By Zainab Suleiman Okino
I was pleasantly surprised to learn the other day that the National Orientation Agency (NOA) was involved in uncovering some infractions at the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), one of President Bola Tinubu’s flagship programmes. First, the thought of fraud in a newly established government agency given the mandate of ameliorating students’ financial burden is scandalous. I said to myself, ‘there you go again, nothing good can come out of this country.’
After hearing of NOA’s intervention to expose the fraud, it gave me some comfort: although there will always be light-fingered people dipping their hands in the collective cookie jar, some form of oversight, whistle-blowing or outright exposure of wrongdoing can restore credibility to the government somehow. And if today’s NOA can play such a significant role, it could be a marked departure from the lull and lapse of the past.
Despite being around since 1993, Nigerians do not hold the NOA in high regard. In fact, the agency has always been blamed for not being proactive in creating awareness around government activities or addressing the many things that have gone wrong in this country. But the question is: is the little the agency doing acknowledged by Nigerians, or are their warnings ever heeded? I do not think so. For example, I have seen or heard NOA’s jingles drawing attention to certain ills and warning against the dangers of going close to fallen fuel-laden trucks, with vivid graphics showing how you should run far away instead of getting close, and explaining why you should never scoop fuel from such accident trucks.
Notwithstanding these obvious warnings, their admonition was never heeded. The last two such accidents in Niger and Jigawa states claimed over 150 lives. NOA did their part, and the victims chose not to hear or pretended they did not hear and paid the supreme price. Despite that, NOA would not and should not relent. It could be poverty, yes. But no sensible person should choose death because of poverty.
Back to the NELFUND exposé. NOA’s allegations and complaints of unethical practices against banks and universities for withholding monies meant for students while depriving them of access to the loans constitute sheer corruption and abuse of office. These are disclosures that came about during information sharing between the two government agencies, revealing that despite loans being given in students’ names, universities still demand school fees from such students. On this, NELFUND has promised a thorough investigation and legal action against offenders.
I would not know how NOA came about their knowledge of the alleged NELFUND loan fraud, but having over 800 offices in all the states, local governments and directorates, staffed with personnel who, if well-motivated, can file feedback from their bases to the government, should provide enough channels to get information. However, getting information and acting on it is what I think makes the difference, and that is where the NOA Director-General, Lanre Issa-Onilu’s pedigree as an accomplished communicator plays a role.
Not done yet, the exchange of visits between the NOA and Federal Ministry of Health officials that also happened recently is not just the right thing to do; it is setting the stage for effectively communicating health issues and creating public awareness on disease outbreak and mitigation. Right now, the outbreak of Lassa fever has become a source of health concern as Nigeria has lost over 300 people across the country to the disease.
Collaborations between NOA and in this case, the FederalMinistry of Health would surely help disseminate critical information about the disease in order to stem the tide and spread of such a communicable disease, whether it is Lassa fever today or any other pandemic or disease that may show up in the future. NOA’s intervention is critical in carrying messages of health consciousness to communities across the country.
Creating awareness around government policies may be a shared responsibility, but in underscoring its mandate to bridge the gap between government policies and public awareness by exposing and explaining them, NOA has to continually advocate and sensitise people about those policies. An appropriate example to underscore this context is the National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) rebasing of the economy and GDP recently after the last such exercise in 2014. This subject matter is difficult for the layman to understand, but NOA stepped in to fill some gaps by breaking it down.
At one of their joint sensitisation sessions (NBS and NOA), Issa-Onilu declared that “rebasing of our GDP is not just a statistical adjustment; it is a national exercise that reflects our evolving economy. It is important that Nigerians understand what this means for policy, development and everyday life.” I do not know how much impact NOA’s interpretation and translation of NBS data had on the citizenry, but I believe that in due course, constant dissemination will produce more and better meanings, results and impact, especially with the localization of such programmes beyond the headlines.
I also do not know the details and extent of the spread of NOA messages, but going by our conventional methods of spreading government programmes in three languages, I would not be surprised if their advocacy never reached all the nooks and crannies of the country. It is a wrong-headed assumption handed down by the colonialists that Nigerians from all walks of life speak at least one of the three major Nigerian languages: Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. This is false.
Minorities who are actually in the majority do not speak these three languages, and NOA should not make that tired mistake of lumping and classifying all Nigerians in these categories for their targeted messages, awareness content and advocacy. If they did or do, they must have missed the point. Minority ethnic groups are as important as the big three, and NOA should be funded well enough to carry every ethnic group, including pidgin, along.
I would also urge that NOA works with NGOs and CSOs to achieve its mandate of “communicating government policy, keeping abreast with public opinion and feedback, promoting patriotism, national unity and development.” If the agency continues its present reformatory trajectory, maybe, just maybe, NOA’s previous narrative of redundancy will be reversed, and its core mandate of making government programmes known to all, down to the grassroots, could be achieved.
Zainab Suleiman Okino is the chairperson of Blueprint Editorial Board. She is a syndicated columnist and can be reached via: zainabokino@gmail.com
