Tom and Jerry you say? Yes, Tom and Jerry; and for those of us who haven't seen the clip, please do try and see one today.
The cartoon I think is as old as time and just manages not to get old and it was while having my usual late dinner with my 2 year old son who happened to be having fun watching and giggling away that I went into a state of thinking.
This thinking got me trying to piece together the soundless characters who never communicate through words but gesture and how they always manage to get on each others nerves and this particular show was how Jerry the mouse was trying hard to bell Tom the cat with the help of a fellow cousin mouse from outta town.
The problem starts with Tom the cat on the prowl to take out Jerry the mouse and as big as the house or stage may be, there is never anyone around to come to the poor mouse's rescue but against all odds, the Mouse always manages to win and I can only wish there is a bell on the cat so the mouse gets justice.
Now, lets relate this to the Nigerian context where the Cat = the Government aka bully of the people laden with criminally insane persons, the Mouse = the Masses aka law abiding citizen with an "e go better attitude" and always managing to survive, the Bell = the Justice system aka the elusive bunch never taking a stand against injustice.
The Government is one bunch of horrible individual who will do whatever it takes to ride and chase the masses into extinction if they can and the masses always in the suffering and smiling mood running in circle escaping from the Government and plotting their downfall which is never good enough to hold them down and the Justice system which is as corrupt as it sounds taking sides with the government against people and that is why there is never a bell present when you watch the cartoon thereby leaving that old as time question, "who will bell the cat?"
It is cat and mouse story we get everyday with the acts of the government getting more and more criminally inclined as they make sure to take for theselves everything they can lay their hands on and sell everything institution we have to the highest bidder not putting into consideration the organizational capacity and the final purpose of these firms. We are on daily basis faced with numerous ills that makes one wonder whatever did we do wrong to warrant being treated like dirt by rogues on the platform of leadership.
The Nigerian government has of late proven that the masses are ordinary and that their needs are not important. The educational sector is one of such areas and as funny as it may sound, these rogues in government are beneficiaries of free education in their time and those where weren't part of the scheme actually had the opportunity to attend school and graduate in record time.
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who is the man "right thinking" Nigerians want to see dangling from a pike attested to the importance of education and of how it was majorly responsible for making him the man he is today. He also went on to promise transformation in the educational sector so that the future of the country can be secured in a bid to making opportunities for canoe makers, petty traders or palm wine tappers children to attain the highest offices in the land and unlike him make seeable landmarks and history such as can be described as a Mandela of our time.
Goodluck Jonathan is a lucky man as is and I want to strongly argue that he has come to understand that he got to where he is today by luck and not education because his actions of late has proved to us that education is not the bedrock of Nigeria.
World over, leaders are putting measures in place to sustain the educational sector in their nation and making sure that such goals are achieved within the shortest possible time but back home here in Nigeria our government is putting measures in place to unsure that the educational sector becomes extinct, and like Tom the cat, Jerry the mouse is always going to be chased until he is killed and just when you think he may get justice, the chase comes to an end with just a little light at the end of the tunnel only to return with another round of chase.
The Nigerian educational sector is right now going through a period of decay and deprivation riddled with educated thugs and touts at the helm of affairs and what you get after these happenings is what we are going through at the moment.
What right thinking person appoints a thug and renowned tout to head an institution that is supposed to produce leaders, masters of industries, CEOs, MDs, governors, ministers, presidents, successful entrepreneurs, genuine PhD holders etc?
What right thinking person who swore to better the educational sector now turns around to not care what happens in the sector he gave so much credit for getting him into the office where he is wrecking things and practically making the nation unwelcoming to the people who have vested so much in their motherland?
Students of our various universities have been forcibly made to stay home doing nothing and becoming agitated because its been months out of school and all efforts to get the government of the day to do something is met with series of excuses.
The government is not concerned about what happens to the people and how they feel. The government is better at getting muddled up in controversy all in the name of politics and in issues considered unimportant like worrying about what 2015 will look like and if they can still get into that office to continually loot and run the economy aground.
Nowhere on his profile is there a closeness to education and I find it hard to understand why a PhD holder would even consider making him a Minister of education be it partially or permanently, and for whatever reason why would our president keep appointing incompetents to positions of authority in a Nation that is already fragile following boiling agitation about the failure of the government to address issues of importance. We have over a short period experienced various uprisings, protest, covered scams, ASUU strike, criminal increase in earnings of political office holders, pardoned killers etc and all the government and her people are interested in is fighting for 2015 a year that is not here yet but has been able to take over our minds because blood of innocent Nigerians have been used to write 2015.
The sacked minister of education is a Teacher or Lecturer if you may and when she was booted out, she made a resolve to return to class and continue with that noble profession where she will be a selfless contributor to the bedrock of our society.
Now it has become really hostile to be a student or a graduate in Nigeria with the former getting delayed their rightful graduation year, and sometimes killed while in school or on national assignment and the later roaming the streets jobless and frustrated begging to settle for N20,000 monthly jobs.
On the case of security, I beg to not talk because that is one very sorry aspect of the decadence we face on daily basis. Just last night tens of students where murdered in cold blood while they slept in their dormitory and my dear president says he and the service chiefs are on top of it. If the Nigerian government takes education as a serious affair, the wellness of our children will be priority secured because they are the future of our Nation for without them, there will be no future to look to.
The Cat, the Mouse, and that Raggedy Bell tells the story of a government drawn in battle with the people while justice fails to ring and is mostly looking the other way.
In that episode of Tom and Jerry, the bell was presented to Cat as a gift and he did gladly put it on and I believe the Masses (Mouse ) will get the government (Cat) to wear that bell by all means and for the purposes of asking and hoping to find answers "Who will bell the Cat?"
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