Till date, the lack of basic literacy skills in the northern part of Nigeria gives me trouble.

In a central market of a state capital, one finds it difficult to communicate with tomato-sellers. You ask the man standing behind the baskets of tomatoes how much he sells his tomatoes, and he starts to shake his head, waving both hands to say that he doesn’t have what you’ve asked for. It is so bad that you can tell this same man that ‘I don come to kill you’ and he will start to nod, smiling, as though what you’ve said is that you’ve come to buy all his tomatoes.

In this part of the world, tell a water-cart pusher to empty five gallons of water into your drum and the moment you take your supervisory eyes off him, he will be emptying the seventh. These were the frustrations I battled with in my first year living in a core Northern state.

The case is obviously different in the southern part. Trust me, Iya Kamoru roasting corn at Felele junction in Ibadan understands that English is the country’s lingua franca and even though she can’t speak, she understands in bits. I had never believed that there is any Nigerian living in a city that would not hear the simplest go and come until I started living in the north. One wonders what happened to the least foundational education of some of these people.

USAID/Nigeria in its recent article, Increasing Access to Education in Northern Nigeria says; “Forty-two percent of primary-age children in this country, about 10.5 million, are out of school. Less than a third of primary school children proceed to junior secondary school and even fewer go on to complete secondary school. The situation is worse in predominantly Muslim Northern Nigeria where primary school attendance and academic achievement are far below national averages.”

T.R Batten, in his book Problems of African Development published many decades ago – also thinks that “…..Africa education, like African agriculture, was suited to the needs of the people. Except where they had been converted to Islam no one could read or write, and there was therefore very little in the way of formal teaching.”

Deciphering this critically, we observe that USAID and especially Batten may be blaming this on the religion of Islam. I disagree.

In Nigeria, I think we see more scholastic achievements in the study of Islamic religion than any other. I beg to say that the problem is perhaps rooted in their cultures. There are non-Muslim northerners who are equally lacking in basic education.

There is, however, an advantage on the side of northerners that only a few are maximizing.

Last week Saturday in Lagos, I went with my nephew to the centre where he had been posted to write his entrance examination into unity schools. The centre was crowded by thousands of pupils and their parents who had come for the exam. While we – the parents – waited outside during the exam, a man offered me a space on the bench he was sitting on. We shook hands and got talking. He told me his name is Tukur, and I hailed him, saying my brother from Adamawa. I know people who answer this name are mostly from Adamawa State. I spoke in Hausa with him and I discovered he didn’t hear a bit. And then, he began to tell me his interesting story.

I am not from Adamawa, he said.

Oh, then, Kaduna or Katsina? I was curious.

I am from Ogun State, he rejoined, letting out a grin that left me in disbelief. Tukur is an Islamic name, he continued. But here in the south-west they call it Tukuru, and my dad who actually owns the name didn’t like it called that way, so he removed the u, leaving the name as Tukur.

Nevertheless, if you say I am Adamawa you are right. In the early 90s after sitting for JAMB thrice and couldn’t get admitted into the university, a friend of mine who had always told me that I bear Hausa name suggested I fill in Adamawa State as my state of origin in the next JAMB form. As a matter of fact, we both sat that day to fill the form. I was a bit skeptical. I wrote the exam, passed and got two admission offers.

I later learnt that passing wasn’t enough, rather, coming from Adamawa – an educationally less developed state – was the plus. When I would resume at my preferred school, I was asked to submit a copy of the certificate of Adamawa indigene-ship. Quickly, I travelled to Adamawa to get it. When I got to the Local Government office, I was asked who my parents are and I should speak the language. I told them my parents met abroad and I was never taught how to speak our language. I got the certificate and returned to school. What hit me as the bigger surprise was that in my four years of study at the university, Adamawa State Government was paying N10,000 into my account every month! This was different from the bursary we also received at the beginning of new session o. I never called home for money. I was living large.

Mr Femi– patting me on the shoulder– I was living large.

Concluding, Tukur told me that he had to send his result, showing that he had graduated, to Adamawa State Government before he stopped receiving the monthly allowance.

There has been a big encouragement from the northern state governments a long time, I think. N10,000 on monthly basis in the 90s was big MONEY.

I remember the year I entered university, the Niger State Government paid the fees of all students from the state, and throughout their studies, they were on an annual bursary of N30,000. Zamfara, Sokoto and others too gave meaningful amount as bursary. My state—a south-west state- was paying N2,000 as bursary. Ogun State was paying N1,500. Ondo was the only south-west state paying N5,000 at the time. Just like my friend Tukur, there were many students then in my school, who are from the south-west states but were using their Islamic names to claim Niger and other states’ citizenships in order to benefit from these grants.

It is however disappointing to hear again that only 86 pupils sat for the unity schools entrance examination in the whole of Yobe northern state peopled by 2.3 million residents. To say the northern state governments have not encouraged their children to go to school would be an unfair statement. Anyway, the ‘Tukurs’ would be wise enough to continually benefit from this. A friend would later say that I shouldn’t be shocked if I hear that only 40 are Yobe indigenes, out of the 86 who sat for the exam.

PS: When Nigeria’s finance minister, Mummy Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the CNN interview with Amanpour was asked about our electricity, she answered, “Nigeria is not the only country. Almost every developing country has a problem with power, as you know. India has it. South Africa has it. South Africa is far better off because they’ve invested much more.

