A Commissioner under Governor Ademola Adeleke has appointed over 20 personal assistants to work with him.

The Commissioner, Bunmi Jenyo, who serves as the head of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry will be paying the appointed aides with his salary.

In a statement issued by his media aide, Sesan Adeleke on Saturday, said the aides will work with the Commissioner directly or indirectly.

It reads; “In his magnanimity to the people of Ila Local Government (main council) and Local Government Development Area (LCDA), Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Rev. Bunmi Jenyo, has donated his monthly salary to some of his constituents, tagged as personal aides.

“The aides numbering over twenty are to work with the Honourable Commissioner either directly or indirectly in specific assignments, in the interests of growth and development of the Local Governments and Osun State as a whole.

“It is also in his giant stride to cushion the effect of economic realities in his community and put smiles on the faces of masses at the grassroots”.

In Kano State, hundreds of Nigerien nationals have organized a peaceful demonstration to express their opposition to the recent coup in their home country.

Furthermore, they have expressed their endorsement of the sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Niger.

While condemning the military coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum’s democratically elected government, these residents also cautioned against any form of military interference in their nation.

Leading the peaceful protest on Saturday in Kano, Lawalli Mamman Barma, the group’s Chairman, appealed to the leaders of the military coup. He called for the unconditional release of President Mohamed Bazoum, his family, and all individuals who were reportedly taken captive during the military intervention that occurred on July 16, 2023.

He said, “We demand without condition, the release of the president of Niger Republic, as well as his family and all other kidnapped persons.”

The chairman, while calling for the restoration of democratic leadership in Niger Republic, also, urged ECOWAS to rescind its decision to enforce military forces in the country, stressing that dialogue is the best approach to resolving conflict than military confrontation.

In another development, WithinNigeria reported that the Police Commissioner in Kano State, Mr Hussaini Gumel, dismissed reports about protests by residents of the state over the planned deployment of military personnel by ECOWAS to restore constitutional order in Niger Republic.

Gumel told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a telephone interview that the command was not aware of any protest by residents of the city against the proposed troops deployment.

“I am just hearing the report from you on the so-called demonstration by Kano residents because of the political situation in Niger Republic.

“You can see we are just coming back from the Passing-Out ceremony of graduands of the Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil, where about 169 cadet officers were commissioned by President Tinubu.

“So, frankly speaking I have not given any person or group of residents permit to embark on demonstration because of the political happenings in our next-door neighbour, Niger Republic.

“You can see Kano is a peaceful State and we will continue to provide security to enable residents to move about their businesses without threats to lives and property,” he said.

On Monday last week, memories of the momentous life and times of Alhaji Lateef Jakande were evoked at the maiden edition of the annual lecture instituted in his honour by the Nigerian Guild of Editors. The event held at the Sheraton Hotels in Lagos, was the first of its kind for a man who has done so much for Nigerian journalism in a career that spanned several decades. And like the great Nnamdi Azikiwe, he also went ahead to write his name in the annals of public service in Nigeria.

His tenure as Governor of Lagos State from October 1979 to December 1983, is widely regarded as the turning point in good governance and massive development of the State’s infrastructure. 

A great journalist in his day, Jakande’s life is inextricably connected with several epochs in the development of journalism in Nigeria. He was among those who spearheaded the formation of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in March 1955 in response to agitations for a platform for collective action for journalists in pre-independence Nigeria. The NUJ which was first led by Mobolaji Odunewu, former editor of the Port Harcourt-based Eastern Nigerian Guardian, had other editors on the executive. With time, however, most of its members became uncomfortable with the fact that they reposed leadership in editors who, in the manner of managers, could also ‘hire and fire’. 

