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I have read or
heard such recurring negative comments over the past five years and
each time, I shudder. Out of curiosity and displeasure, I set out to
find out for myself what may be wrong. I had long perceived that our
state-run schools could be at the root of the problem, so I started to
volunteer my time and resources, and supported by friends and
colleagues, at a neighbourhood junior secondary school.

What I have learnt
is instructive and as I write this article, it must be 14 months since
I first stepped into the school to the warm reception of the school
authority.

Literacy and
numeracy are, in my opinion, at the core of every intellectual pursuit.
I even consider literacy as the foundation for numeracy, which is why
language is what the child first learns before all else. The students
were in JSS1 at the time and after introductions, I made each person
write a simple essay about her or himself and this gave me an insight
into their backgrounds. You’d imagine that many of them are from
economically challenging environments. Rightly so.

Notwithstanding, I
came away with a strong impression of their enthusiasm and high
aspirations. Musa Yahaya, for instance, had long adopted Aliko Dangote
as his role model. But in order to succeed, preparation must match or
even exceed aspiration.

Can state run
schools, as they are today, therefore be said to equip students with
tools they need to succeed in life? I dare say no. As I corrected the
essay scripts, there was no content, neither was there good structure
or organisation. Many sentences were poorly constructed and the
grammatical flaws were shocking. Some students could not even write
their names properly.

The vice principal
rightly pointed out that things were in a sorry state and that her
students will be expected to compete with others from private
establishments within and outside Nigeria!

Over the past
months, my friends and I have organised motivational sessions,
mobilised supply of learning materials, and actively sought to impress
on the students the need to take their studies seriously. But it’s not
only the students that need to sit up.

I have, at some
point, had to teach the students under a tree in the school compound,
because the dilapidated classroom block was being refurbished. I had my
fair share of experience in the poor classroom infrastructure. While
delivering a ‘Brighter Grammar’ lesson one morning, a ceiling square
almost fell on my head.

The school lacks
discipline. Students stroll in leisurely at 9am, sometimes later (I
hear the “elites” may be complicit because some of the students are
domestic hands who are not allowed to prepare for school until
“madam’s” children have been picked by the school bus).

Teachers look
de-motivated, distracted, even uninterested – for good reason? I was in
class one day and I asked the students “why do you all speak pidgin
English?” One of them – a young, bold girl, stood up and said rather
angrily, “the teachers teach us in pidgin.” Most of the students agreed
with her, but at the same time out of fear, queried why she would say
such a thing!

The school
environment is not conducive for learning. The vice principal, whom I
respect for her long years of service and ability to roundly motivate
the students, once said that if she had her way she would ask the many
food sellers to stay out of the school premises, at least until
break/lunch time. This is because she finds that students eat rice,
beans, plantain, and so on in class while teachers deliver lessons.

Ill prepared for future

It is useful at
this juncture to present the outcome of an analysis I did using average
scores for vocabulary tests that I dispensed. 270 students were tested
over five (5) class sessions, using 50 words each time (I came up with
the test words from a pool of about 10,000 words which the students
themselves drafted). From the population of 270, I selected a sample of
81 students – those who had record of at least 3 scores out of the 5
test sessions. (70% did not qualify for the sample) 32 students scored
average of 50% and below, while the remaining can be said to have
passed.

40% failure rate is
still “positive”, when compared to the over 98% failure rate in 2009
SSCE. However, if I analysed the scores of all 270 students, about 70%
would have failed – failed simple vocabulary tests for which the
students had at least one week ahead to prepare!

There’s no doubt
that with an ill-educated, ill-prepared population, Nigeria’s internal
security, and its economic growth and development aspirations, are
gravely threatened and our country risks being relegated to the
background in the comity of nations.

Mayowa Amoo lives and works in Lagos and can be reached on mayowa_amoo@yahoo.com

Some Ondo State residents, yesterday, faulted the
deployment of former Ekiti State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ayoka
Adebayo to Ondo State.

Mrs. Adebayo conducted last year’s contentious
re-run elections in the Ekiti State in a manner observers believed was
highly controversial. She initially refused to declare the result of
the election and went incommunicado for days until she surfaced in
Abuja and pronounced the Peoples’ Democratic Party candidate, Segun
Oni, winner of the polls. Sola Iji, the state Chairman of the Action
Congress, said there was no point retaining Mrs. Adebayo in INEC after
her performance in Ekiti State last year.

