Education

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, has inaugurated its students’ judiciary.

The inauguration ceremony was held at the Faculty of Law, ABU Moot Court, Kongo Campus, on Monday. 

The event was attended by teachers and students of the faculty and other faculties across the country. 

Mustapha Abubakar, an award-winning final-year student, emerged as the Chief Justice of ABU. 

Mr Abubakar, who, until his appointment, was Justice of the ABU Court of Appeal. He is a recipient of several awards.

In 2019, Abubakar emerged as the best Advocate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. 

The same year, advocacy took him to the national level as he emerged as the best and winner of the 2019 National LAWSAN moot competition.

He was also announced best and winner of the NAMLAS Moot and Mock competition in 2019.

In 2019, he also won Best Brief Writer and Best Oralist Of The Clinical Legal Education (CLE) Annual Mock and Moot Championship.

Mr Abubakar left the student Bar to the student Bench in 2020 as a Justice of the Court of Appeal, where he received a Medal of Honour as a distinguished justice of the court 2020.

The ABU Faculty of Law is where the country’s most distinguished jurists and legal practitioners were thoroughly bred. This explains why there is something particularly unique and different about the ABU student judiciary. It is the microcosm of the Nigerian Judiciary. The Courts are arranged from the Supreme Court down to the Sharia Court of Appeal.  

The Supreme Court is headed by the ABU Chief Justice, who must be a final-year Law student and must be knowledgeable in procedural and substantive law. Other final-year students are appointed as justices of the Supreme Court. 

Then we have the Court of Appeal headed by the President Court of Appeal, who must be a final-year Law student. Other justices of the Court of Appeal are appointed from the 400 level. 

The High Court is headed by a Chief Judge of the High Court, and a Grand Khadi heads the Sharia Court of Appeal. Other judges and Kadis are appointed to aid the efficient learning of the law. 

The arrangement of the court helps students in the procedural and practical aspects of the law. This is because procedures might be similar but are different in all courts.

By Muhammadu Sabiu 

The Lagos State University, LASU, has issued fifteen new guidelines for students’ on-campus dressing that are deemed inappropriate.

The university also instructs lecturers to make sure that no student is wearing inappropriate clothing when in class.

This was contained in a statement issued by Olaniyi Jeariogbe, the interim head of the Center for Information, who warns it is no longer condonable for the students’ continued disregard for its rules and regulations on the manner of dressing on campus. 

According to the statement, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, Vice Chancellor, has notified the College Provost, Deans of Faculties, Heads of Departments, and faculty officials on both the main campus and satellite campuses to work together to implement the new dress codes.

The Institution’s list of fifteen indecent dress codes prohibits wearing transparent dresses, tattered clothing, “baggy,” “saggy,” “yansh,” “ass level,” and all other varieties of indecent trousers.

It also forbids wearing dirty jeans with holes or offensive subliminal messages.

Others include body piercing and tattoos, wearing necklaces and earrings by male students, wearing necklaces and nose rings by students, tight-fitting clothing, rolling sleeves or flying shirt collars, obnoxious or seductive writing, improperly buttoned dresses, shirts without buttons, completely covering faces (with very dark glasses), wearing face caps, and wearing necklaces and earrings.

The list of the banned dress codes also includes male students braiding, weaving, or glueing their hair or wearing distracting footwear like stiletto heels in the library and lecture halls. 

The rest include lousy footwear, untidy, vividly coloured eyelashes or eyebrows, highly fake or coloured artificial hair, artificial dreadlocks, and the extension of long fingernails or eyelashes.

By Umm Khalid

When I was in college and still single, I was considering a proposal from a certain brother (named Daniel).

I had a conversation with one of my closest friends about what qualities are important to look for in a husband. Alhamdulillah, this Saudi friend was 5 years older than me and had seen many of her peers get married, and she gave me some wise advice.

She told me, “After checking on the basics, his deen and his خلق (character), you know what the most critical qualities are? He needs to be هَيِّن لَيِّن.”

These two Arabic words refer to basically the same general characteristic: one of ease, leniency. A man who is laidback, relaxed, easygoing. Basically, he should be a chill dude.

