Background

Let me begin by saying that anyone whose age is around 40 years and above, will – without any fear of contradiction – agree with me that the Nigerian educational system has been experiencing serious and continuous devaluation for at least the past 2 decades. The one-time excellent and qualitative educational system has been experiencing a sharp and rapid decline at all levels, viz, primary, secondary, and tertiary. Many articles have been written in the past to buttress the poor state of our educational system, I choose to add to the list of these articles by highlighting some salient points that require urgent consideration by all stakeholders especially the Government (at all levels: Local, State & Federal), parents and educational administrators, using this memoir. This is borne out of my 23-year teaching experience at all levels (primary, secondary, remedial, diploma, undergraduate, and postgraduate) in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. Given the enormous challenges facing the educational sector, the need to urgently declare a “State of Emergency” in the educational sector cannot be overemphasized with a view to holistically overhaul the system such that our large population becomes our greatest asset rather than our greatest undoing.

Challenges of The Universal Basic Education (Primary + Junior Secondary Levels)

Undoubtedly, the Basic Education (UBE) is the most important level in the educational hierarchical pyramid, where a rock-solid foundation needs to be laid. This should be made mandatory and free for all. All subsequent educational levels are secondary. In the 70s, the National Policy on Education opted for the American 6-3-3-4 (6 years: primary education; 3 years: junior secondary school; 3 years: senior secondary school; 4 years: university education)  system, instead of the 7-5-2-3 (7 years: primary education; 5 years: secondary school; 2 years: higher school certificate; 3 years: university education) system. For more exposition on the colonial era and post-independence National Policy on Education read, “Educational Policy in Nigeria from the Colonial Era to the Post-Independence Period”. It is a known fact that the primary 7 graduates of those days were better than some of today’s university graduates. Nowadays, our tertiary institutions are churning out semi-literate graduates, some of whom cannot write a single comprehensible English paragraph. In fact, some polytechnic graduates cannot communicate in English at all.

Rigasa Primary School With 22,000 Students

In 2017, a school in Rigasa, a Kaduna metropolitan suburb area, was found to have a staggering 22,000 students. You read me right. 22,000 students in one school taking lessons, mostly in tents with just 70 teachers in 2017. A teacher to student ratio of 1:300. This total number of students in just one primary school has surpassed total enrolments in most of our 174 universities. Mal. Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna State Governor) cried out loud and the World Bank came to his aid, provided N30 million for addressing the school’s horrible condition in terms of providing good infrastructure, modern learning and teaching equipment (computers and projectors)  and staffing. Before this development, the Governor had embarked on an ambitious plan to change the sorry narrative of the mostly dilapidated and poorly equipped public primary and secondary schools in the state, earlier in 2016. There were 4,250 public primary schools when he took over as Executive Governor of the State in 2015, 50 % of whom were sitting on a bare floor due to lack of furniture. About 2/3, representing 67 % or 22,000 of the total 33,000 teachers were deemed ‘incompetent’ to teach after failing to score at least 75 % in a structured primary 4 examination. They were sacked to give way for the recruitment of 25,000 qualified teachers. To give you an idea of the rot in the educational system, one of my wives teaches in a Junior Secondary School in Zaria where her class enrolment is about 200 students.  The Zaria Educational Zonal Director said that the school was even ‘lucky’ when he visited the school and received complaints about the school’s overcrowding condition. Must all the schools have 300 students to one teacher like that of Rigasa before an emergency alarm is triggered? About 700 public primary schools have so far been renovated and the Governor’s effort in providing public schools with the required infrastructure and equipment has been commended by all irrespective of political party affiliation. Love him or hate him, he is truly a pacesetter and undoubtedly a visionary leader.

My Primary School Experience in Zaria – The 3 Musketeers

Well, my own story may be a little bit worse than the Rigasa school situation. The public primary school I attended in Zaria from 1985 – 1991 started with only 2 classrooms, increased to 3 just before I graduated from the school. Primary 1 was taken in nearby residential neighbors’ lobbies called ‘Zaure’ (an empty unoccupied room which serves as the gateway or passage into the traditional Hausa houses) and car garages without any furniture. Primary 2 was taken on the veranda of the existing school building, without any furniture. I sat for the first time in a conventional class with furniture in Primary 3. Primary 4 was conducted in the school premises under the tree without any furniture. Primary 5 & 6 were conducted inside the only 2 classrooms with furniture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were not so many in a classroom, I think we were around 20. Coupled with the alarmingly poor infrastructure, the quality of education was nothing to write home about. I can vividly remember that our promotion examination to primary 3 required us to read the vowels and the different consonant + vowel combinations in Hausa such as BA BI BU BO BE to ZA ZI ZU ZO ZE. That was it- the qualifying exam. One of my classmates, who could not read these consonant + vowel combinations was demoted to primary 2. I was among the lucky ones who passed. It is also worth noting that I finished primary school without being able to speak English and I was not alone in this. The same applies to all of us who went through the school from primary 1 to 6, what a humble beginning. I taught myself English language with the aid of a small popular pamphlet at the time called ‘Teach Yourself English’ and guess what? I learned how to speak English before I started JSS 1 (Junior Secondary School 1). It was a self-imposed ‘competition’ that led me to learn how to speak in just a few months. The details of this exciting and self-imposed ‘competition’ which has positively impacted my life is a story for another day. I would later polish my command of the language by reading more books such as ‘Kamus Na Turanci Da Hausa’ (English to Hausa dictionary which I almost memorized), Brighter Grammar, Common Mistakes In English, English Without Tears, etc. I still submit my articles to one of my wives with impeccable command of English to proofread.

