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While other
presidential candidates declined the demand by stakeholders in the
education sector to present their policies on education, three:
Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Nuhu
Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria, and Atiku Abubakar of the
Peoples Democratic Party, at the weekend, presented their programmes on
how to tackle the challenges facing the sector.

The presidential
hopefuls made their presentations at a meeting of the Joint Education
Stakeholders Action Coalition (JESAC) in Abuja.

The JESAC is a
voluntary association of eighteen (18) education unions, associations
and organizations that cut across the entire gamut of Nigeria’s
education sector.

Its membership cuts
across academic and non-academic staff in all our educational
institutions. These include the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
Nigeria Union of Teachers, Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union,
the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, and the Association of Primary
School Head Teachers of Nigeria.

The group had
invited presidential candidates, including President Goodluck Jonathan
and former military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida, to make presentations at
the meeting . Only three did.

Ike Onyechere, the
national coordinator of JESAC, however, absolved the other aspirants
from any blame in not attending the conference.

“Yes, we sent
invitations to everybody (the presidential aspirants). But they don’t
all have equal time. When we are doing the third one (conference), we
are going to take it round the zones so those who did not present their
policies will have the opportunity to do so.” Mr. Onyechere told NEXT.

The three candidates
condemned the decay in infrastructure and promised to take Nigeria’s
educational institutions to a greater height if elected.

The areas where the
candidates stated as needing urgent attention include funding,
infrastructure development, staff training and welfare, research,
science and technology development, regulation and inspectorate
services, as well as education for the less privileged and physically
challenged.

Different ways of addressing challenges

The candidates,
however, differed on how to tackle the challenges facing the educational
sector. Some of the areas where they differed include university
funding and provision, funding of research, and the role of the federal
government in education.

While Mr. Buhari and
Mr. Ribadu in their policies stated that the FG would continue to fund
all its universities, Mr. Abubakar stated that if elected President, the
federal government would only finance and own one university in each of
the six geo-political zones.

While Mr. Buhari
stated that educational research funding will be carried out by the
private sector, former EFCC boss stated that he would establish a
National Research Fund with funding both from government and the private
sector.

Mr. Onyechere, the
JESAC boss, however states that his association is not limiting its
conferences to presidential hopefuls alone.

“It’s not only presidential aspirants that will address our
conferences. There are other conferences coming up around the zones in
Nigeria. Governorship aspirants and local government chairmen will all
be called upon to come and tell Nigerians what their plan is to revamp
our educational institutions,” he stated.