By Nasir El-Rufai
Let me start with my profound apologies for once rescheduling this lecture, and then arriving late today. As they say in aviation, this is due to technical reasons (schedule conflict) and the late arrival of the operating aircraft. It is good to be here with my friend and brother, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN with whom I share a long history of solidarity, professional and political engagement.
It is a great privilege to be in this specialised University of Medical Sciences – a model that we are studying to replicate in Kaduna State by God’s Grace in the event we are re-elected. We are also keen students of Ondo State’s achievements not only tertiary education but in delivering primary health care to the poorest citizens and are shamelessly copying same in Kaduna State. I therefore thank the Pro-Chancellor, Council and management of UNIMED for inviting me.
Introduction
1. I was particularly delighted when I got the invitation to deliver the 4th distinguished Guest lecture of this university for two reasons. First, I am persuaded that the development prospects of any country are connected to how well educated its citizens are. Secondly, I also believe that fundamental reforms in education are crucial to guaranteeing equal opportunity for all citizens regardless of their economic or social status.
2. Education is a lever for social mobility, enabling people to rise above the circumstances of their birth and providing a basis for building a meritocratic society. We have begun implementing ambitious education reforms in Kaduna State and, as you all know, these reforms have very often been met with resistance or in some cases, misrepresentation and mischief.
3. Your invitation seemed to me to be another acknowledgement that the rest of Nigeria is watching closely how Kaduna State is pursuing the reforms in Education, and how we are overcoming the resistance of those who think that their privileges, perquisites and entitlements should come before the need to equip the next generation with the ability to compete in a world that is changing faster than we can comprehend. I will ground the Kaduna State Government’s views on Education Reforms on the practical realities we met in Kaduna State, and what we are doing to change those realities from dreariness to a positive one for all our children.
The Context of Education in Nigeria
4. A word or two about the historical context of Education in Nigeria is appropriate to help build the pictured the evolution, deformation and challenges of Education in Nigeria. As I noted in an article I wrote that was published on the back-page of ThisDay and online by SaharaReporters and Nigeria Village Square on 29th July 2011, ‘Why Education Cannot Wait’, Nigeria has neither sustained the government investment in Education nor maintained standards. At independence, Nigeria’s 56 million people had 15,703 primary schools with a total enrolment of about 2,912,618 pupils. We had 883 Secondary Schools, 2 Federal Government Colleges, 315 Teacher Training Colleges and 29 Technical/Vocational Schools – all with a total enrolment of 169,019 students. We had one university college at Ibadan. By the time we became a republic in 1963, we had 4 Polytechnics and 5 Universities with a total of 2,445 undergraduate students. Kaduna State alone today has about 2 million pupils in public primary schools, compared to the nearly 3 million that were attending primary school in the whole of Nigeria in 1960.
5. The then regional governments invested heavily in Education. At that time, Nigeria as a whole allocated and spent an average of 40 percent of her national budget on education (compared to 2 percent under some recent governments). The old Western Region under Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s visionary leadership devoted 55% while the Northern Region under an equally committed leadership of Sir Ahmadu Bello earmarked about 46% of its budget on education.
6. Since the 1960s, the number of Nigerians in school has increased but the levels of investment and budgetary spending have not kept pace. The Universal Primary Education programme of the 1970s tried to manage the explosion in demand for schooling by expanding access to Teacher Training Colleges to train primary school teachers. Legislation on Universal Basic Education commits all state governments to deliver nine years of free basic education. Yet, there are still many children out of school in parts of our country.
7. But the reality is that despite the massive increase in the number of educational institutions at all levels, standards have fallen, and many employers have come to regard increased expenditure on training entry level staff to their own standards as another unavoidable cost of doing business in Nigeria.
8. But there is no reason why the dissonance between numbers and quality should persist. It is perverse that in Nigeria we have an inverse relationship between the number of people going to school and the quality of the product. If we desire progressive outcomes for all our people, we cannot allow this to persist. We must be able to educate every Nigerian to globally-competitive standards!