“I want to pass vote of no confidence on Ayoka
Adebayo to conduct flawless election in Ondo state,” he said. “Her
redeployment to the state at this auspicious moment was shocking.
Attahiru Jega (INEC Chair) should be held responsible for any debacle
in next year elections in the state. Redeployment of Mrs. Adebayo is a
wrong signal to the credibility of Jega’s led electoral body to conduct
generally acceptable polls.”

Also, an Akure based legal practitioner, Titiloye Charles, expressed
concern on the deployment of Mrs. Adebayo, saying “it is on record that
her controversial role in the disputed Ekiti re-run election is still
pending before the court of Appeal in Ilorin. We doubt her neutrality
in the face of threat by some individuals to capture the state in 2011.
Mrs Adebayo’s redeployment has cast a doubt on the ability of new INEC
boss to conduct fair next year.”

Women, who do not
necessarily partake in conflict situations or the processes that lead
to them, are usually the most affected by the several ethno-religious
crisis that have hit Nigeria in recent times.

Several
professionals in Gender Studies and Women Affairs, who came to this
consensus during a conference on Women’s Human Rights and Religion, in
Abuja, organised by a non-governmental organisation, BAOBAB for Women’s
Human Rights, also advised women to be more proactive in their response
to conflict situations.

Aituaje Pogoson, a
senior lecturer at the University of Ibadan, said women and children
are more susceptible to unprovoked violence during and after conflict
situations. “Women who are not involved in the decisions that lead to
religious and ethnic conflicts usually bear the brunt of the
conflicts,” she said. “Women are more susceptible to harm in conflict
situations whether or not they are involved in the war or conflict
situation. The able bodied men go to war but the women are left
unprotected and to care for the children leaving them vulnerable to
attacks.”

Mrs. Pogoson advocated for an increased focus on how women survive during and after conflict situations.

In support, Doris
Onieje, who lectures at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, reiterated
that the coverage of the recent Jos crisis by the Nigerian media did
not draw much attention to the plight of women, some of whom were
widowed, raped, and killed during the course of the conflict. “The
media has failed to adequately capture the impact of the conflict on
women,” she said.

No security during conflicts

Vonke Dickson, a
participant in the conference, recounted a frightful experience during
the Jos crisis. Five days ago, Mrs. Dickson said she was alone in her
home with her two children, aged 10 months and 3 years. Not too far
away in a neighbouring village, Mahza, a fresh upheaval had just
occurred and she feared that her village would be next. Mrs. Dickson,
with her husband away, kept vigil from midnight till dawn with no way
to contact any emergency service. “I could do nothing but stay awake
and wish that there was an emergency number that I could call,” she
said. “Even if I could jump over the fence and run away, what about the
children?” Her story effectively re-emphasized the helpless state that
women, who are left to care for the children in conflict situation,
find themselves.

Some speakers urged
women who overhear plans by their husbands, brothers, or neighbours to
perpetrate violence, to alert relevant authorities so that future
conflicts can be prevented. “Women must learn to speak out and report
such plans which lead to conflicts,” Mrs. Obieje said, adding that more
women should “clamour for affirmative participation in policy making.”
Other speakers, however, rose in defence of women who keep silent in
conflict situations.

“Women should be encouraged to speak out. But we must realise that
keeping quiet is something that has been embedded in our subconscious
by the society because of cultural or religious reasons. Women are
usually expected to be silent,” Snow Ogunjimi, who is the Programme
Officer (Youth and Women Initiatives) in TY Danjuma Foundation, said.
Mrs. Pogoson agreed with Ms. Ogunjimi. “It may not always be deliberate
silence, but that which has existed over the years. Women need courage
to be able to report some of the things they may overhear,” she said.

Former military president and presidential aspirant,
Muhammed Buhari, of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), has
expressed confidence about the Independent National Electoral
Commission’s (INEC) capacity to conduct free and fair elections in 2011.

Mr. Buhari stated this yesterday when he commissioned
the new party secretariat in Jos-Makurdi road in the Bukan-Sidi area of
Nasarawa State.

The general urged INEC to update the voter’s register
in preparation for the forthcoming general election. He warned against
disenfranchising the youth, saying that those who were 18 years and
older should be allowed to take part in the forthcoming general
election.

He asked Nigerians not to vote for corrupt leaders again because
they are criminals, and urged the large crowd who came out to welcome
him, to vote for people of high integrity. He noted that the money
current leaders had realized in the past ten years, was enough to cover
the cost of free education, health care and security.

The House of
Representatives has stopped the bid by the Nigerian Communications
Commission to spend N6.1b on the registration of SIM cards, saying the
exercise is the responsibility of operators in the telecoms industry.

