₦airaland Forum

customized13:
Figures don't lie. You tried anyway, but the north is really dragging Nigeria backward in both literacy rate and welfare rate

kmariko:
While Not holding brief for oduastates, I think that what he was get at (I might be wrong) is that there is a very dysfunctional relationship between the elite and the masses that's needs to be redefined before any headway can be made in tackling illiteracy in the region.

Having lived in Kaduna. My observation is that the beyond religion, the cultural impositions on the masses are/ is the greatest impediment to achieving literacy in the region....Which oduastates sees as a feudal system.

arewafederation:
I appreciate the in-depth analysis given in your write up which is enough to make the ill informed aware of the development of western education in the north. Kudos Rawani for this enlightening piece.

With the gradual decay of the al majiri system (which has been abused by some greedy mallams over the years), the north shall achieve great heights in the area of western education.

Allh ya jaa zamanin ka!

CyberWolf:
only Kano and sokoto, what about the remaining 17 northern states?..The issue is that parents up there takes this issue of religious classes more serious than basic education. I'm not saying that they should abandon religious classes because we still do it here( bible studies & cathecism classes) but their basic education should be say 90% & religious classes take 10% ..

I listed the two states I was sure of as I've not been in the country for a couple of years now, but I'm sure the other states offer free basic education as well. Its funny you said "the issue is" when its fairly evident you don't know the north, as they have different schools and different schedules for Islamic and western education, and the students (in urban areas) attend both, and more time, effort and resources are spent on the latter.

It might interest you to know I'm not a muslim, however I'm a core northerner that has lived harmoniously with muslims most of my life. Exposure to other cultures, is education on its own, as it crushes prejudices (like the one I had against Indians) and builds bridges. Cheers bro.

CyberWolf:
but what are your governors doing?..if a poor state like my state Ebonyi, can offer free primary and secondary education, why can't your governors can't do so? Basic education can do better for them,their family and the society at large than all this religion stuffs...

CyberWolf:
The earlier you people abolish amajiri system, the better for you..

Ayesman:
Yawwa.... Na gaishe da Rawani.

OREMUSSANCTUS:
As far as child-marriage is still prevalent in d north, ma people d illetracy level dere will continue to sky rocket. Only d rich give their children d best, d poor marry their children out and dose ones give birth like ants and den no money to train demselves not to talk of dem kids. D vicious cycle of poverty theory is apllicable to d north, for dose dat know economics.

Rich4god:
The earlier the northern elite as a state relagate religion to the background (making it an individual thing) and push western education forward, then the better for all of them.

oduastates:
I do.
You are putting out propaganda and distorting the reasons for the educational backwardness of the north.
Allowing you to go scot free means that,many children will be denied their basic rights in the future. A few glossy picture does not right a fundamental wrong. One of the most brilliant student I have ever met was the son of a northern elite. However the most educationally disadvantaged people you will ever meet are the children of Northern masses.

Oh dear how else can I explain this, again I have to ask if you read and understood the article. What you are saying has been acknowledged within that piece. I have told you the reason you want to hear is not peculiar to the region, therefore it's an exercise in futility to outline factors which are at best, generic. The attitude of northern elders which is a starting point for the needed change, contributed to the rot, and that was also in the article. The 'glossy' pictures are the efforts being put in place to fix the anomaly(ies). So what are you on about

Rawani:
[b]The question then arises; what have the northerners done about it all these years? Unfortunately selfish northern spiritual and political leaders had a 'eureka!' moment where they realized that they could twist the interpretations of Islamic scriptures to suit their selfish purposes, and feed it to the fertile, young and impressionable minds of the almajiri's who then grow up to be violent tools in the hands of these leaders, and any attempts at promoting western education by the constituted Northern authorities was seen as an affront to Islam, and a recipe for apostasy among adoptees.

It is however unjustifiable to state that the North is doing nothing to promote western education, as schools are now being built in these rural areas at an astounding pace (especially the UBE projects) and the establishment of World Class Universities by both private individuals and Government, such as Abti-American University, Yola by Alh. Atiku Abubakar (by far the 'poshest' University in Nigeria) and the newly commissioned North West University, Kano.[/b]

OkijaAmaka:
Ojukwu was not abandoned by Igbos, we voted him massively in 2003 including Pita Obi but what happened, Obasanjo the useless yolobaman and a failed father rigged the whole process to favour him.

The same Obasanjo that used yoloba thugs to destroy properties in Anambra is now APC's leader

kastonkastrol:
When you don't support one another, you shouldn't expect an outsider to support you. A divided house were everyone is trying to pull each other down, ain't gonna make any progress. And that's the simple truth.

oduastates:
You still don't get it.

Neither do you, apparently

oduastates:
Why are you attributing the problem to social problem like population, settlement pattern, neglect when in actual fact, you can put it simply as,

1 selfishness of Northern leaders
2 corruption
3 shortsightedness
4 lack of competent leadership
5 feudal relationship between the northern elites and the masses.