 

 

 

 

 

Who could imagine that 3 students, brought up in the same house – who graduated from such a primary school described above  – would later earn their PhDs abroad in some of the world’s best universities in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and South Africa in such interesting disciplines as Environmental Engineering, Medical Physics & Education Management respectively. This is the interesting story of ‘the 3 musketeers’ or ‘the three inseparables’ of the Lukman’s family who were and are still best of friends. The first one and the youngest among them is my humble self, who would later become an assistant professor of civil engineering at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Hafr Al Batin campus) and later at the University of Hafr Al-Batin. He is also the first PhD in the Lukman’s family. The 2^nd one is Dr. Yahaya Musa, a Medical Physicist, and lecturer at the Physics Department of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and a researcher at the university’s Centre of Energy Research and Training. He obtained his PhD from Universiti Tecknologi Malaysia (UTM). The 3^rd one who is the oldest and the ‘Gang Leader’ is Dr. Yusuf Lukman who would go on to obtain his bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees all from South Africa and specialize in Education Management. Given his outstanding performance during his PhD, he was retained by the university where he obtained his PhD as a lecturer. We may all be late bloomers, but our extremely poor educational background did not stand in our way to achieving excellence later in our different spheres of endeavors. You are what you want to be in this life. There is no food for the lazy man. Dream and dream big!

My dream that one day I would be successful in this life was seen only by my late beloved mother (may Allah have mercy on her departed soul) – my greatest pillar and supporter, Haj. Halima ‘hali dubu babu na yarwa’ – since when I was a child and had no signs of excelling in anything. Well, I had a sharp memory and excelled in truancy and hyperactivity. As unpromising as I was, she would always tell me directly or indirectly that I would become ‘somebody’ someday. She would warn me to dress properly to school and avoid wearing ‘patched’ trousers, lest my friends should mock me when they remembered my shabby dressing when I became ‘somebody’ in the future. We would just laugh over it. I never took her words seriously. Fast forward to 3 decades later, I am still a nobody, but I am very happy for who I am and what I have achieved so far in life. She died when I was still an undergraduate in 400 Level and struggling with my studies. The only part of my dream that I envisioned was getting a PhD.  In 1997 after graduating from Secondary School, I came across late Dr. Shehu Lawal Giwa’s calendar on the wall of one of my cousin’s rooms. What caught my attention were his abbreviated degrees and memberships which came after his name – BSc, MSc, PhD, FNIQS, PPNIQS, FCIArb. He was an epitome of generosity & simplicity. I was fascinated by his earned degrees and honors and vowed to get the first 3 earned honors – BSc, MSc, PhD – the remaining ones would naturally come with experience and registration with the appropriate professional bodies, hence, I did not make them my target. Thereafter, I used to write my name on all books as ‘SALIHU LUKMAN (BEng, MSc, PhD)’ even before I got admission into the university to study engineering. 16 years later, in 2013, that dream became a reality, I got all my 3 degrees (BEng, MSc, PhD) and a host of other memberships and a fellowship (MNSE, FRHD, MNAHS, MMSN, MSOSEH). Late Dr. Rilwanu Lukman was my uncle and my mentor. He had 5 different honorary doctorates from universities in Nigeria and abroad, but even he did not inspire me the way Dr. Shehu Lawal Giwa did. Dr. Rilwanu Lukman was a renowned Mining Engineer, an ‘oil man’, that successive Nigerian Governments could never get enough of his exceptional expertise in the petroleum industry for almost 3 decades. He was a proud engineer. I once had reason to ask him if he was a ‘professor’ as was addressed by some of the media outlets at the time and he responded, ‘No. I am not an academician. I am an engineer’. Shortly before he died in 2014, I called him in Austria to clear a rumor making the rounds that he had joined the religion of Scientology – a new American religion that was spreading all over the world. I asked him, ‘Baba, are you a Scientologist?’. He replied, ‘No. I am a Muslim. Don’t you read about other religions like Christianity?’. I replied in the affirmative. (I have a certificate in Comparative Religious Studies which I obtained in 2001 after studying the following courses: Qur’an, Bible, Preaching Methodology, History (Islam/Others). I am a  ‘Muslim missionary’, a proselytizer who successfully converted 2 persons into Islam). He continued, ‘I study all religions and have books on all religions in my library, but I am a Muslim’. That conversation laid to rest all doubts about the matter.

Dr. Lukman was the first Mining Engineer in the North, the first African to be honored with the Fellowship of the Imperial College (his alma mater), London, and the first Nigerian to be the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) Secretary-General. One of his classmates in Middle School was my father-in-law, late Alh. (Pharm.) Ibrahim Saidu (may Allah have mercy on his departed soul) who died recently at the age of 85. A man of timbre and caliber, truly worthy of emulation. In the 3 years that I knew Alh. Ibrahim Saidu, he left an indelible mark on me. He once informed me that Dr. Rilwanu Lukman had a photographic memory and did not use to write anything while in class at the time because he committed everything to memory, similar to our brilliant Governor when he was in Primary School. At some points in my life, I was also blessed with a photographic memory. I would always derive inspiration from Dr. Lukman’s excellence. My late dad was another of those breeds-men of timbre and caliber. He inspired me to choose moral righteousness always. You can dream to become anything in life, but you have to walk your dream, match your dream with action, and leave the rest to the Almighty Allah.

