By Polycarp Onwubiko
Punch Editorial April 30, 2024 wrongly eulogized president Tinubu for dabbling into the education matters which state governments can handle effectively and efficiently. This is one of the reasons the lopsided Federation should be restructuring immediately if president Tinubu is really serious about reinventing the country.
The Editorial said inter alia:
"In a bid to assess the
condition of the infrastructure of schools in Nigeria, from primary to tertiary
level, President Bola Tinubu has approved an extensive census to be taken. The
stocktaking includes ascertaining the number of teachers, their qualifications,
training support received, and all students. For Nigeria to be relevant in the
digital age, the President must make the overhauling seamless".
***Comment:
What a shameful if not
harebrained initiative and policy when such measures can be effectively and
efficiently undertaken by the state governments?
In other words, the Federal
Ministry of education staff will be tasked to go round the 36 states of the
country to gather data and information on the areas which the president want.
Sorry for Nigeria.
This monstrous bungling and
aberration stemmed from the reluctance of the past and present presidents to
Restructuring governance because the purported owners of Nigeria, the
"Fulani Feudal Oligarchy" don't want Restructuring the lopsided
Federation because it would truncate their islamization agenda.
They would continue to expect
preferential treatment and pampered in every sector of governance to ensure
that their ultra conservative values are injected into every aspect of
governance. Otherwise what has the federal government to do with primary school
teachers and also secondary school teachers and education infrastructures which
in all countries that practice federal system of government are within the constitutional
remit and jurisdiction of the state or Regional Governments as was the case in
the First Republic.
Why should the over pampered
Fulani Feudal Oligarchy be sore afraid of convoking Constituent Assembly to
reinvent the Republican Constitution which had the realistic principles of
federal system of government wherein the then Regional Governments were
developing at their own pace and values of their people?
Putting hands into the sectors
of governance which the state and local government council should be doing made
past and present presidents not to accord a Review of Statutory Revenue Sharing
Formula to reduce the humongous federal share which has been the root cause of
humongous financial malfeasance in the MDAs. There is so much public funds in the
MDAs hence the silly policies in education, Agriculture, security etc which are
better run by the sub-national Governments as obtained in sane and sanitized
Federations the world over. To say that Nigeria is reeling under an irrevocable
curse, is merely stating the obvious.
Polycarp Onwubiko, a political analyst
writes from Awka, Anambra State.
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