Lagos — I accepted this invitation because it offers another platform to reflect on the state of our commonwealth through the prism of education and proffer ways of arresting the progressive slide into abyss of uncertainties. I therefore congratulate the management and staff of Royal College, Ota for erecting this platform. By this, you have become a pathfinder to that Land of Promise that will guarantee a secured future for us all.

The modern State is a social service State,í wrote late Appadoira in his work, The Substance of Politics. If this assertion is stretched to our contemporary world, it means that, even if you choose to commit suicide, it is the responsibility of government to stop you from dying. So, you do not even have the liberty to take your own life! It is the legal duty of the state to nurture you in health from infancy to adulthood and to ensure that your life finds full expression in comfort and happiness till you finally pay the debt of nature. If for instance, you have no food to eat, you have the locus standi to sue the government and she is legally bound to provide three square meals for you in cash or kind. But the modern State is proactive, not reactive: there is social security scheme in place and so you would not need to go to courts on this fundamental neccesity. Rights to education have become fundamental; so are economic rights, political and legal rights. It thus seems that our contemporary Society is only few days away from a utopian status. Therefore, the germane question at this juncture is: can Nigeria lay claim to the membership of this modern State?

It is exactly 34 years ago that the then Federal Military Government of Gen. Gowon convoked a National Seminar on Education, which, in essence, was a follow up to the 1969 National Curriculum Conference. The focus was: how do we achieve, through the instrumentality of education, the following National Objectives: a free and democratic society; a just and egalitarian society; a united, strong and self-reliant nation; a great and dynamic economy; and a land of bright future and opportunities for all. These objectives were, of course, a rehearsal of policy statements at the dawn of self government: The Ashby Report on Higher Education was published in 1960; Conference of Africaís Ministers of Education, under the aegis of UNESCO, took place in Addis Ababa in 1961, where the role of education in nation-building was underscored. It is therefore safe to conclude that policy formulators at independence were equipped with the knowledge of the place of education in national development. The question then would be: 46 years after independence, has education ensured a united, free, democratic, egalitarian, strong, self-reliant nation; a political space of opportunities for all?

Researchers into the wide gulf between policy pronouncements and execution would find our clime very veritable. If our society has not been transformed, it is not because education has lost its potency; it has simply found itself in a difficult terrain. Henry Cammanger of the United States wrote with gusto and felicity in his book, Our Schools Have Kept Us Free. Indeed, America is a free and prosperous state because literacy has found a fertile ground to blossom. National objectives have been crystallized through the instrumentality of education and teachers have administered them conscientiously and consistently to their charges from generation to generation. The US is a perfect exemplar of a country that has turned its diversity into strength and transformed its human and material resources into engines of development through its literacy programmes. Today, she occupies a special place in the compound of the modern State.

In my years of interacting with students, I have encountered few that would be passionately interested in the teaching profession. Their parents, of course, would not agree with them. This is the contradiction in this community: everyone needs a teacher but no one wishes to become one! Teaching occupies the bottom rung of nationís life; maligned and abysmally remunerated, the average Nigerian tutor is on the move, looking for a greener pasture. This same teacher or lecturer finds himself in a bank, oil and gas industry or IT institution; his first take home is five to ten times his former pay. It is in this same state that a local council councilor earns more than a university professor. My study of US income distribution shows that a teacher could rub shoulder with any other professionals. The lines are such thin! The import of this is that Nigerian schools are peopled by teachers who are hungry and angry and therefore nurture malice against the state.

But this is only one side of the story. If we concur that the standards of education have taken the plunge in the last thirty years, it implies that, except a few that have chosen to be exceptional, the teachers produced in this era would hardly be rounded. I have been told of a varsity professor that could privatize a company through liquidation. My friend had to abandon his Master's programme in Public Administration in the nationís institution mid-way for a US varsity because of dearth of quality lecturers. A senior instructor in a tertiary college would copy a textbook, word for word, and present it to students as notes. I have encountered a tutor in an elite school that painted the difference between plebiscite and referendum as that of light and darkness.