Four years later, they succeeded in inserting a clause in the union’s objects to exclude editors like Jakande who was the union’s treasurer, from holding executive positions in the NUJ. Two years later in May 1961, Jakande who was editor-in-chief of Allied Newspapers Ltd, publishers of Nigerian Tribune, Sunday Service and Irohin Yoruba, rallied the editors who felt discriminated against, to form the Guild of Newspaper Editors of Nigeria which has since been renamed Nigerian Guild of Editors. He served as the Guild’s first President. 

Alhaji Lateef Jakande

He later led the formation of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) of which he was also the pioneer President. While the Guild’s objective was anchored on providing the professional leadership that journalism needs, the NPAN protects the business interests of newspaper proprietors. Beyond Nigeria, he was the first African to become the President of the executive board of the International Press Institute (IPI) with headquarters in Vienna, during which period he set up the Nigerian Institute of Journalism in Ikeja, Lagos.

No one else has played on the four major journalism turfs as prominently as Jakande did and the memorial lecture is a befitting memorial in his honour. The idea of the lecture was first proposed by the current president, Eze Anaba, at the 2023 Convention of the Guild in Owerri and it resonates with members of the Guild and to the larger family of journalists in Nigeria and beyond. 

Jakande’s contemporaries like Sam Amuka, Segun Osoba, Dayo Duyile and Felix Adenaike had a field day catching up on old times, and it was an opportunity for the family to recount the sacrifices they put up with in his public service days. His vision for a better society was revealed early through his strongly-worded editorials in the papers he edited; his character shone through the John West column he maintained for decades and his personal discipline were exemplary during his tenure of office as Lagos State governor. 

In today’s Nigeria, it will be denial of a criminal proportion for a governor to deny his family the privileges that have become commonplace. The wife was denied the limelight that so many others enjoyed as First Ladies; the family was denied the exciting ambience of His Excellency’s palatial official residence as Baba Kekere preferred to live in his private home in Ilupeju; there was no long convoy of shinning black SUVs as Governor Jakande preferred to use his personal car, and the children were not availed the opportunity to travel the world and school in the most expensive institutions at the people’s expense. Even when Jakande grudgingly accepted to serve as Abacha’s minister of works and developed the luxury Banana Island in Lagos, the family was still excluded from what turned out to be the abode of the rich and powerful.  

Indeed, the lecture evoked great memories, even if it ended with a blue reminder that the Lagos State government has still not made good on the expectation that it would rename the Lagos State University, LASU, after the man who famously established it. The story has been told severally how Chief Olabisi Onabanjo and Professor Ambrose Alli, then governors of old Ogun and Bendel States respectively, came to understudy Jakande’s idea that gave birth to LASU.

They returned home to establish their own state universities that have today been renamed after them by their respective state governments.

If it was good for the old Ogun and Bendel States, it is even moreso for Lagos which, following Jakande’s vision, has turned to the Centre of Excellence. Coming from Nigerians who appreciate the man’s laudable sacrifices for the state and a family not known to make unnecessary demands on the State government, the call to rename LASU after Lateef Jakande does not appear to be such a tall order. 

Sheddy Ozoene is Vice President (East) of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.

Despite the hysteria about who has been made a Minister and who has not and the euphoria about which portfolios they have been given or not been given, let us remain focused on the major issues of the day and not take our eye off the ball.

And other than our economic and security challenges the most weighty issue is the conundrum that we are presented with in Niger Republic and the challenge of military Governments in our backyard.

The facts are as follows.

Sudan, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guniea have all been plagued with coup d'etas and military Governments over the last 3 years.

They have formed a formidable and intimidating 'coup belt' of unelected military rulers which stretches from Guniea on the western flank of the West African sub-region right on the Atlantic ocean up across the southern flank of the North African Sahel and the Lake Chad region all the way to East Africa and the Pacific ocean.

They have effectively drawn an iron curtain and uninterrupted chain of unelected and unconciable military juntas right across the center of our continent dividing North Africa from the rest of the continent.

It follows that the greatest challenge of our time is to ensure that this leperous belt of unconstitutional Governments does not get any bigger, stronger and wider and that the virus of military interventions and coups does not spread any further.

