The “Quantity Vs Quality” Infrastructural Politics of Nigeria; The case of our Educational and Health institutions -By Dr. Yaji Ibrahim Obel

The Nigeria’s political leadership has been consumed with fallacy of infrastructural development over the years. The yardstick the people use to measure developmental contributions of her political leaders over the years has been very faulty at every level. Unfortunately there has been a lot of misconceptions on these yardsticks largely due to shrewd perspectives.

Have you wondered why despite the billions of naira pumped into the educational and health sectors for infrastructural developments, there has been no tangible and concrete improvements in the general output of these sectors even though several physical structures are standing across the nook and crannies of the land? What makes it even more appalling is the celebration of our politicians by millions of their followers on the social media space and media outlets with pictures of physical monuments built by these politicians.

If you critically look at how we see development in Nigeria, you will agree with me that we are more concerned about the quantity and not the quality. And since the quality may not be something that the pages of newspapers can carry or cameras can flash, our leaders have resulted to the use of the quantity in their score cards in seeking for re-election. And since the electorates in Nigeria are too impatient or too rash to understand how quality development works, they have now made it easier for the politicians to destroy the system all the more.

Hardly would you hear a Nigerian politician being scored by the electorates base on the number of doctors or nurses he employed in his tenure or the number of hospital equipment he purchased or the number of health professionals he sent for further training. Neither would you hear them being scored base on the number of classroom teachers they have employed or the number of teachers they have sent for further training or the number of schools they have empowered with modern teaching aids and facilities. Rather, they are scored by the number of hospitals and schools built or renovated. At best, only free jamb forms are distributed. But the mortality rate in such hospitals keeps rising and the standard of education keeps falling.

Have you ever asked why politicians do not seek health care in the hospitals they built? Or send their children to the schools they commissioned? It is clear they know something is fundamentally wrong with their methodology.

A closer look at our educational system since independence shows a steady decline in the quality of education. But yet, every year, thousands of class rooms are built across different states in Nigeria. The question anyone concerned with this steady decrease is left with is, “Does more classrooms translate to quality education”?.

The truth is, we have more children attending schools now than in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, despite the statistics of out of school children. These days, attending school barely guarantees sound education unlike what was obtainable in time past, where many of our parents were literally begged and in some quarters even paid to attend schools and yet got the best of education in  government owned institutions. How then can our leaders use this same resources  used over the years to improve the quality of education? How can these funds voted for education ensure a ten year old child who attends school in a rural village to read, write and get the required literacy and intellect of his age? Perusing through the society, there are too many ten year olds who cannot exhibit the proficiency in English language or arithmetic expected of their age.

Globally, no nation of the world is judged educationally based on the number of classrooms built but rather, the literacy levels and productivity exhibited by its graduates. That is hardly the case in our beloved country Nigeria. It therefore amounts to a colossal failure on the educational system if the number of classrooms built, text books purchased  and teachers employed does not equate the expected rise in resources expended.

One common index used in Nigeria to measure academic performance of secondary school students across the various states over the years is the West African Examination Council(WAEC). I am yet to conclude on the reason why students from the south have better results in this examination than their northern counterparts. Could it be due to the presence of more private schools in the South? Or due to more qualitative investment in education?

I have cross examined the best WAEC students in the last ten years of which nine emerged from the southern part of Nigeria, with only one coming from the middle belt(Abuja). Out of these ten schools, only two come from public schools owned by the Nigerian Air force. The eight are private schools mostly of  Baptist church origin.

The above statistics speaks volumes about the state of our public schools. One is hence tempted to wonder if there’s a misappropriation of funds allocated to the educational system.

Another program launched in 1976 to enhance basic education in Nigeria is the Universal Basic Education program which is meant to meet the challenges of infrastructure in the educational sector. Though it has proven to be a worthy course, adequate considerations to the quality of education administered by the teachers and modern teaching facilities has not been prioritized enough, hence the fall in educational standard.

One of the fundamental problems affecting the quality of education in Nigeria is the high number of unqualified teachers, inadequate number of qualified teachers and the lack of commitment from the teachers, which is usually due to poor remuneration.

Our leaders can improve on the quality of education  by first paying closer attention to the quality of teachers in the government schools. This can be achieved by running assessment programs for all teachers as is seen in states like Kwara, under Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki during his term as governor who made sure teachers who performed below the standards were sent for further training and not sacked as it was done in Kaduna, considering they are also probably a product of a failed system.

Secondly, only qualified teachers should be employed with better working conditions, remuneration and modern facilities. Teaching aids such as computers, school buses, school uniforms and well equipped modern libraries should be adequately provided.

Our Teachers’ Colleges, Colleges of Education and various faculties of education must also be upgraded with modern knowledge and technical know-how. Strict measures should also be enforced to assess the quality of potential teachers coming out of the system.