Like someone said, the poverty rates in Nigerian states and all the other bad indices of development,is a measure of how corrupt that place is.
This summary comes from northerners themselves

oduastates:
Hmm.
You are right to an extent on the missionary part but on the whole, you are simply beating about the bush.
The missionaries only educated a few in the West. It was Awolowo who educated the masses.
The fact on the ground is that promoting education goes beyond fancy building or simply just throwing money at it.
It is a state of mind. I do not see any state anywhere apart from maybe rivers state mobilising as much resources for education as Osun.
Even the the south, many states are as bad as the north. E.g bayelsa.

Rawani:
Trolls should stick to the Ethnicity/Racism section as they will be completely ignored.

OkijaAmaka:
thenationonlineng.net/new/70-of-northerners-are-illiterates-atiku/

www.nairaland.com/1984841/bombshell-over-70-northerners-illiterates-atiku

queensmith:
Thank you both.

Rawani your post was brilliant, I realize today I don't have one (non mixed) friend from the North, if I was to believe my parents its simply because they have no interest in traveling abroad or making money but matters always have to have more depth.

The issue with the missionaries was wide spread and does in fact still continue to cause trouble in various communities today definitely not just in Nigeria or only amongst the North.

I don't believe western education is the only way, and I do often worry Nigerians don't pay enough attention to their own cultures, which of course makes matters worse as we don't actually make efforts to understand the people with whom we share a nation and in turn we don't do enough to cater to their needs.

Learning Arabic is just as important as learning English and indeed learning local languages and cultures. A true leader will ensure that our children are well versed in many local languages, cultures, religions, traditional and in addition has sufficient western knowledge to take advantage of he diversity and stimulate economic growth and inter tribal relationships.

We have a long way to go. But it does start with threads like this, I hope you are not discouraged, so long as we understand and respect each other well, times will get better.

queensmith:
Thank you for this Arewa very informative thread. I also admire your patience and polite tone which must be difficult in the face of soo much hatred and bigotry.
I apologize if you have already answered this I haven't been through the whole thread, but returning to the colonial policies you mentioned earlier - we are no longer in colonial times which is obvious, have there been no efforts by the Northern leaders to provide suitable education? Is there no encouragement by them currently?

This is an eye opener.

egift:
PDP's Agents of Corruption always living in denials. Now there are no Christian in North East Nigeria. Below is an article from CAN claiming that 20 million Christains are displaced in the troubled North East (personally I think it is exaggerated). But you can't now claim that there is now Christain there.

CAN Says It Won’t Accept Polls Result If 20m Displaced Christians Don’t Vote
https://www.nairaland.com/2131053/says-it-wont-accept-polls

pazienza:
[s]Competition and survival of the fittest are usually the fabric of successful nations, Federal character and quota system is the bane of failed states northern leaders infected Nigeria with when it dawned on them that they can't compete with Ndiigbo.

Only when there is competition can synergy yield results, no ethnic group in Nigeria has more synergy than Ndiigbo, our synergy saw us through Biafra and helped us rebuild our homeland post civil war. No northerner had ever stooped to conquer, stooping to conquer can only exist in a competitive society not in a backward feudal one you have in the north, where peoples role in the society had been pre determined before their birth.

Crime rate in the North is higher than that in the east, while the ignorant northerner is busy stealing kuli kuli and Alhaji's farm produce, and having his fingers chopped off when caught, the Igbo thieves aim higher, they know they can make better deals with their criminal mind.

Such is the level of competition in Igboland that even our criminals are innovative. *grins*

Competition breeds innovation, and only when there is competition can synergy amount to something.[/s]

pazienza:
Funny. Take it or leave it, no ethnic group places more importance in individual achievements than Ndiigbo.

There is competition amongst siblings as parents put them under pressure to achieve things, there is competition amongst villages in a town, there is competition amongst neighboring towns and there is competition amongst Igbo states, the entire Igbo nation is built on competition, it's the fabric of the nation, right from Individual to group level, failure is abhorred and sucess is praised, everyone and group is under pressure to be successful, those who couldn't meet up are scorned and groups that can't stand the heat secede from the group to avoid being accused of being too lazy *grins*.


Because of the desire for individual success, no place in Nigeria has better distribution of wealth than Igboland and it was this same competitive spirit that saw Ndiigbo rebuild our civil war ravaged towns and cities with no extra help from Gowon and his co travellers.


With all due respect, no ethnic group takes more pride in the achievements of one successful man in the community than the Yorubas and the Hausas with their Alhaji worship culture, so it's quite ironic for someone like you to accuse an Igbo of what your group is known for.



Ndiigbo celebrate our achievers because we know and take pride in their achievements when we realized that hypocritical Nigerians like you, won't hesitate to bash the rest of us or even kill the rest of us as in the case of Nzeogwu, should any one of us err.

An entire entire ethnic group was almost wiped off the surface of the earth by hypocrites like you that believed that the actions of few Igbo officials should stand for that of all Igbos, but you now get mad when Ndiigbo now insist that the glorly of our high flyers must now stand for that of all Igbo people.