We must, no matter the cost, fight for and defend our democracy and preserve our freedom and way of life.

We cannot do this by relying on foreign and regional armies to come and save us and neither can we achieve it by marching into Niger in a gung ho attempt to restore democracy.

We can only do so by winning the hearts and souls of our people by providing good governance, justice and accountability for them.

Once you do this and any military adventurer tries to do a coup, the people themselves will come out in the streets in their millions to denounce and resist it.

In such circumstances you will not need any foreign force to come and reinstall or reinstate you.

This is the point that President Bazoum failed to appreciate.

He allowed his people to suffer under the yoke of the French and was totally oblivious and insensitive to their yearnings and aspirations to be freed from the vestiges of neo-colonial bondage.

That is what the mutineers took advantage of.

Let us hope that other African leaders can learn from his mistakes.

If they do, we shall go from strength to strength and democracy shall
flourish in our respective countries.

If they do not they can expect the worse. The choice is theirs.

Permit me to conclude this contribution with a final word on the misplaced notion that a military assault or threat of it on Niger would be a fruitful endeavour and the best and only way to restore democracy in that beleaguered nation.

After the meeting of the Chief of Defence Staffs and military commanders of the ECOWAS countries in Accra on Thursday the following definitive statement was made by the commanders of the ECOWAS Force.

They said, "we are ready to storm Niger Republic".

This despite the counsel of the African Union and powerful North African countries like Algeria not to do so.

I am constrained to respectfully put the following questions to these ECOWAS military commanders and I challenge them to provide the answers.

Can we successfully attack a country where the civilians are holding rallies in solidatiry with their supposed oppressors?

Surely, in the end, no one will come out victorious as these things are always easier said than done.

Russia thought Ukraine would fall in two weeks yet today it is well over a year, hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are still being lost and the war is still raging.

Quite apart from that has this ECOWAS "force" already been formed or will they divide the operation into sectors with each country taking a sector?

Where is the Command HQ located? Who takes care of Nigér's sector 3 of the MNJTF in the Lake Chad, for I guess they will withdraw their troops?

If Burkina Faso and Mali join Nigér forces, as they threatened they would, who blocks the southward movement of the insurgents and terrorists scattered around the triangular borders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigér?

Is the Russian Wagner force still active in the region? Have we prepared adequately to handle the weapons and drug-trafficking across the borders with Niger since our partners in that nation are now our enemies?

Even with them working with us, cross border crimes are still serious issues.

Will the AU or the UN or the West be responsible for the logistics? As at now Nigeria can't afford to do so like it did in ECOMOG. We simply do not have the financial wherewithal or the resources.

In my view we should still vigorously pursue the application of conflict resolution mechanisms in order to buy time to address these questions.

We must approach the entire matter with the utmost caution, wisdom and care.

If Niger Republic and her allies deliberately open a corridor for the elements of ISIS, AQIM, ISWAP etc to move into Benin and Togo, ECOWAS' weakest link, then the whole of Nigeria's western borders, from Sokoto to Lagos, would be vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Already some of the elements have penetrated into Niger State, around Borgu and Shiriro, very close to Benin Republic and some states in the South West of Nigeria.

These questions need answers.

There is no doubt im my mind that an attack on Niger Republic would result in a massive military conflagration that will engulf the entire West African sub-region and which would eventually spread to North, Central and East Africa.

The mutineers and coupists have agreed to dialogue and now ECOWAS wants to use force, launch an attack and endanger the life of President Bazoum? This hardly makes sense.

If we are not careful and if we refuse to use diplomatic means to resolve this matter we may end up throwing ourselves into the greatest and most destructive war in the history of Africa and few African nations would survive it.

That is what the proponents of an attack on Niger are toying with.

Treading the path of war is a reckless and dangerous adventure which would result in a frightful and horrific Dickensian nightmare and Shakespearean tragedy.

