How North is failing its people
The North as a region has been disadvantaged in terms of western education. The missionaries who were first to introduce it to Nigeria used it as a means of preaching and expansion of Christianity just like the Arabs who used Arabic to expand Islam in northern Nigeria. The South being on the advantageous side of first contact with those missionaries is more educated and knowledgeable than the North for more than 50 years. But this is not where the problem is. When the federal government introduced federal and unity schools in the country in the 70s, it decided to lower the cut off marks of those schools for students from the northern states due to the fact that the region was not well prepared to compete with other parts of the country.
The issue of education in northern Nigeria is one of the biggest threats the region is facing. You can believe me, if you are privileged to know the cut off marks of our federal and unity colleges in the country; where a student from Abia State is required to score 130-130 before getting admission a student from Jigawa with far lower score would be admitted in the same school. If you are in Anambra you must score 139-139, a student from Bauchi with far lower score can get admission into the same class with you.
To show you how the region has failed its people, for several days now a video has been circulating on social media, the videos which is believed to be emanating from God knows where showed thousands of children lined-up at the residence of one wealthy man in the state waiting for him or his aides to come out and give alms to those hungry young girls and boys and women who were waiting for him for God only knows how many hours. Begging and giving alms have become part and parcel of Hausa culture and our elite capitalise on it to enslave the teeming uneducated youth (the people they intentionally deprive the right to education) and the poor among us.
Even before the said video surfaced, the North is a well-known hub for child negligence - many parents in the region do not know the responsibilities and what it takes to bring a child to this world. Also our political elite have found a lucrative business in child negligence where they recruit them during elections and use them as thugs against their opponents; while governments have for long refused and failed to provide a safe haven for these innocent children who were victims of a bad system.
Ali Sabo, CITD, Dutse, Jigawa State aliyuncee@gmail.com