Editorial
Teachers And Educational Transformation
Last Wednesday, October 5, the global community marked the 2022 World Teachers’ Day (WTD).
Following the indispensable impact of teachers on any society, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), in 1994, reached a unanimous resolution that October 5 of every year should be observed by all the United Nations (UN) member states as World Teachers’ Day.
While every day is an incredible day to compliment and applaud teachers, World Teachers’ Day is their unique day. And when it comes to teachers, surveys invariably show that they are doing an excellent job. At the soul of any education system are the teachers. They are the ones charged with not only teaching the basics of reading, but also staying on top of technology and emerging trends.
WTD is a day to celebrate, appreciate and honour teachers for their contributions to their students and society. On this day, many likewise come together and organise meetings, conferences and such to identify concerns being faced by teachers globally and find solutions to those issues. This year’s theme is: “The Transformation Of Education Begins With Teachers”.
In most nations, it is frustrating to note that teachers, who contribute fantastically to the socio-economic development of a nation, are regaled poorly regarding remuneration and other inducements. It is even more tragic to acknowledge that in some countries, these individuals who are meant to be the leading professionals are regarded as second-class, if not third-class citizens.
The truth is that teachers are vital to us. They are the building blocks of society and remain the foundation on which any nation is built. The international community and governments have got to stand firm and united to support teachers and quality learning, especially in countries where the number of out-of-school children is high. It must be affirmed that education systems are only as good as their teachers.
In Nigeria, where World Teachers Day was commemorated, the civil society and other stakeholders should stimulate the teaching profession. Good and gorgeous employment conditions, including suitable salaries, prospects for career progression and promotion, a conducive work environment, and high-quality service training should be guaranteed. Effective management that will include teachers’ recruitment and deployment is imperative.
Teaching is a precursor to other professions; therefore, it should be quality-driven to attract young talents and keep them in the profession. Here in Nigeria, there is an urgent need to address the pressing challenges of teachers. They include impoverished learning facilities, underfunding, few trained teachers and absence of commitment, lack of incentives, among others. These needs must be met to ensure top-notch delivery from them.
It was for those reasons that President Muhammadu Buhari endorsed a special salary scale and new retirement age for teachers in basic and secondary schools across the country in the 2020 edition of the event. The President increased the number of service years for the teachers from 35 to 40 and the retirement age from 60 to 65. Nigerian teachers had been asking for an increase in their retirement age, welfare, and salaries.
Sadly, the Federal Government has failed to gazette the law and is only now proposing to include aspects of the package in the 2023 budget. This inattention to teaching and education is distasteful. The poor state of education today, particularly at the basic level, is linked to how teachers and their profession are feted by the government. If the future of a country depends on the quality and commitment of its teachers, whose products are its prospective leaders, their ill-treatment would be no more than a purposeful attempt to render the future of today’s learners vulnerable.
Notably, the professionalisation of teaching, long after its establishment in Nigeria, yet remains a career that can be patronised by every Tom, Dick, and Harry. For example, people without the minimum teaching qualification are still being employed to teach in public and private schools at nearly all levels. While knowing a subject is one thing, understanding how to convey the knowledge to others is another; probably considered even more critical.
Regardless of the level teaching takes place, teaching qualifications are crucial to every teacher’s success in the workplace. If teaching is a profession in Nigeria, no one in the country’s institutions would engage in it without a teaching qualification. Disappointingly, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has failed to enforce this provision at every degree of the system. Even more deplorable is the inaction of the TRCN, which reduces the concept of professionalisation of teaching to merely licensing teachers.
Once professionalisation is achieved, it is believed that many of the challenges currently plaguing the teaching profession will naturally disappear. The government, not associations, has the responsibility to implement policies and operational guidelines designed to make teaching a profession in the country. Any inadequacy will only leave Nigerian teachers without a career.
To mark the day, some teachers in Rivers State recalled Governor Nyesom Wike’s regular payment of teachers’ salaries and renovation of many public primary and secondary schools to improve working/studying atmosphere for teachers and students. Additionally, the state government will soon hire more teachers to fill existing vacancies in schools. Wike has been offering scholarships to Rivers indigenes to study Medicine at PAMO University of Medical Sciences, a private institution.
In South Korea, teachers are known as nation builders, while Finland and some Scandinavian countries regard them as key success behind their countries’ development. Nigerian government should also take a cue from these countries and encourage the teachers, motivate them adequately and respect the profession as noble. Because poorly trained students can devastate the national heritage.
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.