May we never see it.

In conclusion let me say this.

 If the Western powers, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the European Union and even France are worried for their vital and strategic interests on the African continent in the light of all this I sincerely and honestly believe they have every right, reason and need to do so because the stakes are high.

The Russians and Chinese ought to be worried as well.

Apart from those that wish to depopulate and destroy our continent and sell their arms, no-one, least of all the African people, stands to benefit from a rash collective of vicious and unaccountable military Governments strewn across Africa or from what may end up being a massive continental war which, to all intents and purposes, may end up transmuting into a proxy one between the world's super powers.

Worse of all such a war will probably be partly fought by mercenary armies from both sides of the divide.

May God deliver us from evil.

(Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the former Minister of Aviation and the former Minister of Culture and Tourism)

An ECOWAS delegation led by Nigeria’s former Head of State, retired Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar met in Niamey on Saturday, 19th August with Niger's military regime officials led by Brg.-Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani.

Diplomatic sources said the ECOWAS team, which included Nigeria's Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhamad Sa'ad Abubakar also met with Niger's deposed President Mohamed Bazoum.

Abubakar had led a previous ECOWAS Mission, which only went as far as the Niamey airport, with the military junta citing security concerns then following the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS, including a no-fly zone over Niger after the 26th July coup.

The governing military Council had also received on Thursday in Niamey, the United Nations Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simao.

The negotiations are seen as last-ditch efforts to resolve the Niger impasse through diplomatic means.

The peace missions followed Friday’s second emergency meeting in Accra, Ghana by regional Chiefs of Defence Staff, who announced that an undisclosed “D-Day” had been decided for possible deployment of the ECOWAS Standby Force to restore constitutional order in Niger.

Bazoum, some of his family members and ousted government officials are detained by the junta, which has already named a 21-member cabinet of ministers headed by a civilian Prime Minister.

The Tchiani-led regime had threatened to kill the deposed president if attacked by ECOWAS forces.

Three ECOWAS member States under military rule – Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso – have expressed solidarity with the Niger regime, with the Mali and Burkina Faso juntas also warning that both countries will defend the Niger armed forces and citizens if attacked by external forces.

ECOWAS might be trying to end recurring military coups in the region, but France and the U.S. which have military bases in Niger are also defending their defence and economic interests in Niger, with other players such as Russia and China waiting in the wings.

Popular opinion in the region favours the use of diplomacy for a peaceful resolution of the Niger impasse, over military intervention.

Apart from the complexity and competing domestic and international interests, the use of military force is perceived as an externally-driven agenda and could backfire, resulting in escalation into a catastrophic war.

Meanwhile, reports from Niamey indicate that ECOWAS sanctions are biting hard, with avoidable deaths in hospitals.

The sanctions include border closure, freeze of financial transactions by member States and the suspension of electricity supplies by neighbouring Nigeria to Niger.

The UN humanitarian agency has urged ECOWAS and partners to allow the movement of humanitarian supplies to ease sufferings by the population from the sanctions.

It is believed that current negotiations between ECOWAS/UN and the junta leaders could cut the ice towards a peace solution.

Gen. Abubakar led one of the shortest political transitions from military to civilian rule in Nigeria, and it is expected that his experience could be useful in Niger.

The new Prime Minister of the Niger Republic, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, has assured that the Military junta, which overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum during a July 26 coup will do him no harm.

Speaking on the fate of overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum, Zeine told the New York Times that, “Nothing will happen to him, because we don’t have a tradition of violence in Niger.”

He also insisted the Niger coup leaders had no intention of collaborating with Russia, or with the Kremlin-backed mercenaries of the Wagner group.

While praising the “extremely reasonable position” of the White House in trying to resolve the crisis through diplomacy rather than force, Zeine, who served as finance minister in a previous administration, said, “the moment will come to review” such military partnerships.