Of course, he can’t be chill about everything. We all have to stand for something, to care deeply about SOME issues, to be strict in SOME matters. But he should be strict when it matters, when it’s warranted; like when it comes to the commands and limits set by Allah, for example. Then he should absolutely not be chill or lenient, as that amounts to negligence and abandonment of the laws of Allah, and that leads to destruction.

But when it comes to other matters, smaller issues of inconsequential everyday things, you want your husband to be laidback. Not uptight, nitpicky, rigid, inflexible, exacting, OCD about the littlest things, overly sensitive to every small detail. Some people, just by their nature or personality, would be classified by most as “difficult people.”

You don’t want this type of rigidity in a husband. It makes everyday life unnecessarily stressful. Life is already hard enough by itself, that the last thing we need is a spouse who nitpicks and needs everything to be just so. Then married life would be a nightmare.

A good husband is a man who is tough or strict when he needs to be, but with his wife in their home life, he is relaxed and easy. He has a fun side and a sense of humor about life’s ups and downs, and is understanding when things go south. He is lenient with her and indulgent and forgiving (up to a point, of course! Within reason!). He doesn’t, for example, ask her why she moved this small object from this side table to the coffee table, or castigate her for accidentally putting in the wrong address into the GPS, or flip out if dinner is 15 minutes late or on the verge of being under-salted, or interrogate her about small and inconsequential details that are innocuous. Someone who acts this way is usually not easy to be around or live with.

You want your husband to be easy to live with. Because… you will live with him.

Alhamdulillah, now looking back more than a decade later, I completely confirm that advice. An easygoing, chill husband is an enormous blessing.

Of course, the thing is: as a wife, don’t forget to return the favor! If you are blessed with a chill husband, extend the same courtesy back to him and let the little things go. Don’t nitpick or nag him when he annoys you. No person is perfect.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Bingham University Nassarawa has banned the use of smartphones in the institution. 

The Registrar, Dr Esther J Dyaji, disclosed the development in an internal memoir on Wednesday. 

According to Dr Gyaji, the phones of defaulters of the ban would be confiscated while they face appropriate sanctions. 

The memoir reads, “Following repeated abuse in the use of smartphones in contravention of section 5.14 subsection i, ii and iii of the students’ handbook, the use of smartphones is hereby prohibited with immediate effect. Violators of this would have their phones confiscated and face appropriate sanctions.”

Bingham University is a private missionary university owned by the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA). It was founded in 2005.

By Umar Yogiza

The four writers are Tares Oburumu, Ruth Chidera Echewe, Sadiq Mustafa and Taiye Ojo, they arrived in the ancient town of Ilorin, Kwara State, for the first batch of the 2023 Imodoye Writers Residency programme. A statement issued by the residency manager said the writers are expected to be there for three weeks and an optional one week.

Tares Oburumu is a Bayelsa State-born poet and essayist, based in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. He’s the author of 6 published chapbooks. Tares Oburumu is the winner of the GAP poetry prize 2018 and his chapbook ‘origin of the syma species’ won The Sillerman First Book prize for African poets 2022, to be published by Nebraska University Press, U.S., in fall 2023. Tares had been nominated for the Pushcart prize with Woven Tales Press 2019, and Ice Floes International literary journal 2021.

Tares Oburumu is in Imodoye residency to work and expand his three chapbooks: Erasure, Chatham House and Red: the love story of Annie Ernaux. As a child, Tares heard the nerve-racking stories of how brothers took to the Atlantic Ocean, going oversee, and it broke him to pieces hearing the manner they died in their attempt to escape the bedlam their country has become. His lens’ expositions focus on emigration and the attendant trauma not told by those who suffer from it. And to shine the light on how they ended, coffined in the dream of escaping Nigeria.

Ruth Chidera Echewe, (Unbreakable) is a writer, editor, media personality and professional blogger. She publishes potpourri of themes in unbreaky.comblog, her personal blog space is called UNBREAKABLE FEATURES. She’s a graduate of English and Literary Studies from the Federal University Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. An indigene of Abia State, Nigeria, but resides in Enugu State.

