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A Year In The Hourglass Of Nigeria Education; 2005 By Prince Charles Dickson Jos, Plateau Nigeria
Time they say waits for no man, time comes and it goes, same as seasons come and go. Time…these are very difficult times for Nigeria, a time most of us pray we can soon confine to history, a time we wish we could say never came or existed. And as the time moves not much seems to be improving, although in the spirit of the New Year one can only hope against hope that some form of miracle will happen for those that believe. Because if the events of year 2005 is an indication of what to expect from our educational sector and system, then there is trouble.
Time in an hourglass, its January, a lot of fathers would have caught the nagging bug from their wives as all sorts of bills are due, fees here and there but most importantly the children’s tuition fees. For the Igbos a lot has been spent on the ‘Onwa’ December rituals and travels. The Yorubas must have thrown several ‘miliki’ parties with thousands spent on the latest ‘Owanbe’ and Aso ebe wears. For most of us up North, the Hajj and the Sallah celebrations have set us back financially. However all this cannot take the place of a functional and qualitative education for our children at minimal cost. While I looked at the grim picture I also took time to reflect on all the events that shaped the educational sector in the year gone by and hoped this year will be different. Because if the last year was anything to follow then we are in for a long journey to no where.
Unfortunately the year started with the Ministry of Education calling everyone’s bluff, from ASUU, SSANU, NASU, NUT. As early as February of the year the strike bells had started ringing, it did hold and we all suffered the repercussions of it to the University sector of our educational system, even as several State Primary Education Board were having running battles with their respective States NUT
From the Presidency, Ministry of Education to the primary school teacher there was nothing to smile about. It started out like a guess who’s coming to dinner question in March 2005 before we could really sink it in, it snowballed into a corruption gala night. In a bid to increase budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Education the Minister Fabian Osuji a Professor of zoology decided to take matters into his hands by treating some members of the education committee of the National Assembly like goats by providing grass. And when they had their fill like goats that they were they denied him. Then the EFCC came in roaring like lions before we could get the whole truth, the Presidency sacked Fabian. He said he was being persecuted and then he sued the federal government, a case that has fizzled out. The then Senate President after all the body movement called shakara he stepped down and today is a shadow of himself, he had also threatened every one in sight but like they say this is Nigeria. The case has died a natural death even as Professor Peter Okebukola proved that he only “borrowed” his parent Ministry part of the money for the bribe.
Then the Universities went on rampage from Unilag to Unijos, from cult related to student activism, it was tears galore for all concerned, towards the tail end of the year an innocent girl was caught in gunshot at the University of Jos, just as three suspected cultist lost their lives. In University of Lagos the Vice Chancellor is still recovering from the shock of his burnt official quarters.
To get into the Federal Universities now regarded as poor man’s school because of the proliferation of private Universities that are well priced above the means of the ordinary Nigerians, students connived with their parents and West African Examination Council (WAEC) staff and bingo. Days to the May/June exams, some subjects’ papers leaked and was being sold for as cheap as 100 Naira depending on the subject and city it was sold in, before the day a newspaper even went ballistics by publishing the paper yet to be sat for… And the Examining Council went ahead with the paper and later cancelled it. Nigeria! A committee as usual was set up, EFCC had no jurisdiction that way, same with ICPC-- and the committees report? I am sure when we get to heaven.
While all these were happening, the Nigerian Universities Commission went free-hearted and was issuing Licenses for Universities like meat shops. 18 in all were approved in 2005 alone; while existing Universities were operating like advanced crèches and glorified nursery schools. Much as we needed more schools one wondered if the same zeal at approving these Universities were proportionately equal to the effort being put into having a Benchmark/Minimum Academic Standard for them.
Several Institutions that were offering unaccredited courses saw the hammer fall on them. Even as we saw the several schools complain about lecturers resorting to victimization and the ‘sorting disease’ (a system that allows an academically deficient student sail through his course by ‘unacademic’ means, it could be money, sex, favours). The ‘handout phenomenon’ continued as scholars got lazier, books were plagiarized and sold to students on ‘buy and pass’ basis.
As the sand of time moved in the hourglass, the Post –UME test wahala became the craze. The battle line was drawn as the sweet-talking Madam Obaji of the Education Ministry, Prof Salim of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board JAMB, Vice Chancellors and the Federal House of Representative all jaw-jawed on simple logic. The Vice Chancellors wanted the test…. The Ministry had commanded thus, besides for those Universities that had quickly conducted theirs, it was a money-spinning machine. The Rep. Members were upset that the tests was not necessary. Besides why burden parents that already were bending from the load of JAMB fees, it was illegal. Yet schools went ahead, the Minister said she did not support the fees being charged by the schools, the schools said it was for logistics and security. JAMB the Vice Chancellors’ claimed had failed and that the high scoring students could not match those scores during the Post-UME tests. JAMB felt unduly at the receiving end as some of us yet again saw the state of the Nigerian child that scored 250 to study History tell us that Australia was a town in Sokoto and because Adelaide sounded Yoruba it must be in Abeokuta.
The Teachers’ Day for the year was as colorless as the year except for the likes of Cadbury that remembered that we still have teachers. It became more of a taboo for ones child to aspire to become a teacher. Teachers continue to teach nonsense because the government could not remove the n to make one sense that is motivating these teachers. All we heard was the noise of the Universal Basic Education with the charade of free food to entice the children to go to school. Most Governors had a field day greasing their hands with donor agency funds meant for Primary Schools while 8 million children of school going age could not and another 8million were involved in child labour as house boys and girls or street hawking.
The year 2005 produced more illiterates from our schools and those who wanted a better alternative did not mind going tO Estonia to study Hausa Pottery and Igbo Painting. When we thought it could not get worse, in the name of Bank consolidation, Higher National Diploma graduates became cheap fish that was no t good enough and even some second generation Universities' graduates had embargoes placed on them as their quality was infected with mad cow disease. The National Board on Technical Education made noise, the government made statements bu t it ended there.
We also saw one of the peoples’ mouth piece National Association of Nigerian Students loose its bearing as one group in a drowsy moment support a third term for Obasanjo. Wallahi it was a goof.
More lecturers, teachers and professors left to take up residency as scholars, from Cuba to Jamaica, Cyprus to Afghanistan. As the sand in the hourglass of 2005 was near the end point, we were forced to offer for sacrifice some 60 innocent children through the Sosoliso aircrash. They were kids of those that could afford over 300,000 Naira for an education that ordinarily should not have cost ten percent of that, an education that they could have gotten there in Port Harcourt if all the noise of revamping the sector made by the government was true. Most of the parents claimed they had no choice they were no good schools in Rivers State and its environ…if they the parents were politicians the kids would have been in some Ivy league school abroad. Those kids just went…we shouted about the aviation sector and no one thought about the educational mess on our hands.
As parents source for funds to send their children back to school. Our leaders need to sit up, we are creating a divide because they are kids whose parents cannot afford a two thousand Naira education, and we need to sit up. We are treading a dangerous path on the sands of time; we may suddenly realize that with every turn of the hourglass nothing has been achieved all this while. We only look up to Almighty Allah the Most Beneficial, Merciful and All Wise One. This is f or the general articles page.....cheers...
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