A former permanent secretary and ex-accountant general, Mr Aminu Abdullah is the Commissioner for Higher Education, Sokoto State. In this interview, he speaks on the activities of his ministry, his achievements in office, among other education issues in the state.
HOW exciting has your assignment as the Commissioner of Higher Education Sokoto State been?
It has been a wonderful experience. I am indeed very grateful that I’m contributing my quota to ensuring that Sokoto State children are receiving qualitative education. More so, when you work with a governor who is wholeheartedly committed and supportive of the development that definitely makes your assignment less stressful. It’s important that I explain the difference between the ministries of higher education; science and technology and basic and secondary. This shows the importance the governor attaches to the education sector. The first reason for the creation of the three separate ministries is that the governor wants an effective supervision of the educational sector, which by the way is huge. So, in Sokoto State like we have three ministries – the basic and secondary, the science and technology and the higher education, though we might be three ministries but we collaborate because we are dealing essentially with the same raw materials or if you like we are in a sense like the three arms of the government, though distinct, we work harmoniously to deliver development to the people.
The creation of three ministries for the education sector in the state suggests that the sector has serious challenges in running its affairs, most especially that of the tertiary institutions?
It’s important that I make the point that the governor is well-guided in his decision on creating the three ministries. This is backed by the decision of the National Council of Education (NCE), which is the highest policy making body on education in Nigeria on the separation of the ministries for effective supervision. It is a national policy; the governor could have chosen to ignore it, but being a firm believer in the rule of law and convinced that it is the right decision to make. The governor has decided to go along with the rule wholeheartedly because it serves his purpose of the sector being vigorously supervised. Most certainly, the ministries each have their peculiar challenges.
Which specific institutions are having issues among the state university and the polytechnic over accreditation of courses?
The courses that were not accredited cut across various departments of these institutions. For instance, in these institutions some science courses were not accredited ditto some social science courses, depending on the school. The most important point is that we have solved a problem which was why the governor was elected. He saw problems and offered himself to solve them, that’s the mentality of Governor Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto. While he believes in accountability, he equally believes that the mistake of the past shouldn’t be an excuse, shouldn’t hold us back and every appointee understands this fact. We have spent a lot of money on the rehabilitation of dilapidated structures in our institutions, as we speak about N3 billion has been expended. However, for accreditation the cost is huge. For some courses we paid N35 million and for others N70 million, it depends on the type of course. Thankfully, accreditation is once in every five years, so we have some breathing space in between. So far, virtually all our institutions have had their courses accredited and the cost is running into millions of naira. Few months back, we paid the NUC about N100 million for courses being run at the state university and the commission was impressed with our governor on his efforts in running a university that is truly a center of learning and research. In fact, they followed up with a letter of appreciation to the governor. The governor on his part is extremely happy because he is seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I can tell you that the university surpassed the NUC conditions, and that we didn’t cut corners, we adhered strictly to their guidelines.
Tell us about the nine-point smart agenda of Governor Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto. What exactly does the governor want to achieve with this?
The governor means business with his well-thought out nine-Point Smart Agenda. He is absolutely clear about what he wants to achieve in education. According to him, the development of human capital is key for the development of the state. The governor is out to drive the economic development of the state, hence, it is important that we have indigenes that are skilled to work in the industries he is attracting. We recently graduated 80 medical doctors and being our own, we believe they can operate better in our environment because they understand the language and culture of the people. The governor sees education as both a social and economic investment. An educated person would easily understand the need to pay his/her tax and to be law-abiding.
Considering the premium placed on education by the governor, can we say his budgetary allocation to education is in tandem with the UNESCO standard of 25 percent?
Recall that in November 2023, several countries under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), adopted the recommendation on education for peace and human rights, international understanding, cooperation, fundamental freedoms, global citizenship and sustainable development. Today, UNESCO remains the only global standard-setting instrument that lays out how education can and should be used to bring about lasting peace and sustainable development and in positioning education as a key driver of peace and international understanding. Education in the 2024 budget was allocated the highest percentage and in 2025 it has equally maintained its number one position in terms of budgetary allocation. Sokoto State in the last two years had in fact surpassed UNESCO’s budget recommendation. This, therefore, says a lot about Governor Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto’s unwavering commitment to education. It no doubt clears whatever doubt about his desire to rewrite the ugly story of education in the state. As a professional accountant, I prefer to talk more in terms of releases because you can be allocated a fantastic budget without it being cash backed. So, appreciate the governor for not only allocating funds to education, but for his express approvals and for cash backing them up. Our modest achievements are due to his leadership and support.
What’s the mandate of your ministry?
