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PEOPLE AND POLITICS BY MOHAMMED HARUNA Education as Buhari’s priority
Two days ago, Spectrum Broadcasting Company celebrated the tenth anniversary of its flagship, Hot Fm, Abuja, one of the most popular radio stations in Abuja, the Federal capital, and in the country; its proprietor and host of the event, the delectable Senator Chris Anyawu, herself once a popular broadcaster, said in her welcome speech that her station is among the top three in the country. The venue of the celebration was the recently constructed Nigeria Airforce Conference Centre and Suites, an architectural beauty and one of the most modern buildings in Abuja. The top highlight of the event was the Special Awards to four prominent Nigerians – the Senate President, David Mark, for stabilizing the Senate leadership after eight years of a scandalously high turnover of five presidents; Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso for his exceptional service delivery in his state; Dr Obey Ezekwesili, for leading an enduring campaign for the rescue of Chibok Girls held in captivity by Boko Haram for over a year now; and the Nigerian Armed Forces for their gallantry, sacrifice and courage in the face of great odds in combating Boko Haram. The second highlight was a two-topic symposium, the first on “The Change Nigerians Expect” and the other, a panel discussion on how the media can foster that change. Professor Pat Utomi, formally of the Lagos Business School, and Ezekwesili, one of the awardees, spoke on the first topic, while AIT’s Raymond Dokpesi, represented by Odion Bello, one of his top managers, presented the paper for the panel discussion on the second topic. Femi Adesina, the managing director of Sun and president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, and Bello who read Dokpesi’s paper, discussed it, moderated by this reporter. There were three interesting interventions from the audience by Senators Anthony Manzo, Adekola Babalola and Adegbenga Kaka, mostly on media’s role in bringing about the changes Nigerians expect from President-elect Muhammadu Buhari. The chairman of the occasion, Professor Jerry Gana, our first minister of Information in the current 16-year old Republic, spoke at some length in his opening remarks but he did not disappoint as a celebrated orator. Neither did the Master of Ceremony, Andy Gabriel, a former broadcaster with Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, who ensured the event proceeded at a brisk, time-saving pace. Of all the speeches and remarks at the event, however, the most profound for me was Ezekwesili’s. If Nigeria wants to get out of its current mess, occasioned mainly by its over-reliance on oil, she said in effect, its governments must begin to invest massively in education. Like Utomi who spoke before her - each of them for roughly ten minutes as they were allotted – she was characteristically eloquent, albeit not as eloquent as our professor whose characterisation of Nigeria’s politics as one “by politicians, of politicians and for politicians,” - obviously drawing from American President Abraham Lincoln’s famous definition of democracy as government by the people, of the people and for the people - should clinch gold as a sound-bite for its wit and accuracy anywhere, anytime. However, Ezekwesili made up for Utomi’s slightly superior eloquence by talking at some length about how to bring about the change, instead of merely dwelling, as Utomi did, on the things that needed changing. In talking about education as the main weapon of change, Ezekwesili, who once served as education minister, reminded me of an article in the New York Times of March 10, 2012 by Thomas Friedman, one of its columnists and thrice winner of the Pulitzer Prize as a reporter. It’s an article I have had cause to refer to on these pages a few times before but which still bears referring to every now and again for its relevance to our situation. Titled “Pass the Book. Hold the Oil,” the article drew attention to the report of a programme in 2012 conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Paris-based 34-member rich-country club, of the link between the performance of 15-year olds across 65 countries in Maths, Science and reading comprehension, on the one hand, and the natural endowment of those countries, on the other. The programme was called PISA, Programme for International Student Assessment. Its report showed that, overall, the pupils of countries with little or no natural endowment like oil and other minerals, performed better than the pupils of countries with plenty natural resources. The report also showed that the exceptions to this pattern, notably Canada, Australia and Norway which had plenty of natural resources, had established deliberate policies of saving and investing earnings from their natural resources instead of consuming them. “Oil and PISA,” Friedman concluded in his article, “don’t