Adamu: One good chance deserves another

Education is one of the pillars of any country’s progress and it is in accordance to this reason Nigerian government since independence keeps promising to make education sector very conducive and compulsory to the citizens of Nigeria.

The first indigenous government of Nigeria, knowing the values of western education continued with the doctrine and policies of the colonial masters in providing free and compulsory education to Nigerians. However, the policy of Ibrahim Babangida set education in Nigeria backward with the Northern worse hit. All through from 1985 to 2015 education was given little considerations with many hiccups of strikes and inconsistent curricula of learning, the worst of it, is entrusting education under the custody of incapable and quack teachers that made the system ill and unprogressive which gave birth to half-baked personnel.

The governments before President Muhammadu Buhari made the Nigeria education sector a home of illiteracy where those who should be learners are made the teachers. Kaduna state is a case of reference as in 2018, 22,000 teachers that failed the primary six examination tests were flushed out from the system.

The achievements of the government of President Buhari in education is realised through the vision and determination of the minister of education in the first level of the All Progressives Congress government and the first level cleared the way for building a very strong education system in the country.

Malam Adamu Adamu, the minister of education, from 2015 to 2019 has rekindled the hope of Nigerians in putting back the rumble blocks of education for Nigeria to stand on its feet of progress. In fact, the system was on the verge of collapse when Buhari made the best choice of Adamu to halt the drift.

Adamu not only made primary education free and compulsory in the 36 states of the federation but also re-introduced free feeding to the pupils as it used to be during the first era of Nigerian governance. The re-introduction of the programme in 2016 was supported by UNICEF as it maintained that the feeding programme will promote enrolment of pupils and improve qualitative education. The Federal Government’s National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) feeds over 9.8 million pupils daily in 32 states of the federation. 53,000 public primary schools are fed with one free, nutritious meal a day, while the programme engaged over 106,000 cooks in the 32 states to reduce the tempo of unemployment in the country, one good thing about the feeding programme is that the government also provides bowls and spoons for pupils.  In Jigawa alone the federal government provided aluminum bowls and spoons for 13,482 primary school pupils in Birni local government area.

Not only UNICEF applauded the vision of the minister of education, but the Center for Social Justice and Equity and Transparency (CESJET) scored the Buhari government high on education. The N-Power programme has assisted many states to incorporate their educational manpower to structure a viable educational system in the country to meet the vision of UNESCO that said in 2015 Nigeria needed 200,000 teachers to meet teaching standard in the country. Thus, federal government recruited 500,000 N-Power personnel to boost the education and other sectors in 2016 while in 2018 the second batch of the N-Power employed 300,000 Nigerian graduates into the scheme.

Another good development that yielded robust result in the ministerial services of Adamu is reducing the occurrences of academic strikes in the country. Primary school teachers’ union in Nigeria though staged some solidarity strikes, accusing President Buhari’s government and state governors for not allowing quack teachers to continue ruining the educational glory of the country. ASUU and ASUP are only posing threats to the present government on the failure of the past governments that didn’t fulfill their promises but played cards with them. On August 17, 2017, ASUU declared an indefinite strike to remind the Buhari government of the failure of the past presidents that dragged their legs while the positive side of Adamu was taking the bull by the horn to cater for the needs of the academic staff and wipe away their long cascading tears.

 The minister in his methodology of developing education harnessed all the synergies to imbibe the spirit of smooth running of education in the country and to correct the malady of other Nigerian institutions that are bedeviled with inconsistency and many strikes. The minister charted a transformational way to breed transparency and make capable and experienced administrators to steer the leadership of some institutions that were bedevilled with so much fracas. Kaduna Polytechnic that has been a feuding institution with frequent strikes is turned to peaceful and progressive polytechnic with Professor Idris Muhammad Bugaje as the rector. The case of Kaduna Polytechnic was synonymous with Lafiya State Polytechnic and the Lafiya Federal Polytechnic. The resolution of allowing competency to reign in higher schools’ leadership exhibited the quality leadership status of Adamu, and without doubt he believes that setting good records in life is better than gold and silver.

Malam Adamu is a panacea for Nigerian education and with him as the educational driver of Nigeria education will continue to reclaim its glory no matter the journey. Slow but steady, the new system will replace the deteriorated system because the president promised to revive the education sector and to continue improving the welfare of teachers in the country when a delegation of Arewa House Centre visited him at the Villa. The president stated that he will continue to improve the standard of education in the course of making Nigeria a viable and strong nation that can compete with the developed countries. Giving Adamu a second chance to deliver as the minister of education testifies that the president means his words.

Ibrahim is president, Peace Ambassadors of Nigeria; he writes via [email protected]

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