The Rot at Federal College of Education, Zaria.
When most people hear of corruption, their minds race quickly to the images of politicians, but that isn’t the real situation. A society’s leaders are a reflection of the society after all the leaders are a product of the community. A rotten society will produce rotten leaders and the circle of dooms spins till infinity. Most people abusing and insulting the politicians in power will do worse if they are given such opportunity. This is obvious considering that most people in civil service, business world and security outfits haven’t managed the resources and responsibilities given to them better than the politicians and dictators, that have raped Nigeria’s commonwealth.
Though corruption has become so widespread in Nigeria today, that some feel that the only hope is palliative, others like the current president; Buhari, believes that the war can be won. Be that as it may, the corruption in some sectors must be fought as a matter of live and death. One of such sectors is the education ministry. Some time ago, there was call for a state of emergency to be declared in the education sector, the relevance of such noble call cannot be over emphasized considering that that sector will determine the fate of Nigeria for centuries to come. It gets even scarier when this is happening in an institution whose sole purpose is to train teachers who will teach our children!
The Colleges of Education in Nigeria have no doubt trained great teachers who taught some of us in public institutions but the situation in FCE Zaria needs urgent attention of the National union of teachers and the ministry of education. Students in NCE 2 and 3 cannot make a sentence in English language, it doesn’t stop there, majority of them as well cannot write the alphabets properly. One begins to wonder how they are taught in the classrooms? In Hausa language? You guess is as good as mine. These students were admitted into NCE 1 with WAEC and JAMB, they were admitted with a credit in English language. How then can someone with a C6 in English language not be able to respond appropriately to the greeting ‘How are you’? There are unconfirmed rumors that the administration frowns at the obviously deficient students being failed in exams hence their high pass rate despite being grossly deficient. A forensic perusal of the students answer booklets by any genuine investigative panel will reveal the bare truth. In as much as we try to nudge these students along, we must not go below the minimal standard, sadly FCE Zaria has gone way below the barest minimum and I sincerely hope the case is different in other colleges of education.
The poor academic standard in the college was not all I noticed during a month stint at Zaria, it seemed there were many other ills pulling such a great institution to the mud. When one hears sorrowful stories of people not paid their dues, one thinks perhaps of the state civil servants of Benue, Osun, Kogi and the statue state; Imo. it is a different ball game in the federal civil service as their payment history is a lot better than states in terms of promptness and regularity. This wasn’t the case in FCE Zaria as the health center wasn’t spared. I had gone with a very sick staff to the clinic on a Saturday around 2-3pm only to be told that there was no doctor! In a college with students? What if it was an asthmatic attack or snake bite? I was later reliably informed that the doctor covering that time of the day had to disengage after not being payed for 5 months! Even the NYSC doctors who take calls were not paid. The question that nagged me was; where the salaries of these workers not captured in the FG allocation to the school? If not why? If yes, where has it gone to? Why is NHIS not sending money to the school to cover its scheme and other related affairs? When I came back with my friend after seeing a doctor in a clinic in kongo, we got the NHIS prescription to the school only to discover they didn’t have any of the drugs! So, what is happening. Aside the health department, many other workers have been owed for months without any reason from the bursar except what they say is his favourite line; ‘there is no money’
When Buhari chanted Change, it was a call for us all. If we desire a change, we must ensure we strive to do the right things. Its is due to this academic nose dive in institutions of learning like this that caused the educational embarrassment seen in Kaduna state when Gov. El rufai exposed the rot in the system. If the Provost Dr. Ladan and other admin officers cannot steer this institution away from the abyss where its headed, then I hope the Honorable Minister of Education Mallam Adamu Adamu find competent people to do the work. This I believe should be applied in any college with such attributes amongst its students. It should be viewed as a criminal act for a student not being able to defend his WAEC result and yet is about to finish NCE 3. On the issue of non-payment of salaries, I hope the Federal Government lives up to its responsibility by paying the school’s due allocation subsequently. However, if they are being paid and yet some lecturers, general duty staff and even doctors aren’t paid their salaries, then I hope the appropriate financial crimes agencies get to work on this.

Kabir Isa writes from Abuja

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