Why not Adamu Adamu?

The Nigerian factor is on the prowl again and as usual it is hounding another golden opportunity to change the fouled fortunes of Nigeria for the better! This time the appointment of Adamu Adamu as Minister of Education has curiously shifted the focus from the chronic challenges bedeviling the nation’s all-important education sector to the […]

The Nigerian factor is on the prowl again and as usual it is hounding another golden opportunity to change the fouled fortunes of Nigeria for the better! This time the appointment of Adamu Adamu as Minister of Education has curiously shifted the focus from the chronic challenges bedeviling the nation’s all-important education sector to the puerile and forgone issue of the appointee’s competence. So they ask “Will Adamu deliver”? Even the question implies that Adamu can deliver, reducing the supposedly “academic” and “professional” concerns of the critics to sickening sentiments. Interestingly, their seemingly sectional outbursts were pre-empted and eventually drowned by the spontaneous celebration of the mega-ministry’s more enthusiastic staff, thus passing a vibrant verdict on his competence and capacity.
The ridiculous premise for the “academic” ambush and “professional” persecution of accountant-turned-journalist-turned prolific and perceptive public policy analyst is again spotlighted by the historical fact that a majority of the 55 education ministers Nigeria has had since independence flaunted educational backgrounds as veritable rights of occupancy of the portfolio. But the current pathetic state of education in the country casts a doubtful, if not dubious, shadow on their collective competence and capacity in their acclaimed comfort zone.
Less skewed academic or even professional review of the status quo in the education sector will lend more credence to the rationale and relevance of the circumspective analytic insights of the accomplished socio-political columnist into the hydra-headed harbingers of the “rot” plaguing the education sector over and above the bookish blinkers of ivory tower “experts”. There is no denying that virtually every “educated” Nigerian will be just as familiar with the notorious inadequacies and entrenched policy and implementation paralysis which characterize education at all levels and all over the country.
Thus, the most profound and impactful policies and programmes currently moving the education sector forward were initiated in the Obiageli Ezekwesili tenure at the ministry, which is no mean feat given the typically long gestation period of policy outcomes in the education sector. Yet, coincidentally, she also was an accountant but, with hindsight, her most distinguishing, effective and widely-acclaimed attributes were intelligent assessment of challenges and corrective measures, insistence on timely and strict execution of policies and prudent and accountable implementation of programmes and projects while diligently motivating staff of the ministry. Candidly, the same cannot be said of the Okebukolas and the Osujis whose professed academic and professional prowess sank to abysmal depths, seemingly sucked into the whirlpool of administrative lethargy, widespread mismanagement and undue financial processes, among other entrenched encumbrances.
Fortuitously, Adamu Adamu’s combined careers in accountancy, journalism and civic policy advocacy have been unblemished and highly appreciated, not to mention the acknowledged contribution to unbundling our Pandora’s Box of social, political, economic and attitudinal excesses and inequities courtesy of his decades of weekly wit and wisdom writings. Outside the mercifully muted ranks of his traducers, Adamu is reputed for his patriotism, courage, humility, intelligence, upright and passionate in his endeavours, all of which he will certainly deploy in his national assignment as Minister of Education.
It is high time the Federal Government extricates itself from the state and local government sourced afflictions on its otherwise justified, humongous and transformative intervention in the basic education sector, which has for too long been hamstrung by its concurrent classification.
Pointers for a roadmap include securing budget pre-eminence for education and state and federal levels. Also,  The Basic Education Programme of the Federal Government must decisively shake off the shackles of state and local government impunity and ineptitude in meeting their obligations. The key issue is the fate of the huge budget allocations from the Federal Reserve annually set aside through UBEC for federal intervention in states and local governments.
From initially releasing the funds to states, to imposing several conditions precedent to the release of counterpart funds, virtually all measures to safeguard the funds from diversion have been circumvented by states. In the last ten years, states have generally shown a preference to access the funds than the much-needed timely and prudent execution of UBE projects in their areas.  The current trend is to refuse to access the funds altogether if they cannot get them without strings attached.
The “orphaned” status of secondary schools should be decisively resolved in favour of bringing them under regulatory monitoring and supervision by UBEC as its regulatory agency.
On out of school children and limited access to tertiary institutions, this is another issue for similar national meeting with commissioners, SUBEB chairmen as a distinct aspect of the FG intervention in basic education. There is need to situate the problem in the national emergency bracket considering the weighty implications and alarming consequences of steadily increasing numbers of predominantly children and youth affected on national security and future development. An all-inclusive interactive session approach should be adopted in arriving at the appropriate policy direction. The crucial responsibility of states and LGs is also a matter of serious concern that should be decisively tackled even as FG develops an option for achieving its targets, irrespective of partnership performance capacity.
Then there’s craft and vocational/entrepreneurial education. The curricular challenges to the desired and much delayed implementation of shift in emphasis from white collar education to functional education that equips all students with at least one proficiency in a skill or vocation with entrepreneurial relevance by the time they exit SSS. The systematic relegation and revision of Nigerian and African History in schools and tertiary curricular with deleterious effect on the national consciousness of our children and youth of their political and historical heritage requires urgent attention and concerted efforts to “format” the minds of our children and youth must be countered vehemently and effectively. 
For federal government colleges, the original motivation for establishing them was to promote national unity and federal character in the hearts and minds of our students as part of the post-war remedial measures. While these values are still relevant and necessary for inculcation today, the zeal and commitment of the founding fathers has fizzled out of the attention and concern of the bureaucrats. To restore the founding momentum and depth of passion for national unity and cohesion as well as common national ethos through comprehensive rehabilitation and revitalization of infrastructure and teaching and learning processes in the FGCs will also manifest a profound transformation in a model institution under the Presidency. More significantly it will rekindle the fading embers of nationalism and unity in diversity.
The challenge of greater access to learning for the teeming out of school and early child education children calls for the integration of the nation’s radio broadcast facilities into the access spectrum which still remains a major national asset for service to education all over the world. Here it has been virtually abandoned since the deliberate dismantling of the Schools Broadcast Service under the Education Ministry that was once a qualitative and highly effective supplement to the delivery of special programmes by TV and radio to all primary schools in towns and villages on a regular curricular-based broadcast schedule.
The NTI-based Teachers Radio (if on air)  and NOUN facilities (if any) and the surviving personnel and equipment of the Schools Broadcast Unit of  the FME are the potential building blocks for a completely new national schools broadcast and distance education service that will also register as a monumental transformation and positive change in the education sector. This will impact on the challenge of access at basic education sector in a very significant way for the benefit of millions of poorly-taught pupils across the nation in a cost-effective method.
Babatunde wrote from Kaduna.