Spending N8.6bn on ‘ghost’ books

The Minister of Information Labaran Maku who addressed State House correspondents after the meeting disclosed that “the total number of textbooks to be distributed freely to all public schools nationwide is four million”.Even if government were to be sincere enough, which is very much doubtful given the pattern of impunity and corrupt leadership that both […]

The Minister of Information Labaran Maku who addressed State House correspondents after the meeting disclosed that “the total number of textbooks to be distributed freely to all public schools nationwide is four million”.
Even if government were to be sincere enough, which is very much doubtful given the pattern of impunity and corrupt leadership that both remain two major hallmarks of governance since Goodluck Jonathan became Nigeria’s most incompetent president; the initiative is far from deserving any commendations, at least from this column, particularly when the number of textbooks to be produced is put within the context of overall requirements for effective learning at the basic level of education. The amount (N8.6 billion) approved for the project may appear substantial only to those who do not have any idea of government frivolous but huge expenditures on not-so-important matters such as Patience Jonathan’s pet-project “Women for Change Initiative”; anniversary celebrations with centenary as the latest in the series; welfare packages; organizing or hosting questionable national and regional conferences, seminars, workshops, symposia, technical sessions, summits, capacity building courses, baseline surveys, dialogue fora, field trips, advocacy meetings, etc.
Like the annual budget or the weekly FEC meeting, appropriating billions of naira in the name of providing free textbooks to pupils in basic schools has become another annual ritual at the Federal Ministry of Education. So far, over N18 billion is claimed to have been spent by government in the past three years: N5 billion in 2010; N6 billion in 2011; and N7billion in 2012. Given this pattern; the amount for 2013 for the same project was predictable even before it was approved. It would be easier than ABC to also foretell even now that the 2014 approval shall be N9 billion.
If government, for instance, were given the benefit of doubts, only 4 million basic school pupils in the country would receive, at most, one textbook. If two textbooks have been planned to be given to each pupil, then only 2 million pupils would benefit from the project based on information minister’s statistics that four million textbooks are to be produced with the N8.6 billion. With children under 15 years of age accounting for about 45 percent of the country’s population, and with 20 million of them at the basic level of education; it is regrettable that government which passed the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act in to law in 2004 is not showing reasonable commitment to the fundamental rights and basic needs of the Nigerian child.
Worse than the gross inadequacy of the number of textbooks which government (in its usual euphoric character) expects Nigerians to celebrate is the non-provision of these books to the target group of learners in all the previous experiences. If nothing, the Federal Ministry of Education may have added “ghost books” to the list of vocabularies in modern “Nigerian” English. After all, we already have “ghost teachers”, “ghost students”, and “ghost schools”.
While Nigerians and other major stakeholders in the education sector including ASUU (which is currently on strike), ASUP (which called off its strike shortly before ASUU declared its own) and NUT are all laminting over poor funding of the system, government officials desperately ensure that even the little appropriated is siphoned in to private pockets through award of contracts that are either not worthwhile or never executed at all.
I once mentioned on this page that my children attend public schools and none ever brought home a copy of such “free” textbooks allegedly provided by government. Although I reside in only one out of the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT, provision of free textbooks by government is not an exercise (if it was actually executed) that could go un-noticed, at least, in a whole state. The fact that the “free books” are not noticeably available in the hands of those they were produced for, suggests several theories of corruption in the initiative. Even the symbolic copies produced find their ways soon after the fan-fare public presentation of the books to markets and bookstores in different parts of the country. A staff of the Niger State Universal Basic Education Board was arrested in 2012 for complicity in the sale of such free books that were found at an Onitsha bookstore.
Beyond the “ghost” textbook project is the failure by government, especially states, to make primary schools child-friendly; a concept advocated by UNICEF. Majority of basic schools more than ever in rural areas lack water, electricity, and toilet facilities. But are we not asking for too much when pupils could still be found learning under trees outside school buildings due of lack of classrooms? Investment in basic and higher education in Nigeria is still very low compared to other sub-Saharan countries. For all these reasons, prospects of Nigeria achieving Education for all by 2015 remain a mirage. May Allah (SWT) guide our leaders against using public funds meant for the education of children and youths to enrich themselves, amin.