Ruth, Chidera Echewe is in Imodoye to complete her work: Sisters Series, prose, dealings with humans, certain bonds that sustained our existence and given us a different definition of life. She kindly follows various studies that have proven the strongest bonds emanated from the establishment of relationships. Ruth is motivated by her passion for creativity which has gone ahead to give birth to what she intends to manifest into a publishing, writing and editing firm in the nearest future.

Abubakar Sadiq Mustapha is a poet, art curator, documentary photographer, and community developer. He studied Geology and Mining at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, and currently rounding up his master’s program at the same Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State. Sadiq uses books, photography, and arts in driving social change from girl-child education, and gender-based violence to youth participation in politics and believes in the power of photography and how it can be used toward mental health, is in Imodoye to complete his manuscript: Home is my Mother’s Tongue.

Abubakar is also a photo columnist with Salamander ink magazine and the curator of the Abubakar Gimba literacy campaign. He’s the project lead for The Lapai Bookclub’s mobile library and school, a project that takes reading and arts to grassroots communities in Northern Nigeria aimed at increasing the literacy rate of the region and creating awareness in governance.

Ojo Taiye is a Delta base Nigerian eco-artist and writer who uses poetry as a handy tool to hide his frustration with society. He’s the winner of the Hay Writer’s Circle poetry prize, US, 2021, Calthalbui poetry prize, Ireland 2021. In 2020 Taiye Ojo was selected to participate in Capital City Film Poetry Festival, in Michigan and Poetry Introductory Series, in Ireland. His commissioned works include Belfast Photo Festival 2021, Winnipeg Fringe Festival and Leeds Poetry Festival.

Taiye’s recent works explore neocolonialism, institutionalized violence and ecological trauma in the oil-rich, polluted Niger Delta. His themes deal with the effects of climate change,
homelessness, migration, drought and famine, as well as a range of transversal issues arising from
racism, black identity and mental health. Taiye Ojo is in Imodoye to complete his poetry collection: Scoping Map.

Established by Dr Usman Ladipo Akanbi, the Imodoye Writers Residency is a private initiative for writers and visual artists keen on completing their ongoing work in a conducive environment at no cost. And as part of giving back to the community, during their stay in the residency, the writers are expected to mentor secondary school students in Ilorin in creative art/writing.

By Salim Ibrahim Isa

Since late last year, many public universities have released revised fees, primarily reviewed upwards in unprecedented percentages (mostly more than a 100%). Students, parents and other stakeholders have expressed shock, with many blaming the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for being behind the increase as a response to the Union’s fallout with the Federal Government last year and members of the Union laying responsibility to the executive councils of respective universities.

Whatever the reason for the increase and whoever is behind it, the rising cost of education is a reality students and other stakeholders have to face, for it is doubtful to be reversed.

It will be useful to consider the following discussion, especially by students who would be directly affected by the fee hike.

Choice of courses

Choosing a course to study has been a longstanding issue. Many students go to university to study courses for years only to realise later that they could have made better choices regarding their aspirations. With education being more expensive, prospective students will save themselves much disappointment later in their studies or after graduating by researching courses before applying for them and making informed decisions. Nobody wants to pay massive amounts of money to study a course only to find out later that it has no job prospects or something like that.

Alternatives to degrees

It is not a divine revelation that everybody must have a degree. Colleges of education, polytechnics and other higher institutions offer various types of training and award multiple certificates, which can be as useful as a degree, depending on how the holder uses acquired knowledge. A student who cannot afford the higher costs of a university education shouldn’t lose all hope. It is still OK to seek other affordable alternatives and acquire training and certification.

Many non-degree holders have had spectacular achievements the world over. The most important thing is the training and how and to what use it is put.

Distance learning

Thanks to the internet, a significant number of universities all over the world now offer many courses online. This eliminates the burden of physical presence and its attendant financial implications, making the courses a lot cheaper while maintaining the quality of the courses. Many of these courses have flexible payment schedules, so students can pay in instalments and flexible classes, allowing students to work while studying. One may explore the availability of courses of choice both within and outside Nigeria and enrol in a good course at a good university. In addition, students may apply for discounts and fee waivers to make their studies even more affordable.