-Being text of a public lecture delivered by Opeyemi Soyombo at the Royal College, Ota, Ogun State, recently.

Sometimes you are astounded at the magical powers employed by some Mathematics teachers to arrive at a correct answer with wrong working.

Last year, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) organized a workshop for examiners in English Language. An official inquired from an English teacher if she was just arriving to which the latter replied, ëI am here before!í

The concept of (school) role model has become an elusive dream since independence. Wole Soyinka in his latest memoir, You Must Set Forth At Dawn, reminds us of how a permanent secretary in the Western Region Ministry of Education made available his car for use by NNDP thugs to ravage the official residence of Sam Aluko before a community of impressionable youths in the then Ibadan campus of University of Ife just because the renowned economist would not support the government of the day. This is after the concept of ivory tower had been violated by the imposition of a discredited and fake Doctor of Science as the chairman of governing council of the then premier University College, Ibadan by the powers that be in Lagos. One scandal after the other before youngsters who should become the agents of nation-building. While various state agents preached unity in diversity in 70s and 80s, civil servants were being forced to return to their states of origin to seek re-employment. Interestingly, majority of todayís power players at federal, state and local government levels are products of education system of the first three decades of nationhood; needless say that the state of the nation at a given period is a reflection and summation of the knowledge, attitudes and values of those that hold the levers of power.

The current phenomenon is the tripartite agreement on fraud: parents, teachers and school authorities from elementary to tertiary levels collude with students to foist a culture of examination malpractice on the nation; the government of course provides the enabling environment. This malaise I have addressed at length in my ëAnatomy of Examination Fraudí in April 12th 2004 edition of the Guardian. I must say by way of parenthesis that POST-UME TESTS cannot reduce exam malpractice; it has simply created admission mercantilism, which I warned against when the idea was mooted by the authorities of University of Lagos. Those impecunious students, who might have done well in UME, would be schemed out in this race of the highest bidder. This would naturally lead one to alarm the public on the fast emerging dictatorships in our campuses. The randy members of Academic Staff Union of Universities and their colleagues in other tertiary schools have become sexual gods that must be appeased by our female students. Even when one or two students make bold attempt to report or call for their papers after being denied, those who sit in judgment are fellow academics. Since ASUU and college authorities suffer no compunction in providing shelter for these tin gods, we invite the government to flush out these academic dogs and moral bankrupts, arrest and publicly prosecute them. Henceforth, the sanctity of our children must not be violated.

In Nigeriaí, observed Ambrose Okeke in his book, Administering Education in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects, there is no clear and firm indication of what the society wants the schools to do, except to prepare pupils to pass certain examinations, obtain certificates, and secure certain types of jobs which are mainly clerical. Nor can we educate a child to believe in office jobs, and deny him a white collar job after that education and expect peace.í At the 2004 Conference of Civil Service Commissions in Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo fired this rhetorical question: If you have 28,000 workers in the Ministry of Works and virtually all road designs and works are contracted out, what then are these so-called workers doing? Every year, education takes away thousands of youths from farmlands, leaving the ageless adults- now bereft of strength for arduous work- to till the land; hence thousands of acres are left uncultured and uncultivated. The rural-urban migration is essentially induced first, by pursuit of education and then white collar jobs. Even the few that ended up in the Faculty of Agriculture prefer to work in banks and oil industries rather than go back to farm after graduation. There is another problem. The task that used to be performed by five workers can now comfortably be taken up by one staff operating a computer, thanks to advancement in technology or what may be called manna from heaven technology. As institutions employ more technology in their operations, there is constant need to downsize, rightsize- both euphemisms for retrenchment.

