Editorial
Teaching: Addressing Shocking Revelations
The Kaduna State Government recently conducted a test for its primary school teachers and got a shocking result. All the teachers, except one, failed a primary four examination. Thereafter, their pupils were also tested and the failure rate was scandalous.
Not too long ago, another State in the North took the same step and recorded a similar result. Although how the problem was addressed was not made public, this kind of routine check clearly commends itself to all states.
In Rivers State, some teachers who were being tested in course of a retraining programme by a foreign agency were caught cheating. These revelations coming from the very foundation of academic programme in Nigeria should worry government and all well meaning persons. That teachers, supposed character moulders of the leaders of tomorrow cannot be exemplary or be proficient enough in tackling the task is most scandalous and should serve as a wake up call.
The Tide acknowledges that over the years, teachers may not have received encouraging treatment but the fact that they lacked basic intelligence to pass a primary four examination cannot be condoned. The Kaduna State Government must seek other jobs to deploy such teachers and give primary education its pride of place by taking on qualified teachers.
It is sad to note that after several years of identifying the fallen standard of education in Nigeria, very little appears to have been done to remedy the situation. School infrastructure, teaching aids, routine inspection and supervision continue to be lacking at all levels.
As students continue to perform poorly in the West African School Certificate exams and similar examinations, teachers’ welfare remain a contentious issue in both government and private schools.
We note also, that the national directive that only holders of the National Certificate of Education (NCE), be accepted as the minimum requirement for teachers in Nigeria, is being observed in the breach. It is sad that governments have continued to employ all manner of people to teach when they know next to nothing about teaching nor do they understand the psychology of children.
In many States, the recruitment of teachers has not only been politicised, but has become patronages for political jobbers, family members and nominees of deviant groups.
The progress being made by the Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board, and which has attracted countless awards and commendation needs to be replicated in other states.
For instance, the Rivers State Government recently organised a rigorous recruitment which sought to get the best teachers from within and outside the State. Thirteen thousand teachers are already due to begin work next month.
The Governor Chibuike Amaechi led government, in an effort to guarantee prompt payment of teachers salaries and allowances took over from the local councils, the payment of teachers’ salaries including arrears of promotions.
The government also gave a new face to primary education by constructing model school buildings, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, including information and communication technology gadgets and laboratory equipment.
Perhaps, most commendable is the effort to raise the standard of education through interface with international intervention bodies like the UNICEF, UNESCO and the British Council with a view to training and retraining manpower to improve capacity. This, we think should be replicated in other states to arrest the downward slide of standards in parts of the country.
Federal, State and local governments as well as all employers of teachers must of necessity, ensure periodic training, and retraining to keep them up to date with modern teaching trends and techniques.
Teachers’ welfare deserve priority attention since they train all other professionals required for nation building. Governments and other employers of teachers must ensure that their salaries, allowances and other entitlements were paid as and when due, while the teaching environment is made conducive. This will go a long way in checking the current trend of lack of concentration and commitment of teachers across the country.
The bottom line however, is that there must be discipline, standard, ethics and best practice in the teaching profession if its role in nation building is to be guaranteed. Similarly the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria must be seen to be playing its role in regulating and ensuring standards in the teaching profession.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