Scholarships and sponsorships

Governments, universities, foundations, companies and even individuals within Nigeria and abroad offer scholarships and financial aid to students under various schemes to subsidise education. Some scholarships involve moving to the supporting country/institution, while others support candidates locally. Sponsorships may also be complete or partial. A good way to be up-to-date on scholarship information is to subscribe to scholarship advertising websites and make a good network, especially in academia. Students need to remember, however, that all scholarships have criteria, and many of these criteria revolve around sound academic performance. Nobody wants to waste money on candidates who are not serious about studying, so all need to buckle up.

Salim Ibrahim Isa wrote via saalimibraheem@gmail.com.

By Safiyanu Ladan

The Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASUU) embarked on an indefinite strike on the 14th February 2022, following years of unresolved issues with the federal government. During the period of the strike, the union had on several occasions met with the federal government representatives headed by the labor and employment minister Chris Ngige with a clear mandate to find a long and lasting solution to the lingering problems but to no avail as the meetings have always ended in deadlock.

Tired and frustrated with that, In September last year, the federal government through the ministry of labor and employment took the union to an industrial court, praying to the court among other things to order the varsity teachers to resume classes with immediate effect. The outcome of the court’s judgement favored the federal government. Paradoxically, the appellant court refused to entertain ASUU’s appeal, saying that until and unless they obey the lower court’s judgement of going back to classes.

The intervention of the speaker, house of representatives Right Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila has paved the way for the varsity workers to get a soft landing in what seems like an unending fracas with the Federal government.

Prolonged and incessant ASUU strikes were this time around followed by a heavy price as the federal government reiterated that, the no work no pay policy has been duly applied to the striking workers. The federal government decision to withhold their salary has generated heated debates and threats from ASUU, but the government remains adamant. Closing down of Universities is at the detriment of students because they are always at the receiving end.

Having been tried but failed to convince the FG to pay the arrears of the past eight months of ASUU members, the management of some universities have decided to compensate that with an increment of students’ school fees. It’s no longer news that some universities have deliberately increased their fees to more than 100%.

It’s now crystal clear that this increment will affect many students because their parents cannot afford to pay such whopping amount of money as school fees. In the meantime, the mass exodus of students dropping out of the universities most especially in the North is imminent. Leaders and everyone should know this. Many students have expressed their worries on the trend and their final resolve to quit.

Safiyanu Ladan wrote from Zariya City and can be reached via uncledoctor24@gmail.com.

By Dansaleh Aliyu Yahya

Reading is a passion that every human needs to have to differentiate himself from other living creatures. Reading sharpens the brain of a reader. It makes him think in a different way compared to those who aren’t reading. One has to read to gain wisdom and even the life experiences of more than a million imaginary characters. For those reasons and many more, I said — read! Read! Read! And never stop reading.

People wonder how can a man with a wife, a business, and a life full of struggles dare to say that he has read hundreds of books in a year. Yes, it is possible if you know what the true definition of time management is.

Time management is the only phenomenon that helps everybody to do many things without even realising he did a lot. Plan your reading exercise, Have a timetable, and tell yourself that you can, then move on.

You can master any kind of skill if you do it repeatedly. So, if you read today and tomorrow, you will be a rocket reader. I can remember when I was in secondary school SS2, I read a book to some of my friends. I was reading it one day, “I swear you just held the book, but you were not reading from it”, Abdulmalik Ibrahim said, “He was my friend at school”.

“I was reading from it”, I said. He collected the book. Trying to prove me wrong. In the end, he proved himself wrong and said, “Why are you here? You should be an art student. So that you can study journalism”. He told me.

“Reading is my cup of tea, and I couldn’t do without it. I read a book in a single sitting because I don’t support cliffhangers. I must see the end of the story if I start reading it”, I told him. “Allah ya taimaki aku!” he said. We laughed.

I told them that I could not enter a toilet, eat food or sit down without reading something. Before, I was blamed at home for going toilet with a book, but now I have softcopies. Your phone can be your library in this 21st century!

So, you too can have speed in reading texts. I finished reading my first three books this year. I didn’t pen this to tell you that I am reading but rather to help inculcate reading culture within our blessed community. And tell people that if a dull young boy like me can do this, then everyone can do it.

