CORPER’S DIARY

Niger state: the power state, as it’s famously called. Don’t think I’ve ever been to any state this big in Nigeria, bordered on the east by the federal capital territory, Abuja and Kaduna state. With a weather peculiar to most states in the northern part of the country-humid, hot and dry I cannot remember how many times I attempted splashing cold water on my mattress before sleeping during my stay at the orientation camp at Paiko, Paikoro local government, Minna. Minna the state’s bustling capital city is the heart of Niger state, with a number of commercial banks jostling for space in minna’s central business district not forgetting Minna central market which is akin to the popular tejuosho market in Lagos.

On my first day in Niger, I and a number of youth corps members arrived through Suleja one of the major local governments. Wisely we secured a tour guide, for the vehicle’s driver was as ignorant as were in finding our way around. However what got my attention was the tour guide was apparently no connoisseur for no sooner had we contracted him did he get off the vehicle and contractied another passenger from whom he extorted the sum of 200 hundred naira, no hard feelings because I wasn’t the fall-guy.

Life on camp was an absolute nightmare, corpers were treated like renegade kids; justifying a statement by a camp official “here, you do what you are told to do and not what you feel like or what want to do” and so it was for 21 long days. Disobedience was a costly option- the price was either “frog jump” or picking dirt with bare hands or worst still spending the night in lock-down. It all depended on how serious the case was or simply the toss of a coin.

Well if you talk about endurance then I’m game, but three days gone a thousand years would not have been any closer. Home-sweet-home never rang truer– no one ever warned me of this ‘treat’.You must be out of your room latest by 4:45a.m everyday and every form of activity operated in a similar military like fashion.

On and on we trudged painfully till the 21^st day and finally we are out of prison, out of ‘kirikiri’ and ‘sorbibor’, and back to the waldorf Astoria, even if was five metres out of the camp’s gate. The people are quite hospitable, hmm! Life as a corper-a bit intruiging and interesting – you walk on the road and you hear people cheering you “korfa, how are you? e.t.c.”

Well, if you ask me, I don’t think I want to be a corper again in the next life if I was offered a blank cheque..mmm..maybe?

Dorcas, CONNECT AFRICA.

PRIVATE VS PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Last week Saturday was a great day for several Nigerian school age children (mine not included) as they sat for the national common entrance examination into 102 unity schools, 6 years after it was shelved by the Olusegun obasanjo administration. The reintroduction of the common entrance examination by President Umaru Musa yar’ adua had been received with mixed reactions by all and sundry. The pro- privatization of secondary schools cluster had taken the development in bad faith calling the exercise one in futility, but this policy reversal in the education sector had been long in coming following the election of a new president last year and perhaps maybe the president sided with the welfare minded parents since he was once a lecturer.

But then only 60,000 students turned up for Saturday’s exams, a far-cry from several hundreds of thousand that usually wrote the exams in the past. Well some may argue that was 6 years ago. Undeniably true, but then the figure portends a grave danger for the renowned 102 federal government colleges and their future. The former minister of education, Dr. Ngozi okonjo-iweala had vehemently argued that the schools catered for a miserly ten percent of secondary school admission demand but then accounted for more than 75% of the ministry’s yearly expenditure; a development she termed as unjustifiable, leading to her call for a corporate sector involvement in the management of the schools. ,Though I was never swayed by the high sounding egalitarian plans of the former minister this poor turn-out at a once all sold- out, hard to obtain examination forms and admission placement may just be the arsenal needed by the pro -privatization, sell off all government secondary schools to the highest bidder caucus to begin its clamour for the sale of the schools. Ordinarily the federal government may be tempted to adduce the reason for the low turn-out on the premature 6 year ban. But then that will be an assessment on the peripheral, for if the federal government is true to itself then it should ask several angry parents who are increasingly wary of the poor infrastructural standards of most of the federal government colleges; many of these parents have hauled their wards to private schools. Inadequate infrastructure in government owned schools coupled with regular policy somersaults, without doubt has been the greatest clog in the wheel of progress. In eight years Nigeria has moved from 6-3-3-4 to 9-3-4 and back to 6-3-3-4. At the end of day the hundreds of thousand secondary school students aren’t any wiser.

The several thousand private secondary schools scattered around Nigeria’s 36 states have been the beneficiaries of this hoopla, well equipped with functional laboratories and up-to-date libraries the age-old school debate between public and private school is gradually becoming a one sided war.

The idea of sending children to public schools is no longer fashionable, the strong desire to send secondary school students to federal government colleges has reduced drastically because these schools which were once national models have suddenly become relics of the past. It is not about making or changing educational policies from time to time but about a complete revamping of the ailing system

Jennifer,CONNECTAFRICA.

STOKING A WILD-FIRE

Its isn’t yet one week since the final hand-over ceremony of the bakassi peninsular from Nigeria to Cameroun took place and the stories emanating from the ceded region can best be described as unpalatable. On Saturday there were reports that several bakassians had fled the beleaguered community following growing tension between Cameroun gendarmes and militants from the Niger-delta. The Cameroonian gendarmes’ aggression was always a factor to contend with when several days to the hand-over, stern looking Cameroonian security forces sealed up the peninsula’s entry point only allowing departures. More worrisome were reports of a number of unprovoked shootings by some reckless gendarmes, but It isn’t that I did not expect sooner or later there’ll be unrest but then to imagine that Nigeria and Cameroun according to the dictates of the greentree agreement would be jointly cooperating in the administration of the peninsular for five years and there’s already a spanner in the works less than a week gone leaves my stomach churning

I remember that Nigeria’s attorney general and minister of justice, Michael Aandokaa immediately after the august event had warned Cameroonian authorities against intimidating Nigerians residing in the disputed peninsular. Except he was speaking with his tongue in his cheeks it meant that Camerounian authorities are to ensure that the rights of the inhabitants aren’t breached, this I believe could be the genesis of a long term crisis if not properly handled. Now is definitely the right time for nigeria to react. Each time there’s been a raid by the gendarmes the results have been same; the displacement of hundreds of bakassians from their settlements.

Last week’s hand-over ceremony played out without any incidents beside empty threats from roguish militants of the Niger Delta to disrupt the event. The fine point of the green tree agreement had been in the protection of their sources of livelihood and accomodations. This perhaps was the government’s palliative to the bakassians having failed to give them a proper opportunity through a plebiscite. The Nigerian government must walk the talk if it intends regaining the confidence of the several thousand bakassians. Through every diplomatic means available it must ensure that Cameroun abides by the greentree agreement, for the issue on ground transcends natural resource rather is ingrained in the deep ethos of national pride and ancient culture

EMMAFEMI , CONNECT AFRICA.