Bridging education gap in the North

By Okey Muogbo

Dr. Aja, Minister of Education

THE nation’s attention is once again being drawn to the backwardness of northern Nigeria in the area of western education. First, it was the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Said Abubakar 111 who, in Kaduna lamented the situation. Few days ago, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger state followed in raising the alarm. We need to pay attention to what these two men have said because the issue of education is affecting the north’s relationship with the rest of Nigeria .

The Sultan is the trado-religious leader of the north, a critical part of the country where tradition and religion have been so strongly merged or muddled up that there can hardly be any prospect of separating the two. Aliyu is not only a governor in one of the northern states, he is chairman of the northern governors’ forum. So, both men carry authority and deep representation of the area they speak for. What the two men said may not be new in the ears of many but we just cannot get tired of hearing of an ailment that has refused to heal. The truth is that from time to time, the North’s backwardness with regards to western education stares us in the face.And this manifests itself in many unpleasant ways –the most threatening being the frequent religious crisis in Arewaland. When there is crisis Igbo traders usually have their shops as major targets of the rioters.

And why do they riot? The major reason is that they are being manipulated by some selfish elites who want to monopolize commercial activities in their (northern) cities . These cannot stand in competition with the non-indigenous traders. Obviously, it is not only Igbos who suffer from riots in the north, northerners also get killed and this is one reason which makes the problem of the north’s education setback a serious issue needing the government’s attention. Sound education and skill for the northern youths will enhance enlightenment among them and give them greater capacity to face a steadily deregulated economy in which everybody is left to fight for his survival. If they are enlightened on issues and hope is restored in them on the possibility of earning a living through hard work, they would be less vulnerable to manipulations.

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman hit the issue on the head when he appeared before the senate for screening as a ministerial nominee. He narrated to the senators how he and other Kano elites intervened to stop the killing of Igbos and the looting of their shops in that commercial city. According to him, the elites of that city reasoned that once the miscreants finished with the Igbos, they would descend on the property of the wealthy Kano citizens. It was their intervention, he claimed that has reduced the frequency of attacks on Igbos in Kano .

Igbos should be grateful to Dr Usman for that intervention and for awakening the consciousness and conscience of his people to the pogrom against Ndigbo in Kano , even if it was inspired by self-preservation motives. Perhaps, one of these days, the Igbos would organize a chieftaincy title for the honourable minister. A title like Ozondigbo (one who saves Igbos) would be appropriate for his efforts as narrated above.

But beyond what Usman and others like him across the north have done, we are still faced with a serious problem. The bad boys are still there. The sad aspect of it is that in most cases, they are hopeless because they are lost in time and space. They find it difficult to fend for themselves because they lack basic education and/or skill to earn a living.

While some kind of intervention will be necessary to re-orientate the youth, the long term solution is finding a way of addressing educational problem in the north while also making skill acquisition available for youths and school dropouts. The Igbos can no longer be said to be forward-looking when it comes to western education but they get engaged in trading or acquire other skills which enable them to stay off those who want to use them to stir up crises.

Having realized that the backwardness of the area is a problem, the leaders of the zone should proceed to articulate programmes that would adequately address this matter. In doing this, emphasis should be on education for self sustenance, not education for certificates and government salary. It would not serve the nation any purpose for the north to continue to pursue what Igbos used to call Igbo-Igbo-BK in the 70s and 80s.

Igbo-Igbo-BK was a phrase used to deride those who were majoring in Arts subjects. That was when it dawned on people in the south-east that the future belongs to science/technology, no more humanities. That realization helped people of the south-east to shift attention to Mathematics and Science. The result may not have been tremendous but at least the consciousness has been aroused in the mind of the people about the dangers of continuing to produce many graduates of Humanities.

The real challenge in Nigeria is that before long, the economy would be fully deregulated and a different type of manpower would be required by employers. It would certainly be the reign of those who are technically/technologically inclined. This should be the guiding principle for the managers of western education in the north. It will also bring some advantages to the zone and the larger Nigeria .

It will produce graduates of northern extraction who will adequately fit into a private-led dominated economy which will be the order of the day in this country soon. It will equally create a Nigeria in which no section will be lagging behind in technical skill anymore. In short, it will eliminate educational disparity or at least, minimize it to a level where it will no longer be an issue of national worry. It was alarming to hear the chairman of the northern governors’ forum putting the disparity gap between the north and the south at 20 years. If this figure is credible, it is not worth celebrating, not even by southerners because of so many reasons, some of which have been mentioned above. It is to the discredit of northern leaders that a people who embraced acquisition of knowledge as a factor of survival with the coming of Islam so long ago, slipped so far behind when all that was required was for them to have adjusted to combine Islamic knowledge with western education.

