The expansive Pearl Hall of Atrium Event Centre on Ken Saro-Wiwa (formerly Stadium) Road in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, was filled to the brim with eminent personalities, while parking of various cars became a Herculean task, with the security personnel deployed in the place having a very busy day in controlling the crowd and vehicles.
The event was the inauguration of the Rivers state chapter of the Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED), thereby declaring war against out-of-school children in the Niger Delta, through low-fee-paying private schools, which will be affordable to parents and guardians.
In Nigeria currently, there are over 10 million out-of-school children, in a population of about 170 million people, while the alarming time-bomb must quickly be addressed, to avert the danger ahead.
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike recently ordered that all private schools in Rivers state that are not on minimum of four plots of land, which he described as illegal, would all be shut in September, in a state where one plot of land costs between N20 million and N40 million in Port Harcourt, depending on the location.
The owners of the yet-to-be-approved private schools in Rivers felt that the leaders of the state’s chapter of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) were no longer protecting their interests, thereby opting for AFED, which was established in 1999, but registered in year 2000 as a professional and humanitarian organisation, to cater for the interest of owners and operators of low-fee paying private schools in Nigeria.
The colourful inauguration was attended by the paramount ruler of Rumuevuorlu community in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers state, Eze Chris Akani; Prof. Godwin Omokhua of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT); the National President AFED, Mrs. Esther Ifejola; the association’s National Secretary, Mr. Orji Kanu; the Rivers Controller of AFED, Pastor Joe Udechi; his counterpart of Anambra State, Pastor Donald Okorie; and the Proprietor of Phebeans Group of Schools, Port Harcourt, Mr. Femi Ajiboye; among other important persons.
The guest speaker from Lagos, Dr. Ibukun Daramola, spoke on: “The Low Cost Approach to Solving Access to Education: A Divine Assignment.”
The monarch (Eze Akani), in his remarks, stated that he boycotted other equally-important engagements to be at the AFED’s inauguration, because the association was talking of very important aspects of life, that would take Nigeria to greater heights.
The traditional ruler said: “Nigeria is at a crossroads. The only way out is education, because we currently have well-educated people, who are dwarfs morally. That is the problem with Nigeria today. The market women cannot steal N100 million, but the well-educated people are now stealing billions of naira, dollars, pounds and euros.
“The money that ought to be used for education is being kept in dustbins, septic tanks, water tanks and in cemeteries. The organisation that will stand up to the challenge is AFED. The organisation is blazing the trail for standing up to the challenges in education in Nigeria.
“God did not tell us to be corrupt, while millions of people are wallowing in abject poverty. Nigeria has produced many educated people who are morally bankrupt. Our cultural values have also been eroded. Education should be for empowerment, development and positive changes. Graduate unemployment is widening.”
The monarch also admonished the proprietors of private schools to be committed to AFED and that there must be no going back.
The national secretary of AFED, while also speaking, disclosed that when the like-minds started the association’s struggle, they could be likened to orphans, before Prof. Pat Utomi became the National Patron, while the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, and many other eminent personalities are now supporting AFED.
He noted that being together would always be a way forward, while admonishing the members of the association to be united, both physically and spiritually, work very hard, form cooperative societies and must always be encouraged to stay together.
Kanu disclosed that in Lagos State, AFED is the greatest association with the highest membership, while asking the members in Rivers state to extend their services to the riverine/rural areas of the state, to ensure access to qualitative education, while disclosing that the British government was currently supporting AFED with £2.2 million.
He revealed that members of the association could also benefit from grant from Rivers government, as being done through the Lagos State Development Trust Fund, to support the low-fee-paying private schools, through which one of the members in Lagos recently got N5 million.
The national secretary also asked the Rivers chapter of AFED to set up technical committees, especially to be liaising with the people in power, while insisting that the owners of private schools must maintain standard, pointing out that gigantic structures would not mean that learning was taking place, while charging members of the association to create scholarship platforms for extremely-poor students, since the best service to God would be the one given to humanity.
The guest speaker expressed surprise about the classification of Rivers as an educationally-disadvantaged state, while advising Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike, against shutting the yet-to-be-approved schools in the state, describing access to education as imperative, since it would take the people out of poverty.
He maintained that the reality on the ground was that government alone would not be able to fund education, in view of the enormous cost, stressing that there was the need for vibrant policies to stabilise the school system in Nigeria and the costing of education, while lamenting that children of many wealthy parents are in the Federal Government Colleges, meant for children from poor homes.
Daramola also urged the AFED members to work as a team, since a tree would not be able to make a forest, thereby calling for synergy, for government and its officials to take the association seriously and to be able to source funds to improve the facilities in the various private schools, adding that when the staff are well paid, as and when due, they would last longer and be more productive.
The guest speaker also advised members of the association not to use the property they are living in as collateral for loans from banks and other financial institutions and also warned them never to take loans to pay salaries, while pleading with government to give subvention to owners of private schools.
Daramola maintained that not all the highbrow schools have standard, suggesting that state governments could give certificates of recognition/good performance to the AFED members, while waiting for approval, through which the government would also increase its Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR).
UNIPORT’s Prof. Omokhua, called for support for AFED to succeed and for children to have access to qualitative education, rather than dropping out of school, because of poverty, only to become nuisance to the society.
In his welcome address, the Rivers controller of AFED disclosed that the association currently has over 200 members, who are owners of private schools in the state, assuring that AFED had come to stay in Rivers.
Udechi assured that members of AFED in Rivers would strictly adhere to the core values of the association, consisting of commitment, leadership, integrity, passion, excellence and creativity, while urging Wike to partner with AFED to reduce the number of out-of-school children from the streets of the state in no distant time.
He said: “This journey, which commenced on February 22, 2017, with the introduction of AFED and its activities to 22 schools present, has been an arduous task. The task of convincing and mobilising members from the nooks and crannies of our beloved Rivers State to believe in an association unknown and unheard of, was a great one. Nonetheless, we are thanking the Almighty God.
“Currently, we are having well over 200 members, who have shown interest in our association and we are sure that the number will surge in the shortest possible time, given the breakthrough that our God is giving us.
“As a team, our long-term commitment is to ensure that the ugly cliche associated with Rivers State as ‘Educationally-Less-Developed State’ is removed from the annals of history. With God on our side, we shall achieve this.’
The Rivers controller of AFED also assured that he and members of the protem executive of the association would justify the trust and confidence reposed in them, promising not to let the members down.
The national president AFED stated that there was an urgent need to reduce the number of out-of-school children, thereby salvaging the future of Nigeria from ignorance, poverty and war.
She noted that the Rivers governor, whom she described as a listening leader, would see a way of working with AFED to improve the standard and scale of education in Rivers, the treasure base of the nation.
Ifejola, who was still recovering from illness, but represented by the association’s Vice-President, Mr. Michael Adeyemo, stated that emphasis must continually be placed on qualitative education.
She said: “Education remains a vital part of quality of life and one of the key components of the Human Development Index. Considering the position of Nigeria among countries with highest number of out-of-school children, there is urgent need to reduce the number, put at over 10 million children in Nigeria.”