When I was in Primary 4 or 5, having seen those attending Therbow School in our house (the best school in Zaria in those days) who were speaking English so well – something I could not at the time –  I approached my late Dad (May Allah have mercy on his departed soul), a retired Upper Shari’ah Court Judge, and requested him to transfer me to Therbow School telling him that I was not getting quality education in my current school and that Therbow School was the best. He replied that he would look into the matter. I forgot to remind him again. One of my elder brothers, an army officer, who attended Federal Government College (FGC), Azare wanted to transfer me to the Federal Government College (boarding) in Jos when I was in JSS 2 so that I could get better education but my beloved Dad refused to grant his wish. I again asked my dad to be transferred to the famous Barewa College (boarding) where two of my elder brothers were attending, my request was not granted. In SSS 1, another elder brother of mine who was a lawyer, and his children were attending the famous Essence International School (EIS) (the best school in Kaduna at the time), Kaduna, attempted to transfer me to EIS but my Dad refused. I realized that my Dad did not want me to be far away from him. It was at that point in my life that I resigned to my fate and vowed to make do with the ‘little’ educational resources available to me. This pushed me to seek out assistance from my older colleague, and religiously attend two extra-mural lessons organized by Mal. Ibrahim Physics during the weekdays (2 days per week) and the iconic Muslim Refresher Course Program (MRCP) on Saturdays (9 am – 1 pm) and Sundays (9 am – 1 pm). These 3 learning outlets made up for anything I could have missed for not attending FGC Jos, Barewa College Zaria or Essence International School Kaduna. I narrated in my article, ‘REFRESHER: The Priceless Value of Mentorship’ that,

‘This intensive personal learning voyage yielded positive results within a short while. While in SSS 2, I won a 1st position trophy in Essay and Spelling Competition organized for secondary schools in Zaria by Zaria Educational Development Association (ZEDA). After I was presented with the trophy at the ZEDA Annual General Meeting (AGM), His Royal Highness, the Emir of Zazzau, Alh. (Dr.) Shehu Idris secretly pledged to personally sponsor my tertiary education. He lived up to his words and even bought me a desktop computer system needed for my final year project at the undergraduate level. I still have this computer system and it is still functional – I hold it so dear to my heart and consider it a very important souvenir that I will live to tell my children the interesting story behind it. This, in addition, he gave me about four different bicycles in total sequentially whenever he learned that I lost my bicycle or it was stolen.’

As for my Mathematics background, I was empty-headed in that subject from the primary school up to the end of my 2^nd term in SSS 2, despite belonging to a science class that requires expertise in mathematics. I never made any concerted effort to learn the subject until during one of my vacations in SSS 2. My ambition to become a medical doctor at the time pushed me to learn Mathematics in just about a month so that I could satisfy the O Level requirements for gaining entry into the university to study medicine. I was encouraged by one of my greatest mentors, Dr. Lawal Haliru (Dr. Daddy) to learn Advanced (A) Level Mathematics after graduating from secondary school to prepare me well to study medicine. However, after tasting the sweetness of Advanced Level Mathematics, I arrived at the conclusion that a life devoid of the combo- Advanced Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry was not something I could imagine. Hence, I chose Engineering.

The doggedness displayed by ‘the 3 musketeers’ narrated above reminds me of the doggedness of Albert Einstein, one of the best scientific geniuses the world has ever known. Einstein faced many challenges on his way to greatness. When his mother asked his headmaster at the end of his primary school education about the career most suitable for her child, he responded to her that Einstein would not amount to anything and that she should not bother – he would later become the greatest genius of the 20th century. In high school, he graduated with excellent grades in Physics and Mathematics only. He could not get any recommendation letters from his professors because he was rude to them during his undergraduate days. He only managed to secure a job at a patent office where he reviewed patent applications. His office job was not time demanding, he would utilize his free office time to think about the nature of light and gravity. In 1905, Einstein published one of his groundbreaking articles where he modeled the Brownian motion of pollens in water observed by Robert Brown, a botanist, in 1827. He confirmed one of the postulates of Dalton’s atomic theory that all matter consists of tiny particles called atoms. He went further to calculate the size of an atom. His explanations about the haphazard movement of pollen grains in water serve as the confirmatory test about the existence of atoms. Jean Perrin verified Einstein’s model experimentally in 1908. Einstein and Perrin would later receive the Nobel prize in Physics for their subsequent works on the atom in 1921 and 1926, respectively. The year 1905 was the year that Einstein witnessed a  quantum leap in his life, he became an overnight sensation, moving from zero to hero. He never got dissuaded, he never threw in the towel. He would always pursue his scientific ideas and imaginations passionately and tenaciously.

Personal Appeal To Kaduna State Governor On Behalf Of Teachers

In 2018, Mal. Nasir El-Rufai undertook to pay teachers higher than average civil service salaries to attract the best and brightest brains to the teaching profession, in his bid to emulate Finland’s school model system which has the best school system in the world. Shortly thereafter, I was so thrilled when I read that his erstwhile Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Ja’afaru Sani, said at a news conference in Kaduna that all public school teachers would enjoy a salary increase of 27.5 %, an additional 5 % for those posted to rural areas, head teachers and other teachers would be entitled to a 3-bedroom accommodation and 2-bedroom flats respectively, motorcycles to ease transportation challenges to schools. The Commissioner later said that he was misquoted by journalists on the BBC Hausa. I contacted one of the Special Assistants to the Governor to seek clarification on the subject matter and he confirmed to me that the accommodation package for teachers was still in the pipeline. I pray and hope that it comes to pass, I also pray and hope that the ‘purported’ salary increment for school teachers reported by the media also comes to pass in line with the Governor’s pledge that he will ensure that school teachers are paid higher than average civil servants enough to attract the best brains to the teaching profession. I am not oblivious of the fact that teachers do currently receive ‘slightly’ higher salaries than other civil servants even before  El-Rufai became the Governor of Kaduna State, but such ‘purported’ salary increment and incentives (accommodation and motorcycle) will go a long way in seriously attracting the best brains to the profession.