A challenge of our present dynamic world is that everybody at every point in time, reviews his academic pursuit and assesses its relevance. No wonder those who read Igbo-Igbo-BK at first degree change course at post-graduate level to study something that would make them more relevant. That is why too, since the early 80s, Professors have stooped low to go to computer schools to be taught by semi-literate computer instructors. It is based on the reality that no knowledge is worthwhile today without basic computer literacy.

If northern leaders made serious efforts to bring their people into western education since the 1950s, the gap would not have so wide. But instead, they encouraged the idea of “karatu banza” (school is useless) and “ba dogoturenchi” (no long English). The terrible consequence of that was that suffering to go to school meant little or nothing because it offered very little advantage to those who got educated on those who did not go to school. The northern leaders pretended to be interested in western education but in practice, all a northerner needed to get what he wants was to be a descendant of aristocracy or an ally of it. On the contrary, in most southern states, education elevated even children of slaves to become aristocrats and placed them over sons of local lords who did not go to school. That gave most southerners the courage to pursue western education even if it meant their parents going naked and starving to pay school fees.

Now is the right time for the northern leaders to make the right move by joining others to make the switch to science and technology education. It will be a guarantee for a better tomorrow.

‘Quality education engenders development’

Kunle Awosiyan, Lagos

Professor Timothy Tayo

Professor Timothy Tayo, pioneer vice chancellor of the recently-licensed Caleb University, Lagos, in this interview with Sulaimon Olanrewaju, speaks on his plan for the university and the difference the new institution is going to make in the nation’s education landscape among other issues. Excerpts.

What is your vision for Caleb University as the pioneer vice chancellor?
The vision of this new generation university is set on standards, where merit will be the order of the day, where schorlarly distinctions will be promoted in all ramifications and our graduates will be products we can be proud of in Nigeria as well as all over the world. A truly international university should be able to attract students and staff from all over the world and that is our vision.

Now that there are many private universities in Nigeria, what difference is Caleb Univeraity going to make?
The difference we are going to make is one that will set the tone for university education in the country. I attended the University of Ibadan at a time when quality was the watchword. But somehow, because of the economic downturn and some few other things in Nigeria, we lost touch with the reality. We want to re-establish touch with reality by producing quality people, using merit as the basis of everything. No other consideration but merit.

There is a preponderance of private universities in the country now. Do you think we can produce quality university products by having many universities?
The quantum you refer to is a question of demand. Now, only about 15 per cent of Nigerians who qualify for higher education have places in universities. All other people deserve to be considered and what the government is doing now is to make sure they have enough spaces for them to be considered. And we now have a spectrum of public and private universities to take care of those who apply to study in higher institutions of learning.

Considering the need to produce university graduates that will not be job seekers but job creators, what are the plans of your university for entrepreneurial education?
Entrepreneurship is one of the things we are going to encourage when we fully start our programmes. It is not just studying a particular course but we want to empower students to stand on their own. This is the tradition in American universities. We are going to stop at nothing to ensure that our products are those that can stand on their own.

One of the problems of our federal and state universities is paucity of funds. How do you want to raise funds to build the university to standard,considering that you do not have the backing of the government or any religious organisation?
The issue of fund is a two-way affair, availability and efficiency of utilisation. All we want to harp on is that whatever little we have, we are going to make sure we make 100 per cent efficiency of utilisation. We are not going to load ourselves with undue staff and other things. So, we are going to cut down expenses and there will not be room for unneccessary administration. We are going to leverage on technology. So, each head of department is going to communicate directly. There will not be personal messengers or secretaries. That is the method we intend to adopt.

Given the fact that now in the country only those who can afford to pay get high quality education, what is the hope of brilliant but indigent students?
It has always been a pertinent worry of the Nigerian populace. And we have said several times, education has to be paid for by somebody. Even at the government level, a lot of subsidy comes from the government but we have also said we are going to make sure we attract all the cadres of students who can benefit from university education through two main programmes – scholarship and awards and more importantly, work-study programme for students. All over the world, if you go out to study but you don’t have money, you work your way through university. If you get some work in the university, let your students do it and pay them instead of employing some people from outside. That way, they can afford quality education.

Is there any way we can correct the anomalies in the Nigerian educational system?
It is becoming more obvious that if you want quality education, some people have to pay and I think the gospel is spreading now. The more private universities we have, the more people learn that it is not business as usual. Also, the government is trying to increase its funding of the universities. With this two-point approach, we are likely to get out of the problem.

The crisis between the Federal Government and the ASUU has been a lingering one, what do you think is the way out sir?
We are very lucky that the present administration is looking at the cases of the stakeholders – the teachers – and we hope that very soon, the dialogue is going to be fruitful. Everybody is concerned. Nobody denies that the quality is going down. All they are saying is that the resources available cannot go round to cater for every area that needs attention.

So, let there be a balance. Let us see how much they can devote to education because it is the bedrock of development. If we have quality education, development will follow automatically. If we don’t have quality education, we will continue to produce wishy-washy products and job seekers.