By Suleiman Yakubu

When Chief Olusegun Obasanjo assumed Nigeria’s leadership in 1999, Nigeria’s economy was in crisis. However, by employing a competent team and deploying robust frameworks like the defunct National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (NEEDS), the administration took its growth rate from 2.58 percent in May 1999 to 6.06 percent in May 2007.
Furthermore, Nigeria’s middle class, which became extinct or, at best, camaraderie for the sixteen years that the military held sway in the political landscape, staged a return in Obasanjo’s era. It’s part of human nature to be amnesiac, and so you might be excused for forgetting that owning a colour TV was a big luxury before 1999, not to mention owning a car and enjoying other trappings of the middle class that folks began to take for granted when Obasanjo’s frameworks and their implementation restored Nigeria’s middle class in the country.
And here in Niger State, the government of Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu created Vission 3:20:20 as the compass to guide the state to its envisaged destination in the year 2020. MBA assembled eggheads that created the roadmap that was Vission 3:20:20, and although the roadmap wasn’t strictly followed, some achievements were recorded. For example, under Policy Thrust 4: To Improve the Standard and Sustainability of Quality of Life; Meeting Housing Needs and Improving Urban Services, which states that the government will continue to provide low-cost houses under PPP arrangements in urban and rural areas, the MBA government built the MI Wushishi Estate, the Talba Estate in Minna, and similar ones in Bida and Kontagora, which has helped to address the housing needs of some Nigerians. In the same Policy Thrust 4: Improving Health Care Services, the government built general hospitals in Nasko, Gulu, and Sabon-Wuse, which has helped to bring healthcare services closer to the people.
The document encapsulating Vision 3:20:20 presented Policy Thrusts 1 to 5. Policy Thrust 1 aims to move the Niger State economy up the value chain; Policy Thrust 2 aims to raise the capacity for knowledge and innovation; Policy Thrust 3 intends to address persistent socioeconomic inequality constructively and productively; Policy Thrust 4 is for improving the standard and sustainability of life; and Policy Thrust 5 is to strengthen institutional and implementation capacity that will power Nigerlites.
The document also had an elaborate sectoral strategy, action plan, and implementation plan covering agriculture, transport, education, water and sanitation, environment and sustainable development, information and communication technology, urban and rural development, science and technology innovation, housing, manufacturing, and agro-allied development, among others.
Abu Lolo’s era was characterised by shooting in the dark, touching here and there, and moving on slowly, unsure of the target, and here we are after eight years of near lethargy. But truth be told, it wasn’t all gloom and doom in Abu Lolo’s era. Minna-Kataeregi-Bida Road rehabilitation was started in his first tenure, though not through the channel that MBA initially wanted, and so snail speed characterised the progress of the work even when its quality is topnotch. And now, with a solid team on the ground and a return to the original channel meant for its reconstruction, it is envisaged that both the strength of the road and the speed of its execution can be assured in this dispensation.
It should also be stated that during Abu Lolo’s era, civil servants and pensioners’ monthly entitlements were promptly settled. You may be excused for not rating this as an achievement if you’re not blessed with a gift of empathy or if you’re not one of the tens of thousands of direct dependents or hundreds of thousands of indirect dependents of civil servants or pensioners in a state like Kogi during Governor Yahaya’s Bello’s era.
This piece is not about a single project or civil servants’ remuneration, but about the imperative of the New Niger Agenda as a vehicle for the transformation of a state with so much promise but so little progress. The zeal of his Excellency, Umar Bago, the Farmer Governor, as he wants to be addressed, for transforming Niger State into a modern state within the federation of Nigeria is pretty obvious.
Hitting the ground running soon after assuming office and expressing the many, many projects he wanted to undertake, I began to wonder if scarcity hadn’t ceased being a basic economic problem in society. In fact, at a point, I had to google'scarcity’ just like I did when MBA assumed office recently to check if the hypothesis of a political economist friend of mine, Dr Kamar Hamza of IBBU Lapai, about scarcity never being an economic problem of society had gained global currency. And this is another reason why Bago needs to encapsulate his vision in a document that will guide the implementation of his dream. Already, the Niger State Planning Commission has realised the importance of a framework in this regard and has relayed a digital questionnaire to the citizens, eliciting input about the New Niger Agenda.
In fact, given the magnitude of the Governor’s zeal and the beginning of the translation of that zeal on the ground, a robust implementation framework for Bago’s projects and vision becomes an urgent imperative, and the signs are that the New Niger Agenda is better approached as a programme than as a project.
Gladly, we can save ourselves the trouble of reinventing the wheel if restructuring it will serve the purpose of reinvention. Since Umar Bago’s vision and Talba’s desire seem to align, the Vision 3:20:20 document can be modified and updated to have a New Niger Vision Document (NNVD) or just a New Niger Vision (NNV).
Agriculture has a prime place in both Vision 3:20:20 and Bago’s New Niger Agenda, but the approach and size of the targets vary. However, a similar template could be employed in the production of the New Niger Vision. The Vision and Action Plan for the Agricultural Sector of Vision 3:20:20 is a matrix of thirteen columns and numerous rows. The column headings include Initiative/Programmes, Activities, Time Frame & Cost, Organs Responsible for Implementation, Resources Needed, Intervention Strategies, Expected Changes, How Often to Measure Progress, Organs/Persons Responsible for Tracking, Indicators to Show Progress, and Funding Options. The Initiative/Programme Colunm, for example, has the objective of accelerating the production of crops, especially rice, maize, guinea corn, groundnut, yams, and cassava, by 100% and carries out about thirteen activities. The objective of increasing the production of livestock and fisheries has nine major activities and some sub-activities. Other sectors in the state are similarly covered. Like I said ab initio, the New Niger Agenda Document needs to only improve on this, as reinventing the wheel may not be necessary.
However, the New Niger Agenda should have an institutional structure with a manager, chairman, or coordinator at the helm. The head should have an experienced M&E advisor and other relevant officers to help deliver on the tasks and keep implementation on track. The work of this New Niger Agenda structure should not preclude the regular functions of established organs and should, in fact, complement or enhance them.
Mamun Mallam, a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, works as a development practitioner in Niger State and can be reached at almamunmahb@gmail.com or via 08036085067.

