Tag: Universal Basic Education

The first is the fear by governors to access the funds waiting for them in the office of the Universal Basic Education, for the simple reason that doing so will expose their indifference to children’s future. The other fear of the naira is the one being foisted by the Central Bank of Nigeria on innocent and self-respecting citizens who do what their ancestors did to no one’s disadvantage: gift friends and family members naira during festive occasions.

Governors who have just announced their plans to campaign on behalf of President Buhari for his second term have also been reported to have avoided in their states a major governance trope: improvement of access and quality of public education. A special fund under the authority of Universal Basic Education (UBE) waiting for governors to access by providing evidence of matching grants from their states is yet to be accessed by most of the states, especially states from the southern regions. This is at a time when UNICEF claims that over 13 million children who should be in school are not enrolled. It is as if the release of the story about governors’ neglect of this important enrichment fund is designed to embarrass governors who are waiting to campaign for their own second term in office. How effective or credible would such governors be if or when they campaign for President Buhari?

Media houses planning to organize debates for gubernatorial candidates should take note of states that have been kept away by their governors from accessing funds that can become a game changer in the lives of many young children currently in public schools. Given the lack of concern for citizens by governors who shun UBEC’s funds, President Buhari would be taking a big risk to ask governors who have not been able to identify what their own constituents need to campaign for him. The president is not too old to campaign for himself, given the fact that Mugabe and Biya, two much older presidential candidates, took charge of their own campaigns when they needed to do so. Emmerson Mnangagwa did not delegate his campaign in the recent election in Zimbabwe to provincial leaders. And President Buhari himself has not contracted his campaign to governors. Campaigning for office is a cross for each person to carry. Enough of unsolicited advice from this writer.

Today’s main concern is the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to give teeth to a law that has been dormant for a few years. The urge to stop spraying of naira at social events has been on the federal government’s drawing board for a few years. The legislation was first made during the Obasanjo regime. Elements of the law against abuse of the naira include spraying or pinning the naira on any person; pasting it on the body of any person, stepping or matching on the naira; hawking the naira, etc. Each of these actions is believed to constitute an abuse of the naira. Offenders will be trailed by police who would have the power to arrest such people and ensure immediate prosecution and instant justice at the hands of judges of mobile courts. Punishment to those found guilty will be imprisonment for six months or a fine of N50,000. The law also prescribes punishment of five years in jail for counterfeiting. Citizen journalists on the social media do not appear to have any worries about counterfeiters, just as this writer doesn’t. Social media commenters are justifiably worried about the relevance of gifting of naira in whatever form to friends and family members in a country where politicians drop bundles of naira into the palms of potential voters.

The law against abuse of the naira seems to be more of distraction from more serious issues facing the country. Many cultures in and outside Nigeria pin, paste, or spray naira at special ceremonies on celebrators. Examples abound in Hungary, Mexico, Cuba, Ukraine, and parts of Poland where people have what they call money dance at weddings. In many parts of Nigeria, coins (where they are available) and paper money are pasted on the body of celebrators or other participants at social ceremonies: naming, funerals, chieftaincy installations, etc. The assumption even in precolonial times when many Nigerian cultures sprayed or pinned money on other people was that money was designed to serve three major functions: medium of exchange, a measure of value, and a store of value. As far as most people outside Nigeria’s boardroom of power are concerned in the 21st century, money still performs these functions in most polities. Such assumption must have made the British not to legislate against use of the British pound in ways that resembled how Nigerians had used their cowries in the past. It must be a similar recognition by the treasury department in the United States and the United Kingdom that had influenced what seems to be the global best practice in management or regulation of currency today. There is no law in the Americas and Europe these and other countries against spraying of the sterling, franc, or the dollar by foreigners, even when citizens of these countries do not practice the culture of spraying or pinning of money.

The concept of abuse of the naira or the imperative to respect the naira as a national symbol is strange. For example, what does the law mean by hawking of the naira?  Are the tens of people selling naira to travelers at the ports and on highways hawking the naira? Does this law only refer to the young women selling the naira to party goers at the entrance to venues of social events? Can persons who want to sell money at such places obtain a license as operators of Bureau de Change or Bureau de Cadeau?  Will naira notes dropped in dirty bags and baskets in churches and mosques count as abuse of the naira? Will dropping of naira on the highways for beggars or thrown to or at them by motorists constitute abuse of the naira? Would spraying envelopes that contain naira amount to naira abuse?

