Nigeria's ex-leaders' schools flourish as public schools rot
In spite of the decay in the nation?s education sector and a call for the overhaul of public schools, Nigeria?s leaders continue to run posh private schools as KEMI OBASOLA reports

F ROM the popular El-Amin International School in Niger State to the Abti-American University in Adamawa State and the Bells University in Ota, Ogun State, serving or former public office holders in Nigeria and their wives are some of the owners of elite private schools where parents pay exorbitant fees for their children?s education.

Located in Niger State, El-Amin is owned by the wife of a former Military President, Mrs. Maryam Babangida, and the school caters for the needs of the children of top government officials.

El-Amin is not the only school in this class; the Bells School and the Bells University of Technology are owned by the immediate past President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; although, the Bells Secondary School had been in existence before Obasanjo became president in 1999, the University of Technology was established while he was in office as president.

Just like other private universities, the Bells caters for children whose parents can afford to give the best as against the type of education offered in the nation?s public schools which observers have described as ill-equipped to deliver the best.

Another school co-owned by a former government official is the ABTI American University in Adamawa State.

Owned by a former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and some foreigners, ABTI American University claims to offer university education according to American standards and offers the best facilities to students whose parents can afford to send them there. The average cost per session at the university is N1.5m.

But, observers believe that it is time to question public office holders who establish institutions at the detriment of the public schools.

In an interview, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Lagos State Chapter, Mr. Michael Alogba, said, ?Majority of the elite private schools in this country are owned by senators, council chairmen, governors and their wives and other powerful people.

?When you ask them, they tell you about their fundamental human rights which enable them to establish as many schools as they like. But the rot in the public education system is a result of their actions or inactions.

?They have siphoned funds meant to develop public schools in order to establish their own schools, they come out with confusing policies just to create market for their own schools and when you get to their schools, you find the best facilities.

?Education is a social service; it is immoral and ungodly for those at the helm of affairs to establish schools when they have failed to provide the best for our children in public schools.

?If they develop the public schools to the best standards, no one will question their right to establish private schools; but, they use the money meant for public schools to establish their own schools and our children whose parents will never be able to afford the schools owned by these government officials continue to suffer.?

A don, Prof. Solomon Olaniyonu, said, ?Many of those in office, even those at the House of Assembly are now establishing schools with unbearable fees. Such schools will eventually become their sources of income when they are no longer in office. They know that education is essential and that parents who do not want to send their children abroad will send them to the posh schools that are available.

?Unfortunately, our public schools lack everything that is good. Even the environment in which the teachers, pupils and students have to operate is nauseating. The schools are bad because money allocated for their development were not well utilised. The facilities are not there to make learning easy while the teachers have to make do with whatever learning aid they see.

?Funding should be made available to develop our public schools. If our elected public office holders had been more concerned about the infrastructural development of these schools instead of establishing their own schools, the education sector would have grown.?

On his part, The Executive Director of Child Help in Legal Defence of Rights to Education, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said the commercialisation of the education sector had put the future of many children in jeopardy.

According to him, resources that are supposed to be spent on public schools are being pocketed by a few people in the corridors of power who in turn use such money to establish and maintain their own schools.

Adeniran said, ?The trend is not healthy for the future of this country, it is not wrong to invest but when serving government officials- those appointed to make rules and regulate the system so that education will be accessible and affordable make life difficult for the people, then there is a problem.

?You go to the schools owned by these government officials and everything is in place just like foreign schools, you go to our public schools and students do not even have materials for research, they rely on handouts which have become legalised.

?It is a pity nothing much can be done about the situation but parents and students should be made to know where their problems are coming from. The way these people go about establishing schools is antithetical to humanism and development. Students who graduate from ill-equipped universities become unemployable graduates.?

However, the chairman of the Parents Teachers Association of Maryland Comprehensive School, Mr. Kole Jagun, said government officials who went ahead to establish private schools had clearly shown that they lacked confidence in the public education system or their ability to put it right.

?I finished from Federal Government College, Minna and the school was an eyesore the last time I paid a visit there. Government officials should regulate the education sector, too many public schools are in a shambles.?

In 1979, a former governor of Old Ondo State, Chief Adekule Ajasin gave up his private school when he got into office. He also encouraged members of his cabinet to do likewise. The present leader of the Pan Yoruba SocioCultural Organisation, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, who was a commissioner under Ajasin also gave up his private school.

Ajasin made the move so that education would truly be free for all.

http://www.e-punch.com/Default.aspx?BMode=100

http://www.e-punch.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=16_01_2009_039_001&mode=1

you see why nigeria will always be wonderful