The New York Times reported that the coup leaders had cut off water and electricity to Bazoum’s house, where he has been confined since being ousted, and threatened to kill him if other African countries make good on a proposal to restore him to power through a military intervention.

President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria earlier warned on Friday that there will be “grave consequences” if Niger’s military regime allows Bazoum’s health to worsen under house arrest, a European Union official said.

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York was questioned by reporters on the state of Bazoum’s health and if he was even still alive.

“I’ve spoken to someone who speaks to him regularly. And, yes, as far as we know and we have no indication to say that he’s not alive. So as far as I know, he’s alive,” she said.

Zeine, a French-trained economist who was appointed Niger’s prime minister on August 7, was also questioned by the New York Times on the presence of 1,100 American soldiers and 1,500 French soldiers fighting against jihadists in anti-terrorist operations with the local Army.

Burkina Faso and Mali have deployed war planes in Niger Republic following the threat of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) troops that they were waiting for order to strike.

The regional bloc had given Niger junta a week ultimatum to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible sanctions, including possible military action.

The coupists had called the bluff of ECOWAS and vowed to resist foreign intervention.

Subsequently, ECOWAS Defence Chiefs were ordered to activate the region’s force for action to restore civil rule in Niger.

But Burkina Faso and Mali warned that any military intervention in Niger will be considered a declaration of war against them.

In a joint statement, the governments of Burkina Faso and Mali said, “The disastrous consequences of a military intervention in Niger could destabilise the entire region,” the statement read.

At the end of a two-day meeting of ECOWAS Defence Chiefs in Accra, Ghana capital, Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, said, “We are ready to go any time the order is given. The D-day is also decided. We’ve already agreed and fine-tuned what will be required for the intervention.”

However, he said the option for diplomacy was still available.

“As we speak, we are still readying [a] mediation mission into the country, so we have not shut any door.”

“Tomorrow there is the possibility of an ECOWAS mission going into Niger to continue to pursue the peaceful path to restoration of constitutional order. We are ready to resolve the issue peacefully but it takes two to tango.”

The latest move of Mali and Burkina Faso was disclosed by Niger’s national television.

In a report, the television station said the military leaders from Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger convened Friday in the Nigerien capital Niamey to decide on “concrete measures” in case ECOWAS chooses to “escalate a war.”

Most of ECOWAS’s 15 member states are prepared to contribute to the joint force, except Cape Verde and those also under military rule – Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

The Spokesman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba has described the N5billion in palliatives and grant to the state government as shambolic and unscientific.

Muhammad-Baba, a Professor of Sociology, who expressed his view in an interview, said there is no basis for giving the same amount to Lagos, Oyo, Kano and Bayelsa states, as their populations and statistics of eligible people differ.

He said, “I am not happy about such blanket distribution of N5 billion to each state. In the first place, there is no basis for the distribution. I mean, if you are looking for poor people, are you allocating the same amount to Bayelsa, Lagos, Oyo, and Kano states, and you expect it to make an impact?

“This shows that we are doing things like what grammar people call ‘hunter’s pack’. You don’t plan, you don’t strategize, you just came out and made an announcement on that. There is no basis for sharing money to states on an equal basis.

“We are talking of poor people and poor people is a question of proportion, we know there are over 140 million poor people in Nigeria. The number of people suffering from poverty in Lagos, Oyo, and Kano will not be the same with those living in poverty in Bayelsa, Taraba, or Jigawa. So, what is the basis? What impact is it going to make?

“You are accompanying it with 30,000 bags of rice. How many people is that going to reach? Take a state like Sokoto, for example. They have over seven million people by the latest National Population Commission estimate. So, how many people are 30,000 bags of rice going to feed?”

He noted that the government is not working on a definite plan saying, “The government is implementing a shambolic policy, you need to come to the aid of the poor people, there is no doubt about it, that is scientific, but you need to do it in such a way that your intervention will not be a drop in the ocean.”

