iF the statement credited to the Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwukah, is anything to go by, choppy times are ahead for the country’s already beleaguered education sector. Addressing a small group of friends and associates at a valedictory ceremony in honour of the immediate past Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, Professor Anwukah, having lamented the grim state of the Nigerian education sector, revealed that the Federal Government was considering removing education from the Concurrent Legislative List and placing it on the Executive List, that is, under the direct auspices of the Federal Government.
The minister’s precise remarks deserve to be quoted at length: “We have a lot of problems facing education sector in this country. Over the last two weeks, I have been pondering on a particular idea, whether as a country, we can continue putting education on the Concurrent List.It is coming to a stage where we have to brace up to the fact that education is a federal project and can no longer be left at (sic) the whims and caprices of the states. Like, army and others that are federal projects, this country will brace up to the fact that education must be centrally run by the Federal Government and no longer run by the various states.I’m going to discuss this idea further with stakeholders. Education must cease to be on the Concurrent List and be a concern to the people.”
Two things are at issue here: the premise of the Honourable Minister’s diagnosis, and the solutions arising therefrom. We take the premise first. There is no disputing the fact that, from the primary to the tertiary level, education in Nigeria is in disarray and has been for some time. Over the years, we have joined other media houses and stakeholders in bemoaning the fate of this critical sector and proffering solutions for its radical overhauling. It goes without saying therefore that we agree with the Honourable Minister’s somber diagnosis.
Where we disagree with Professor Anwukah is in the character of the solutions advanced. If the problem with the education sector is that it is in the doldrums, removing it from the supervision of the states and putting it under the control of the Federal Government is, logically speaking, a non sequitur that does not even begin to address the problem. Has the Federal Government fared better than the states in the management of education? If that is the case, the onus is on the Honourable Minister to tender evidence in support of such a claim. At any rate, why has the Federal Government not been able to perform its magic on the Unity Schools or other federal higher institutions of leaning, which all stakeholders agree are in a sorry state?
Alarmingly, Professor Anwukah draws a comparison between the education sector and the army. The comparison is flawed for several reasons. For one thing, the army is a hierarchical, command-based institution whose raison detre is the defence of the country. Second, part of what distinguishes the army from other institutions in society is that it is animated by and speaks the language of violence. The education system couldn’t be more different. Why would anyone want to see the Nigerian education system run like a military institution?
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Honourable Minister appears to have forgotten that Nigeria is a federation of states, and that if federalism means anything at all, it is the freedom enjoyed by federating units to determine for themselves how their lives- including the modes of education suitable for their children- will be organised. The fact that Nigeria’s is a distorted, oil-based federalism, does not mean that this all-important principle should be forgotten.
No doubt, Professor Anwukah means well. But unfortunately, his ideas, while earnest, are ill-judged. They should be abandoned forthwith.