Our public primary schools are so bad that even the low-income earners are forced to enroll their wards in private schools where they will be paying heavily as long as they want their wards to have a qualitative education. Primary school teachers are at the mercies of the various Local Government Authorities where salaries get paid sometimes untimely and needed infrastructure is seriously lacking in most of the Northern states, coupled with students’ overpopulation and lack of qualified teachers. These are some of the incessant challenges facing free UBE. Let me authoritatively report here that the Governor has been successful in eradicating the collection of the ‘infamous PTA levy’. Poor students used to be sent back home if they could not afford to pay this levy. School heads used to rely on the levy to provide the needed logistics such as chalks, whiteboard markers, brooms, pay teachers responsibility allowances, bribe Education Inspectors whenever they visit schools by giving them ‘fuel money’ and buying them breakfast or lunch, give commission to teachers who are in charge of collecting the levy from students, squander part of the money since there was neither transparency nor accountability in spending the fund, etc. The Government rose up to its responsibility by providing what is called ‘a second alert’ to the heads to fill this ‘vacuum’ which the school heads used to fill in their own way – as they say, nature abhors a vacuum. It is my unbiased opinion as someone who has been closely following the activities of the Governor since 2015 when he was sworn in as the Executive Governor of Kaduna State, that the Governor is doing well in overhauling and rescuing the failing educational system in the State and should be praised for that.

Given the ‘harsh economic reality’ that Governments at all levels are currently facing coupled with the recent minimum wage-induced salary increments for all civil servants in the country, teachers may not expect any other salary increment in the nearest future – in spite of the Governor’s post and his former Commissioner’s comments on increasing teachers’ salaries – the Governor can review the following urgent areas in need of his kind interventions with a view to stamping out corrupt practices that have hitherto bedeviled the system. This will go a long way in improving the teachers’ welfare and enhance job satisfaction in no small measure.

(1) Promotion and its arrears:

Despite the timely promotion of teachers, financial benefits associated with such promotions don’t see the light of the day without going to the State Ministry of Education and offering a bribe to those who are responsible for processing one’s file. If you don’t understand how to play along or don’t want to bribe anyone before your salary is upgraded as per your current level, then, you may be receiving level 10 salary even after having been officially promoted to level 12 (level 11 is normally skipped). We should all remember that we are all products of these teachers, hence, their entitlements should be sacred and anyone found using his position to inflict hardship on these poor souls should be decisively dealt with, without fear or favor. Specifically, promotion exercise that was concluded last year around December has not been financially implemented (both for those who went to bribe the Ministry officials and those who chose not to go and bribe anyone in the Ministry). There wouldn’t be any cause for alarm at all if they would be paid promotion arrears whenever the implementation began. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The promotion letters clearly spell out that there will be no arrears at all. I find this totally strange and appalling! I don’t know if the general principle behind arrears of promotion is only applicable to the Federal civil servants. I don’t know if arrears of promotion are not paid in others States, but I want to appeal to the Kaduna State Government to look into this matter with a view to improving the financial status of the school teachers even if it cannot provide any salary increment for the teachers any time soon. If teachers’ promotion arrears can be introduced and without them having to pay any bribe before implementation, then, that will put some smiles on their faces.

(2) School inspectors and supervisors:

They are meant to ensure educational quality delivery and control at the primary and secondary schools, but some of them are being bribed by the school heads to avoid reporting anything negative about their schools or teachers’ performances to the higher authorities. PTA levies used to be the source of funds for paying the inspectors’ or supervisors’ ‘fuel money’. With the complete eradication of PTA levy collection by the El-Rufai-led Administration, I wonder if the school heads have resorted to using the ‘second alert’ money that is meant for providing the needed teaching materials to bride these inspectors. Every school teacher knows about this corrupt practice. Governments can still do better in this regard to come up with a ‘secret’ whistleblowing strategy to reveal these corrupt school inspectors or supervisors and eliminate them from the system completely so that the Ministry of Education can be receiving true and unadulterated feedback. There are ‘bad eggs’ everywhere and it is one of the cardinal duties of any Government to root out corruption in its entirety as much as possible. If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will surely kill us.

• Contributory Health Management Scheme & Annual Salary Increment:

On 31 January 2020, the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe flagged off the enrolment of all Civil Servants into the State’s Contributory Health Management Scheme. Director-General of the Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Authority (KADCHMA), Aliyu Saidu, further explained that “enrollees become eligible to access healthcare under the scheme after the registration process.’’ I don’t know if enrollees in other sectors have started accessing the promised healthcare under this scheme yet, but teachers have not started accessing this excellent healthcare scheme even though salary deductions toward contributing to the scheme have already commenced even before they become officially registered in the scheme. If the State Government can expedite action to ensure that teachers and other civil servants in the State start accessing the healthcare services under this scheme in both Government and private hospitals, the better. That will reduce teachers’ financial healthcare expenses drastically and increase their net take-home pay. Currently, they are just paying for some ‘phantom’ services. According to the teachers, Annual Salary Increment has been eradicated with the introduction of this scheme and has been transformed into paying for the Contributory Health Management Scheme. If this is true, then it becomes a classical example of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. I don’t know how logical this is, but the summary of it all is that teachers may no longer get the ‘small’ annual increments on their salaries. If the teachers’ Annual Salary Increment could be restored, then, their net annual take-home will increase even without any official salary increment for them.

