The State of our education

Mrs Uto Ukpanah

Caveat: I didn’t write any of this (though I wish I had the wisdom, presence and articulation of mind to put down these thoughts with this much clarity. This was written by my former colleague and a lady I’m proud to be associated with and who I call “friend”. Since I met her, she’s been nothing short of a well of wisdom, laughter, wit and intelligence. She is elegance refined. And yet with everything she has and has accomplished she still manages to stay humble and simple. So whether she’s giving an address at the UN or holding court in Golden Plaza, she remains quintessentially - Uto. 

I have read the posts regarding the exuberant Senator and the state of education in Nigeria with keen interest and great sadness. The failure of various administrations at federal and state levels have left us with a raggedy educational system. This is not a Buhari Administration malaise. It’s a festering sore to which successive administrations have merely applied plasters. Healthcare and other pivotal sectors have been treated with similar disregard. I will however focus on education.

Consider the education budget of Nigeria. The UN recommends at least 26% of national budget should be allocated to education. In 2017 the FGN allocated approximately 6% of its budget to education. Government budget for education over the past 10 years has floundered between 5% -10%.  The trend at the state level is not surprisingly similar.  Across the ECOWAS sub region; Nigeria has the lowest average budgetary allocation for education with Ghana leading the region with 23%, Côte d’Ivoire - 22%, Benin - 16%, Liberia - 12%, Cape Verde - 14%.  By the way Kenya allocates at least 20% of its national budget to education.

There is also an acknowledgement in these countries that not everyone will be a brain surgeon so the education sector does not encourage a degree frenzy. Significant attention is given to vocational education. Little wonder the best cooks and artisans are not from Nigeria but from our ‘poorer’ neighbors. I have deliberately not provided stats from developed economies. If these African countries are still grappling with the challenges in the sector how much more a sleeping (or comatose) giant that has consistently allocated less than 10% to educate the leaders of tomorrow.

It beats my imagination how those who benefited immensely from public education continue to trounce the system that made them. The quagmire in the education sector reminds one of the truth in Nelson Mandela’s words ‘…If you think Education is expensive, try ignorance’. Nigeria will pay a huge price for breeding generations of ‘educated’ yet ignorant students and graduates. At that time, most of us on this platform will be too old and tired to do anything about it. Government upon government may have made the mess but we, our children and grandchildren will pay the price. I do not plan to spend my twilight years on a private island in the Bahamas. Knowing this, my personal decision is to do as much as I can to reduce the number of people in that pool of ignorant Nigerians.

While some of us may wish to pursue ambitions in public service to influence policies; others can roll up their sleeves and support pivotal sectors. Better still, those in whose hands a pen (or keyboard) is a powerful tool must be advocates of real change and sustainable development. Please indulge me to share a bit of my experience with you.

I sit on the Board of Inoyo Toro Foundation an NGO that seeks to improve teaching excellence. The Foundation also links Nigerian professionals who volunteer as mentors with students in secondary schools in the state. 10 years ago, we instituted an award for Teachers in public Secondary schools in Akwa Ibom. Interested teachers have to sit and pass exams in subjects that they teach. Some years we have no winners in certain subjects and we’ve refused to lower the bar. Beyond just giving awards to successful teachers, we set up a programme whereby awardees mentor other teachers (Grand mentors). The current best teacher in Nigeria is a past award winner of this Foundation. Doing this has not been easy. Our funding has been sourced primarily from individuals and corporates. Our joy is that teachers and students that have participated in our programmes are recognized as influencers amongst their peers.  During the 30th anniversary celebration of the state, the government acknowledged the contributions of the Foundation to challenging the status quo in the education sector.

Warren Buffet is credited with the quote ‘Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago’. We all need to put action behind our grievances. Be the change you wish to see (Mahatma Ghandi).  Teachers and students have been given lemons over the years. Let’s help them make lemonade.

