Education, the North and Nigerian unity
Idiscovered the reprint of the book ‘The North and Nigerian Unity’ by chance. I had visited the author, Dr Haroun Al-Rashid Adamu some days ago in his Abuja office to interview him for an upcoming biography we are preparing for a person known to him. I have never had a one-to one encounter with him even though I have known his name for a very long time. Haroun Adamu is known for many things, but I chiefly remember him as a young lecturer in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in the early 1970s where I was, myself, a student, firstly in the Samaru campus and later in Tudun Wada campus, popularly known as Kongo.
He endeared himself to many of us through the regular column he ran as Political Editor of Daily Times, then the best-selling newspaper in the country, where he went for a three years sabbatical of sorts before returning to Zaria again. His Daily Times column, ‘The Struggle Continues’, took on political issues of the day, head on, to the delight of many of us and we thoroughly enjoyed his takes on such diverse topics as, colonial rule, military rule, apartheid and democracy. His column was immensely popular with the progressive minds of the time.
When I came into his office and sat down, my eyes immediately lit up when the title of the book, ‘The North and Nigerian Unity’, lying on his table caught my attention. I knew the book and I told him that I attended its official launching in late 1973 as a student in ABU Zaria, and I still retain a wellthumped, dog-eared copy in my Maiduguri home library. He was taken aback to hear so and we spent some time talking and ruminating about those times, and the issues covered in the book.
I have vivid recollections of the launching of this book because the occasion was chaired by Abubakar Imam, the legendary author of most of the Hausa language books in print then. I recall that when I saw the notice on the boards in our Kongo campus for the launching, with Abubakar Imam as chairman of the occasion, I immediately resolved to attend. Abubakar Imam lived in Tudun Wada in close proximity to our campus and I often caught a glimpse of him whenever I passed in front of his house, when I walked through Gyellesu to take the bus in the terminus opposite Albarka Cinema. I regretted that I never ventured to go across to greet him.
I attended the launching at the Assembly Hall in Samaru and as expected Abubakar Imam presided. The Assembly Hall was full to capacity with students from all nooks and corners of Zaria. In my mind’s eye I could see many of his young colleagues in the Faculty of Social Science, A D Yahaya, Sam Oyovbaire, Yusuf Bala Usman, Omte Diachavbe, Ibrahim Tahir, Adele Jinadu, Femi Odekunle and several others, who were there to support him. It was an occasion where issues militating against Nigerian unity were raised and discussed, as that was the focus of the book.
The book itself contains reflections by the author on those particular social issues that were said to be militating against progress in most parts of the North, which is more than half of the Federation both in terms of population and land mass. And whatever was limiting progress in the North was obviously a drag on the rapid progress of the whole Federation. Haroun Adamu took on the issues of Purdah and Polygamy and their debilitating effects on women education and their placement in the order of things in the society. Obviously if there were any impediments to educational attainments by women, who could be half of the population or more, there were bound to be problems.
To make matters worse the male population was not faring any better, as parents preferred to see their children through the Koranic schools with its consequences of begging and other social ills. Haroun Adamu made copious references to those who wrote and propagated a lot against these social practices afflicting the pace of progress in the North at the time. Some of these social critics included late Sa’adu Zungur, late Isa Wali, Aminu Kano and Prof. S A Galadanchi. They were very forward-looking and had ideas that were very revolutionary for that time.
The author quoted Aminu Kano writing in 1946 on the curriculum in the Koranic schools ‘as arbitrary in form, bookish in style,(and) hopeless for promoting social ideals and usefulness. It has done nothing but make work in the school lifeless and killing’. The Koranic schools, he points out, have utterly failed to appeal to the child, ‘but succeeded in promoting drudgery, loading the child’s mind with fantastic facts which she or he never understands’. Consequently, the child becomes mentally disabled, and the products of such schools are a mass of static adolescents ‘who make a static society’.
The author also related that when the University of Ibadan opened its doors as the first in Nigeria, out of the 120 foundation students only 3 came from the North. The author was quoting from the editorial opinion of Gaskiya Tafi Kwabo of 1st December 1948, which Abubakar Imam edited. That particular editorial was bemoaning the fact that the North lacked qualified people to take advantage of the new Nigerianisation policy of the colonial government.
The book I found in the author’s office was updated at the turn of the century and reprinted in 2013. In the preface to the second edition the author expressed disappointment at the lack of progress in reducing the educational gap between the North and South. He says, ‘nearly thirty years since this publication (1973), the educational gap between the North and the South remained unaddressed. Indeed it has deteriorated to a frightening level. For example in 1998, primary school enrolment shows that whereas Oyo, Akwa Ibom and Lagos States enrolled 798,993; 719,925 and 602,092 pupils in their schools respectively, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kebbi States enrolled 316,098: 218,051 and 318,759 pupils respectively in their schools. For secondary school education, as at 1997/98 there were 4049 secondary schools in the southern states with an enrolment of 2.84 million pupils, while all the northern states and the FCT put together had 2419 secondary schools with an enrolment of 1,417,945 million pupils. The disparity is greater at the higher level of education. For example in 1997/98 all the 19 Northern states and FCT had only 16,816 candidates admitted into Nigerian Universities, the Southern States had 55,975 candidates’.
These are indeed pathetic figures and they are rendered even more pathetic as they keep on recurring every year in worst forms. The author believes that one of the most effective solutions would be to encourage private sector intervention through the establishment of ‘foundations’ and ‘Trust Funds’ to support education in the Northern States. Interestingly that is where Haroun Adamu has made his remarkable contribution. With the support of like-minded friends they set up a boarding secondary school, Zaria Academy, in Shika, Zaria, in 1998 and raised it to an enviable status. Their success with the secondary school project gingered them to go further. They are now poised to start a private university in Zaria also. They have got the licence and the land. He was confident that as the funds issue is sorted the university would be a reality.
I left him with an autographed copy of the book and a feeling that there is a place for solo efforts such as Haroun Adamu’s in our quest to raise the number of educational institutions in the North and improve the chances of Nigerian unity.