(3) Payslip:

Every civil servant has the right to know each component of his monthly salary. This is a right, not a privilege! The State’s Ministry of Education has been denying teachers access to their payslip claiming that it is following the Governor’s directive. I seriously doubt this claim because, if the Governor has access to his payslip which he made public in 2017, why would he deny access to teachers? Access to one’s payslip is a fundamental right of employees. It is my honest belief that there are ‘scavengers’ in the Ministry of Education who benefit from this corrupt act. Teachers are now used to arbitrary deductions in their net take-home pay without any explanations because they cannot obtain their payslip even if they visit the Ministry to request for it. 2 teachers employed at the same time and on the same level could have their salaries differing by as much as N10,000 without any explanation that the ministry could provide. For instance, the recently deducted 25 % COVID-19 palliative contribution has seen a teacher, my wife in this case, whose net salary is N68,000 have  N20,000, instead of N17000, deducted from her salary. Who can account for the N3,000 deficit and how can someone clearly lodge a complaint of over-deduction and follow-up for reimbursement without accessing the payslip? To add insult to injury, their complaints are not appropriately attended to at the secretariat of the Ministry of Education, you have to pay your way to get an effective resolution of your problem. Clearly, some staffers of the Ministry are feeding fat on teachers’ salaries with impunity. Illegal deductions will be curbed and accountability and transparency will be enhanced if the State Government can mandate the Education or Finance Ministry to make available teachers’ monthly payslips for their records. A similar sad story of payslip unavailability also exists in the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Shika, despite belonging to the Federal Ministry of Health. The same ABUTH does not pay arrears of newly joined staff at all. I wonder how the Accounts Department can justify these manifest infractions on employees’ rights. More surprising to me is the apparent failure of the associations that these employees belong to, to change the status quo, probably they are not perturbed by these infractions.

Most of the issues addressed may not be the plight of teachers only.  if the Kaduna State Government could resolve these issues in favor of all the public civil servants of the State, that would be most desirable. Otherwise, the State may consider ‘special treatment’ for the teachers.  This will not be the first time that such a ‘special treatment’ is considered for a section of the State’s public civil servants. In May this year, the Kaduna State chapter of the Joint Health Workers Union which comprises medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc. embarked on a 1-week warning strike over the 25 % COVID-19 salary deductions. In the end, the health workers were exempted from the 25 % deduction and they were reimbursed to keep their morale high in the fight against the deadly pandemic.

Eradication of the Almajiri System & Going Digital

In 2018, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) reported that there were 13.2 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, out of this number, 7 million are Almajirai (plural of Almajiri in the Hausa language) or Almajiris (if I want to pluralize the Hausa singular word Almajiri following English language plural suffix). In 2010, it was reported that there were about 5.2 million out-of-school nomadic children, in spite of the FGN’s intervention through the National Nomadic Education Commission (NNEC). In June 2019, the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) took a very bold, yet commendable step to proscribe the Almajiri System (AS) which has gained acceptance in Northern Nigeria due to the prevailing insecurity in the country. FGN took back its words later and encouraged the Northern States where the Almajiri System is being practiced to take the necessary action toward eradicating the practice in their various states. With COVID-19 pandemic ravaging all cities, some Northern States such as Kaduna, Kano and Jos have proscribed the Almajiri System and have returned all the Almajiris in their states to their respective states of origin where they will be reunited with their parents. This is a welcome development. Kaduna and Kano States went further to make education free for all, boys and girls up to the Senior Secondary School level and compulsory for all children up to the Basic Education level (JSS 3). These are all steps in the right direction. However, the Governments need to follow these promulgations with the provision of more public schools and quality teachers at all levels to match the anticipated increased enrolment into schools. Most of the current public schools are overloaded with students and lack basic education facilities such as furniture, laboratories, equipment, etc. We should always view our large population as our greatest asset rather than our greatest undoing. All hands must be on deck (Governments, parents, students) to turn our teeming population into a useful workforce by empowering and guiding our youth to become entrepreneurs and digitally compliant. We are in a digital age, where people earn billions of dollars by doing their businesses purely online.

We need to move toward a digital economy. All thanks to our outstanding Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami who has started the process of moving Nigeria away from a majorly oil-dependent and exporting country to an ICT-proficient and exporting country through implementing the digital policies that he created. This will go a long way to help our people get liberated from the current abject poverty ravaging most of the Northern States and some parts of the Southern region. Just a few days ago, the Minister was speaking on ‘Nigeria’s Digital Economy Policy’ on NTA’s Good Morning Nigeria Program. He narrated how a Nigerian in America developed an app in 2016 which the giant tech company Apple bought at a whopping price of $ 1 billion. Under the right atmosphere, we can have many of such Nigerians who can come up with many excellent apps that can fetch real money. I have already started teaching my 11-year-old child web design using HTML and CSS coding. A 10-year old Nigerian girl who is a programming prodigy was recently hired by a school in the UK as their new web design instructor who will be teaching the basics of HTML and CSS coding. We have countless undiscovered genius kids, we only need to discover and put them on the right track to explore their full potentials. We are truly a ‘blessed nation’ despite our numerous challenges in the form of insecurity, corruption and poverty. With ambition, doggedness, determination, patriotism, and professionalism, we can change the sad narrative and take Nigeria to greater heights.

Nigeria is the poorest nation on Earth, it overtook India in 2018 to become the poverty capital of the world because it has the highest percentage of poor people in the world. About 87 % of Nigerian poor citizens are concentrated in the Northern part of the country according to a 2020 World Bank report. Our youth ought to know by now that getting just a bachelor’s degree is no longer a ‘meal ticket’. No matter how qualified someone is, nowadays you have to pay bribe heavily as a precondition before you can get a Government job. Merit, excellence and competence have been completely substituted by mediocrity and ‘connections’. This has led to corruption becoming ‘bolder’ and more ‘audacious’ than at any time in Nigeria’s history.

