By Emmanuel Onwubiko
Few days back, I had a brief stopover at the premises of
the Imo state university in Owerri, and the sights and sounds that yours
faithfully perceived and heard were frightening and disappointing at the same
time.
The first shocking phenomenon I noticed was the rapidly
declining standards of physical infrastructures and the near- total collapse of
basic facilities that ought to be functional in any 21st century
compliant and standardized tertiary institution.
From the bad roads that littered within and without the
Imo state university to the decrepit lecture halls, what the school looks like
is a university gravely in need of comprehensive facelift and infrastructural
upgrade.
Possibly, the only positive I took away from the
appalling state of affairs at this higher institution in Imo state capital, is
the presence of a large pool of enthusiastic and optimistic students in their
very prime who from all available empirical evidence are willing to imbibe the
best of education that would propel them to become competitive in the
increasingly knowledge-driven global community of humanity.
I saw a great deal of students at the Imo state
university who are prepared to be educated and highly enlightened citizens of
the world in the jet age of this twenty first century.
I also saw a building structure that looks so frail,
fragile and in the very last stage of the decomposition but sadly, I saw many
students trooping in and out of this nearly collapsed structure which the
students told me is identified as old ETF building.
ETF, I understand stands for education Trust Fund which
is an acronym for a behemoth of an agency under the purview of the Federal
Ministry of Education in Abuja.
This agency controls tons of billions of Naira yearly as
budget.
But as can be deciphered, this education trust fund must
rise from the debris of crass irresponsibility, corruption, inefficiency, and
incompetence and must as a matter of national emergency rush to the Imo state
university to take down this structure that is like a time bomb which may
explode any moments from now and the consequences may be very severe in terms
of casualties since students still make use of this bad structure.
The disappointing state of facilities at the Imo state
university logically brings us to the question of what the agenda is for the
two ministers who recently took positions at the Federal Ministry of education.
The minister is returning for the second tenure even as
his counterpart, who is the minister of state, once headed one of the juicy
interventionist agencies under that education ministry as the chairman of the
governing board.
Adamu Adamu who is a newspaper columnist turned minister
of education made a revelation that it took him 18 months in the last four
years for him to understand his job.
We then ask why President Muhammadu Buhari gambled with
the strategic education ministry by fixing a round peg in a square hole who
took all of 18-months to even begin to understand the fundamentals of his job.
It would however seem that in the school of thought of
president Buhari, his kinsman Alhaji Adamu Adamu, a journalist, may have now
mastered his new terrain well enough to repeat another term of office.
This time around, the minister has a very young man from
Imo state Emeka Nwajiuba as the minister of state.
It is therefore the expectation that with the infusion
of a vibrant youngster who is at home with the ministry of education in the
person of Emeka Nwajiuba, the all-important education ministry will resurrect
from its comatose nature to truly play the key role of comprehensively
empowering our young people to take their pride of place in the world. The departments
and agencies under this ministry have veered off their statutory mandates and
there are cases of corruption all over which must be fixed. The returning
minister was beaming with laughter like a hunter that has returned with a giant
booty from the forest.
Adamu had told Nigerians on the day he was returned as
education minister that in his first term both him and his then minister of
state professor Anthony Anwukah had worked hard to put together the ministerial
strategic plan (MSP 2016-2019) to the point of implementation before their
tenure ended on May 2019.
The minister said: “We had labored over the time on the
strategic plan for the education and only to the point of implementation then
we had to leave. I had the opportunity to remind President Muhammadu Buhari
that the nation was expecting so much from him.
“When we were sent here the first tenure, it took me one
and half year to understand the ministry; it also took me as a surprise when I
was re-assigned to the ministry of education. I had thought I would be sent to
another ministry where I would have to learn all over again. Now, I know that I
am coming back to a family.
“You all are my teachers and hopefully we will work well
together again.
“The reality is the confidence I reposed in the Permanent
Secretary. When I came here I had to get the idea of what education is and I
could only see what is happening here after a year and half.”
Adamu noted that Nwajiuba had abandoned his Doctorate
programme to serve in the cabinet of President Buhari as minister, adding that
his appointment as minister of state would be helpful.
Nwajuiba was Chairman, Board of the Tertiary Education
Trust fund (TETFund) until his appointment as the minister of state for education.
Nwajuiba said he was at home in the ministry.
”I am comfortable that I do not have to go to another
ministry but here with my senior brother at the ministry of education I can be
tutored and well directed,” he said.