Lawmakers dumped
the plan on Thursday, overwhelming Dave Salako, the Communications
Committee chairman of the House, who, last week, offered to raise the
amount and spent minutes justifying the sum during yesterday’s debate
on the commission’s 2010 budget.

At the sitting, Mr.
Salako was asked to explain his committee’s recommendation that the
commission proceed with the project, after many lawmakers argued that
the burden should be borne by the service providers.

He explained that
operators fear they lack the technical capacity to carry out the
registration and may not be able to complete the job on schedule.

He said the
decision, as reached by the both sides, was for the NCC to register
existing phone users while the providers register new ones.

The details
prompted members to condemn the plan, with the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole,
and the Deputy, Usman Nafada, reminding Mr. Salako of the powers of the
lawmaking body to decide, and not to be decided to.

“It is not a choice
for them to make,” Mr. Nafada said. “Even if they are not registering
existing lines, the National Assembly has the power to direct them to
do so.”

Mr. Bankole
advised, that, “We don’t want to put you in a difficult position so
that it does not look as if you are an advocate.”

The House voted overwhelmingly against that provision after series of consultations.

Mr. Salako’s
defence of the N6.1bn allocation, against the disapproval his
colleagues, has deepened the complexities surrounding the project meant
to curb kidnapping and extortion.

Vague issues

The Representatives
had recommended that the communications committee should disallow the
allocation on the grounds that, as a regulatory body, the NCC has no
duty registering phone users since they do not sell the SIMs.

But at last week’s
committee consideration of the N42.6b budget of the commission, the
chairman overruled that concern and offered to raise the amount if the
commission said N6.1bn would be insufficient.

The understanding
is that contracts for the job have already been awarded even before the
appropriation and the chairman himself pointed that out during the
budget defence session.

His insistence, backed Halims Agoda, and Austin Uchendu, is viewed as an attempt at properly retiring the contract claims.

Mr. Bankole vowed
to unearth the vague issues surrounding the project, and justified the
decision after Mr. Uchendu said it would work against the fight against
kidnapping.

“No member of this house will support of kidnapping, and nobody opposes this project,” he said.

“What we are saying
is that, in the process of doing this, we cannot do what will touch on
the mood of the public by appropriating money when money has already
been made available by the service providers.

“Therefore, we will get to the bottom of this matter without anyone playing on our intelligence,” he warned.

Mr. Bankole, however, ruled that the chamber’s position on the matter could be revisited through the House rescinding rule.

The Deputy Senate President, Ike
Ekweremadu’s decision to remove section 121 of the amended constitution
from the list of sections that were passed by the states was the cause
of discord in the senate yesterday, as senators roundly criticized him.

Section 121 was meant to put state
legislatures on first line charge of the states’ revenue and grant them
financial independence from the executive.

Although Mr. Ekeweremadu earlier
announced that the section was successfully amended after it supposedly
got the required 24 state votes, he later withdrew his comments by
saying a cross check of the resolutions revealed that Katsina, one of
the states believed to have voted for the clause, had two conflicting
versions and was therefore dropped.

Also, Kwara State which voted for the independence of the state judiciary was later found not to have voted for their autonomy.

“So as it stands now, section 121 was
not amended,” Mr. Ekweremadu told journalists late Wednesday. “We did
not want to go through any controversy so we decided to reject that of
Katsina for that reason. That leaves us with 22 states.”

The Katsina State House of Assembly had
allegedly sent two conflicting resolutions to the national assembly:
one dated June 30, where the section was passed and another one July 7,
where it said the section was not passed.

“I think you should reverse your
steps,” Lee Maeba (Rivers State) told the Deputy Senate president who
was presiding over the session. “You would have contacted the Committee
on Constitutional Review and discussed it or contact the Katsina House
of Assembly to know its position.”

George Sekibo (PDP Rivers State) also
argued that it was out of place for an issue to be altered when the
Senate had already taken its decision.

“It would be ideal for us to contact the Katsina state House of Assembly to know their resolution,” he said.

Subsequently, a majority of the senators clamoured for an overrule of the decision.

Although the deputy senate president
tried to offer an explanation for his action, the angry senators
shouted him down, leading to a call for a closed door session for the
day.

After the session, however, the Senate’s spokesperson, confirmed
that both the Katsina and Kwara legislatures did not pass Section 121,
adding that the argument erupted on the floor of the Senate because
senators were not intimated by the leadership of the Senate before
taking the decision.