Kaduna State Governor has positively changed the narrative of employment racketeering by advertising all available openings for any qualified candidate to apply, from low cadres up to Directors, Heads of Agencies, and even Commissioners. This ensures that only qualified candidates are hired for any post and gives hope to those excellent candidates who may have no connection with any ‘big shot’. He has a knack for working with the best brains and carrying youth along by appointing them to top management positions. One of his ‘pet projects’, Sir Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship – in which young Nigerians across all states are drawn to undergo a 1-year fellowship in public service – is a testimony of his passion for youth empowerment. How I wish other Governors would emulate him in all these aspects where he clearly stands out like a full moon in the dead of the night. Sometime in 2017, he told me face-to-face in his office at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House (Government House), that he would want to always appoint young people like me into the position of authorities so that they could learn the art of governance, make mistakes and be corrected. He went on further to tell me that he would not want a situation whereby someone of his age becomes his successor as the Governor of Kaduna State, he would want a far younger person who has been thoroughly and correctly mentored in all aspects of governance to succeed him. Love him or hate him, but you cannot deny the fact that Mal. Nasir El-Rufai always leads while others follow, a true pacesetter. He is highly innovative, enterprising, entrepreneurial, courageous, intelligent, dedicated, promising, and passionate for his cause. I truly admire him for these and many other good qualities that he has. He is one of my role models.

It is no longer news to find unemployed graduates with a master’s degree and PhD in Northern Nigeria, this was almost non-existent 2 decades ago. Just imagine, about 10 PhDs are teaching in Demonstration Secondary School (DSS), ABU Main Campus, Zaria. Do you think one needs a PhD or master’s degree to teach in a secondary school? Definitely no! But if a PhD cannot secure employment in an institution that is commensurate with his qualifications, then, he has to settle for whatever is available that will enable him to bring food on the table, thus becoming under-utilized and under-employed. Many holders of master’s degrees in my extended family are still jobless. One of my friends who completed his PhD abroad 2 years back is still unemployed. We need to start introducing our children to various skill acquisition programs at an early age and make them digitally-compliant so that they can withstand the current enormous challenges and competition at both local and international levels. We need to de-emphasize the acquisition of degrees or higher degrees and start emphasizing entrepreneurship, ICT innovation, job creation and digital knowledge. This way, our teeming youth will become job creators instead of certificate holders seeking white-collar jobs that are extremely scarce these days.

These 7 million Almajiris can be turned into an asset if we properly channel their talents and effectively educate them in both Western and Islamic education. Anything short of this will keep leading to chaos and insecurity in the land. The King of Hausa singers, Alan Waka, mentioned in his song titled ‘Gudun Hijira’ when he was talking about the Boko Haram insurgency,

‘Mu kiyaye bara ta yara don da sune ake fakewa; in ba su yi ilimi ba yara babu mai kwanciya a inuwa’

Translation: Let’s deter Almajiris from begging because evil perpetrators are using them; if they are not educated, then no one would lie in a shade (meaning, we will all suffer the consequences of not preventing them from begging).

Do you know that the founder of Boko Haram, Muhammad Yusuf, was an Almajiri? He had zero formal Western education. One of the ludicrous reasons why Western education was prohibited according to him had to do with the existence of 9 planets. Dr. Pantami (Minister of Communications and Digital Economy) took him on that in 2008 during their famous debate and explained to him what planets truly were as against what Muhammad Yusuf thought they were. For all those who truly know the teachers of these Almajiris, most of them have a strong aversion to Western education or in some instances modern facilities and equipment which according to them are produced by the West. They pass this aversion to their students. For instance, Late Sheikh Albani Zaria (of blessed memory) narrated a story to us during one of his lectures that one of his childhood Qur’anic teachers would tell him that on the day of resurrection, he would be in Hellfire for the period he spent attending Western education – that was from morning until the afternoon – and he would be in paradise for the remaining period that he attended the Qur’anic school. That did not deter him from vigorously pursuing Western and Islamic education until he became one of the most renowned Islamic scholars in his time and an ICT guru. He was running his master’s degree in electrical engineering at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, when he was killed by ‘Boko Haram’ in 2014. May the Almighty Allah admit him into paradise. If we truly don’t want to have the likes of Muhammad Yusuf ever again, then, we must eradicate the traditional Almajiri system of education and transform it to include both Western and standard Islamic education without children begging on the streets for alms. Otherwise, these Almajiris will keep sliding ‘from alms to arms’.

The proponents of the Almajiri system often mistake eradicating the supposed ‘spiritual begging’ inherent in the system for eradicating Qur’anic education. I make bold to say that nobody can stop Qur’anic education in Nigeria, even the colonialists-cum-missionaries did not even attempt. In a recent live media chat with the Governor and his commissioners, the Commissioner of Education mentioned that they are not going to stop Qur’anic education, they are only going to introduce measures that will eradicate begging and ensure that those attending the Qur’anic schools also attend a conventional school where Western education is taught.

Challenges of Senior Secondary Education

Next in importance after primary education is the senior secondary education where students are generally divided into Science or Art class. Art classes do not face as many challenges as the Science classes because they don’t need laboratories (labs). qualified Art teachers are also more readily available. The reverse is the case for the Science class. Rampant examination malpractice is one issue that is common to both Science and Art classes.

