Education’s defining moments

Four nationally-recognised days will be remembered in 2012 – not for the reasons they were instituted but how the events that shaped them, especially in the education sector. KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE and ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA highlight the events and their effect.

In future, four national days in 2012, may mean different things to stakeholders in the education sector. They may become anniversaries of positive/negative change, hardship, and sadly, deaths. From the fuel subsidy removal that delayed resumption of schools at the beginning of the year, to the matriculation of students in eight of the nine new federal universities the events that shaped these days were interesting. But have their stories been fully told? That is the question, but what can be easilygleaned from it all is that some of the events took place on days of national significance.

JANUARY 1

When President Goodluck Jonathan announced the removal of fuel subsidy during his New Year address on January 1, its impact reverberated in every sector, including education. With the removal, the pump prize of the Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) that powers most vehicles on Nigerian roads, increased from N65 to N141.

Resumption day came after the holidays and the nine-day strike by the organised labour and civil society groups between January 9 and 16, but pupils in primary and secondary schools, and students in tertiary institutions could not resume in many parts of the country.

Those who traveled with their parents for the yuletide season, especially to the Southeast and Southsouth, suddenly found that they could not afford fares to return to their states of residents because transportation cost tripled in some cases. Many parents had to stay back in their home towns for sometime before they could gather resources to ferry their families back to their base. As a result, their wards had to stay out of school briefly.

This was particularly obvious in Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of the countries which is home to 14 million people from various ethnic tribes.

When schools resumed, cost increased. Some schools reviewed the bill they had earlier sent before, increasing the financial burden on parents, who had to increase the pocket money given their wards to enable them meet increased transportation costs. For those with children in the boarding school, it was tougher because cost of provisions and other essentials the pupils needed for school increased tremendously.

However, in some other parts of the country, like the Southeast and the Southsouth, where fuel had sold far higher than the N65 regulated price, the subsidy removal had minimal effect on school activities.

As another year draws closer, schools and parents are once more anxious about receiving another unsavoury New Year gift. Whether their anxiety will be confirmed will be known in four days.

may 29

On its calendar for 2012, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) had one big agenda – its 50th anniversary celebrations. But death and politics intruded and altered the celebration from one of joy to one tempered by solemnity and protests.

Its 12th Vice-Chancellor, Prof Adetokunbo Sofoluwe, died Saturday May 12, four days after addressing his last press conference to inform the public about activities he and other principal officers had lined up for the anniversary.

The university community was still finalizing details for his internment the next day when President Goodluck Jonathan, shocked them with the announcement that the institution had been renamed Moshood Abiola University of Lagos (MAULAG) during his May 29 Democracy Day broadcast.

The President said the change was in honour of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola the late business mogul-cum-politician and the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

While the National Association of Nigerian Students (NAN), some pro-democracy activists and members of the Abiola family applauded the change of name, it did not go down well with members of staff of the university, students, their parents, the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), and the UNILAG alumni association.

The students mounted a protest for two days from May 29, describing the president’s decision as the worst he had ever taken and vowing to resist it. They protested on the main campus in Akoka, and the Idi-Araba campus, which houses the College of Medicine, resulting in traffic gridlock which crippled business and social activities particularly in Akoka/Idi-Araba and extended as far as the third mainland bridge. It was only when the Senate of the university shut its gates on May 30 that the students were forced to retreat.

The UNILAG Parents Forum, workers, and the alumni association equally voiced their disapproval, claiming Jonathan’s decision was simply to massage the ego of those not happy with his administration, and expressing fears about the impact the new name could have on the university’s image.

The National Executive Committee, of the UNILAG alumni association, and the university’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) dragged the federal government to court over the matter.

However, those in support of the President’s decision pointed out other universities that had been renamed in the past, including the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, which used to be the University of Ife; the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka, among others.

Those against the decision argued that UNILAG is the first university to be established by an Act of Parliament in 1962, adding that it has, over the last five decades, emerged a strong brand which should not be tampered with.

On his part, President Jonathan insisted on the name change and sent a bill to the National Assembly to amend the university’s Act on June 7. This is now on hold following the interim order by Justice Stephen Adah at the Federal High Court, Ikeja on July 4 that the Federal Government and other concerned authorities should wait until the final determination of the suit challenging the renaming the university.

October 1

The sun rose on October 1, bright with hopes of a better future for Nigeria as it celebrated its 52nd Independence. The celebration became tainted with the blood of about 33 students of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi in Adamawa State, who were killed by gunmen.

The method of execution sent shivers down the spine of many Nigerians. The assailants, wielding dangerous weapons, moved from house to house in an off-campus students’ neighbourhood, called out names of the victims and shot and/ or hacked them to death. The gunmen, said to have worn military uniforms, operated for about two hours in the area that is just two kilometers away from the campus, unhindered by security operatives.

Given the spate of bombings and gun battles in some parts of the country, there were initial concerns that the killings might have been carried out by the dreaded Boko Haram group, an allegation it denied.

However, there were claims that ethno-religious sentiments fueled by a contest between candidates from the North and Southern parts of the country for coveted position in the Students’ Union election resulted in the killings.

Many of those killed were from the Southeast geo-political zone of the country – with a sprinkling of northerners, suspected to be Christians, and one from the Southwest.

