Ignorance, poverty and strife – the real axis of evil – are not inevitable in any part of this blessed country. Each of them can safely be said to have its root in the failure of all tiers of government to sufficiently invest in education. It is this failure to accord education a pride of place for decades that has led to emergence of chapter of strife and insurgency in our history.
In the defunct Northern Nigeria, one of the greatest achievements of Ahmadu Bello was in the field of education. Under his administration, Northerners (boys and girls) who were poor but ready to learn were encouraged to go to school. They had free access to scholarships which helped them to get to any level of education they desired. Many of those who acquired western education became very successful in their various fields. He knew the importance of education and he went to the grassroots to mobilise for not only Islamic education but also western education.
Similarly, in the defunct Western Region, Obafemi Awolowo used the free education programme for economic, social and cultural emancipation of his people. His burning desire to extend his achievement in the Western Region to the whole nation was still very high in 1983 when he (Awolowo) said: “To finance free education, we are going to block wastages like the N350 million allocated to be spent on chocolate in the Third National Development Plan. For the four years of my administration, there will be no dinner, no banquet, and no luncheon. Nobody will drink anything but water in the office, including my office, if I am elected president. Nigeria needs a shock treatment!”
Nnamdi Azikiwe, the then Premier of Eastern Region, was equally a visionary leader who had seen that Nigeria needed an indigenous education factory for the production of authentic made-in-Nigeria graduates, who would be catalysts for national development. The first indigenous Nigerian university, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) was to his credit.
Sadly, however, from the first 13 years of military rule to Shehu Shagari’s Second Republic back to another 14 years of military rule till the present Fourth Republic, oil, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the flair to voluntarily subject the citizens to new slavery through money laundering and unimaginable level of corruption, the progress of the country has been severely reversed.
It was in the midst of the axis of evil – ignorance and poverty –coupled with income inequality raging in the country but more pronounced in the North that the then governor of Zamfara State, between 1999 and 2007, Ahmed Sani, initiated his brand of Sharia movement, largely as a counter-force against Peoples democratic Party (PDP) big-wigs from his state, and within a year he was followed by 12 others. The political Sharia project was massively supported by the “talakawas” and sincere Muslims across the nation. But by 2004, political Sharia had lost steam. Yerima – the politician – and his co-travellers had short-changed their people. Many of them have also crossed from one political party to another, friends becoming enemies and enemies becoming friends.
Instead of using Sharia as instrument of economic, scientific, social and political empowerment for the individual and the society at large, it was used to empower only the political and aristocratic class. Arguably, the seemingly intractable insurgency of the devilish Boko Haram sect emerged as an accumulated product of decades of maladministration and corruption by the Nigerian state, especially these hypocritical champions of Sharia.
We are in a country where the truth of a matter is often difficult to establish. Boko Haram is a misguided response to dubious Sharia used by the politicians and neither represents the Sharia of Islam. One wonders how in this age, or any age at all, Sharia can be established through bombing of churches, mosques, schools, markets and what have you? Hardly can anyone deny the connection between educational deficiency and insurgency. What has happened to our brothers in the North was that they failed to learn from and sustain the legacy of one of the country’s legend, Bello.
As was done by Bello, what our bickerers in the present North and the entire country need to do to escape from calamities like Boko Haram is to ensure the provision of qualitative, accessible and affordable education to the entire citizenry. The earlier we accept that Boko Haram cannot be defeated through war that excludes use of psychological war and functional educational system, the better for us all.
Education is an essential right vital for economic, social and cultural development of all societies. Without it, the citizens cannot blossom and the nation cannot progress. It is, thus, undeniable that for individuals, education is the ladder of opportunity. For communities, it is the base of common values that holds diverse people together. For nations, it is the engine of economic growth. And for all who believe in freedom, education provides the moral foundation for democracy guided by respect for individual dignity and the rule of law.
If many who are denied access to it turn around to call it a sin, then in reality for the citizens our grudge should be towards the government that prefers corruption to provision of education. With mutation of Boko Haram to what they now call themselves – ISOWA (Islamic State of West Africa), we are left now to use more of psychological engagement and raising of millions of Malalas.
What about Malala? Malala Yousafzai is a courageous advocate for universal education and girls’ rights. She was targeted for her brave activism and in October 2012 by the Taliban who boarded her school bus and shot her and two other girls. After the shooting, Malala was flown from her home in Pakistan to the United Kingdom to recover. She is back at school and continues to campaign for every child’s right to education.
Let’s have the same number of non-governmental organisations and resources being used to fight HIV/AIDS for education campaign, and the result will be more than cheering. In a nutshell, solution to the real axis of evils that breed insurgency and many of our social evils lies in education. Let’s stand up for education and say to the world that we are stronger than the enemies of education and stronger than the forces that threaten girls, boys and women from leading happy and productive lives.
• Musbau is of the Features Unit, Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.