ANTHILL Congress has birthed in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to harvest and create ideas that would give birth to a Nigeria of our dream. The innovator and founder, Rivers-born Ikechi Nwogu, says it’s useless dreaming of a Nigeria of noble goals without creating and designing how to get there. He wants a leadership that seeks to create prosperity through productivity.
The founder and convener, Nwogu, one of the founders and designers of the wave making Cinfores that created Brain Friend, a digital educational solution that delivers school to homes, has created an ideology from the way of the ants which builds anthills upward without noise, rancour of deviation. ANT is for Absolute Natural Transformation (ANT).
He has written a book on this concept and held a workshop to review some of the concepts and prongs of the ideology. Nwogu made it clear that the rich or the south should no longer sit in comfort and think it can protect them, going by the experience of the #EndSARS riots.
He said we all must know that the hungry and angry youths are coming for the rest. There is a southward migration of untamed youths. Some say there is a heavy youth drug problem in the north, too, and these youths are loaded in trailers daily heading down south. They are hungry, they are angry, they are unskilled, they want good life, the experts said.
“Your prosperity has become a threat because it is attracting the hungry and unemployed youth army. There are 11 million children out of school in the north alone, large enough to be the population of many countries in Europe. This is a threat. They will move southward and meet those that have different values and orientation. There will be confrontation,” he said.
Speaking further, he said he assembled the smartest people in Port Harcourt in the hall because brains can think out solutions as predicted by a US president that visited Africa in the 1980s who said Nigeria’s problems would be solved by the brains in Nigeria.
“We need intelligent people to think out the way for Nigeria and think the country out of many problems. It’s all about development framework for leadership, productivity and prosperity. Any leadership that does not translate into productivity will not end in prosperity.
“Ants have no leader; everybody is a leader. The queen is not the leader. How would we all know about the place and value of productivity; it is to create prosperity that comes from productivity. It is no gain seeking prosperity without productivity. Now is time for technical revolution; a revolution without guns. Blood has been shed in #EndSARS protests and riots. It’s time to retool our revolution in a technical avenue.
“We propose a new affirmative action: 30 – 30 – 40 (30 percent to men, 30 to women, and 4o to the disadvantaged people). Our take on restructuring is that we have primary level thinkers, secondary level thinkers, and tertiary level thinkers. Restructuring should be along cognitive, socio-religious, economic, political, and operational methods. We should not die like cowards,” he further said.
During group presentations, team five led by Ignatius Chukwu suggested thus: “Need to strengthen the Criminal Justice System by ensuring that people get justice from offenders; and the social justice system by ensuring that things are done equitably and people get their rights such as in admission, amenities, opportunities;
“Truth & Reconciliation Commission is needed at national and local levels to heal wounds and make Nigeria move ahead. There is need for amnesty to looters after which any new case is treated with vehemence and severe sanctions.
“On why division seems to attract many people, it is because it seems to pay more than uniting. Cutting corners is the new way of doing things and seems to reward people more. There thus must be more dividend of nationalism by frowning at cutting corner and divide-and-rule.”
The group further said: “Nigeria is very large and needs a loose structure of regions and states because of over 250 ethnic groups in one country. The nation seems too bottled up. Thus, there is need for true federalism.
“Restructuring and Devolution of Power seem to be the most important point on the minds of most Nigerians at the moment. Each region would now operate on the new structure. There is need to build string internal democracy which has eluded Nigeria since return of democracy in 1999. Thus, we seem to have had mere civilian rule but not democratic rule. This will ensure that the choice of the majority will always prevail.
“It will guarantee free and fair elections through e-voting and digital processes to encourage people to come out and also to vote from far. If the masses believe they truly voted in someone, they would submit to him/her, obey the social agreement of loyalty, submission of weapons and payment of taxes in return for protection and freedoms.
“Justice in elections and fierce punishment or sanctions for electoral breaches would help sanitise the polity. There is need to insist on rule of law so that leaders would be forced to do what the law provides and seek change of any law they do not want instead of flagrant disregard of laws.
“The nation must resolve the vexed issue of whether Nigerians should be recognised as citizens or indigenes. We must strengthen rules on tax and accountability. This way, citizens will be willing to pay the various taxes with justiceability and transparency.”
“There is need to create a National Ideation Centre (NIC) and those in states too. There should be Victims Compensation Commission (VCC) to address numerous injuries on citizens and losses outside court system. The courts hear claims where the aggressor is seen but in issues of insurgencies, flood, accidents, etc, the aggressors are unknown but victims suffer much and lose sense of nationalism and patriotism.
Read also: #EndSARS: Protesters shift focus to good governance, reforms, jobs
“There is need to create grassroots security architecture for a bottom-up policing system that hinges on true and effective community policing with the community people as first layer. We must promote volunteer system to tackle many issues such as vigilantes, road volunteers to maintain rural and state roads while waiting for full construction, etc,” it further observed.
Other teams worked hard and delivered summaries of their works thus: Team One: Samuel Adeosun: “Religion is very sensitive. Let us thus grow above this and know that we worship one God. There is need for proper discipleship and teach the masses about need for patriotism.”
Team 2 headed by Chioma Ihekoromadu, said: “There is need to identify what noble cause is and how to achieve unity of purpose. There is need to build families together to create national bonding from the grassroots. For Nigeria, Nigeria is just in quote. The local populace has lost hope of one true Nigeria because they get nothing as motivation. If people suffer to train their children and they roam about forever, the parents would die in regret.”
Justin Toochukwu and his Team 3, said: “There is need to carry out appraisal on anybody that would be appointed into leadership position. This is so that merit can lead. Even if the youths are to take over, they must show what they did previously as leaders even at micro levels.”
Team 4 headed by Joshua Triumphant observed that “There is need to revise the educational curriculum because for now, the one we have only produces administrators, not creators of ideas and wealth.”
Chigozie Nwogu-led Team 6 said: “There is need to design a national roadmap and a good constitution. There must be an agreed national course to pursue.”
“The bottom line of all agitations is hunt for economic access and equality. That is the reason for the clamour for true federalism and resource control and restructuring. It is greed, not religion that is killing Nigeria because when the leaders want to loot, they forget religion and tribe to cooperate. We are all potential terrorists, just waiting to explode. If you give Nigeria justice and equity, the terror in us will die. IPOB has been able to generate a force, it can be used for good, for mobilisation of the Igbo into a force for development,” Team 7 led by Joshua Rogers said.