May we be blessed, amin.

Dansaleh Aliyu Yahya can be reached via dansalealiyu@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

The Kano State Ministry of Education has announced Sunday, January 8th, 2023, as a resumption day for all boarding public and private primary schools for the commencement of the 2nd term academic session.

A statement by the Director Public Enlightenment Ministry of Education of the state, Aliyu Yusuf, disclosed this on Saturday.

The statement added, “While expressing appreciation for the cooperation and support been [sic] accorded to the ministry, Commissioner Rt. Hon. Ya’u Abdullahi Yan’shana urged Parents/Guardians of Pupils and Students of the schools to ensure compliance with the approved resumption dates.

“The Commissioner who also wished the students and pupils successful commencement of the 2nd term Academic session, however, warned that appropriate disciplinary action would be taken against defaulting students,” the statement added.

By Prof. Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik

A recently published book by Dr Ali Isa Pantami has rekindled the debate between degrees and skills. Even though the book focused on digital skills, “educated” Nigerians are trying hard to separate skills from university degrees (education). That someone graduated in computer science without being able to write a computer code does not mean that all graduates in computer science cannot write computer code.

Public primary and secondary schools have collapsed, and there is no debate on a possible mission to rescue them. The public universities are on the path to the state of the public primary and secondary schools, and all we want is to keep the kids in the class to MILT (manage it like that).

Some of the questions that came to my mind as I watched the debate were: What is skill? Can you truly separate skills from university degrees? What qualified you to receive a degree from a university? What skills do you need to survive in Nigeria? What skills do we need to propel Nigeria to a particular height? Just digital skills? What are the available jobs in high demand in Nigeria? Over the last 20 years, tell me about a job that was advertised, and after all the screening, they could not get a qualified graduate in Nigeria with the appropriate skills for the job.

The debate on degrees and certificates is getting more interesting. It is more interesting to me this time around as the Northern elites champion it. We are growing up.

I did my National Youth Service in a secondary school in Bagwai, Kano state, between 2000 and 2001. One weekend, I went to the market to get some stuff and met the Senior Teacher. I jokingly asked why he was in the market and didn’t let the wife do the shopping. That led to a lengthy discussion where I mentioned the General Hospital, Bichi. As of then, there were 3 Doctors, all male, at the hospital. Two were Yoruba and one Igbo. They were all Christians. There was no female doctor. I told him that they need to encourage their daughters to go to school so that we can have their daughters as Doctors in those hospitals. I guess I was wrong. Degrees are useless.

We are fond of mentioning our iconic automotive designer, Jelani Aliyu, as an example of skills rather than degrees. This is a very interesting example with a missing background. Jelani was a very good student and truly left the university for the polytechnic because he wanted a more practically oriented program. That is what polytechnics are originally meant for. So, after finishing his HND from the polytechnic as the Best All-Round Student, he got a scholarship from the Sokoto state scholarship board to study automotive design at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, US. They got certificates every step to show that he has acquired the requisite skills. The rest is history.

You see, anyone can write a book on degrees vs skills, especially people at high places whose entire success is based on their degree certificates. But can the book change our reality? Not likely. Only a few Nigerians actually read books. A long post on Facebook is even difficult to read. We prefer to use the time to argue over who is the football G.O.A.T. How do we change that? There are several challenges to deal with to save our system.

But then, by the virtue of your degree certificate, you got a job as a Graduate Assistant at a public university. You built on that to have your Master’s degree in the university. And being a lecturer in a public university, you got a scholarship for PhD in the UK. With a PhD degree from the UK, you got a job offer as an Assistant Professor at a university abroad. Then, a few years later, you got an appointment outside academia. I guess a skill was identified that took you to all these places. There was no record of industry experience. So, all the skills were acquired at the university. So, what is your problem with the university? If you have got all these skills in the university and the necessary skills that your students in your department need to have are missing, then we should blame you for it.