There were also Muslims among the dead. A resident was reported to have said: “It is not clear why some were killed and others spared – some of the dead were Muslims and others Christian… Everybody is scared.”

Refuting claims of political motivations for the killings, Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr Sadiq Girei said those responsible were not students.

“The incident that occurred in Mubi is not hooliganism and it is not cultism, neither is it linked to the post Students Union Government (SUG) election violence. From the school’s findings, six students of the institution were killed and four were injured. More so, the incident occurred outside the school and those who committed the act are not students as widely reported in the media,” Girei wrote in a letter to the Federal Government dated October 4, 2012.

Contrary to Girei’s claims, sources in the police said it arrested 30 people in connection with the killings, three of who were students of the polytechnic. The sources also confirmed that the killings were in connection with the election as many of those killed were among the winners or their supporters.

The Senate joined President Jonathan in condemning the killings. While Jonathan ordered security agencies to find and prosecute the murderers, the lawmakers urged Federal Government to invoke the provision of capital punishment on the perpetrators.

October 5

The dust was yet to settle on the Mubi Killings when four students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) in Rivers State were killed in Omuokiri Aluu, a community that hosted many undergraduates of the university.

Their deaths were traumatic for many people because of the gruesomeness of the murders they watched on internet courtesy of some black-berry wielding spectators who recorded and distributed the videos through the social media.

The students, Biringa Chiadika (Theatre Arts), Ugonna Obuzor (Geology), Mike Toku Llyod (Civil Engineering), and Tekena Erikena (a Diploma student), were tortured and killed after a false alarm by someone who claimed to have been robbed of his laptop and a BlackBerry phone.

They were said to have demanded the repayment of a loan from the alarmist, whose property they allegedly seized to force him to pay. But things went awry when he raised alarm that he was being robbed and the community, said to have been terrorized by robbers, pounced on the boys and killed them.

Four days later, angry students of the university stormed the community, burnt some houses, cars and other properties to revenge their deaths.

The Rivers State Police arrested the mastermind of the murder, Coxson Lerebori Lucky, aka Bright and many others.

In light of the incident and the killings at Mubi, which happened just four days apart, the Education Minister, Prof Ruqayyat Ahmed Rufa’i, charged managers of tertiary institutions to make the safety of their students a priority.

Speaking at a function in Ilorin, the minster said: “I would like to remind vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts that the safety of lives and properties under your headship should remain a major priority as we all know that without these souls and properties, there would be no basis for your appointment in the first instance.

“The protection of lives and properties of your students, even when they live off campus should be of utmost concern, especially when it is not absolutely their choice to live off campus, but because we cannot afford to accommodate all of them on campus,” she said.

Other significant events in 2012

Floods that sacked schools

In March, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) warned that the year’s rains would be heavy and that irregular flooding would affect 23 states. When the prediction was made, not a few scoffed at the possibility of there being more than 230 days of rain out of the 366 days of the year in some places.

However, when the floods finally came between August and October, its effects were overwhelming in the affected states.

The flooding, the worst in Nigeria in the past 40 years, displaced over 1.3 million Nigerians and claiming over 431 lives across 30 of the 36 states of the federation, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

The agency said flooding started in Plateau State, coursed through Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Nassarawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Katsina and Kebbi states in August, before sacking Taraba, Benue, Niger, Kaduna and Kano in September; and its last victims- Delta and Bayelsa states in September and October.

At the height of the flood, angry waters forced people from their homes. Heavy rains affected over 350 communities in Bayelsa and Delta.

Schools were not spared. In Kogi State alone, the Commissioner for Education Mrs Dorcas Elebiyo said 548 primary and secondary schools could not open according to the state. She said affected schools lost furniture and other equipment. In Taraba State where over 100 schools were submerged, while in Adamawa State, 89 schools were similarly ransacked by flood forcing the government to postpone resumption of schools indefinitely.

The scenario was the same in Taraba State where over 100 schools were submerged by flood in several communities. Children in Lau, Karim-Lamido, Ardo-Kola, Gassol, and Ibbi Local Government Areas could not attend school because their structures had either been washed away or submerged.

Cross Rivers State was not better of as the flood covered 13 schools with Biase local government having the lion’s share of six of the 13 schools in the state.

Schools in Anambra, Benue, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers and other affected states were also closed. Survival became more important than education as parents battled to rescue farmlands and produce destroyed by the floods.

Some schools that were not affected had to be converted into camps for the displaced.

New Federal varsities matriculate 2,391 students

It is not all convocations of federal universities that the Education Minister, Prof Rukayyat Ahmed Rufa’i, attends personally. That is why her participation in the matriculation of eight of the nine universities established in 2011 demonstrates the seriousness of the federal government in ensuring they live up to expectation.

Prof Rufa’i has been busy this month jetting to the different towns that host the new federal universities, in company of the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Julius Okojie, preaching to the pioneer students and lecturers, the good news of the transformation agenda of the Jonathan administration.

The universities that have matriculated students are: Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State; Federal University, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina; Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State; Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa State; Federal University, Lokoja, Kogi State; Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State;; Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State; and the Federal University, Wukari, Taraba State.

The Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, is the only one yet to matriculate students due to the flooding that submerged most parts of the state in October.

Everywhere she went, Prof Rufa’i said the investment in the institutions is to ensure they can play their roles in producing high capacity graduates who can help transform Nigeria.

She also said the bill legalizing the nine universities have been signed into law.