Reading enhances good governance - Gov Aliyu

NNW: What would you say are the factors responsible for the poor reading culture and the falling standard of education, especially in the Northern part of the country?
It is a failure of the society. If we had continued from the Jihad of Usman Danfodio that sought to make the society literate, we would not be talking of illiteracy today. But, I guess, it is because some leaders prefer not to lead but to dictate and you can only dictate more on an ignorant group of people. And we have not been paying a kind of dues to education. We need to deliberately make policies that will encourage education. We have left what we should have been doing, that is why education is in such a mess. In whatever field, whether in agriculture, in economic development, the literate man will always find a more efficient way of doing it. Similarly, reading enhances good governance.
Recently you embarked on reading campaign; how has this impacted on the state?
Apart from the reading campaign, we also made it a point that you cannot be in my cabinet without sound education, no matter how good you are. You may be the most intelligent person, but educational qualification is our requirement. Hence, the political appointments are graded. To occupy certain positions you need to have masters degree and so on. What we met was a situation where some of the commissioners were secondary school failures. There were special advisers who didn?t even appreciate what schooling means because they appointed them just to give them something to eat. But we said no, those appointed must be role models to the ones coming. And we discovered that immediately we took over many people started going back to school, including the so-called big men. They were going for part time courses. And the school system too has picked up.
You have about four writers in your government; this is a rare case in Nigeria. Is it part of your deliberate action towards promoting the reading culture in the state?
Yes, it is part of our deliberate action. And we try to ensure equity. For instance, we have four female commissioners, four female members at the House of Assembly and more than ten Directors General. So also in terms of education, we are very deliberate so that we can encourage people to see the beauty of it and to begin to say that is the thing to do, and to send the girl-child to school. No matter how deliberate you are, if you don?t have the relevant people like the Dzukogis [the immediate past National Treasurer of Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA] in the government we would find it difficult to succeed in terms of education.
As a supporter of literature, and given the clamour for the development of indigenous literature, do you have any plan to boost the genre?
I have been doing something in this regard. But it had been on adhoc basis - when people request for our help in this respect, we give help. I think what we are going to do is to institutionalise it. There was someone who came to us and we assisted him with the project of translating the Qu?ran into Nupe language and it was well accepted. But, like I said, we shall institutionalise it and go out deliberately to scout for such talents. And that?s why I directed yesterday [during the opening ceremony of the ANA convention] that schools must have literary associations. This will encourage them in terms of writing competitive essays. And from there you can get talents that you can encourage. There is a lot in our indigenous languages that we can capture in literature. We have a lot of proverbs and folktales we don?t care to capture; some English men come and capture them and make a lot of money.
Are you putting in place any structure that would ensure that the priority you have given to education and literature is sustained after you have left office?
We have what we call development action plan for the state. We also have a document that spells out our Vision 3:2020. And some of the things that we have already done, such as free education, is there as a law. So we intend to back up these documents by law so that whoever comes in after me will continue. You have discontinuity where there is dysfunctional relationship on what has happened and what should happen. In Lagos State, for instance, we can see continuity from the former governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu?s policies and those of the present governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola. If you pick some few states, you will see this kind of relationship. But where there is a difference in approach, that is where you have problems. During our campaigns, we said our priority will be education, agriculture, health and infrastructure. This is because lack of education used To to be the problem of Niger State.
Niger Province was one of the few educated provinces. Maybe the railway and the fact that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Odimegu Ojukwu and Cyprian Ekwensi were born in Niger State were responsible for this. And this educational opportunity was responsible for the states? production of three Nigerian heads of state - Zik, Babangida and Abdulsalam. By the time you do an analysis, you will discover that some states that have that opportunity really produced more people for government positions. So, if not because we lost our chances along the line, we would have been one of the first states in terms of education. What we are doing now is bringing back the lost glory. And to do this is to make education free and compulsory and encourage the activities of ANA. The more you encourage people to appreciate reading and to respect education the better. People can only respect education if it can empower them. This is why we emphasise the provision of jobs and enhancement of economic self-reliance for school leavers.
Doesn?t it worry you that you seem to be the only governor in the North that takes the crusade against illiteracy to a much higher level?
It doesn?t bother me that I?m the only one because it sometimes takes one to open up others. But lucky enough I?m not the only one. Some may be more worried than me but we have our sense of priorities. Some politicians have told me that education is not a political thing because you don?t get the result quickly, unlike contracts for buildings, which people can see immediately. In terms of education, you are only investing in the future. I prefer investing in the future. All the people we see as heroes today are people that have invested in the future. Awolowo is no longer alive, but if you go virtually to every university in Nigeria you will discover that it is his handiwork of free education. When I went to Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU) Zaria, I discovered that fifty per cent of the professors there come from the South-West. The same thing in Bayero University, Kano. And by the time you go round Nigeria you will discover the same thing. When I went to the University of Ibadan the Vice Chancellor told me that they have 26 Vice Chancellors in Nigerian universities. And all this as a result of the foundation laid by Awolowo.
Sardauna may not have declared free education, but not only was it free, many of us were even paid to stay in school. I know that I didn?t pay a kobo from my primary school where we were eating free break first, including American milk, to my secondary school, where virtually all the dresses, transport money and soaps were given by government.
When we took over in 2007, and we went to the Northern governor?s forum, I said the way the forum was being run made it ineffective, because nobody to be held responsible for decisions taken. So we agreed on a two-year tenure instead of the ususual one-year tenure so that whoever is elected as the chairman of the forum would be held responsible for the period of his stay. And the first thing we did after that was to have a retreat on education because we identified it as the area that has more shortcomings. At the retreat we agreed on a benchmark of what each state should be able to do. And these include free education and what we need to do in terms of infrastructure.
On my assumption of office, there were schools with 200 pupils in a classroom, sitting on the floor. And in some classes, some teachers were not better than the students because I could see about eight mistakes on the blackboard. In another school I saw that two classes were taking place in one classroom with each class facing opposite directions. So we had to stop that by adding more classrooms and taking other necessary measures. We also agreed at the forum that each governor should be able to annually improve on the infrastructure by one quarter. If you go that way, in four years you would have finished with the educational system. In terms of unemployed school leavers and getting qualified teachers, some time ago I brought together 800 people in the state for a graduate scheme of six months course. Each person was paid for the six month 10,000 Naira monthly. Lucky enough even during the training, about 20 per cent got jobs. And the remaining ones were absorbed in the system because we were looking for qualified teachers. And this year we have got applications for the course from 6,800 graduates. Some are not from this state, because we have a policy that treats both the citizens of the state and people from other states equally. But this is yet to take off, because we need more money, even the allowances for the six months, to make sure that we give them not just training but absorb them.