All that you are was built on your degrees, and the same degrees are suddenly no more important but skills? We are supposed to be the light of our society. So, what is skill? What do we do in the universities? Are university environments unskilled environment? Where do you get the skills? Meanwhile, their kids are in university acquiring degrees. My guess is that you need skills, while their kids need degrees to manage your skill.

One of my senior colleagues once told us during an undergraduate lecture in the ’90s that physics makes you think. That’s a skill. He said, whatever you decide to do after graduation, physics will help your thinking. Sometimes back, I had a discussion with one of our graduates who switched from physics to IT after graduation, and he said IT is a piece of cake compared to Physics. He said he finds it easy having studied physics. Of course, let’s preach skills and not degrees while our best graduates are been harvested by the US, Canada, France, Norway, England, Germany, etc.

Recently, there were some trending Master’s graduation lists from UK universities where the graduates were 99% Nigerians. The tuition fee for the master’s program can start a business in Nigeria, but they decided to give the money to the UK university to acquire a certificate that will qualify them to work in the UK. Their first degree from Nigeria got them admission to a Master’s program in the UK. That qualifies them for the two years post-study visa to get a job. They don’t intend to come back, and they will get a job there with a university degree.

Shaquille O’Neal found it offensive when he walked into business meetings, and people would only talk to his representatives. He felt he was lacking something and found it necessary to enrol in a Master’s degree program at the University of Phoenix. He told them that he wanted somebody to teach him in class but was informed that the course he enrolled for was only taught online and that he can’t be taught alone. He asked for the requirements to have a physical class, and he was told that they needed a minimum of 15 students. Shaq paid for 15 of his friends to join him in the Master’s program. There was a gap, and he got a degree to fill it. It is up to you if degrees are skillless.

Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim recently got a Doctor of Business degree from Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He is a billionaire with an MSc in Major Programme Management from Oxford, an MBA from Cambridge, a Certificate in International Tax Law from Harvard, an MPA from Ife, and a Bachelor of Law from Ife. He has been a billionaire. What does he need another degree for?

Our universities are not in the best form, nor are our polytechnics the way they were during Jelani’s days. We watched public educational institutions degrade over the years without any resistance except ASUU. That we have lost some vital components of what made a university a university is not a global case. It’s a peculiarity that we have to deal with to save our system. Our efforts should be towards reviving the lost skills that ought to be acquired at each level of our education, from primary schools to polytechnics and universities. 

Sadly, instead of making efforts to save the education system of the country and direct it toward the developmental needs of the nation, we are arguing over degrees and skills while they are taking the extra steps for the further destruction of public universities. The people telling you to go for skills instead of degrees have got their kids in schools abroad or private universities. What are they acquiring there? Unskilled knowledge? They have systematically destroyed what made the university a university but complained of a lack of skills. Double standard.

Since our brothers are championing the commercialization of public universities and skills rather than degrees, I hope our general hospitals in the North have got enough doctors so that we can close down our degree programs for medical sciences. What about law, finance, etc.? Optic fibre, which has revolutionized medicine and telecommunication, was a product of research from the university. A simple physics concept (total internal reflection in a material) that was engineered. Endoscopy and broadband transmission are not products of questionnaires but skilled thinking.

The World Bank recently said it will take northern states 40 years to catch up with their southern counterparts considering the current growth rates. Meanwhile, northern leaders don’t seem to bother about that but doing politics with the education of the people. I was informed today that grasses have taken over some of the primary schools in a state in the North-central. If we are to stop going to school, we need to start telling them to lead the way on the skills we need to survive in the North and make Nigeria work. Is it farming, as the president advised?

In a recent World Bank report, the Bank stated that “despite its vast natural resources and a young, entrepreneurial population, development in Nigeria has stagnated over the last decade, and the country is failing to keep up with the GDP growth of its peers. Declining private investment and demographic pressure push young Nigerians to pursue opportunities overseas”. Lack of skilled leadership and not a skilled workforce is possibly responsible for this.

It wasn’t a lack of skilled workforce that caused the massive unemployment in the country. There won’t be unemployment if there are jobs. There can’t be jobs if there is no job creation or an enabling environment for job creation. We are quick to forget that every certificate, degree or not, comes with the requisite knowledge and skills. The certificate is to show that you have acquired the prescribed skills. Of course, some find a way to get it without getting the requisite skill. This is Nigeria, where everything is possible. That is a systematic problem. That is why there is an interview.

