Balancing Disequilibrium in Nigeria’s Education Demand and Supply: the Udom Emmanuel Paradigm

By Tom FredFish

Nigeria was among the 189 other countries of the world who in year 2000 endorsed the Millennium Development Goal 2, to “attain universal primary education in all countries by 2015”.

Though, more than half of the countries that endorsed the document did not meet the target year, 2015, two years ago, the declaration however activated a consciousness in the world that extending educational opportunities to both sexes everywhere is an economic strategy of loosening the individual from the grip of economic stagnation and backwardness and that education is a veritable instrument for national development.

Conscious of that, most countries of the world still grapple with the changing realities of their educational system. In Nigeria for instance, there is strong evidence of a crisis at all levels in the education sector from primary education through secondary to tertiary education - leading to a growing concern by stakeholders who have expressed grave concern about the dwindling quality of Nigerian educational system and how it is affecting the economic and security fortunes of the country.

These opinion leaders have called for the declaration of a “state of emergency” in the education sector and further lamented the installment decline and decay in the education sector, while some affirmed that 70 per cent of university graduates are unemployable because of their poor quality.

The trouble with the Nigeria derives from the quality of her people while the quality of her people derives from the quality of their education. This is to say that the near-complete political, economic and moral collapse of the country is partly due to the low quality of the educational system. It is the consequence of these failures in the educational system in about 57 years of Nigeria’s existence, that has led to Nigeria’s inability to produce men and women who can conveniently plan and run her economy and politics honestly and efficiently.

The unpatriotic nature of Nigerians is the bane of her development but can be reawakened and made to work by a conscious effort of sound quality education. It is therefore apt to say that while the federal government is experimenting on the system that best fits the current realities on ground, some states in the country have moved ahead to face the daunting challenges of disequilibrium.

One state which happens to place education as her priority is Akwa Ibom State, led by Mr. Udom Emmanuel. He has no doubt about the power of education because his action since assumption of office has put to question whether education is or could be the most powerful weapon for coping with the crisis of the Nigerian politics and if the right kind of education can produce the right kind of leaders to cope with Nigeria’s multifaceted problems.

To ensure that these questions are answered, and that education assist in addressing the income inequalities and wealth creation, governor Udom Emmanuel made education his main concern by repositioning all the state owned tertiary institutions.

Taking cognizant of the importance of quality manpower in education, Udom approved the recruitment of quality teaching and none teaching staff to the Akwa Ibom State University, Mkpat Enin; the State Polytechnic at Ikot Osurua and the College of Education at Afaha Nsit.

Not done yet, he went further to intervene by financing the development of infrastructures and boosting the consultancy service of the State University - commissioning seven major projects at the Obio Akpa Campus of Akwa Ibom State University during their first and second convocation exercise a fortnight ago. These projects include the Digital Language Library, Commercial Farm, Palm Oil Mill, Commercial Farm Feeds Mill, Vegetable Screen House, Ultra-Modern Mass Communication Studios, Standard Performance Arts Theatre, and Administrative Block.

He has also commenced massive renovation of classrooms and departmental blocks at the Akwa Ibom State college of Education, Afaha Nisit, in Nsit Ibom local government area of Akwa Ibom State.

In the same vein, the Udom Emmanuel led government has made commitments to ensure that the free and compulsory education programme of every school age resident in the state is sustained by making huge investment in that regard. In addition to free tuition the governor also pays a subvention of N100 per primary school pupil and N300 per secondary school students per term to cater for logistics. This effort has led to an astronomical increase of students’ enrolment to over one million, five hundred thousand students in public schools - tripled since the introduction of the programme.

To ensure that final year secondary school students are not constrained by lack of finance to enroll for external examinations, the Akwa Ibom state government undertakes payment of WASSCE fees for all students in public secondary schools as well as NABTEB fees for all students in public technical colleges.

Aware that educational facility are the key to quality education, the Udom government has undertook massive rehabilitation and reconstruction of school blocks through the Inter-Ministerial Direct Labour Scheme with more than 100 primary and secondary school blocks affected and covering the three senatorial districts.

Furthermore, Udom administration provided science and laboratory equipment, constructed hostels, supplied desk and benches to schools in the 31 local government of Akwa Ibom State; and has also set up ICT laboratories in some public and private schools and ensured the training of principals and teachers on the new educational curriculum teaching methods.

The Udom government dialogued with all Unions in the state tertiary institutions to stem labour unrest by signing a Memorandum of Understanding, (MOU) with Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) mandated to promote widespread availability and usage of telecommunication and ICT services in the state including promotions, conversions and confirmation for deserving teaching and non-teaching staff.

Nothing can more describe governor Udom inroad on education than legendary and unless other states join Akwa Ibom to radically re-order our educational priorities and policies, our democracy can neither survive or would Nigeria be able to participate in any global political economy of the twenty first century. But for Akwa Ibom State, a process has begun.

*Tom FredFish, is a youth activist, media consultant and strategist*