Furthermore, is it legal for citizens to spray dollars bought with naira in the country? Will citizens still have the right to consult their lawyers before they are whisked to jail by mobile court judges? If citizens who stole millions or billions from the treasury have the right to hire lawyers to defend them, would those who give their own hard-earned naira notes to their loved ones at parties be eligible to be defended by lawyers?  In addition, would citizens lose their right to privacy at social events they organize? For example, can event coordinators refuse entry to uninvited police and mobile court judges into the halls they have rented solely for their own use and the use of their families and friends?

The point of all these questions is that the law to proscribe spraying sounds like killing a fly with a boulder or cutting off a head because it aches. One logical reason offered so far to justify the law is that Nigeria pays so much to manufacture coins and currency notes and that spraying or pinning of either of these items accelerates its degeneration and leads to the need for frequent replacement of such items. By setting out to send police and mobile court judges to millions of event centres across the country on each of the four days of naira gifting: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, is it not likely that such process would gulp more funds than replacing stressed naira notes would?

A futile law had been created by Obasanjo, but the law could have been just left unnoticed as we had done for over ten years. There seem to be too many more serious problems facing the country and too many overtly criminal matters that can benefit from the enthusiasm of those who want to be seen to be doing something. There is virtually nothing to gain from a law that sets out to fetishize the naira.  It is clear to citizens that some individuals are making profit from selling new naira notes. Popular knowledge is that 10% is being charged by bank managers and another 10% by the naira vendor. Maybe the CBN should be the only vendor of new naira notes and make 20% profit on each naira sold. Whatever accrues from such profits may be enough to offset the cost of frequent replacement of Nigerian naira notes.

• Roposek@msn.com

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. Our requirements for world leadership, our hopes for economic growth, and the demands of citizenship itself in an era such as this all require the maximum development of every young American’s capacity. The human mind is our fundamental resource—John F. Kennedy

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. … If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means … Hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles—John F. Kennedy
When all the talents in society are not fully developed, it is not the individuals that are adversely affected alone who suffer; the society as a whole suffers as well. Now, granting that every Nigerian is given an opportunity to develop his talents, it is imperative that he should also be given an opportunity to employ these developed talents. Full development of man and his full employment are not only social imperatives, but also inseparably inter-connected and complementary—Obafemi Awolowo

A man whose personality is fully developed never fears anything; he cringes not, and never feels inferior to anyone; His breadth of mind enables him to exercise his freedom in such a manner as not to endanger the interests and freedom of others. He is a citizen of the world – free from narrow prejudices. He is what he is because the three main constituents of his entity – his body, brain, and mind – are fully developed—Obafemi Awolowo

There are too many outstanding problems about human development in Nigeria, despite claims by all post-military governments about expenditures and achievements on education in the last 25 years. One depressing statistic is that 50 percent of children in northern Nigeria drop out of primary school in order to get married or join the labour market without functional literacy. Another is that Nigeria has the largest number of school-age children that are out of school in the world, about 10.5 million and that most of these children are girls, panhandlers (Almajiri) in local parlance, and children of nomadic groups.  60 % of children out of school live in the northern part of the country, where 45% of the population are under 15, the age to obtain Universal Basic Education.

Sufficiently related dismal figures include the announcement that many schools lack safe private toilets and hand-washing facilities. About 2.5 million children under age five suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) every year and 11 million children are stunted, a result of prolonged malnutrition. Further, less than 20% of children in Nigeria are fed diets that meet the minimum adequacy for healthy growth and development—physical and cognitive.

For the avoidance of doubt, none of these deficits owes its origin to the current government, nevertheless, the government is expected to have solved some of these problems more noticeably in the last three years, particularly in confronting the jinx of illiteracy in the north, where vote seekers believe most of the country’s children currently live.

