Nigerian public officials must be stopped from educating their children abroad - Interview With Sen. Basheer Garba Mohammed

In this interview with Sen. Basheer Garba Mohammed, the first term Senator of the 7th National Assembly from Kano Central explains why he is sponsoring a bill to discourage Nigerian public officials from sending their children

and wards to schools abroad except for specialization at postgraduate levels or for courses not offered in the Nigerian institutions.

Question: We learned a bill you sponsored on education has passed the first reading; can you enlighten us a little more on it?
Answer: The bill is essentially to discourage Nigerian public officials from sending their children and wards toschools abroad except for specialization at postgraduate levels or for courses not offered in the Nigerian institutions. The aim is therefore to get the public servants, whose duty it is to make education work in the country, to make the necessary sacrifice needed to revamp the sector. The statistics of what has happened to the nation’s education is damning. About Twenty Thousand Nigerians are in UK tertiary institutions alone and remitting over a quarter of a trillion naira from Nigeria annually to that country. The figure of Nigerian students in UK is expected to rise to Thirty Thousand by 2015 and of cause the corresponding remittances. In Africa countries the story is not different. Seventy One thousand Nigerian students are in Ghana and their remittances calculated by the Central Bank of Nigeria is One hundred and Fifty Five billion naira annually. So, by the time you compute the figures of Nigerians in the USA, Canada and other European countries, and other parts of the world, including African countries, we will be talking in terms of perhaps a trillion naira in remittances by Nigerian students to schools abroad and what is more, most of these students are children and wards of Nigerian public servants past and present, both elected and appointed. You will therefore agree with me that there is a need to discourage our public officials from sending their children and wards to schools abroad, except where it is inevitable, like going to study in the areas not offered by the Nigerian institutions. This way, it is hoped we will be able to restore confidence and functionality to our educational system.

The situation is pathetic and it is the poor masses that are in clear disadvantage. During my campaigns, I visited the primary school that I attended. That is before the coming of the PDP government, and was shocked to see the pupils sitting on the bare floor. There were no functional blackboards, the roofs were half blown and the windows were without roofers, which means that if it rains, the pupils will have to run from one end of the classrooms to another for shelter. I then asked myself, where are the children of the senators, honourable members, ministers and governors? If their children attend such school, you can be sure they cannot afford to leave it in such sorry state? You can therefore see that the bill is a patriotic one, a call for sacrifice to restore confidence in our education. We should be proud of what we have and nobody will develop Nigeria for Nigerians; the task of building Nigeria is entirely ours and without a sound educational system, there is no way our country can break through in technology, development and growth generally.

I am aware of the claim by some that bill will violate human rights. I do not think so because there is a leeway. There is a provision for those who insist on training their children abroad to pay special education tax that will be channeled to revamping public education in Nigeria. Chinese government did a similar thing with the One Child Policy. That way, China has been able to manage its over one billion people’s population, to the point of being a super power, exporting food to other countries, including Nigeria. We need to do something similar to recover our educational system and I am happy that a good number of my colleagues are in support of the bill.

Question: What are your views on the handicap bill before the National Assembly?

Answer: The importance of the physically challenged in the society cannot be overemphasized. One important fact we all need to note is that they are only physically challenged and that does not make them any less human. There are geniuses among them, just as you find in the so-called normal population. My personal experience tells me that a politician that ignores the physically challenged does so at his own risk. I worked closely with them during my election and a huge chunk of my votes came from their community. And still work closely with them. I believe it is our responsibility as legislators to incorporate them fully into the society by way of legislation and that is what the Disability Commission bill before the National Assembly is seeking to achieve.

All they need is an enabling environment, not alms or pity. Recently, I was part of the delegation of the senate committee on Navy that paid an oversight visit to India, to a multi-billion dollar ship manufacturing firm called GOA Shipyard and to my surprise, their financial director happened to be a physically challenged person. A man like that in Nigeria might have ended up as a beggar on the streets, as many of our physically challenged have. We need to create a similar environment for our physically challenged persons as well in Nigeria. The bill is all encompassing. It has provisions for physical constructions and buildings to be carried out in such a way as to provide for their special needs. It also deals with the issues of prohibitions against discrimination and guarantees their liberties and their right to work, happiness and right to participate in politics, among other things.

Question: What is your agenda for the people of your constituency and what plans have you mapped out for achieving them?

Answer: The good people of Kano Central who went through thick and thin to bring me here as the senator representing them, are very dear to my heart. They picked me ahead of my opponents because of the little we have been able to do with the ‘Ladon Alheri Foundation- LAF’, my charity organization that has been involved over the years in the provision of free health care and scholarships to indigent students long before I joined politics. We have carried out a good number of eye operations to help those with sight and eye problems, among other health interventions. You may also want to know that we have been carrying out philanthropic and charity works in Kano long before I joined politics. For example, we have been drilling boreholes to make water available in areas without portable water. We have been securing employments for some of our teeming youths. Recently, we got a good number of them into the Navy and other places. We have also provided scholarships for quite a number of the constituents. Also in the 2012 budget efforts were made to accommodate the needs of the Constituency to a considerable extent. More of their needs will be taken care of in subsequent budgets. We shall do more, isha allah.

Question: Can you shade light on the activities of Ladon Alheri Foundation?

Answer: Ladon Alheri Foundation is the organization that I use to carry out the philanthropic works. It has handled eye treatments on my behalf in the past, even before I joined politics. Since I became a senator, we have carried out Eye Treatment in the Senatorial District. The Eye Treatment Programme is one my pet projects in my Constituency, and its first phase was flagged off on Monday, 21st November, 2011. Free medical attention for the citizens of Kano state, especially in the Kano Central, has been my philanthropic way of assisting the less privileged to live happily, especially those with sight challenges.

This time around we have provided free cataract operation to 100 patients in each of the 15 local government areas is Kano Central Senatorial District, one of the biggest senatorial districts in the country, bringing the total to 1,500 beneficiaries in this first phase. In addition, the team of doctors also gave out drugs and eyeglasses to those who needed them. Men, women and children were among the beneficiaries. We hope to do more. I usually witness the exercise and often moved to tears when such interventions bring so much joy and succor to the beneficiaries. I remember one or two incidents; one was a case of a 63-year old man who lost his sight for thirty years but regained it after visiting out operating room. Another was an aged woman who also was blind for a very long time as well and said she had to feel the walls to find her way to the bathroom and to move around all the while. She too regained her sight and the joy such people expressed each time such happens always moves one to tears.

Plans are also on the way to construct classroom blocks, sink boreholes and build skill acquisition centers in the Senatorial District to better the life of our people.