Readers’ comments, by Prof MK Othman
Deep Thoughts with Othman
It is time to allow the esteemed readers of this Column to air their views. There were verities of views on almost every topic I presented in this Column. It is really difficult to share all the views expressed but it is important to select few ones that critiqued my opinion to give the readers a wide view, pros, and cons of each topic. However, some of the views are edited for clarity and space limitation. Happy reading.
READ ALSO: School System In Nigeria: Education without character?, by Professor MK Othman
School System in Nigeria: Education without Character?
Prof. Othman, the above title was well written. It is unfortunate that Education is now in a sorry state. A situation in which no well-to-do individual would send his/her child to public schools is very unfortunate. This makes the market of private schools on the rise. My concern in this regard is that most of those who benefitted from the early sound education are now against it. They are the ones controlling the affairs of government at all levels. They have the way and means to revive it, but they are not interested. They enjoyed sound public education but rejecting the poor to enjoy the same. They are also using public funds for the education of their children abroad or in private schools but destroying the public schools. With all these, it is hard for our younger ones to have productive growth.
Thank you, Prof and more ink to your pen.
Engr Umar Hassan, ABU Zaria.
This is a very interesting piece, indeed. Indiscipline amongst our secondary students is to me, multi-faceted. From parents to government, from overpopulation to increasing indiscipline in the society, from access to latest means of information as well as to emphasis on human rights, etc.
Barr Kabir Hassan, Zaria.
Good thinking Prof, but we have bad leadership with no value and purpose for character moulding. Leaders should be a good example to the people and a model of character to follow. A bad tree cannot bring forth good fruits. An unjust system cannot produce a just leader. Every level of our leadership is corrupt. The system operators are placed above the system and the law that guides the system operations. This is where we have missed it. We have to go back to the drawing board at all levels of leadership to make the system and the standard superior to the operators and not vice versa. Our future has a lot of potential opportunities but we need discipline and dedicated operators in the system to make it work.
Well done sir. I appreciate your write up!
Hammed Olabanji Kolawole, Lagos.
Hushpuppi-Kyari Saga and the Accentuated Lessons
This topic was well handled; it was vintage Prof. MK Othman, Great discourse from the Prof’s saddle. Abba Kyari’s heroics in crime bursting far outweigh the trump up charges of discreet connection with the renowned Internet fraudster-Husspuppi!
Show me a virgin in a maternity ward!!! No security agent is DENTLESS!
Alhaji Sani Ahmed, Kano
Basic Education in Nigeria: North, Profusely Hemorrhagic
I agree fully with you on the assessment of the problems of education in Northern Nigeria. However, I must point out that you might have understated the cause and impacts of the problems on the whole nation. This might have been due to space constraints. For one, these problems might have an unexplored socio-cultural dimension. Perhaps, the straight jacket colonial education system is not adequate to serve the northern region. There may be the need for some adjustments, which we have failed to properly evaluate and tackle.
As for the impacts, the army of able body youths migrating to the south for menial jobs like maiguards, mairuwa, sow bata, maisuya, okada riders, etc, tells the story. It is indeed haemorrhaging. Like El-Rufai noted recently, the perennial spoon-feeding of the students from the north in terms of “favourable” unity schools, NDA, JAMB cut-off marks may have negative effects in the long run. Apart from being unfair and discriminatory, it may also render the beneficiaries incompetent to cope with private life in a nation where competition, entrepreneurship, digitalization, innovation is increasingly becoming the norm following the steady decline in government jobs and patronage where they have previously found refuge.
It is the personal drive, the competitive spirit, and the survival of the fittest spirit that is lacking in spoon-fed children that are making the Igbos dominate commerce in the country. Remember that they were once disadvantaged after the civil war while the north and the west looked on.
Yele Akinbamowo, Ibadan
Good observation in the write-up, Prof. Unfortunately the problems of the north are quite self-inflicted. The leaders take joy in the followers praise-singing them and so, will do everything to perpetuate poverty and ignorance in the region. The followers also are contented with the handouts (peanuts) given by the elites/leaders, ready to die for them and see-no-evil/atrocities being committed by their leaders. On the issue of soft landing by the repenting bandits or whatever they call them, I think there will be an injustice on the part of those languishing at the IDP camps all these years and those who were traumatised in one way or another. Just imagine this quoted episode. “A pregnant woman was kidnapped by bandits, she gave birth to twins while in captivity and right before her eyes her two babies were fed to the bandits’ dogs, the woman runs mad”.
How do we compensate for this kind of scenario? Several other victims have been seriously abused, raped through the anus, chained for weeks, brutalized and sometimes killed and fed to dogs. Yet these people are not considered terrorists, they should be granted amnesty. There is no justification whatsoever to grant such amnesty to such kinds of people.
Those granted amnesty by the Katsina and Zamfara State Governments and placed on the government payroll, receiving salaries monthly like any other legitimate civil servants, still went back to banditry. What sort of amnesty do bandits’ sympathizers want? I am very sure none of their loved ones has ever been kidnapped.
Anonymous.
Prof Othman writes from NAERLS, ABU Zaria and can be reached via email: mkothman@gmail.com.
