By~Saliu Olanrewaju Lah
The nationwide protests recently carried out across some states in Nigeria have again underscored the tragedy and gloomy pictures of what scholars and some pundits have variously highlighted in their bid to bring to the fore the menace of out of school children especially in Northern Nigeria.
The United Nation Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics are in agreement that Nigeria has the highest number of out of school children in Africa and by extension the whole world totalling 20 million and Northern Nigeria has the largest numbers of the lot.
Nigeria over the years has paid little or no attention to the educational sector in terms of adequate investment, a walk through the length and breath of Northern Nigeria is a sad reality of Almajiri children going round the streets and local restaurants scampering for leftover foods.
However, Northern Nigeria has had a fair share of power both in military regime and also in the democratic setting. It is on record that they have not used it to the benefit of their people.The endemic poverty and illiteracy level are dangerously high and have threatened the very existence of these youngsters with its attendant consequences.
The hunger protests in Northern Nigeria took a different dimension where protesters especially children were seen holding and raising flags of some foreign countries such Russia and China as a way showing their disdain and anger about the policies of the government with respect to the removal of fuel subsidy and floating of currency.
From Kano, Kaduna, to Zamfara States and even Abuja the Federal Capital, the situations were the same.
Ironically, some of these protesters are not aware of the consequences of raising other foreign countries flags in Nigeria. It shows they were being brainwashed by some non state agents who are hellbent in bringing down the government of the day.
This could be viewed as an absurd situation and an affront to the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is as good as calling on the foreign nations whose flags were being displayed to come and take over power in Nigeria which is against the principles of international law and diplomacy.
The alarming figures of out of school children is a cause for concern for any responsible government as it creates a social inequality and unpredictable future for these children and the society at large. The rising cases of banditry and kidnapping especially in the Northern parts of Nigeria are closely related to these figures of out of school children as they are ready made tools for these heinous crimes against humanity.
The government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in its early days saw the needs and the dangers posed by these huge numbers, he quickly sent a bill to the National Assembly to repeal the old Universal Primary Education Decree of 1976 which he introduced as a Military Head of State to Universal Basic Education which mandates all the children of school going age to be enrolled for basic education. The UBE Act explicitly made it compulsory for all the children in Nigeria to be enrolled in school up to basic 3 and the state governments to domesticate the laws in their respective states.
However, an appraisal of the implementation of the UBE Act shows that no parents have been prosecuted for failure to send his or her child to school as contained in the UBE Act.
Prof Babagana Zulum of Borno state stated that the protesters in his state are 95% children who are mostly not in school or are not meaningfully engaged in any form of learning as the case may be.
Nigeria as a country needs to as a matter of urgency declare a state of emergency on education especially at the primary level as it is the basis upon which other levels of education can be built. The formulators or educational planners need to take a step further by inculcating the 21st century innovation in the curriculum and leveraging on the technology advancement as it operates in the western countries. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can also be deployed especially in the rural communities where infrastructures are in deficit in order to bridge the gap of physical teaching and learning processes.
Saliu Olanrewaju Lah is a freelance writer from the ancient city of Ilorin.
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