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Please Educate us all By Deji Babaleye Idi-Ape, Ibadan
First, let me confess that I like President Umaru Musa Yar Adua (PUMY); he looks harmless and his first few strides as President were steady. He appealed to our hearts requesting us to trust him to make a change and give us some fresh air. The OBJ tenure was beginning to suffocate us all. But then, two years have passed and I am sure by now PUMY would know the difference between looking at problems from afar and examining them while in the saddle. My real concern is how to give education a pride of place in Nigeria. An ignorant society cannot be a living society. Boko Haram was rejected by virtually all and sundry. This is mainly because of the fear of pervasive ignorance and the apparent damage it will work on society. This confirms that we all do not want to be too far from the knowledge locus. Education was listed as one of the thrusts of the 7-point agenda. As CBN Governor Sanusi indicated during his screening session with the Senate, the 7-point agenda can quite easily be compressed into two main thrusts without any loss. This would have enabled Government to benefit from the power of focus. With the current disruptive events (strikes) in the educational sector, I am not so sure that education can be honestly listed in the first twenty priorities of Government. One may ask why this is so? The Unity schools are just the first pointer. The supply chain from the Primary level has been severed. Very soon, the schools may have to be disposed of. Guess who would be in contention for ownership? Your guess is as good as mine. Second, JAMB now proposes to run both Polytechnic and University examinations modules on the same day. They forget that while one is middle, the other is high level manpower. The strike action by the University lecturers is an avoidable nuisance. As for me, my 19 year old son is at home. The way he is growing physically and mentally; my preference would have been to board him in school – fully engaged. An examination of the contentious issues shows that the academics have been given the short end of the stick. Consider that only about 8% of the budget is devoted to education in Nigeria while more challenged economies in Africa are clocking 15 – 23%! These countries are putting their money where their mouth is. They are literally ‘Walking the Talk’. Minister Egwu has been reeling out the offers of Government to the Academics in the last few weeks, while NUC Okojie has been giving interviews to a medley of news media. All put together, what is on offer is still less than 9% of the national budget. So who is consuming the remaining 91%? Again, your guess is as good as mine. The recent revelation that Directors in Ministries now earn 22 million Naira while Professors earn 3.6 m Naira has been eye-popping. That a council Chairman now harvests 13 m Naira per annum is even more baffling. The Government’s scale of preference is very obvious. With this scale of priorities, it will be easier for Nigeria to land a man on Mars ahead of the USA using ‘gbetu gbetu’, than for it to be in the top 100 economies by year 2020. NUC Okojie and Minister Egwu have been commanding the academia to put Nigeria in the top 100 Universities in the World without supplying bullets for their guns. My simple calculation shows that, Egwu should be enjoying a permanent retirement after 8 years in the saddle as Governor while Okojie should have been writing books for the educational system from his retirement library having been effectively out of the teaching system for the last 15 years. What Qualifies Okojie to earn over 22 million Naira a year while his sweating hardworking Professor equivalent in the University earns a paltry 3.6 million. Is he 500% more efficient or productive? It would be nice to know Okojie and Egwu’s output while they were in active academic service before they became fat cats. So what do we do in the circumstance? I suggest that Government should go back to the Cookey formula – a 20% top up for academics compared to the Civil Service. This brought peace before now; it can bring lasting peace again. The shouting matches of Government and ASUU will stop. We can then begin the process of Vision 20-2020. For now, the score card is that Nigeria is not in the top 3,000 in the Global ranking of Universities. The good news however is that the Government has at least put Nigeria in the last 20 countries in the world when it comes to Human Development annual Global ranking. May I ask; when did Director’s salaries quietly move to a whopping 22 million Naira without our knowledge? No wonder then, that Academics who should have ‘Silence, Genius at Work’ labelled on all their doors are shouting blue murder. The current 40% offer of Government to ASUU in truth is still less than 60% of the take home pay of an ordinary Local Government Councillor who had only 12 years of school and probably bungled it. This is even relative to a Professor at the bar. So who is sucking the juice and licking the honey on the side? Again, and again, your answer is as good as mine. Mr President, please fast forward and Walk the Talk; intervene in the spirit of Ramadan. Then, we can all be educated. God Bless Nigeria.
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