mix.” Nigeria, as a naturally well-endowed country, especially with oil, the world’s primary source of energy, has for decades obviously been suffering from the so-called “Dutch Disease” whereby over-dependence on export of natural resources for public revenue leads to a soaring of the value of a country’s currency, which, in turn, leads to the collapse of its domestic manufacturing, as cheap imports flood in and exports become too expensive. The good thing about the OECD’s PISA report, however, was that this disease is not necessarily inevitable, as Canada, Australia and Norway showed. Ezekwesili did not have time to expand on how Nigeria should go about investing in the education of its human resources but it was apparent from her talk that what she had in mind was a much more serious and sensible approach than the clearly politically motivated building of almajiri schools and of new universities that are little more than glorified secondary schools which was pursued by the out-going Jonathan administration. However, whatever approach Ezekwesili had in mind, it is bound to beg the question of how to raise the money to invest in the nation’s human capital for a country like ours who’s leaders as a class have stolen the country blind and squandered so much of the revenues from our natural resources. One short answer, of course, is to fight corruption, a fight which the in-coming Buhari administration says is one of its top priorities. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done, as we all know too well. Even then we can make a start by sanitizing our contract system whereby it seems the cost of any contract in Nigeria is invariably the highest in the world. Take, for example, the cost at which the 30-kilometer highway from central Abuja to Nnamdi Airport was constructed several years ago. Or even the new four-kilometer runway of the airport itself. The highway was constructed at a cost of about N7 billion per kilometre. Some experts say it should never have cost more than a small fraction of that, frills and all. The runway was initially awarded at N60 billion. This was so ridiculously high that the boss of Julius Berger, the awardee, told a hearing of the Senate the figure contained an “arithmetical error” after which it was reduced to N42 billion. Even then some experts say it could have been built for N16 billion and yet guarantee sufficient returns to the company’s owners to last a lifetime. The quality of JB’s constructions may meet, indeed beat, world standards, but their prices seem to typify the country’s contract system in their lack of cost-effectiveness by the same world standards. There are, to be sure, no quick fixes for education. But there is no alternative to investing in it massively and efficiently if we want to end our over-dependence on oil, an over-dependence which has clearly landed us in the economic mess we are in, which, in turn, has made the lives of ordinary Nigerians nasty, brutish and generally shorter than they were before we discovered oil. However, if there are no quick fixes for education, surely there are quick ways to find the money to invest in the sector, such quick ways as raising the efficiency of our contract systems to global best practices. Because education takes long to fix, the sooner we begin fixing it in earnest the better our chances of ending our over-dependence on oil sooner than later. For, as Andreas Schleicher, who oversaw the PISA exams for the OECD said, “Knowledge and skills have become the global currency of 21st-century economies, but there is no central bank that prints this currency. Everyone has to decide on their own how much they will print.” Re: The Eighth Senate rollercoaster (May 13) Sir, Zoning is not synonymous with mediocrity. In my view the PDP was right in popularising it. We tend to have forgotten the situation that gave birth to it 16 years ago. Every region of this country can boast of people with demonstrated personal integrity and commitment to public service. Gbemiga Ogunleye, ********* Sir, I totally agree with your position that (Senator George) Akume is the best choice for the post, given the massive support GMB enjoyed from the middle-belt despite the anti-Islam campaign by the PDP. ********* Sir, Don’t you think it would be unfair on the part of APC'S leadership to sideline PDP defectors in the sharing of positions after APC's electoral victory? CPC has the President-elect and ACN the vice president-elect. It remains ANPP and PDP that have not been 'compensated'. I am sure the victory may have been a mirage without their support. In summation, I believe Dr Bukola Saraki should be supported to become the senate president as PDP's share, and am happy that, according to your testimony, he is competent. Adewuyi Adegbite, ********* Sir, You are not fair to the north-east. They produced the second highest votes for APC after northwest. Why always north-central? Is north-east not part of Nigeria? ********* |