PATH TO NIGERIAN GREATNESS: Under The New Dispensation On the right to educa tion*

• Address delivered to Lagos State House of Assembly, Ikeja on Tuesday, 22nd January, 1980.

“AFTER the ocean-liner has sailed the high seas and ploughed the lagoon, it must report at the harbour to the harbour master.” Thus runs a Yoruba proverb. Since the sixteenth of this month, I have navigated the high seas of Oyo State, Bendel State, Ondo State, and Ogun State. I have crossed the lagoon to Apapa, and crossed it back to Ikeja airport to the harbour master of Nigeria’s premier port, Alhaji L.K. Jakande, Governor of Lagos State.

I have brought back with me a big cargo of complete satisfaction with the very warm reception accorded me by our colleagues — Mr Bola Ige, Governor, Oyo State, Professor Ambrose Alli, Governor, Bendel State, Chief M.A. Ajasin, Governor, Ondo State, and Chief Bisi Onabanjo, Governor, Ogun State. I have also brought back with me an unfathomable depth of affection profusely exhibited and given by the people for the introduction of free education at all levels. I am profoundly grateful to all our colleagues and our entire people in the four states.

The reason for my short but exceedingly crowded and pleasant voyage is to join our people in the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the introduction of Free Universal Primary Education in the old Western Region. It is not generally known that the whole of the territory which is now Lagos State formed part of the Western Region until 30 September, 1954 when the then Lagos Municipality became a Federal Territory under the Constitution of that year which replaced the Macpherson Constitution of 1951. But the bulk of the territory right up to Somolu, Mushin, Ajegunle and Yaba, that is, the old Colony Province comprising Epe, Ikeja, Ikorodu and Badagry Divisions, remained part of the Western Region (or Western State as it was later called) until 1967 when the Lagos State was created incorporating the said old Colony Province.

When the planning for the education commenced in the Western Region in 1952, Lagos and the Colony Province were included in its ambit. But as a result of the excision of the Lagos Municipal Council Area from the Western Region, it was not possible for free education to be introduced in that area in January, 1955. That is to say, while the people of the Colony Province enjoyed the benefits of the scheme since 1955, it was not until two years later that a similar scheme was introduced in the Lagos Municipal Council Area.

It was not the excision of Lagos Municipal Council Area from the Western Region alone that brought about this delay. When we were planning the scheme in the Western Region, our expatriate Director of Education declared that we were embarking on a futile venture. He showed no sympathy at all for our aspirations, and we feared that he might sabotage our efforts. So, I was commissioned by my colleagues to talk to the then Lt. Governor about him, and I did. Shortly after, he was transferred to Lagos. We believed he liked it that way too; the transfer must have given him an escape from what he must have regarded as the stifling and unbearable atmosphere created by our earnestness, enthusiasm, and sense of urgency about the introduction of free universal primary education.

However, to the credit of this expatriate official, it was he, when he observed the successful launching of the scheme in the Western Region, who introduced free primary education in the Lagos Municipal Council Area. But he did not go the whole hog. He retained the Eight-Year Primary Course which had been abandoned in the Western Region for a Six-Year Primary Course. It was only about seventeen years ago that the Lagos Municipal Council Area, like the other parts of the country, saw wisdom and economy in adopting the Six-Year Primary Course.

Notwithstanding the vicissitudes of the Lagos Municipal Council Area in this matter, the people of Lagos State have every reason to rejoice and celebrate the Silver Jubilee of the introduction of Free UniversalPrimary Education in the old Western Region out of which the greater part of the state was carved in 1967.

I most heartily congratulate the Governor of Lagos State, Alhaji L.            K. Jakande, and the entire people of Lagos State on this occasion. More so as these Silver Jubilee celebrations, by a providential coincidence, also mark the beginning of a revolutionary extension of free education to all levels of institutional instruction and learning.

Those who are good enough to read and listen to what I have been saying over the years and during the past few days on free education,and who have studied the UPN Manifesto and Policy Paper on the subject, cannot but be convinced, if they are fair-minded, of the genuineness and altruism of our relentless advocacy. From our point of view, there has never been and there will never be any politicking about this transcendent national issue. We have again and again drawn attention to the inescapable necessity, and the underlying principles of free education at all levels. There are profound theoretical foundations even for the underlying principles. Time does not permit me here to expound the theoretical bases of our principles and policy. Nonetheless, I want to use part of the short time at my disposal here to draw the attention albeit in outline only, of the honourable members of this august House of Assembly, to the ideological, ontological, politico-economic, and moral bases of free education at all levels.

Because of the complex nature of modern society and the speed at which its affairs are conducted, we tend to overlook its basic constituent unit. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic or multi-national society. It encompasses within its territory a little over fifty ethnic or national groups. Each ethnic group consists of tribes; each tribe of clans; and each clan of families. The basic constituent unit of society — be it uni-ethnic or multi-ethnic, unilingua or multilingua — is the family.

To be continued