If truth be told, I think this ministerial strategic
plan for 2016-2019 in the education ministry only functioned on paper and not
much was achieved on ground because most federal government’s funded
educational institutions did not witness any transformation in terms of
improved facilities but rather most of them are till today, ghosts of their
hitherto selves. The University of Nigeria Nsukka and the Abuja University
depict how bad the states of facilities are for students. At a Federal
university in Bauchi, over a dozen students died following the collapse of a
bridge in their school.
At the foremost university of Nigeria, the female
hostels within the campus do not have functional toilet facilities just as
other equally key amenities like water and electricity supply are very poor. The
same can be seen from the University of Abuja which is just a stone throw from
the seat of power.
Also, appointments into offices of vice chancellors of
federal universities have become like appointments of village heads going by
the evil practice whereby all the VC’s of federal institutions are sons and
daughters of the soil thereby turning federal institutions into village halls.
The new and not so new ministers should do all within
their power to change this evil trend and keep to the spirit behind establishments
of Federal universities which should not be governed necessarily by persons
from the so-called catchment areas in clear breach of competencies and merit.
The University of Lagos has been in the news for
political battles between the governing board and the VC. Universities whether
federal, state or private should be made to observe an administrative benchmark
that would promote good governance, transparency and accountability. On no
accounts should students of higher institutions or even primary and
post-primary be subjected to dehumanizing conditions of defecating in the open
and learning under grave conditions. Let's turn our attention to what obtains
in educational faculties in Europe to see what can be imbibed.
European Youth Insights is a platform provided by the
European Youth Forum and the European Sting, to allow young people to air their
views on issues that matter to them.
In a piece written by Tariq Jahan, he clearly told us
the pragmatic values of education which must guide how the strategic education
system must be governed in this fast moving information technology-driven
knowledge generation.
He wrote that while being youths, we are at the center
of absolute strength. We think big, hope for the best and envision a better
tomorrow, thereof making unceasing efforts to turn our lifelong dreams into
concrete actions. Youthfulness is in practice a phase of thorough and whole
change—a perfect transition in terms of physique and mentality, society and
environment, regionality and universality.
The phase of youth, the writer argued transports one
from one world to another world—a world so different like scuba-diving and
space exploration. Youths are such a layer of the society which has been the
center of the focus of the remainder. The period of youth happens to be one of
essence and core, ripened common sense and rationale accompanied by
practicality and pragmatistic tendencies.
In
my opinion, “People without education are like weapons without bullets.” Right
after our birth, we have, in one way or the other, been imparted education. It
would be no exaggeration to think of education vis a vis people like petals of
the same flower or like two sides of the same coin, one entirely relying upon
the other. Education is exceedingly instrumental for the realization of one’s
innate self, strength, natural fitness, and factual being.
Education
is so necessary and essential that its insufficiency or absence may lead one to
choose improper path of life.
The writer wrote too that to begin with, education is a
factor of change in one’s life: Education for the youth is the medium with the
help of which they can quench their thirst for realizing their potentialities.
The youth should be equipped with the best possible education and facilitated
with favorable conditions to, through the attainment of their skills, be an
asset to the community and that way contribute actively to the development of
the community, as they are essential elements of the society. In this
globalized and knowledge-based world, every young person should be given the
opportunity to contribute to the society while fulfilling their potentials.
The writer posited further that since education, as
conceived of, seeks to change the way one lives and thinks, the youth first
must be provided great educational opportunities and suitable conditions, the
hurdles laying on their way to educational ends ought to be removed, only then
will the youth be a boon to the community. The self-development of the youth is
directly tied with that of the society. To help others change their paths of
lives, one must first start from himself. To reach apex, it should be started
from the bottom. Beginning with self-awareness, the youth should go up,
flourishing and prospering. When children are sent to schools, they are on the
point of fact opened the wide windows of the dark rooms of this world.
There they can learn about their society,
environment, social ethics and values and so on, the writer stated.
"So, it is incumbent upon every society to create
constructive conditions for the youth so as to receive education. It is with
the help of education that the youth can choose and seek their interests. They
choose their ways and directions of lives. With this, they set goals for
themselves and strive to achieve them. Education propels the youth in the
right, proper and straight direction".
The aforementioned should serve as a guide for the two
ministers in the education ministry because the best way to fix this broken
society is to fix education and deliver quality education to the youths who are
the leaders of today.
*Emmanuel
Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs @www.emmanuelonwubiko.com; www.huriwa@blogspot.com; www.thenigerianinsidernews.com
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