(1) Absence of Well-Equipped Science Laboratories

The most essential labs for Science students are the Chemistry and Physics labs. Biology lab is common to all classes. These labs are essential in teaching students’ the main concepts of science, especially Chemistry lab which helps to demonstrate difficult Chemistry concepts like chemical reactions, electrolysis, physical and chemical properties of gases and other chemicals, titration, etc. Unfortunately, the chemical reagents and consumables needed to properly equip the Chemistry lab are very expensive, hence, most schools cannot afford them. On the other hand, Physics equipment may also not be cheap, but unlike the Chemistry reagents which are usually in the form of consumables and not reusable, the Physics equipment is always reusable. Both Government and private schools are seriously lacking properly-equipped Science labs. State Government should work seriously to provide its Science schools and other schools offering Science classes good Science labs because, without these Science labs, the quality of Science education is seriously compromised. It is a known fact that there is no development without sound Science education. I can vividly remember during my Senior School education, Science labs of my school were adequately equipped. Now there is nothing in the labs, not even furniture. Left to me, I would opine that the ministry of education should not allow any secondary school – whether public or private – to run any Science subject if they don’t have well-equipped laboratories. At the University level, the National Universities Commission (NUC) would not give accreditation to any program, Science- or Applied Science-based programs if it does not have the appropriate supporting laboratories for its students. This makes Science education very expensive to initiate and maintain. That is why most new universities kickstart with less initial capital-intensive faculties such as the Humanities or Social Sciences, Education, and Science. Engineering, Pharmacy and Medicine usually come last on the list because they need huge initial capital investment and expensive labs for the proper running of those faculties. We should ensure that our children have an unshaky foundation come what may.

(2) Scarcity of Qualified Science Teachers

I will narrow the definition of Science teachers to include Physics and Chemistry teachers only, because, they are the most scarce of all the Science teachers. Finding an excellent Science teacher is usually a big challenge. During our time in the senior class from the mid-90s, Mal. Ibrahim Physics was the most famous Physics teacher in Zaria and its environs since the 80s. He taught Physics either as a full-time Physics teacher or part-time at Government Day (Government Secondary School, Tukur-Tukur), FGGC (Federal Government Girls College) Zaria, Yellow Fever (Government Girls Secondary School, Kofan Gayan) Zaria, Government Girls Science School, Soba, and numerous others. I was lucky to be taught Physics by him, from what is Physics (SSS 1) to the end of Physics, i.e., end of the SSS 3 Physics syllabus all covered in a famous extra-mural lesson that he used to organize for students across Zaria which was held only 2 days per week and about 1 hour per subject (Physics & Chemistry). He also taught Chemistry. He delivered his lesson notes by heart and had an extraordinary and sound understanding of Physics and how to teach it. Even this year, I taught my undergraduate Fluid Mechanics class using some of the conceptual examples he described to us in 1995 while he was explaining some basic concepts in SSS 1 Physics. Among his former students are medical doctors, engineers, scientists, pharmacists, etc., many of them are now PhDs lecturing in ABU and other tertiary institutions in Zaria and beyond. This rare gem of a Physics teacher was prematurely retired in 2017 by the Kaduna State Government. If the Ministry of Education had the slightest inkling on the contributions of Mal. Ibrahim Physics in Science education which had spanned for more than 3 decades, it would have hired him on contract even after retirement to help it in uplifting Science education in the State. What a great loss to the educational system! Unfortunately, his enormous contributions to Physics education is known only to his former students. Mal. Zubairu Rilwan – aka Baban Jummai, Deputy Coordinator of the famous Muslim Refresher Course Programme (MRCP), Tudun-Wada, Zaria – is another undisputable giant in Science education in general and Physics education in particular who has left his fingerprints on us and countless other people in Zaria from various walks of life. For about 3 decades, anyone who wanted to talk about Science education in Zaria must begin with these 2 exceptional and highly dedicated teachers who had impacted generations of students. If I could have an audience with the current Commissioner of Education (Dr. Shehu Muhammad Makarfi) or Kaduna State Governor I would highly recommend that he hires these 2 exceptional Science education prodigies as his Special or Technical Assistants to utilize their immense wealth of impeccable and long-standing experiences in  Science education for the betterment of the State’s educational system rather than retiring one of them prematurely.

(3) Fallen Standard of Education

It is a known and indisputable fact that our standard of education especially primary and secondary school levels, has been gradually waning for at least the past 3 decades. As a result, hardly can you find products of public secondary schools that have fulfilled all the university admission requirements such as possession of credits in all the required subjects, especially Science students (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English, Biology, etc.). In a big hamlet like Anguwan Alkali in Zaria City where I come from, we could count the number undergraduates in the area in the 90s because they were very few. If you take out graduates from Demonstration Secondary School, ABU, Therbow School and FGGC, Zaria, I can count only 2 persons – my friend Engr. Muhammed Yunusa (from Kufena Science College) and my humble self (all graduates of MRCP) – who obtained credits and distinctions in all the Science subjects needed for university admission in 1997. Engr. Yunusa proceeded to Nigeria Defence Academy and later obtained a degree in Chemical Engineering.

I remember in 1998 when the erstwhile State Minister of Petroleum Resources, Alh. Umaru Dembo, a Zarian, tasked one of his relatives to get 7 people from Zaria who had passed the basic Science combination subjects in WAEC (West African Examinations Council) – NECO (National Examinations Council) did not exist at the time – to be sent to study Petroleum Engineering in America. My former primary school mate contacted me to be included on the list and to help him get more qualified people, he had already got one other person from Zaria City who was in 100 Level studying Chemical Engineering. After my search, I could only find 3 other friends of mine who were all undergraduates in 100 Level studying Medicine (from Tudun-Jukun), Veterinary Medicine (from Wusasa) and Electrical Engineering (from Sabon-Gari). We could not fill in the remaining 2 slots, because, we could not find qualified candidates. I was the only one among them who was not yet an undergraduate. As Allah will have it, former president Sani Abacha suddenly died, Abdulsalami Abubakar took over, and the matter died a natural death with the passing on of Abacha.