With several holders of doctorates in various disciplines in all northern states, including Borno where literacy rate according to UNICEF is 15% and Yobe where it is 7.23, it is logical to assume that northern cultural and political leaders are not averse to Western education. Children of the elite in the north, just like in the south, are in good schools and universities in Nigeria and other countries. What could be the reason for low literacy rate in states with several doctorate holders? Factors that recur in various analyses in respect of low literacy in northern states include poverty, culture, and lack of will on the part of state and federal governments.

With respect to poverty in the North, like elsewhere, there is a correlation between abject poverty and literacy. Parents with no primary education in most countries are more likely to be poor than their counterparts who are literate. It is abject poverty that makes primary school children to drop out of school to get married or look for job. But such choices are elements of the vicious circle that perpetuates poverty. It is the government—federal, state, and local—that can end such vicious circle of poverty. Many people would say that one of the goals of UBE is long-term poverty alleviation. But UBE without commitment on the part of states and local governments to encourage enrolment and retention of children in school is bound to aggravate inequality and poverty in the north and elsewhere in the country. With UBE already in existence, the reason for children dropping out of school may not be just because of poverty of parents and guardians; it must be connected with the worldview of cultural and political leaders in the North.

The cultural bias that Western education is not what the generality of people in the North need is a mask for perpetuating inequality and poverty of children from the average family in the region. If Western education is good for children of Emirs, Ministers, and Permanent Secretaries in the North, it cannot be bad for children of the hoi polloi. There is danger in cultural leaders holding on to the fallacy that what the masses of the North need is non-Western education, particularly in a country held together by English language. Many Islamic countries acquire and provide Western education along with Islamic education. UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan are good examples. In a federation like Nigeria, Islamic education is undoubtedly useful for Nigerian Muslims. What is useful for all Nigerians is Western education which is part of the culture that keeps Nigeria together as one country. In a way, Western education is crucial to sustaining the unity of Nigeria as one territory with an integrated economy. It is, therefore, important for political leaders in the northern region to think more liberally than their cultural counterparts.

Even though UBE is inadequate for moving the population to a fully modern ethos, as it is, UBE has laid a good foundation for extending basic and functional literacy to the masses in the North. What is expected of the federal and state governments is to accept the inevitability of UBE for all citizens that can still benefit from it. And to make citizens take the advantage offered by UBE, federal and state governments need to legislate that UBE is free and compulsory for all citizens of school age. Kaduna has set the pattern for other states in the North to follow. With reference to the history of mass literacy in Western Nigeria, many Yoruba cultural leaders were opposed to Chief Awolowo and the Action Group on establishment of Free Primary Education Scheme. It took the adoption of a forward-looking worldview on the part of Awolowo, Ajasin, Enahoro, Awokoya, Awosika, Akintola, and many others in the Action Group for the region to move beyond cultural leaders who preferred to be stuck in the past for whatever extra benefits looking backward brought to them, and the rest is history.

Many societies had faced the problem that northern Nigeria now faces: choosing between the past or the future. No society had become modern and developed without facing the future, that is, accepting the imperative of change as part of the human condition. Many leaders across the globe, especially those who had benefited from feudalism believe that is easier to live according to tradition-theological or methodological. Feudalism is the best illustration of the desire to get stuck to an existing system, not necessarily because it is the best form of producing the common good, but solely because it brings the most comfort to those at the apex of the society’s political and social ladder.

It is a common knowledge that most societies that have become developed have given education to their citizens through a combination of caring and compulsion or carrot and stick. Such governments provide tuition, facilities, and opportunities of easy access to public schools for all citizens. In addition, governments that sincerely want to improve the quality of life of their young ones also make at least the first 12 years of schooling free and compulsory. Such policy makes parents and guardians liable if their children or wards are on the street while they should be in the classroom, to be groomed to function as citizens and reap the benefits of citizenship. President Buhari should have no problem to send an executive bill to the National Assembly to make UBE free and compulsory all over the country. If the country’s cultural or religious rightwing is uncomfortable with which type of education to make free and compulsory—Islamic or Western, the bill can include that Muslim children be made to study English and Arabic as part of the curriculum.

There are already too many fault lines in our federation: religion, ethnicity, culture, geography. It is very dangerous to add another fault line: literacy and illiteracy.