The nationís higher institutions of learning turn out about 170,000 graduates into the labour market every year but there isnít market for labour. There are no companies to work; the few ones are standing unsteadily on one leg- capacity utilization, according to Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) is still below 50%. The Federal Government is currently laying off about 35,000 civil servants. Last year, about 20,000 candidates applied for entry to Tai Solarin University of Education. The figure for this year is up to 25,000 but the college cannot accommodate more than 4,000. Mind you, these children did not choose TASUED in the hope of becoming classroom teachers but to hold a university certificate- a sort of stepping-stone to other life endeavours. This same institution in year 2000, then a College of Education, admitted just 132 candidates to its NCE programme, according to JAMB. The surge in number of students seeking admission to the school is partly because of University of Ibadan degree programme run in the institution and its recent elevation to the status of a university. We need not remind ourselves again that it is only university certificate that counts in our times. Over 1,000,000 students wrote this yearís May/June Senior School Certificate Examination; close to 800,000 candidates sat for 2006 University Matriculation Examinations (UME) but varsities would not have facilities for more than 250,000. By facilities, I mean roofed spaces where students can squeeze themselves on bare floor or lean against walls to receive lectures. Averagely, a candidate sits for UME 3 times before securing a space in the university. The inescapable conclusion is that, year after year, we have multitude of secondary school-leavers and graduates of higher education who nurture injury and malice against the state for making education a restriction and employment an impossibility. We do not yet talk about the 28 million Nigerians of secondary school age who, according to the Education Minister (Guardian 13/10/06 pg4), are not in school. Literacy is still below 50% in the country.

Education is human development and national development. Education develops character, which in turn builds the nation. It is the training of mind to gain knowledge, acquire skills, attitudes and values for the development of the nation. Any literacy programme that does not translate into national development is worthless. The solid mineral resources in the bowels of our land can only be exploited through education. Gas flaring can only be converted to useful source of energy by educated minds. If you plant coconut, colanut, cocoa and other perennial crops but wishes to enjoy the fruits of your labour in your lifetime or a few years after, you need the magic provided by education. With the help of education, children would no longer die of diseases like malaria or be disabled by polio. The Third Mainland Bridge, skyscrapers in Marina, conversion of solar energy to electricity, nuclear energy, oil exploration and refining that results in cooking-gas, gasoline, kerosene, lubrication oil, grease, bitumen, asphalt and so on, conventional and nuclear weapons, are all products of education. So are aviation, shipping, banking and insurance. That children yet unborn will be able to know about the Slave Trade, Industrial Revolution in Europe, World Wars, Russian Revolution, Cold War, Colonization and Decolonization of Africa, Nigeriaís failed political experiences and Civil War, Gulf War, among others, and present their independent judgements and opinions in order to make their world safe or safer can only come through the mystery of educationÖ Indeed, it is education that has placed man on top of his world.

Children are highly impressionable and spend the most crucial stage of their lives, 5 to 18 years, under the tutelage of teachers. You can imagine what tutors, on indoctrination mission, could accomplish in such lives. ëIndoctrinationí is a deliberate choice because we are up against a state of socio-economic and political emergency that of necessity demands emergency measures. Interestingly, grinding poverty, armed robbery, corruption, electoral fraud and such allied offences have no ethnic or geographical boundary in our political community. I therefore call for a State-Teachers Social Contract. The government will, on its part, enhance the conditions of service of teachers at all levels through various allowances that will raise their status such that the profession becomes self-fulfilling and highly rewarding. For a start, a realistic aggregate of three times the present, across the board, for both teaching and non-teaching staff is proposed. (The planned Teachers Salary Structure is in the right direction.) Every teacher should embark on programme of self-development. The graduate certificate only provides you with foundation. It takes self-effort and unremitting search for knowledge to build a bungalow, two, three or five storeys, even a skyscraper on that foundation. A situation where a tutor cannot correctly explain the meaning of Federal Republic of Nigeria is grossly unacceptable. Our children from primary to tertiary level must learn and imbibe the culture of industry, probity, transparency, accountability, due process, egalitarianism, rule of law, constitutionalism- all basic ingredients of democracy.