So whether we like it or not, we have to do something for our states, because people hear from what others are doing. I remember one of my colleagues once told me that ?you may cause a lot problems for us, you may make people to start stoning us?. I said why, and he said ?they way you talk and what you do?. I said to him, you are elected to do the same. And right now all of us are trying to get somewhere. So believe me, on the average, we have more than three quarters who are very interested in leaving some legacy. There may be some who may be absorbed more in ?politics?. But what I normally consider is the fact that in the first place, you were not too sure that you would even reach this level. I have junior and senior brothers who have died. Secondly, one of my brothers who helped to pay my school fees has no PhD while I have. So you could see, if he helped with his own money to send me to school, it means it is God who has been doing this, it is not my effort. So I often say, you are elected for four years, forget about what happens in 2011 elections, otherwise you will waste your time thinking of the future instead of holding what you have for now. If God in his wisdom wills that I?m only going to serve for four years, I thank Him. But let me do something for the four years. If he wills I?m going for eight years, no Jupiter can stop it. So why should I waste my time now trying to serve other interests just because of 2011? So, maybe that is the difference in our approach. To some people it is always politics. To me, whenever I open my mouth, I?m not speaking politics, I?m speaking what I think should be done or why I have to do it.

(c) Published in the New Nigerian edition of 7/11/09.

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