Our mandate and responsibilities include policy formulation for higher education and recommending the same to the governor who in the case of the university is the Visitor, carrying out needs assessments to determine the state’s needs in higher education in both public and private institutions. We also advised the government on the appointment of heads of the various institutions and also worked in collaboration with their governing bodies. The other critical responsibility is in assisting the various tertiary institutions with accreditation from the relevant bodies. We also have the mandate to establish linkage programmes with other institutions of higher learning in the area of preparing and implementing an annual budget, the revenue and expenditure of state tertiary institutions. Monitoring is critical, so we also carry out a rigorous monitoring exercise to ensure that they are performing the functions of why they were established. Finally, we oversee the disbursement of scholarships to state indigenes in higher institutions and we produce performance reports to the governor who is interested in knowing the progress being recorded.
Northern Nigeria is known to have the largest number of out-of-school children; what is Sokoto State doing on the way out of this?
This is a great challenge but I can assure you that we are addressing it on all fronts. To some extent the Nigerian culture of marrying many wives and having many children is partly responsible for the problem. However, things are beginning to change. I’m glad because in the past, only a few of us went to school, but now there is no household without students in the higher institutions. Education would help people understand the importance of having the number of children they can cater for. Meanwhile, we would continue to deploy policies that would help address the problem.
Recently, in the light of the national economic situation many state universities have been forced to increase fees in their institutions, should your students also be expecting an increase in tuition and what implication has it had on enrollment?
Considering our story in Sokoto State, we remain eternally grateful to our father who by the way was my teacher and leader, Senator Aliyu Magatarda Wamakko for laying a solid foundation for our educational system using his experience as an educationist. As the former governor of Sokoto State, he put in place several fundamental policies; free and compulsory education. He encouraged the girl-child’s education and so many other policies. We certainly won’t be increasing fees; rather we would continue to encourage our students with incentives such as scholarships to pursue their education to the highest level. The robust policies of Governor Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto have continued to attract more students to enroll into schools in the state and abroad.
In fact, enrollment has increased and very interesting is the fact that students have stopped skipping school. We have achieved all these based on the policies of Governor Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto, who understands the importance of education and is walking the talk. The previous government had for inexplicable reasons stopped the stipends and other privileges of the students which Governor Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto immediately had restored.
How have you been able to meet up with your services to the institutions in the areas of electricity, water, among other basic needs they need to function effectively?
It’s important I make this additional point. In Sokoto State none indigenes are treated as indigene. The government doesn’t exclude them when it is paying examination fees. Once you are resident in Sokoto State you are automatically an indigene of the state, you pay the fees that the indigenes are paying. The Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto administration understands that schools must be well-funded. From next year the governor has directed that schools would be given N200,000 monthly allowance to meet minor expenses which would help them take care of minor repairs of toilets, furniture etc. This is a government that understands its responsibility to its schools and indeed all government departments. You must also be aware of the efforts of the governor ensuring the availability of water 2/4/7 in the state.
To what extent has your State University benefited from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund)’s funding?
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) was established by the Federal Government of Nigeria in its far-sighted wisdom in 2011 to disburse, manage, and monitor education tax to government-owned tertiary institutions. You know that before the establishment of the agency in 2011, government-owned tertiary institutions were poorly funded so the scheme was designed to improve the crisis in the sector through its interventions especially in the area of facilities where the decay was monumental. In fact facilities in most schools had almost collapsed, teachers and lecturers morale were at their lowest. The enabling environment for conducive teaching and learning was absent. So the government took this step to arrest the rot. This background is important so we can appreciate the seriousness of the situation and why the agency was set up. TETFund’s interventions are only for the universities. Primary schools have the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) that is saddled with the responsibility of providing greater access to, and ensuring quality of basic education throughout the country. The Universal Basic Education Programme was introduced in 1999 by the Federal Government of Nigeria to also address the rot in the sector. Each year TETFund intervenes based on specific requests of the concerned institutions. They don’t decide for them, they believe that they know what they need most. For example if we need a Laboratory, we will spell out our specific needs to TETFund and they would react appropriately. So they can’t come and build hostels for us when what we need is a lecture hall or ICT facilities.
Entrepreneurship programmes are now run simultaneously with academic programmes in most tertiary institutions, what is the situation like in Sokoto State?
In the year 2000 the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) partnered to incorporate Entrepreneurship Education (EEd) into Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) curricula. The main goals of entrepreneurship education in Nigeria is to prepare the students to be self-reliant and self-employed; create employment opportunities, help students to transition from a traditional economy to a modern industrial economy, train students to be creative and innovative in identifying business opportunities and to establish careers in small and medium-sized businesses. In Sokoto State our tertiary institutions have embraced the entrepreneurial message. I understand that even at the Secondary School Level the students are being taught Entrepreneurship. This is the way to go because the government has a limited capacity to create jobs.
and then