Civics classes must not be on Dos and Doníts of responsible citizens; it must be illustrative, drawing from our vicissitudes and chequered experiences as a nation. I am compelled to illustrate my take on method of administering this compulsory course by choosing one case study. If only N5m is eventually spent on repairs or construction of roads out of a contract of N20m, then a shoddy work must result. Although the rip-off may add to the bank accounts of some, it is nevertheless blood money! There are other implications. Potholes on roads will usually cause traffic-jams. People have to wake 4a.m. or 5a.m. because of this factor. After spending 2 or 3 hours in the hold-up, fatigue sets in even before the dayís work begins. Some productive hours have been lost. Returning home in the evening is equally herculean. And God forbids that a container lorry has not broken down. Workers get home around 11p.m., 12midnight or 1a.m. the next day. Having had little sleep or none at all, they set out very early again. This lifestyle results in stress that may eventually cut short the span of life. Regular repair of vehicles is another consequence. They soon age and die before their time. Passions usually rise in a traffic-jam. Cars hit one another, a brawl or fisticuffs sometimes result. Those that had been denied maintenance simply break down to aggravate the situation. And when the sky decides to empty itself, there is standstill because such roads possess no drains. Itís not every motorist that knows where there are potholes especially if you donít ply a particular road daily. And so a vehicle on top speed may hit the most deadly of those potholes and the result is fatal accident. There is wailing here and there yet some people feast on that blood money in a distant location. Itís possible their relatives become a victim one day but how many really think along these lines? Now, an end of term or semester question could be: ëTen per cent is blood money. Discuss íor ëCritically analyse the implications of contract scam in road construction on the societyí.

Government must as a matter of urgency remove the restriction on education by erecting schools with state-of-the-art facilities in every nook and cranny of the country. A situation where a top college of technology cannot boast of a functioning foundry, where 80 students compete for 2 pieces of micrometer screw gauge or vernier caliper, where milling, shaping and drilling machines lie grounded for years and where impact, hardness and other elementary engineering related tests cannot be conducted is a reprehensible indictment of successive governmentsí attitude towards education- science and technology in particular- and a confirmation of the imperative of retraining programmes for such graduates upon employment by companies. Government cannot divest itself of responsibility of providing qualitative education to the teeming populace by claiming paucity of fund, especially in the light of revelations by the EFCC that over $550bn has been stolen by public officials since 1960. This sum could turn the entire Africa landscape into a Paradise. Within the ambit of law, no efforts should be spared to recover the looted funds, substantial part of which must be channeled to education. While providing the right environment for private participation, there must be close monitoring to ensure such institutions conform to standards both in quality and conditions of service of teachers. I am yet to be presented with evidence that varsity graduates are better trained than their compatriots in polytechnicss: we present government with the choice of converting all polytechnics in the country to universities of (technology) or make discrimination in private and public establishments a criminal offence. The JAMB registrarís yearly laments that rats and cockroaches are taking up spaces in polytechnics and colleges of education come to one as crocodile tears. We all know the reasons why youngsters shun such institutions- some merely used them as stepping stones anyway- no one wants to be a second-class citizen. So, we focus on the disease, not symptoms.

Agriculture must become a compulsory course at all levels of education. Children must learn to soil their hands productively from the elementary schools. Government will make available lands and every academy must engage in planting of crops and animal husbandry. At higher levels, institutions will have the benefits of employment of modern farm implements such as tractors, combine-harvesters and agro-processing machinery, which must be maintained from proceeds from such farms; every college should be able to feed itselfÖ This is a wake up call for productive education. Schooling is not an end in itself but a means to a desired end. Classroomís theories must be matched with practice. At present, the percentage of candidates applying to study Agriculture in tertiary colleges is below 0.7 percent. Henceforth, government should abolish all fees for Agric students. Upon graduation, they will be able to tap from agric and agro-allied incentives of the government through which they can embark on mechanized farming and become employers of labour.

When we have solved the problem of unemployment (which is a major inducement to social vices), created enlightened, diligent, honest and patriotic citizens, through the instrumentality of education, we would have succeeded in moving our country so close to securing a space in that compound of the modern State.