But many developing countries, even China, they are struggling with keeping up with infrastructure.”

Again, when she was asked about corruption, she answered, “Nigeria does have a problem with corruption. And so do many other countries, including developed countries.”

This quickly brings the story of Okoro and his father to one’s mind:

Okoro comes home -from school- with his report sheet. His father asks Okoro wetin you carry for class? Okoro scratches his head as though a cockroach is running inside his skull. Errmm Papa, shebi you know Chukwuemeka? Yes what about him? His father responds. Na imm carry last for their class. His father shakes his head. And ermm Papa, shey you know Chikodi too, Chikodi—- that Uncle Fidelis’ son? Yes what about him? Papa, na Chikodi carry last for imm class too. Eiya, nawa oo, eehn but you Okoro wetin you carry nau? His father asks with a stern face.

Okoro starts to shout; Papa, if Chukwuemeka and Chikodi wey sabi book well well carry last for class, wetin you wan make I carry?

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Femi Owolabi tweets from @femiowolabi

Source; ynaija

Its fairly true about northern education but d reason southern illiterates understand english mor than their nothern counterparts is because of d use of pidgin as the south's lingua franca as opposed to hausa as the north's.

Man, you wan kill pesin with the Okro story. I laugh tire no be small. Anyway, just an observation - I dont know who came up with story but Chikodi is not a name for boys in Igbo language.

On a more serious note, your points are self-evident. I don't know the reason behind Core North's low literacy rate. Its easy to blame it on religion but then again when you look at Iran, Lebanon, or Malaysia you realize Islam may not be where the problem is. Yorubaland has muslims too, why is the reality there different? All over world people who have access to education try as much as possible to grab it. If core north has failed to hold on to education throughout these yrs of unfettered access to Nigerian presidency, then what is the problem. Its certainly not religion, I'm sure its not a completely cultural issue because if we face facts, if we're honest with ourselves, Core north people were the first people to get what anyone can define as somewhat formal education. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've read where the colonialists wrote over and over again that these people where considered more educational advanced than the rest of the country. If that's true then what happened between then and now, do we assume we know?

Can we blame it on the Fulanis? No we can't - records have it that many Fulanis were great scholars in the times of Uthman Dan Fodio. In fact, today, Fulanis go to school more than Hausas. So my brothers, something happened that we dont know. I hope people dont turn this thread into a "bashing fest" of Hausa/Fulani. I think the FG should treat this as an emergency issue and figure out a way to reverse the ugly trend.

What am I saying - we dont know what happened therefore, we should refrain from assumptions. The only way we/ FG can help is to bring people who know what happened and why, and most importantly, these people must come from the affected region. Let a group of dedicated wise men solve it.

Sam_Ikenna: Man, you wan kill pesin with the Okro story. I laugh tire no be small. Anyway, just an observation - I dont know who came up with story but Chikodi is not a name for boys in Igbo language.

On a more serious note, your points are self-evident. I don't know the reason behind Core North's low literacy rate. Its easy to blame it on religion but then again when you look at Iran, Lebanon, or Malaysia you realize Islam may not be where the problem is. Yorubaland has muslims too, why is the reality there different? All over world people who have access to education try as much as possible to grab it. If core north has failed to hold on to education throughout these yrs of unfettered access to Nigerian presidency, then what is the problem. Its certainly not religion, I'm sure its not a completely cultural issue because if we face facts, if we're honest with ourselves, Core north people were the first people to get what anyone can define as somewhat formal education. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've read where the colonialists wrote over and over again that these people where considered more educational advanced than the rest of the country. If that's true then what happened between then and now, do we assume we know?

Can we blame it on the Fulanis? No we can't - records have it that many Fulanis were great scholars in the times of Uthman Dan Fodio. In fact, today, Fulanis go to school more than Hausas. So my brothers, something happened that we dont know. I hope people dont turn this thread into a "bashing fest" of Hausa/Fulani. I think the FG should treat this as an emergency issue and figure out a way to reverse the ugly trend.

What am I saying - we dont know what happened therefore, we should refrain from assumptions. The only way we/ FG can help is to bring people who know what happened and why, and most importantly, these people must come from the affected region. Let a group of dedicated wise men solve it.

Well said but the government is already paying them to school, what else can be the cause?

What a refreshing read. I absolutely enjoyed it.

Nice article
@op may be in the 80's and 70's the busary regime was effective but I doubt that is the case in present day nigeria.
I have lived in the north for a while, yola precisely and I tell you most fulani's feel education is a waste of time especially girl-child education.

Standard of living here is low, in a family where a father has 2 wives and 15 children with 'mai ruwa' as an occupation, who sponsors d children? Definately not the father who is still struggling to feed them.

Fg is making efforts but the attitude of some northerners towards education has to be addressed if not no progress would be made.

Whateva education dat must hav existd in north nigeria prior to colonialism was based on islamic grounds hence d view of western education as a threat 2their religion, thats why d midlebelt as a region are more educated being predominantly christian.

NoahKallamu: Whateva education dat must hav existd in north nigeria prior to colonialism was based on islamic grounds hence d view of western education as a threat 2their religion, thats why d midlebelt as a region are more educated being predominantly christian.

You have a point here,and boko haram is one of the examples of northern islamic extremist's who don't value education

Lol@the Okoro story