we may, out of respect, because some of them are ‘eminent’ personalities in the society, but with the frustration going on among the young people, it is high time we put some known cultural practices in the back seat and say “Iyalaya Ghost workers.” This piece is the voice of the youths of Kogi State. Admittedly, some of us have become so conditioned to thinking that the present administration of Alhaji Yahaya Bello is here to visit hardship on our parents and siblings because of the issues that have cropped up from the civil servants verification exercise going on in the state, unknown to us that “the global shift from resources to human capital development shows that the youth demographic is the next gigantic idea – the single most strategic key in creating prosperous societies of the future. Take the overwhelming emphasis on the youth demographic out of any of these documents and the lofty dreams, hope, vision, promise, and aspiration contained therein will collapse completely.” The truth is things cannot continue as they were. In that rate, all possibilities of us getting it right as a state in dire need of development- physical and human; were going down the drain. Despite this fact, several individuals were feeding fat on our common patrimony. They were doing this with the connivance of few others who were also beneficiaries and of the rabid rape on the state’s resources. It is actually a fight that is not to be left at the hands of government alone. Some of us want to eat a cake without necessarily having to contribute in its baking. This is wrong. We must be ready to make sacrifices, make hard choices today for the betterment of tomorrow. This is what some people don’t want to hear but as bitter as it may sound, the change sought is one that should right wrongs of the past. We see the monumental heists that have been perpetrated by some unscrupulous individuals using the ghost workers syndrome; this is the time to put a halt to the menace. Stating it in simple terms, all the unique characteristics that are the hallmarks of the youths of Kogi State and what they represent as torchbearers for the structure required for further development on the foundation currently being built by the government of Yahaya Bello as encapsulated mainly from the dynamism of the youths of Kogi State. “In the last decade or so, the future of humanity has placed a bet on youth. The societies of the future are saying that the youth demographic is the next big thing; for good reason. If you look at the conjugation of genius, innovation, invention, energy, and work ethic which led to the emergence of the Asian Tigers and placed them at the forefront of global economic and infrastructural post-modernity, you will find the unmistakable footprint of the youth demographic all over that scenario.” The current team being assembled by the present administration has shown that the future of every society belongs to the young ones in that society. But before now, what legacy was our dear Kogi society ready to bequeath us if not that of poverty, lack, unemployment, servitude, immeasurable sufferings and ‘mountained’ of unemployment statistics? Those at the corridors of power have, in several forums, told the audience of the mammoth sleaze that had gone on unsupervised under previous governments, information that most of us are already privy to but fail to talk about because of some parochial considerations. The present government says no sentiments in its efforts to purge the state of the ills of ghost workers, a noble effort worthy of our commendations; all of us! It is also sad that some youths in the state are deliberate participants in this brigandage. This group of youths lives almost all their lives in the plundering as are members of a highly organized system, cutting across all the strata of the civil service at both state and Local Government. They are so used to their loosed lifestyle, feeding on the sweat of the rest of us that they do not want the wickedness to end. They therefore resort to every tactics there is to ensure their sources of corrupt enrichment are not bungled, something the present administration is ready to do. You will appreciate the level of rot in our system if you know the enormity of the debasement and ignominy that has resulted from the nefarious act. One of the forums through which the tip of what the screening has really brought to the fore was the recent stakeholders meetings held across the state and at the state Government House in Lokoja. This is a direct departure from what was obtainable in the past when government policies and programmes were not explained in detail to the masses. The present Kogi state government invited stakeholders including politicians, youths organizations, staff of banks, lawyers, members of academic community, security agencies, state legislators, religious leaders, civil society groups, Non-Governmental Organizations, women groups, traditional leaders, members of the media and the general public to brainstorm on the way forward on the matter. The town hall-like meeting ex-rayed some findings on the search for these canker worms called ghost workers and their owners. At the gathering, government officials and all the major role players elucidated on what has been going on and the true position of things to ensure clarification. Some cabinet members in the present Kogi Government especially the commissioner of finance, the accountant general of the state, the auditor-general of the state and Local Government, the Chairman of the screening committee all gave accounts of their offices. The truth is as I looked at the venue of the briefing, I saw several youths, all anxious for some mannah-like interventionism to salvage the situation the state is currently engulfed in, but the truth is none would arrive, not for now. Not with the current economic situation that we face in the state. The youths must be able to look at the situation the state is in and decide whether to support the standoff that has put us in the present quagmire or decide to objectively look at issues and make something out of the seeming new order of hopelessness. The point here is, they hold the haze. Giving the example of the American youths, Professor Adesanmi says: “Today, people look at Mark Zuckerberg and his generation as the epitome of 21st-century youth innovation, invention, and entrepreneurship. But the foundation for this spirit was laid by generations of American visionary leaders. Long before Mark Zuckerberg was born, an American leader had taught his people that there is no limit to human will and desire. He gave them a deadline to extend themselves beyond us all and conquer the moon. This no-limit philosophy to human daring, imagination, and innovation is the philosophical matrix into which the generation of Mark Zuckerberg was born. Do not make the mistake of thinking that these kids just happened along ex-nihilo. “And today, the leaders of Dubai are inspiring their youth demographic by making them believe that whatever futuristic leaps they can imagine can be done. Every time you think that Dubai has taken us to the very limits of futuristic architecture and construction, some youth somewhere innovates an engineering marvel that allows Dubai to add more floors to those skyscrapers. In America, the leadership is telling a restless youth demographic that the moon is not enough – they must conquer Mars. All over Asia, youth are imagining and shaping our future in huge innovation leaps because their leaders are telling them that they must beat American kids. That is why Chinese kids go to Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, and Columbia and make American kids look like dunces in those places. “The opposite is the case in much of Africa. Take Nigeria for example. While visionary leadership and the state are making it possible for the youth in America and Asia to dream of conquering Mars and opening up the next frontiers of science and innovation, the Nigerian Federal government recently assured her own youth that with patience, dedication, prayers and dry fasting, we may be able to manufacture pencils in two or three years. Yes, you heard me right. Manufacturing pencils by 2018 or 2019 is how a Federal Minister in Nigeria recently framed the aspirations of the Nigerian government. With any luck, the Nigerian government may inspire our youth to try and see how we might be able to manufacture toothpicks in 2050. “The tragic mental constipation of the state in Africa is magnified by Nigeria in ways that are intensely painful and personal. If you think that aiming to manufacture pencils at about the time that some people elsewhere are thinking that they may land a man on Mars and start Mars tourism is the worst case of aspirational poverty we have encountered from the Nigerian state in recent times, it means you are not current.” The youths of Kogi State must take up their required roles to ensure they put the state in the maps of more illustrious states of the federation in our quest for growth and development. It must match towards that summit with the audacity and guile, strength and determination of its youths. We must look at the old order in the eye and say to it: “Iyalaya yin; Iyalaya Ghost workers.” Kogi people ti take over!