Are you dealing with incompetent graduates? Blame your hiring process or yourself for not conducting the required interview. That you can’t find a job in Nigeria does not mean you don’t have the skill to get a job. The jobs ain’t just there. Go and study in the UK. If you stay back, you will get a job without any need to know someone that knows somebody. But if you dare return to Nigeria out of that thing called “patriotism” to contribute, you may need to buy a job or know somebody at a high place to get that dream job.

The problem is that we don’t even know what we want. No strategic plans. Everyone is just looking out for his pocket. After seven years, there is no clear education policy for the country. They said there are not enough resources to properly fund education, but they can’t produce a sustainable funding model for education. We are still living and surviving in lamentation mode.

They said a country cannot grow beyond the level of education of the people. Meanwhile, the education system of the country is in a deep mess, and no one is calling for a discussion on the sort of education that we need to aid our development as a developing nation. Every opportunist sits in the comfort of his office to push a policy through our throat, policies that will naturally die after they are out of the office. 

It was entrepreneurship yesterday and that made them introduce entrepreneurship as a compulsory subject in secondary schools and as a general studies course in the universities. But which entrepreneur will go and sit as a secondary teacher in a class to receive slave wages of N40,000 per month? The course is taught at the university by colleagues struggling to get home with their take-home pay.

The subject is taught by people struggling with monthly salaries and doesn’t know what entrepreneurship looks like aside from what they read in the book. The government that introduced the policy, as usual, did not make adequate provisions for it to be taught. But they are happy to have introduced the subject. Not sure of how many entrepreneurs we have produced from the teaching of the courses. Today, it is skill acquisition. Are we confused?

Just like the “entrepreneurship” package of yesterday, “Skills rather than Degrees” seems to be the new gold mine among those in government with different packages for funding from the government. At least we have started spending billions on skill acquisition across states. A report from Vanguard on April 6, 2022, says over N6.2 billion was spent to train and equip 16,820 Bauchi youths in the art of smartphone repairs. That’s about N368,609 per person.

You can write books on skills and get Bill Gates to write the foreword, but that won’t change our situation until we are willing to change it. We are not getting it right with our education system, and we have refused to ask honest questions and find answers to them. Some of the skills needed to be acquired at the university are missing due to system failure, and we pretend that all is well. All that our leaders want is to hear that students are in class and manage it like that. The quality of the teaching is not important to them. After all, their kids ain’t there. Unfortunately, we don’t see anything wrong with the MILT syndrome, and some of the victims even consider questioning/challenging the leaders as insubordination.

A member of this government is championing the “Skills and NOT Degrees” campaign, and he has written a book on it. I did not know that ministers have the luxury of time to write books while in office, despite their tight schedules. Well done, sir. I hope the idea will not die in May 2023 after leaving office.

There is no doubt that all is not well in our universities, from the hiring process to the interference of professional bodies to funding to the strangulation of the system by government agents to the killing of motivation to the localization of the universities to the internal politics to the quest for positions to the loss of a scholarship, etc. But condemning the university system that made us because of our mindset against ASUU won’t solve our problem unless we ask the right questions and find answers to them.

Why did the public primary schools collapse? What is the basic skill requirement at the primary school level? Why are those skills missing? What are the deliverables at the secondary schools? How did we lose it? We had the Government Technical Colleges. What happened to them? Can we restore them? What are the expectations from the polytechnics and the university for national development? What are the obstacles to making the expectations a reality? How do we get rid of the obstacles? The University education system is a universal purposeful system that has not changed. Ours is what we made it to be. We must revive the purposeful educational system towards our developmental needs as a developing nation.

Restoring our universities and other educational institutions to the state they are meant to be needs an honest approach. But window dressing our challenges won’t solve the problems if we don’t tackle them from the root. If we don’t sit to deliberate on the sort of education system we need to aid our development as a developing nation, we’ll keep moving around the clock while our situation keeps deteriorating.

Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD, wrote from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He can be reached via aaabdelmalik@gmail.com.