EDUCATION IN NIGERIA IS A POLITICAL GIMMICK

The whole exercise of free basis education is a gimmick; I can even call it political misinformation. It has become a tone for every politician who intend to sing a melodious song of political campaign to start with promise free education up to junior secondary school level, did anybody ever see free education in the state? Nobody has ever seen it. So what the present governorship aspirants in Edo state campaigned on free education is a gimmick because if it was not materialized when these promises were made before, what are the arrangement that this time around, it will be realized? The aspirants has to say something concrete to make citizens of the state believe that this time it is going to be true.

I think for any government in Nigeria both the federal and state levels to talk of about free education is an insult because if there should be any promise for free education anywhere in Nigeria, it should be at least compulsory free education up to secondary level and free education at higher institutions because Nigeria can afford it; but this government because they are not really government of the people, is not talking about free education up to tertiary level.

What the government is saying is just a pronouncement not a reality. Where they promised free education up to secondary school level in some states, if you go there, you will discover that it is not actually free as they want us to believe them because parents still have to pay for their children learning materials.

If we are honest in Nigeria, we should be talking like people of honour. Throughout the world, most nations are talking of compulsory free education at all levels throughout their countries. Nigeria can afford it because we have the resources to do that if not more than what we are thinking of.
The wastage in all spheres of life in Nigeria is signified by high level of corruption and criminal waste of resources has brought us into what we are experiencing today. A thief in Nigeria steals not less than one year budget of the country and gets away with it. There was virtually free education in the country before the first coup but now education has been privatized like any other business venture.

We have today in Nigeria the problem of Almajirinchi which has spread to other parts of the country in other forms. With compulsory and free education at all levels, it will eliminate that problem because those who beg on the street are the children below the age of 16 and they are the very ones that could be enrolled in the compulsory education in the country and by extension reducing some social vices.

As a result of lack of free education, you will discover that even in the Southern part of the country, the children of the less privilege in the society cannot afford it and they go about roaming the streets thereby becoming venerable to all manners of illicit acts in the society.

Without free education at all levels in the country, it will not be possible for a child that finish secondary school to get admission at the higher institution because of lack of funds to cater for his or her education. So the free education from primary to junior secondary school will be a waste because no matter how brilliant the child is, he or she cannot get employment.

So the right thing is to have free education from primary to university level for every child. The free education at all level if implemented would provide the country with enough manpower and thereby doing away with the section of the country that is educationally backward because the North is 40 years behind the South educationally. The only way to do away with the education gap between the North and South is when the government finally comes in to provide free education at all levels to all Nigerians.

As it is today, government at all levels are just deceiving Nigerians with their educational policies that have no concrete basis, the government is not doing what it ought to do with the resources that abound in the country. For the country to advance, concrete efforts must be made to ensure that education policies are introduced to enhance its quality for the overall transformation of the country.
Unfortunately, in Nigeria, we are just deceiving people with policies that we know will not come into effect for the benefit of all.