Our people say that an unmarried man of twenty who builds a mansion and invites the traditional ruler and the entire community to celebrate the fact that he now has a home will attract this unvoiced remark from most of his guests: “Ah, this young man will yet learn that it takes more than brickwork to make a home”.  In more contemporary parlance, the point being made is that there is a fundamental difference between investment in physical infrastructure and investment in human capital development. 

The building of classrooms, for instance, does not automatically translate into investment in education. Classrooms, brand new desks, Smart Boards and computers fall under learning infrastructure. Teachers are the “factory workers” in every human capital development factory/industry called a school. That is why the quality of teachers, the depth of teaching, the quality of the curriculum, etc., are the real issues. Thus, I invite President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his government to pay close attention to the short, medium and long-term impact of every new policy. Also not to be forgotten is the question of the sustainability of policies and programmes. The important thing is for the government not to equate record of expenditure, or its goodwill as shown in its actions and pronouncements, for evidence of positive impact on citizen welfare. 

These sentiments expressed above were responsible for a piece that appeared on this page after the last Executive Council Meeting of President Buhari during his first tenure, for years ago. The government had then pulled off a cabinet decision that was hailed on several fronts as a landmark achievement. Yet it only represented the symptom of a deep national crisis that had overtaken elite consciousness on governance issues in Nigeria. The concerns raised in the article in question then are even more pertinent today, as a warning for the new government not to follow the beaten, wrong path in the same regard. The article, titled “Objection Mr. President’, had this to say:

“There is an objection in principle here to any action, or policy initiatives, of the government, the President or his proxies that may not serve wider, long term, national interests. In this regard, Mr. President may wish to advert his attention to some matters of state to which one may be justified in raising some mild objections. The decision of the Federal Executive Council to spend the sum of N4.7 billion on the construction of seven Model Schools in the six geo-political zones of the country is ill advised. 

The federal government can choose one Unity School from each of the geo-political zones and upgrade it to a Model School, or school of reference of some sort, instead of starting fresh school projects. 

A simple costs-benefits analysis shows that N4.7 billion will go a very long way in rescuing the over one hundred now-decrepit and derelict Unity Schools in the country and increasing their carrying capacity. The old students associations and the parents of the current students who are now maintaining and sustaining these schools in the critical areas of infrastructure and learning environment should be relieved of a burden that a distant Federal Ministry of Education, a consummate cabal with impressive credentials that no minister of education can easily see through or dislodge, claims to be handling but is not.

To build new model schools is to award building contracts to “reliable” contractors. Construction of the schools will probably take some two years, or more, to be followed by the provision of state-of-the-art amenities; which essentially boils down to a series of procurement contracts. The seven Model Schools will not make any impact whatsoever on human capital development, or contribute to the growth of education, one way or another in Nigeria in the next five years. But upgrading some Unity School will do just that within the same timeframe. So, the proposed new schools will be nothing but a major capital project, resting on the mistaken assumption that the provision of learning infrastructure is the same thing as sustainable investment in education.

We should not be content to celebrate cash evidence of massive government investment in education, when in fact the name of the Nigerian child is being taken in vain by contractors and government jobbers. Who builds models schools without simultaneously training Model Teachers? Should part of this freshly budgeted sum of N4.7 billion not perhaps go into strengthening the National Teachers Institute (NTI), the Teachers Registration Council (TRC) and probably reinvigorating the academic content and quality of various faculties of education nationwide? Do our teacher-producing facilities not need specialized short courses on contemporary teaching and learning paradigms and much more?

The school system is like a “factory” producing human capital for the nation. It needs “factory workers”, as well as facilities and the physical infrastructure housing all activities. Investment that focuses on factory machinery and the premises of our education industry is not the best approach to improving the quality of citizens (or “products”) we turn out. It is not enough for an investor to procure and install fine “machinery.” The equipment will not translate to quality products, or even any products at all, except there are also competent people to handle them. A man who builds a bakery to the best global standards, complete with a service and marketing template that even the Jews would envy, but who fails to train bakers and install an efficient and effective management has invested in folly. He will have impressive installed capacity, but pitiable capacity utilization. Incompetent staff will quickly destroy the unfamiliar equipment and ruin everything.

