In a few days’ time, Nigerians will be headed to the polls to determine who will pilot the affairs of the country for the next four years.

Candidates vying for the post of President at the 2015 Nigeria election, along with their political parties have presented all sorts of manifestos during their campaigns but not much are said about Education. All we get are promises of “free education at all levels” and magical transformation of the education sector with no detailed realistic blueprint. It’s very sad given the present poor state of education in Nigeria.

Nigeria is among the few countries yet to adopt the UNESCO recommendation of devoting at least 20% of the budget to funding education. Truth be told, a lot has actually been spent on Education in Nigeria, but the question is, was it really invested on the students/school children and their teachers? The answer is the reason why no Nigerian university is ranked among best 100 globally. Our colleges of education has deteriorated to the level they have become only the last option for admission seekers who were unable to make the minimum requirements for admission into universities. Let’s not forget the colleges of education are supposed to produce future basic education teachers.
UNESCO recently rated Nigeria as the country with highest number of out-of-school children, no thanks to the increasing problem of insecurity in the North-Eastern part of the country, and a plethora of other problems. There is TROUBLE with Nigeria’s Education and everyone should be concerned!

Why should the youths/Nigerian students be bothered? It is simple, our so called leaders send their wards abroad to receive the best of education from world-class universities while you and I are left to bear the brunt of the bad educational system here which ultimately leads to unemployment.

We must take a stand now. We can’t afford to continue to stand on the sideline, the stakes are high now. We must come out en masse and vote in the coming election.
We may not really have much of options in the candidates, but we must make a choice. This begins by making sure we all have our Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC).

Now, let’s do a little examination of the front-runners in the presidential race.

Goodluck Jonathan (PDP):
Under the tenure of our incumbent president, Nigerian students were forced to stay at home for over a year as a result of ASUU, ASUP and COEASU strikes.
On the positive side, his tenure saw the establishment of nine new federal universities and over 100 Almajiri schools in the northern part of the country.

Muhammadu Buhari (APC):
It was alleged that during his tenure as the military head of state, Buhari banned Student Unionism and even the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The former general has however promised to revamp the Nigerian education sector if given the opportunity to rule the country again.

Remi Sonaiya (KOWA):
The only female presidential candidate, Prof. Remi Sonaiya has promised to rebuild Nigeria into a Nation that works.
The retired professor of French Language and Applied Linguistics appears to be very keen about improving education in Nigeria. Her proposal on how to revitalize the education sector can be seen on the following link; www.remisonaiya.com/on-education/

Those are the little we could say about the major presidential candidates at the moment. Now let us know your thoughts. Are you ready for the 2015 election? Have you decided to vote? Who are you voting for president and Why?

Source: http://campusportalng.com/education/presidential-election-2015-will-salvage-nigeria-education/26196/

Definitely not the illiterate from Daura.