Those were the days when the WAEC certificate was extremely credible and reliable at gaging students’ performances. It was so common to find people who had failed to complete their correct subject combination for university admission and had been re-writing WAEC exams  4-5 times without success. The most common subject combinations were Hausa and Islamic Studies fondly referred to as ‘GIDA DA MASALLACI’. When I joined ABU in February 1998-1999 session, to study Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, a sub-specialization in Civil Engineering, we were only about 5 undergraduates in 100 Level. There were 5 lecturers from Zaria in the whole Faculty of Engineering which consisted of about 9 different departments at the time and I learned that there was only 1 Zarian who made it to study Medicine. Now, we have at least a Zarian student per set and lecturer in almost all the departments in ABU. With the tremendous impact of MRCP – a free week-end extra-mural lesson for primary and secondary school students held at Nurul Huda Primary School, Tudun-Wada Zaria – on Science education in Zaria, these figures appreciated in 1999-2000 admission. With the introduction of NECO in the year 2000 when it conducted its first SSCE (Senior School Certificate Examination) and ‘dashed’ its first ‘largesse’, ABU and all other tertiary institutions in Zaria witnessed an exponential rise in the number of admissions secured by Zarians. Federal College of Education (FCE), Zaria, had to introduce a Part-Time stream to accommodate the large number of candidates who were ‘qualified’ for admission into its various programs. With this first ‘NECO largesse’, you could find a candidate who cannot construct a single error-free sentence scoring A1 in the English language. Two years later, schools around Zaria started complaining that the FCE Teaching Practice interns could not teach their students very well. It was not uncommon to find English language interns who could not communicate in the English language. That marked ‘the beginning of the end’ of the already deteriorating quality of education in Zaria. This sad story may not be different from what obtained in other parts of Kaduna State or the country at large. For some reason, WAEC also soft-pedaled after the introduction of a competitor, NECO, so as not to lose all its customers to NECO. This saw WAEC awarding goods grades to some ‘undeserved candidates’ the following year similar to what NECO did in the previous year. Again, the rest, as they, is history.

(4) SSCE Examination Malpractice From The 90s To The Present Day

I have stated that getting credits in all the relevant subject combinations in the 90s was a herculean task that very few exceptional students could achieve, especially for those in public schools. Candidates from FGGC, DSS and Therbow School were the lucky ones to get the required credits for admission into the university.  SSCE examination malpractice began to set foot in some of the public and private schools. Impersonation was among the common exam malpractice of the time. Other forms included ‘exam leakage’ (became notoriously rampant in the 2000s), issuance of fake WAEC certificate, answer booklet substitution by invigilators, school-sanctioned mass cheating by writing answers on boards for students to copy, using cheat notes during the exam, exchange of answer booklets by candidates within the same exam hall, etc. Some of those early participants in some of these exam malpractices tried to defend themselves saying that they were just ‘helping’ those in need by pushing them up the ladder. This may hold true for some of the candidates who were brilliant and hardworking but just could not pass 1 or 2 subject(s) to complete their subject combinations needed for university admission. Exam malpractice in whatever form should be discouraged and frowned at, no matter the supposed benefits that its proponents may advance as justifications. With more and more people becoming desperate to gain admission into universities, exam malpractice skyrocketed in the late 90s and the early 2000s. Those involved in this heinous act were students, teachers, principals, examiners, parents, proprietors of most private schools, etc. Currently, we still have ‘miracle centers’- private schools where candidates pay exorbitant fees to ensure that the WAEC/NECO supervisors are bribed enough so that students can be allowed to do whatever they can to pass the exam. This is the most dangerous of them all. Surprisingly, we all know these so-called ‘miracle centers’, yet, the Ministry of Education is either not aware of all the different exam malpractices taking place in both public and private schools – which I doubt – or has chosen to turn a blind eye to all these untoward practices. Eradicating exam malpractice is a herculean task, no doubt.  But it is not impossible. All it takes is the Government’s appreciation of the gravity of the problem and its resolve to stamp it out at all costs. I have no iota of doubt that if Mal. Nasir El-Rufai chooses to bring an end to examination malpractice in the State, he would achieve it. All it takes is for him to become passionate about it and the rest will be history. When he vowed to destroy the ‘gajimari’ (cloud) that used to prevent Zarians from getting pipe-borne water, he succeeded, and most parts of Zaria are now getting running pipe-borne water. When he was determined to prevent inter-state vehicular movement during the lockdown period, he achieved just that by forming a task force consisting of all his cabinet members (commissioners and aides) and heads of agencies/parastatals. I hope he will declare a ‘state of emergency’ on this examination malpractice issue and use all the forces at his disposal to dismantle and eradicate this menace that has been eating away the very fabric of our quality educational system.

I know that corruption has become our unofficial working constitution. It has ravaged every nook and cranny of our life. Our precarious situation in Nigeria- extreme poverty among the masses, poor development in terms of infrastructure, power, road, and other utilities, is all thanks to corruption. A select few individuals are benefitting and thriving on corruption while the vast majority of the masses are paying the price. We should all rise and gang up against corruption in whatever form, shape, or size. This we can do with the unflinching support of our leaders and the collective effort of individuals whether rich or poor. Our leaders cannot change our sorry state by using any magic wand, the needed change should begin with all of us. We should all instill discipline in our families and try as much as possible to do things the right way. Our leaders have to first understand the different forms of corruption that take place in all sectors and then set out to establish transparent and reliable systems that are aimed at eradicating them as much as possible. You cannot fight what you don’t know. More often than not, our various systems have a mechanism that frustrates anyone who wants to follow due process or attempts to do things the right way. As Dr. Farooq Kperogi would say,

‘There’s no greater enabler of corruption than the knowledge that there’s no consequence for it.’

Dr. Salihu Lukman is an assistant professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Hafr Al Batin and writes from Saudi Arabia. salihulukman@yahoo.com