Investment in teacher education/knowledge upgrade, up-scaling of learning outcomes and other measures that would impact the quality of products of our schools are the issues here. The expenditure of most states of the federation on education over the last twenty years of our democracy shows huge budgetary allocations to education, at the same time that we also show a precipitous decline in educational standards and learning outcomes. Some states with very high records of expenditure for classroom rehabilitation, the supply of desks, books, etc., also have the worst teacher training, school enrolment and retention records. Check the investment of the federal and state governments on the training of teachers, provision of teaching aids and more in the last 20 years. So, let us pull the blinkers off our eyes and get real.

Let us recall that the introduction of the 3-3-3-6 secondary school template was predicated on the expectation that the products of our secondary schools would be eligible for some form of employment, based on a “technical” education of sorts. Introductory Technology (Intro-tech) came on board as a subject in our secondary schools because of this. Impressive machinery and other infrastructure for teaching the subject were also quickly imported (procurement contract). Some of the “Jakande Schools” in Lagos with their low walls had to build new halls for safe storage of the equipment. But there were practically no teachers for the new subject anywhere. So, while we cheerfully planned for a revolutionary national human capital development outing and procured the equipment for it, while we celebrated the expected outcomes a very sound education policy, many schools could not even install the equipment, to say nothing of using them.

The equipment procured and given to schools all over Nigeria for that revolution are nowhere to be found today. The products of that revolution are also nowhere to be found today. Worse still, there is no impact on national development, technological evolution and unemployment.

It is against the background of the foregoing that one fells constrained to say: “Objection Mr. President to the proposed Model Schools.” Increase the number and quality of teachers, expand the carrying capacity of the existing schools, and provide the necessary contemporary teaching aids and ensure security of lives and property for the students, teachers and contiguous communities. The nation is yet to recover from the debilitating impact of the brand-new universities of questionable authenticity established by the Jonathan administration. Record of expenditure is not evidence of impact” 

With the above from an article that was essentially a protest against wasteful and misguided expenditure, on is again saying, here and now, that the current government must not allow itself to fall into the unfortunate trap of just rolling out records of money spent and what it was spent on. We saw enough of that in the last eight years. Tucano aircrafts and sundry rumored arms and ammunition procurements were celebrated while bandits and terrorists overran the land. 

Two years before the federal government initiative under reference, the government of Kebbi State had done more or less the same thing. This was our commenent on that, back then: “A few weeks ago the government of Kebbi State approved the sum of N4.5 billion for the construction and renovations of schools. Other reports suggest that the state government is going to build brand new schools in every local government of the state. To the extent that the reports about this matter remain undenied in the media, the question to ask is this: Aren’t there other ways in which the state government can spend N4.5 billion and make better mileage in education? But more of questions later. Speaking further on the construction and rehabilitation works, the Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) of the state, Hassan Umar, was quoted as having said: “We have already started the process. We have contract specifications and told contractors to do quality job. We have guidelines on the execution of the projects.” 

Continuing, the article had this to say: “The state government (and most other state governments in the country) may wish to answer the following questions: (1) How many candidates enrolled for SSCE and related examinations in the last 10 years, and why (4) Can you say, in all good conscience that less than seventy per cent of your state’s education budget of the last 20 years have not been more of procurement contracts? And (3) Has there been an improvement in enrolment, retention and education outcomes since the return of democracy?

In sum, President Tinubu must keep a sharp lookout for shadows that are threatening to present themselves as substance. Whether it concerns palliatives, the State of Emergency on Food Security, etc. The economic meteriologists are saying: “Watch out for clear air turbulence”.