We, the people, empowered and emboldened men like Dino Melaiye who has become a national nuisance and embarrassment. Although so many factors are at play, as citizens we must Dakkada (arise) and salvage our country.

© Uto Ukpanah   |   November 23, 2017

Thoughts on the harassment scandal

Kevin Spacey sacked from House of Cards.
Spacey movie will be re-shot with Christopher Plummer replacing Spacey.
Louis C. K. will not be voicing his animated character in Secret Life of Pets 2.
Louis C. K. movie binned.

Fall-out of the sexual harassment scandal. I'm glad women who have been serially harassed are finally being stood up for and their voices being heard (maybe for the first time) and this moral outrage is exposing all the bad men in the hallways of Hollywood, the corridors of power in Washington and other industries that have come under microscopic scrutiny.

But:

1. As Alec Baldwin rightly says, this is not limited to the arts and entertainment industry or politics; it is practically woven into the fabric of life.

2. Moral outrage is great, but, institutional measures must be adopted to ensure this current outcry doesn't end as just that and then after a few sobering months things go back to normal. Which brings me to my third point...

3. Where does it end? So we cancel movies or TV shows for one person's transgressions and stall/mute/trivialise the hardwork of all the others involved in the project. We stop re-runs of shows involving said transgressors as though they were the only ones on the screen in the movie. In a fit of passion and outrage, we seek to whitewash and simultaneously blacklist certain folks as though we were back in the heart of Stalinist communism where people are written out of history and adopt the McCarthy-ist listing of dissidents who must never be worked with again.

Does the bad action automatically vitiate everything they have done before then or the good work they once did, or the good work they are currently doing? Should we no longer admit that we enjoy watching House of Cards, The Usual Suspects, Se7en and The secret life of pets?

Is there room for redemption, restitution and restoration? Is it once bad, forever barred? Is there hope for these people to express genuine remorse, repent and be restored?

The statute of limitations may never run out on certain indiscretions but does an offence committed twenty years ago mean everything that individual has done since is worthless and pointless (so long as s/he has not been outed and punished? Is there a possibility (however slim and no matter how reprehensible their previous actions) that for some of the accused individuals, they have since learnt to tow a better line of behaviour and have adopted a more responsible code of personal conduct?

And while we want to rid society of harassers, I'm sometimes left wondering what the ultimate goal of all this is. Is the aim of the game merely to name and shame, or is it to send out a strong message that certain kinds of behaviour will no longer be tolerated as acceptable or par for the course?

And where do we draw the line with our righteous indignation? Will the campaign tomorrow turn to those who once bullied a kid in the seventh grade? Or to people who once nicked a pack of gum from the till at the candy store. Or you once said a bad word to somebody that deeply hurt them. Since we are now the newfound moral police, I'd like to understand what standards of behaviour are considered "OK" and what is taken as "totally unacceptable", and whether these are universal or they will switch depending on what time, season, location, fad or phase we find ourselves in.

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Personally, I have no interest in belittling the grievances of the women (and men) who have been hurt by these mindless actions, but I try to be careful in judging people merely because they sin different from me.

A few decades ago Republicans were up in arms about Bill Clinton's marital infidelity, expressing more outrage than the offended wife. And then it was discovered that key republican leaders who had actively taken a stance to denounce and deride the then President of the United States, including then Speaker, Newt Gingrich, were just as guilty of the same thing for which they sought to impeach the President.

The term for this kind of behaviour is hypocrisy, and it is distasteful, reprehensible, bitter and petty. I have been guilty and so I try to remain introspective when cases like this unfold. There are lessons to be learned. But remember, when the woman caught in adultery (in the very act) was brought before Jesus, the LORD's response was simply "he who hath no sin let him cast the first stone". Till date, we are still waiting for those stones to start flying. The only sound, over 2000 years later, is that of stones being dropped or falling to the floor.

My two cents, but what do my shallow thoughts matter anyway?

/IamMaverick