9. I will now begin a discussion of Education in Kaduna by quickly stating that Kaduna State is 12th overall in WAEC scores nationally, but number one among all the 19 northern states. Anyone familiar with the reality of Education in Nigeria will know that even first position nationally is precarious, not to mention twelfth. We have work to do to expand access to Education and to achieve vastly improved standards!
Our Governance agenda, or the things we hold dear
10. In 2014, we in the APC began campaigning for the responsibility to lead Kaduna State. We developed and presented to our people the Restoration Programme as the Kaduna State-specific iteration of the APC manifesto. After analysing the dismal state into which over one and half decades of misrule had plunged the state, we decided to inspire in our people a firm belief in a better future with the rallying cry to Let’s Make Kaduna Great Again.
11. At the core of the Restoration Programme is the fundamental belief in equality of opportunity, that once given the basic tools by government, people can maximise their potentials to build the good life for themselves. As I noted in the preface to the manifesto,
The APC believes that every citizen has the right to live in dignity, to aspire to and attain a good life; that it is the duty of the government to organise society to enable every person to develop their talents and be educated and healthy enough to make the best choices for themselves.
12. Therefore, the development of human capital is number one of the five priority areas we identified in the Restoration Programme, and we promised to invest aggressively in Education, Health and Social Welfare.
13. The rationale for this policy choice is obvious. We recognise education as a fundamental component of human development. Education is an aspirational asset, a tool that sparks the curiosity to seek solutions. This curiosity and its resultant solutions are integral to providing the kind of answers we need for modern development. Perhaps, the most important of its many benefits is the opportunity for social mobility; how quality education enables the poor to move out of poverty by the sheer force of determination, application of knowledge and hard work.
14. And this assertion that Education enhances life chances is not some motivational balderdash. It is the lived reality of many of us who were nurtured in a different Nigeria. I started life in rural Daudawa as the son of a pensioner. After my father’s death, I was moved to Kaduna where I completed primary education at the Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School, Kawo. In 1972, I proceeded to Barewa College, Zaria, for my secondary education. The foundation my teachers gave me in primary school was further reinforced in Barewa. The commitment of these teachers to knowledge and hard work nurtured the drive and study habits that enabled me study diligently in Ahmadu Bello University to earn a degree in Quantity Surveying.
15. It is a fact that I and many people of my generation would not have gone to school without the availability of free, public education. The quality of education we received then equipped us with the skills required to compete with our peers anywhere in the world. Having been so blessed to receive decent and mostly free public education, and to be given the opportunity to improve our status, do we not then have a moral burden to ensure that today’s children enjoy what we got? Should today’s parents have to pay through their noses to secure for their children decent education in private primary and secondary schools?
16. This is why the current Kaduna State Government is committed to improving the infrastructure and tools that make education more conducive for teacher and student, because a good foundation is crucial to any future learning process. And we are determined to make the necessary investments to attract and retain the best people in character, skill and learning to the teaching profession.
How we met Education in Kaduna State
17. During our campaign in the 2014-2015 election cycle, the APC drew the attention of the people of Kaduna State to the poor condition of the over 4,250 public primary schools in the state. Many lacked roofs, doors or windows. The absence of water and toilets made sanitation a tall dream in many of the schools. In some places, school was just some available open space. We argued then that our children deserved better, and we promised that we would make it happen, even if resource constraints impede the pace of change.
18. For the records, permit me to reproduce the exact commitments we detailed in our manifesto on Education:
“Our educational policies and programmes are aimed at eradicating illiteracy in Kaduna State, ensuring every child gets at least nine years of free basic education, improving infrastructure and tools, while attracting the best people in character and learning to the teaching profession.
– Text of lecture delivered by Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, as the 4th Distinguished Guest Lecture of the University of Medical Science, Ondo State, on Monday, 30th April 2018
