BNET Nigeria Digest January 2016
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Registered Charity No. 1120876 Europoint House 5 Lavington Street London SE1 0NZ Telephone : +44 (0)20 7261 9650 E-mail : [email protected] Website: www.britain-nigeria.org In writing this Digest, the Editor extends his personal apologies to members for its delay. This was caused by a material deterioration in his health, notably Parkinson's Disease, as a result of which he needed to spend some time in hospital. Happily he is now back at home and, following the festive season is returning to his duties, the first of which is the preparation of this report. In so doing he takes this opportunity to send his personal best wishes to all members and their families for a successful, happy and healthy New Year. CONFIDENTIAL NIGERIA DIGEST – January 2016 Education New Government Plans & Reorganisation of the Teaching Profession in Nigeria Immediately following his appointment as Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Amuka has inaugurated the first stage of a complete overhaul of teaching in Nigeria, which he stated as a priority of the new Government, due to the fact that primary school pupils were still being taught by teachers whose policy was directed towards their pupils' higher education to study such subjects as chemistry, or biology which is at complete variance with Government policy for the childhood curriculum. As a result a significant number of teachers will receive personal training on the techniques and necessity of childhood education which is known to be one of the new President's priorities and is clearly reflected in the allocation to the sector in the 2016 Budget. Enugu State Government Just before Christmas Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State announced to his State Executive Council that he had received approval from the World Bank for a grant of N1.5 billion, which had been matched by a counterpart funding from the State Government to enable it to introduce the State Universal Education System to all primary schools in the State. Additionally a small part of the grant will enable the State Government to renovate certain primary schools that are in a diabolical and dilapidated condition. Nigeria Tertiary Education Trust Fund It has recently been announced through the TET Fund that 28 Nigerian Universities have been ranked amongst the top 100 best such institutions in the whole of Africa. This is a significant achievement and has been made possible by the substantial investment of the TET Fund into tertiary institutions during the last four years throughout Nigeria as five years ago no Nigerian University at all was ranked amongst the top 100 in Africa. In December the Minister of Education inaugurated an ad hoc Committee to investigate petitions alleging abuse of due process, mismanagement, immorality, fraud and corruption (amongst others) at a total of 10 tertiary institutions including seven Universities and three polytechnics. The Committees were only given 10 days to submit the report of their findings which are now being studied by the Minister for Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu and it is already known that some of the petitions were proved to have substance. This is expected to result in changes against governing councils and management of the institutions concerned as well as possibly leading to criminal proceedings. Ondo State During his tenure of office, which began in 2009, the former State Governor, Olusagun Mimiko, has spent N2 billion on building 50 Caring Heart mega-schools, complete with all modern teaching facilities. These meet the standards of child friendly schools in Nigeria and will be able to provide students with good quality education throughout the State. In addition, the former State Governor announced that amongst his other achievements was the renovation of 97 primary and 240 secondary schools throughout the 18 local government areas of the State. N200 million was allocated to the State Library Board for the acquisition of relevant, modern text in core subjects. He also funded 93 shuttle buses throughout the State for the daily conveyance of students to and from their schools. Delta State Scholarship Board – Executive Secretary At the Delta State High Court in Asaba in the first week of December 2015, the EFCC, following an intensive investigation and subsequent interrogation of the principals being tried (namely the Executive Secretary of the State Scholarship Board, Peter Amromanoh, together with his accountant Andrew Nkwor) through its council laid out its case that the accused had opened 28 bank accounts in order to divert bursary payments meant for students in which they had deposited N24 million. According to Counsel, in total 3,567 names of people who had opened bank accounts were found to be fake. Additionally, an account officer who is currently still at liberty had access to N19 million which he had diverted from the State Government Treasury to the fake account. Niger State According to the United Nations (UN), the insurgency caused by Boko Haram has resulted in over 150 schools being unable to provide, and 12,000 pupils being unable to receive, any form of education since February 2015 primarily due to a series of attacks by Boko Haram on the town of Diffa. Although the 12,000 children have places on camps for displaced people there are no schools in these camps. Nearly 50,000 of Diffa's 0.5 million residents have lost their homes following a number of attacks by the insurgents. Jigawa State A major national newspaper has just published an in depth study into the appalling state of the education in this State, and in particular the conditions in schools under which pupils are being taught. The majority of schools have no furniture – tables or chairs – a situation that deteriorated during the period 1999-2007. As a result, following this investigation by the EFCC the State Governor Ibrahim Turaki, who occupied that position between 1999-2007, is now being prosecuted for criminal conspiracy, stealing, money laundering and misappropriation of public funds involving N36 billion. According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, in 2007 Jigawa State ranked worst amongst the thirty-six States of the Federation on the Human Development index. In the years between 2005-7, according to the World Bank, the number of State Primary Schools rose to 1,959 and then to 2,114, before a number was closed leaving only 1,778 in the entire State three years later. As a result the number of school pupils fell by over 200,000 in the same period. It is alleged that the schools have become dilapidated as a direct result of the State Government’s inability to access UBEC Intervention Funds because of the necessity of providing counterpart funding, and also because funds allocated to that education sector in the State were used for other purposes including building new executive quarters and guest houses for local government chairmen in the State. As a result the recent State Governor, Suke Lamido, is also now being prosecuted by the EFCC for allegedly receiving over N1 billion in bribes from contractors in the State, which were allegedly paid into accounts managed by his sons. It is quite clear that had that money been properly used for education purposes, the situation in the State schools would be significantly improved. It will take at least four years of APC Government to at least begin to reverse this terrible tragedy. Borno State Government Similarly but even worse, the Borno State Government has revealed that since 2009, Boko Haram insurgents have killed 350 teachers, destroyed 520 schools and 1000 classrooms. Borno State has borne the worst of the insurgency and as a result both multi-lateral international organisations, the Federal and State Governments are making tremendous efforts to ensure that children who have lost their homes or had their schools destroyed are still receiving education. Those children affected are all now receiving education in either internally displaced persons camps or in the major towns such as Maiduguri, Chadi and Biokusa, where the insurgents have been driven out and school buildings have been reconstructed. Kwara State On January 4 th the Nigerian Union of Teachers in Kwara State announced that primary teachers in the State would embark on an immediate strike as a protest over the non-payment of salaries. This now dates back over 4 months, despite the N1.2 bail out arranged by the President last year. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation In a recent report published by UNESCO it claims that there are over 60 million illiterate Nigerians, and that it would take the country at least 58 years to completely eradicate illiteracy, even with innovations such as information and communication technology as well as other modern learning mechanisms. This damning view of education in Nigeria was made known at an international workshop on teaching and learning at the Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti by the National Programme Officer of UNESCO, Mohammed Alkali, when he explained that UNESCO is primarily targeting the number of children in Nigeria which receive no education at all, a conservative estimate of 11.5 million out of a total of 172 million. 2 Politics President Muhammadu Buhari’s New Cabinet As promised during his visit to President Obama in July, President Buhari finally complied with the statement made at that time in Washington. On 29 th September at 4.59pm (exactly one minute before the Senate closed for business for 5 days) the President submitted his list of nominees to be appointed to his cabinet. In fact he made his nominations in two stages, the first on September 29 th when he submitted 21 names and the second in October with a further 16 names.