Five years ago, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal declared state of emergency on education in Sokoto state. The governor recently scored his administration high on education development, but the opposition, All Progressives Congress (APC) sees it differently. ABDULRAHEEM AODU reports.
Education is the bedrock of any society as it is the foundation of every development. Wherever education components such as good teachers, solid infrastructure, well articulated curriculum, teaching incentives, good learning environment are lacking, teaching and learning become inhibited.
The parlous state of education in 2015 in Sokoto state, according to Tambuwal made him to declare state of emergency in the education sector to seek enduring solution to the anomaly. Five years down the road and a year into his second term, the governor stated recently that his administration has performed creditably well in the sector.
Speaking through his special adviser on media and publicity, Muhammad Bello, Tambuwal said he set up an intervention programme funded voluntarily by the state workers where civil servants have 3% of their salary deducted monthly, while political appointees have 5% deducted from their salary. Government equally set up a committee to carry out the intervention.
State gov’t spends N833.6m on schools construction Governor Tambuwal said the civil servants’ contributions amounted to N1.138 billion, out of which N833.6 million has been expended on construction of 13 schools’ infrastructure across the state between 2017 and 2020. He said six schools have been completed and handed over while seven others are under construction, adding that a block of classrooms was also built at Gamji Girls College Rabah as well as 100 Islamiyya schools. “Those completed include, Gagi, Danchadi, Horo Birni, Katami, Araba and Dantudu, while the ongoing ones include Junior Secondary School at Rumbu in Sokoto North LGA, Junior Secondary School, Gigane in Gwadabawa LGA, Usman Makera Community Secondary School, Achida, Malam Buhari Government Day Secondary School, Sifawa, Sanyinna Model Primary School and another school at Bagida in Tambuwal LGA.
APC disagrees
Despite all these, the APC in the state has picked holes in the state government’s claims. The state APC chairman, Hon Isa Sadiq Achida, told Blueprint in Kaduna that Governor Tambuwal has not done anything in the education sector to justify the huge money expended and prove that the declared state of emergency has achieved its purpose. According to Hon Achida, “the educational development of Sokoto state despite the declaration of state of emergency is poor and almost zero. This administration under Hon. Aminu Tambuwal has not done anything. The only project I know they have started since inception of this administration in the last five years is the Government Secondary School Bale in Gudu local government.”Up till today, they could not complete that secondary school despite the huge amount of money allocated to it. I was a member of the State Executive Council (SEC) between 2015 and 2019, so I know how much was approved for that project. This is a governor that cannot even settle the WAEC and NECO fees for Sokoto state indigenes. “Also, if you look at the existing primary and secondary schools, they are all dilapidated with cracked, falling walls, broken doors and windows. There are no chairs; almost all the roofs have been blown off by the wind and they have not been repaired. The teachers’ quarters are in shambles, yet there is no remuneration for them; in fact, some teachers are paid half of their salaries, some are being transferred for political reasons. “Teachers welfare generally is very poor and are not being looked into.
Teachers are in very pathetic situation; their accommodations ought to have been given priority so that the teachers in the villages can stay and discharge their duties very well. Presently, most of them don’t have accommodation, so they have to shuttle between towns and villages.”My total assessment is that the education system in Sokoto state has been bastardised by the Tambuwal’s administration. The so-called Sokoto State Consultative Committee on Education is also a total failure because it is the money being taken out of civil servants’ salaries that is being used. And there is nothing on ground to show for it. All these schools they said they have built, I want you to visit them and see what they have done.”The deduction itself has now become illegal because they stated that the deduction would be made for three years, but we are now into the fifth year that the deductions have been made from civil servants’ salaries. “But it is unfortunate that the state’s labour unions who are supposed to defend the right of the workers have been politicised. “It is not only the opposition that is criticising this programme, even some lecturers from the university did research on what has been done with over one N1billion and they discovered that there is not enough to show for it. The cost of the constructions are so inflated that the money earmarked for a primary school, can build three of such primary schools.”That committee ought to have studied the need of the people of Sokoto state on education development before embarking on their project. They should have undertaken the renovation of the existing structures.
Project yet to start in Bagida, Rumbukawa
Blueprint investigations across Sokoto-south, Sokoto-north, Bodinga, Tambuwal, Shagari and Wurno local government areas revealed that there is no project in Rumbukuwa and Bagida. At JSS Rumbukawa in Sokoto- north LGA, there was no new project ongoing or completed, only a renovated storey building tagged SDG 2019. Also at Salihu Bagida Primary School, Tambuwal LGA, there was no new project except a renovated work tagged UBEC/FGN 2011.
But the projects at Government Day Secondary School, Gagi, Sokoto-south LGA has been completed. It is the same as Nurul Islam Primary School Danchadi, Bodinga LGA. The project at GJSS Horo-Birni, Shagari LGA was also completed and handed over in 2019, but the school was deroofed by a rainstorm in July 2020 and is yet to be repaired. At JNI/Sayinna Model Primary School, Sayinna, Tambuwal LGA, Government Girls Secondary School, Malam Buhari, Bodinga LGA and Late Usman Makera LGA Primary School Achida in Wurno LGA, the brick works have been completed up to level awaiting roofing, doors, windows and finishing.
