CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK
A speech made to the press at the Racecourse, Lagos on 3rd September, 1959.
Social Services
I come now to the provision of social services which, in an under-developed country such as Nigeria, is as much an instrument of economic development as expenditure on roads, industries and agriculture. To educate the child is to lay the solid foundation of future social and economic progress; to provide health services is to combat diseases which are wasting on human resources and, therefore, reduce our productive potentialities. The government has, for these reasons, brought about the greatest social revolution in the history of black Africa within the past seven years.
In the field of education, our Universal Free Primary Education Scheme was launched in 1955 and it has been so firmly and successfully established that everyone now takes it for granted, despite initial predictions of failure by many well-meaning persons. The primary school population has risen from 429,542 in 1953 to 1,037,388 in 1959.
The figures for secondary education are equally impressive. In pursuance of our policy of providing secondary education for at least 10 percent of the pupils who have successfully completed their primary school course, many secondary grammar schools have been opened. The total is now 139 instead of only 46 in 1953. In addition, there are 363 secondary Modern schools in the Region providing places for over 50 per cent of the primary school-leavers. Thus while there were 9,000 pupils in secondary schools in this region in 1954, our secondary school population (Grammar, Modern etc.) in January this year, stood at 84,374. This is by far larger than the combined population of all the secondary schools in other parts of Nigeria.
We have recognized the pride of place which teacher training must occupy in our educational programme. The number of training colleges has doubled since 1952 and we have about 11,000 trainees in them this year. We have also improved the salary scales and employment conditions of men in this important service. We are resolutely tackling the problem of technical education. If our development programmes are to succeed, we need skilled labour. In order to produce the requisite number of technicians, skilled workers and managers, therefore, two Technical Schools are being opened. The Sapele Trade Centre has been considerably expanded and five more are being established. The provision of post-secondary scholarship tenable in Nigeria and overseas has soared; over 1,000 have been awarded, and this year 200 more have been advertised.
As regards Medical and Health Services, the government has fully implemented its policy of establishing at least one hospital in every administrative division in the region, and has proceeded to provide hospitals for some of the more important towns. Three mobile dispensaries take hospital and other medical facilities to remote parts from bases in Ibadan, Abeokuta and Benin Provinces; two touring launches do the same from Epe and Forcados; and three ambulance launches stationed at Badagry, Okitipupa and Warri take patients to hospitals. Grants have been given to local authorities to enable them to provide Rural health centres in their areas. From 1952 to 1958 the number of dispensaries has risen from 200 to 342 and that of maternity centres from 122 to 293. Big expansions in these fields are now ill progress. The Western Region Government’s practice of providing free medical treatment to persons under eighteen years of age, is unique and without a parallel in this country.
Social development has also been vigorously pursued. Literary campaigns have been successful. Youth services have been expanded, and the spirit of self-help by communal effort is being vigorously promoted, The Shasha Training Course is now well known. Remand homes for boys and girls are being opened, and juvenile Courts are doing excellent work.
In order to ease the general shortage of houses in the region, particularly in large urban areas and encourage house ownership, the government has established the Western Region Housing Corporation, The corporation is setting up a 350-acre housing estate at Bodija in Ibadan with well-drained roads and modem sewage disposal; 173 houses are being constructed there now, Another 750-acre estate is being laid out at Ikeja; of this 200 acres will be for industry and the remainder will be residential. Forty-four houses are already under construction there, and the first factory building is expected to start shortly. The corporation also grants loans to borrowers who want to build their own houses, 44 loans totaling £110,000 have been granted on mortgage to borrowers within a year. Members of the public are encouraged to deposit their savings with the Corporation against future housing transactions: £12,000 has been so deposited in the short time since the facility became available.
Public Relations and Other Matters
I come now to the sphere of public relations where we have advanced beyond recognition from the puny efforts of the public Relations department which we inherited in 1952. ‘Western News’ and ‘Western Nigeria Illustrated’ publicise our activities throughout the region, and our daily press releases help to feed other public organs of information, We have carried enlightenment and entertainment to remote areas through the government free cinema scheme, Last year there were in use 40 Cinema Vans and 6 Cinema Barges, We now have our own Film Production Unit, and one of its outstanding achievements is the 85-minute film in colour which covers all aspects. of our self-government celebrations and the visit of Her Royal Highness the Prince Royal, of all the governments in Africa, we are the largest film producers, having the largest government cinema audience as well.
External publicity is much needed in our drive for capital participation from abroad for our development projects. This has been provided for the region by the appointment of a well-known and reputable firm of Public Relations Counsel in London.
In the maintenance of law and order, the efforts of the Nigeria Police need to be supplemented by those of local police’ forces, We have accordingly reconstituted the former Native Authority Police units into the Local Government Police Force which is being provincialised, and which is second to none in the federation, We have recruited a Regional Fire Service in the region starting with Ibadan. Our Nigerianisation policy is the boldest and the best in the whole of the federation, even when we did not have the power directly to influence Nigerianisation, we initiated the brilliant device then known as the ‘frigidare policy’. We have not looked back since then, with the result that today the number of Nigerians in the higher rungs of the civil service in the West is 1,275, that is 75 per cent of the total actual strength of senior officers as against 18 per cent in 1952.
Our latest effort is the provision of a television service which will be the first of its kind in the whole of Africa. This is a complicated project. It is, however, one ‘of the boldest conceptions in our endeavour to bring the latest in entertainment and, above all, enlightenment to the people of this Region. Owing to technical difficulties the Scheme will be limited at first to the Ibadan and Ikeja areas, but will be extended as soon as possible to Benin. When the official transmission of this Television Project is launched at the end of October this year, it will be the crowning climax of the achievements of the Western Region Government under my direction, and it will once more proclaim and confirm the Action Group as a ‘pace-setter’ in the Federation of Nigeria.
With all these achievements which up-do-date are truly unparalleled in the annals of Nigeria, I shall be leaving the Western Region in December next with complete satisfaction as well as profound gratitude to God and to our very loyal and patriotic people of the Western Region. As I proceed to the Centre, I resign myself entirely to the Providence of Almighty God to make use of my talents and experience there as He pleases.
CONTINUES NEXT WEEK
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