By Suleiman Yakubu

Social media’s impact on children’s mental health is still up for debate. There has been a lack of research, which is largely to blame. Some studies show that children can benefit from small-group interactions online, while others show an increase in anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.
People of all ages are spending a considerable amount of their time on social media. Some use the platforms as a way to stay connected with family and friends, while others use them to network, advertise, and find job opportunities. With social media, young people have found new ways to connect with each other, contributing to inappropriate discussions and bullying, among others.
Social media plays an important role in the lives of many tweens and teens. More than one-third (35 percent) of 13- to 17-year-olds reported using social media sites such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook "almost constantly" in 2022. And while many social media platforms set a minimum age of 13 to sign up, 38 percent of kids ages 8–12 say they have used social media. All this media use can influence young people in a variety of ways. And with a reported rise in depression and anxiety among teens, you may wonder how social media may impact your child's mental health. Research suggests it depends on how they use it. Understanding possible connections between social media and mental health can help you guide your kids towards healthy social media habits.
However, most children use social media for learning or to keep them entertained. We know how smart and active children can be and how they can grab anything seen or heard faster. Social media, however, is not a place for children to be due to the inappropriate content that may even be seen by children if not properly supervised by their parents or guardians. Most parents keep their children busy with gadgets to enable themselves to have time for work and other things without supervising the contents these children are exposed to and how it affects their mental health.
Social media itself can be good and bad at the same time, depending on how the user uses it and what content they are exposed to. However, children cannot tell what kind of content they want to see or do not want to be exposed to because they will want to see new things and not care about their impact on them. There are negative impacts and risks of social media on children, which include phone addiction. Using social media too much can push out other important activities. Examples include being in person with friends and family or getting enough sleep. Children who become social media addicts tend to not have social connections with others in person because they will prefer to be on their phones.
Furthermore, children can have access to inappropriate or harmful content. Children are exposed to violence, racism, and hateful content that contains pornographic material. Pornography is more likely to be stumbled upon by accident than intentionally searched for by children and young people. Upon accessing pornography for the first time, young people reported experiencing a mixture of curiosity, shock, confusion, and disgust.
Not overlooking the fact that social media causes sleep disruption in children. Social media at night might disrupt a child’s sleep. Children between the ages of 5 and 16 should get between 9 and 11 hours of sleep every night. Getting inadequate sleep can have a detrimental effect on their learning at school and increase their risk for depression and anxiety.
Additionally, social media can create utopian views of people’s lives, leading to peer pressure and unhealthy comparisons. Studies have shown that social media is associated with depression. Children who use social media are most likely to be depressed, but no studies have proven the amount of social media that causes depression in children.
The use of social media by children is associated with more than just anxiety and depression. Social media negatively impacts both girls’ and boys’ body images. As social media usage increases, more people monitor their bodies and embrace judgmental attitudes about them. Most kids get exposed to "beauty standards" laid down by social media, which can affect how they view themselves.
Moreover, all these impacts narrow down to the carelessness of parents and their involvement in the way their kids use social media. Children who are monitored learn that whatever information they share online is a permanent marker of their identity. It shouldn’t be posted if they don’t want their parents to see it. It is possible to prevent your children from having years of mental health issues if you speak honestly with them about what they do with apps and what they see.
Children's mental health can be adversely impacted by social media usage. The use of social media by children should not be prohibited, given all its benefits, such as learning and improving social skills, among others. However, children need to be protected from harm by schools, parents, and companies in the digital industry by taking a proactive approach rather than reacting to crises on the spot.