I would also advocate that the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria license should be taken more seriously and the credits gotten from mandatory professional manuals of the council must be emphasized by the Ministries of Education across the country. Every classroom teacher should be licensed, both in the private and public schools.

Lastly, sole ownership of schools by the government at institutional levels should be discouraged. This is because overtime, it has proven to be ineffective due to the card of corruption played by those who hold the helms of political power and the accruing interest seen in the ministries of education which have affected the funding of such schools. This is not to advocate for hike in school fees but rather a takeover of management of those schools by private contractors who shall manage the day to day running of these institutions, we as a nation are already spending billions of naira on education perhaps trying this method would yield better outputs.

The former governor of Anambara state, Dr. Peter Obi ensured the return of most government schools to churches while he was governor because of the difficulty he had with the Ministry of Education then. The result of this action has been relatively overwhelming as the state skyrocketed from the 26th position on the WAEC ranking to the 1st. This proves that schools are better managed by private organizations than just the government alone. This initiative was successful because though private organizations managed the schools, , the government was still responsible for funding. This calls for public private partnership between community stake holders and the government where parents, community leaders and religious leaders in every community should be incorporated into the management of those institutions since their wards are direct beneficiaries.

Again I must say that, our dear nation must find a central point for integration of acquired education and solving of practical problems, the issue of having too many graduates without jobs is a another topic of discussion, but like I told one of my colleague who argued not everyone should be educated, I insisted that it is better to have nation with more literates than illiterates. The current spate of insecurity can be largely traced in illiteracy in the most affected regions.

Just like education, the health sector have also had its own share of such politics. So much attention has been paid to the physical structures which is usually for  media drift and justification of health budget.

Nigeria’s health sector is currently faced with the challenge of funding, evidenced with insufficient infrastructures and poor remuneration. This has grossly affected the health service delivery.

An averagely decent Nigerian politician, a governor or legislator always includes the construction of at least a primary health care center or cottage hospital in his or her constituency annually. Little or nothing is said about the man power, running cost, essential drugs, servicing equipments and commitment of staff to their duty.

While these infrastructures are important, they have little role to play in improving the quality of health service as these services should be measured base on the availability of qualified health personnels, good working conditions, adequate equipment, availability of essential drugs and a safe working environment. These important parameters unfortunately don’t get the necessary attention in the budget and that is why despite the commissioning of gigantic health facilities our mortality and morbidity figures keep rising. Unfortunately, the electorates are most affected as the politicians turn to private hospitals or at best fly abroad to seek medical attention.

What is the way forward then?

Leaders must give priorities to the health needs of their people per time.

Secondly, political representatives should be committed to improving the and providing the above needs and not just the physical structures.

The government should also increase funding to hospitals in the rural areas in terms of running cost and essential drugs, provision of basic tools and equipments like hand gloves, cotton wool, ultra sound machines, x ray machines etc.,

Also, qualified health workers should be employed to man the health facilities. Health care personnels should be sent for further training periodically so as to catch up with the global expected practice.

At this juncture, I must commend the northern states that have incorporated their indigenous medical students on a bond scheme with a payment of monthly stipends with the aim of encouraging medical education in order to increase man power. This will go a long way to improve health delivery in  states across the country.

I also want to call on state governments to increase their investment into medical education (MBBS, nursing, medical laboratory science, radiography etc.)in their respective state universities so as to meet up the increasing health workers demand.

Lastly, the state governments should also key into the National Health Insurance scheme (NHIS) as the compliance at state level is still very low. Incorporating this scheme will go a long way to reduce out of pocket payment which is one reason most people can’t access health care in Nigeria, especially in rural areas.

Now, it is usually easy and convenient most times when  Nigeria’s endless problems are discussed just to mount all the blames on the political leaders, but the issues discussed above is a two way thing.

Every politician has learnt over  time that the Nigerian electorates are more concerned with physical evidence of governance rather than qualitative reforms and policies which usually takes time to be manifested. They therefore resort to building structures with an accompanying earthshaking commissioning ceremonies so as to feed the physical eyes of the masses who obviously have little regard for quality. Should our politicians be entirely blamed then? Of course not.

A few leaders who have focused more on superior quality than quantity have ended being insulted as incompetent since no single classroom or primary health care can be pinned to their names and were eventually shown the way out. This misconception is not just left to the uneducated as even the learned are guilty of this gross sentiment.

If there must be any meaningful and qualitative development anchored on strong institutional policies and reforms, then the electorates must stop justifying developments in terms of quantity alone but they must also consider and appreciate leaders who improve on the quality of our social amenities.

In conclusion, the day our esteemed and celebrated politicians  start patronizing the hospitals they built and take their children to the primary and secondary schools they commissioned in front of the cameras, that is the day true Nigerians will believe that the execution of budgets meant for the development of social amenities is not just a mere ritual  but a true reflection of their desire to bring  meaningful and qualitative development.