“Lend me your ears, that I may
bury my words in them, but more importantly your heart, that I may inscribe my
thoughts on its walls, that we may safely transform our nation and put the
departed to rest. For their sake, do not turn on the deaf ears as I play from
this drum of observation and intellect. For the sake of the fallen, do not
pretend to be blind as I extend these vices to your frontlet, for their sake
mind my words and tend to my advice, then together we shall take a handful of
the sands of fulfillment and pour on their caskets as we bid them adios and
watch them in sane peace."
“Though my heart is heavy but I have not come in its
heaviness because emotions are known to ultimately becloud judgment and that is
what I have come to do today; to judge our national malady, to appraise the
educational insanity and to give resounding rounds of applause to the
mediocrity of the Nigeria students (Of whom I am one). I have come to try to
take you down the lane called memory, as we flip through the pages of history,
trying to revisit the relics of time and learn the lessons that history
teaches.”
The quotes above is from an article I wrote for the backpage
column of The Guardian newspaper, as published on July 23, 2013.
At the time, six students actively involved in the politics
of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) were involved in an
autocrash, which — as you may expect — led to the death of all six. I argued
that “saying ‘rest in peace’ like every other person would not necessarily make
them rest in peace, but acting against the vices that put them six feet beneath
our feet would be the best feat to make them find the peace”.
I thought — and still think — that NANS was one student body
with massively misplaced priority. My argument was that the Nigerian state was
not investing enough in anything that would last long enough to transform the
country positively. Education and infrastructural investments were abysmal at
the time, and the students were not concerned. What was priority to the
students at the time was the politics of 2015, which was in the offing. We
“complained about the man trying to cut our toes, while applauding the one with
a loaded rifle facing our fore-head”.
I believe one of the top three problems with education in
Nigeria is funding.
As always, I was reluctant to write; I thought my writing
would not change the way NANS was being run, neither will it change the power
dynamics around budgeting and funding education in Nigeria. I said it was
“drums to the deaf”. I was right about that. But who would believe that a
government would come in Nigeria and allocate less than 10 percent to education
after the Goodluck Jonathan administration?
“From 2006 to 2010, less than N300 billion was recurrently
allocated to education, with much more going to unsafe security, yet we have
our hands akimbo,” I wrote.
“In 2011, N1.592 trillion (about 35 percent) was allocated to
security, while education was ailing at less than 10 percent as though we live
in a war ridden nation. 2012 was no different with 8.4 percent N394.58 billion
of 4.697 trillion). The final deception came in 2013, when education was said
to have got the highest allocation, with just N426.5 billion which amounted to
11.489 per cent of the national budget, all of these in a nation that is
expected to give at least 26 per cent to the sacred sector (According to
UNESCO).”
Fast forward to 2017, the government led by Muhammadu Buhari
actually changed the dynamics around budgeting, raising capital expenditure to
30 percent. Buhari began investing, actively in essential infrastructure, such
as roads, rail lines, power, and some social security. For the first time in
the history of our nation, over N1.5 trillion is being expended on capital
projects across the country.
Like I wrote last week, the 2018 budget got it right on many
fronts, but education is one front where the budget is getting it
wrong. The same government that put on us on track with respect to
tangible infrastructure has also set us back by over a decade — with respect to
education. The last time allocation for education went as low as 7.04 percent
was in 2004 — 13 years ago! In naira terms, the allocation may have increased,
but in relative terms, with inflation put in right perspectives, the
allocations have dropped drastically since it crossed the 10 percent mark in
2006.
Current allocations put Nigeria around the bottom rung for
education funding across the world. As of 2013, the global average according to
the World Bank was 14.13 percent — we have been below the average for at least
17 years, with no deliberate plans for breaking out.
A UN economic model designed for sustainable development as
far back as 1945, prescribes that developing countries must put 26 percent of
its budgetary allocation or five percent of GDP into education to get the much
needed national and economic development. At a time when the world is shifting
and education is getting all the more dynamic, nations are spending even more,
but Nigeria is spending less.
From eight percent in 2016, we moved to 7.4 percent in 2017
and now 7.04 percent for 2018 — the trend is disturbing. Go ahead, build more
roads and houses, erect better bridges, fix power too, but remember, that the
child you failed to train today will sell the houses you built, pull down your
better bridges, and bring power generation to nothing via vandalism.
If this trend continues, I would no longer ask why Nigeria
has the highest number of out of school children in the world; I would seize to
question the rationale behind having teeming youths as members of Boko Haram; I
would kill my curiosity concerning the uprising in the Niger Delta or southeast
Nigeria — for now, I know why.
Like my 2013 article, this also, may be drums to the deaf,
but I’ll beat the drums anyway; Nigeria, you can do better.
Reach Tijani across major social media platforms @OluwamayowaTJ
Source: The Cable
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