Politics
Reps Pass Bill To Establish Almajiri Education Commission
Barely 24 hours after former President Olusegun Obasanjo raised an alarm that out-of-school children posed a threat to national security, the House of Representatives had passed for second reading a bill seeking to establish National Commission for Almajiri education and out-of-school children.
It will be recalled that the government of former President Goodluck also gave the almajiri a facelift, establishing schools to educate them.
Tilted, “Bill for an Act to Establish National Commission for Almajiri Education and out of School Children to Provide for a Multimodal System of Education to tackle the Menace of Illiteracy, Develop Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Programmes, Prevent Youth Poverty, Delinquency and Destitution in Nigeria; and for Related Matters (HB.2028),” the bill was sponsored by Hon. Shehu Kakale and 18 other lawmakers.
In his lead debate at Wednesday’s plenary, Kakale noted that Nigeria was among the countries with millions of children that were out of school.
He said, “Nigeria is among many other countries that are confronted with the phenomenon of out-of-school children. As you may be aware, millions of children and teenagers across the country are currently out of school, due to one reason or the other.
“Mr Speaker, as of September 2022, out-of-school children in Nigeria were estimated to be 18.5 million by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). However, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) estimated the same to be 13.2 million.”
The lawmaker also gave staggering statistics of the figures in many states of Nigeria, recalling Jonathan’s efforts to build 157 schools for the almajiris.
“The statistics appear even grimmer, judging from the rough estimate of out-of-school children per state in the country.
“Mr. Speaker and my Honourable Colleagues, the digest of basic education statistics by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) revealed that Ten (10) out of Nigeria’s Thirty-Six (36) states were homes to more than half of Nigeria’s out-of-school children, as at 2018. The 10 states at the top of the chart had about 5.2 million of the country’s approximately 10.2 million out-of-school children at that time.
“In no particular order, Kano State had the most with 989,234, while Akwa-Ibom (581,800), Katsina (536,122) and Kaduna (524,670) followed closely. Taraba (499,923), Sokoto (436,570), Yobe (427,230), Zamfara (422,214) and Bauchi (354,373) were other states that ranked high on the list. States with the lowest numbers of out-of-school children were Cross River with 97,919, Abia with 91, 548, Kwara with 84,247, Enugu with 82,051, Bayelsa with 53,079, FCT with 52,972 and Ekiti with 50,945.
“Mr. Speaker, several challenges are associated with the high number of out-of-school children in Nigeria. All out-of-school children in Nigeria are at risk of exploitation, vulnerable to recruitment by insurgents, human traffickers, and by other criminal elements in society.
In fact, in your address to Members of the House of Representatives in this hallowed chamber on 28th January 2020, Mr. Speaker, you were very vivid on the rising number of out-of-school children and the danger it portends for the Nigerian state.
“Mr Speaker and my Honourable colleagues, as I draw this debate to a close, permit me to reiterate the fact that education is pivotal to human development and the growth of a nation. It was in recognition of this that Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had to build 157 Almajiri Model Schools to enable the education of the almajiris in Nigeria.
“There cannot be a functional society without a functional educational system. Accordingly, the establishment of the proposed Commission will ensure that the Almajiris receive sound education that will shield them from exploitation by criminal elements. It is in line with the foregoing, I hereby urge you Mr. Speaker, and my respected colleagues to support that this Bill is read the Second time,” he said.
In his contribution, the Speaker of the House, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila said the bill was worthy of passage.
Gbajabiamila said, “The sponsor and I worked very closely last year on the issue of almajiri. I commend him for this proactiveness. For anything that has to do with education in this 9th assembly, we have been very proactive. Education has been a priority in our legislative agenda. We have just concluded a two-day summit on tertiary education. We hope that at the end of the day, we will make recommendations.”
But in his own inputs, Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai said that while he was not against the bill, a timeline should be provided in the bill for the termination of the programme.
“You are aware that 12 years ago, the Presidency embarked on making sure that the almajiris are integrated into the educational sector. I agree with this bill but in agreeing with it, they are making an intervention and it should have a gestation period like saying this program will last ten to 15 years or so. If the commission is established to just run like that, it will be discriminatory in nature. Every child is entitled to an education. This particular program is an interventionist to bridge the gap, so if it’s an intervention to bridge the gap, it supposed to have a timeline, the laws are made in that way”, he said.
Also contributing, Hon. Dachung Bagos called for punitive measures against failures on the part of the operators of the commission when established.
“This bill coming from a PDP man, my colleague from Sokoto. This is the heartbeat of the project the PDP administration started during the time of Goodluck Jonathan because of the importance— of seeing that Almajiri and out-of-school children— if someone had done his work all through the years, we could not have been at the point in time. It is a bill we support totally, but ours is that once this is established, the people that are supposed to do their work in the bill should be able to spell out actual punishment for those that are supposed to carry out that duty. At this point, let the penalty be spelled out,” Bagos said.
Responding to Ossai comment, the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Idris Wase who presided over the session said the bill was not discriminatory but for all out-of-school children nationwide.
“I want you (Ossai) to look at the long title of the bill. It says almajiri and out-of-school children, which we have in all parts of Nigeria. It’s not only for the almajiri, it will also take care of our brothers that are always in the street,” he said.
The bill later scaled through second reading when put to a voice vote by the presiding officer.
In a related development, the House also passed for second reading a Bill for an Act to Establish Chartered Institute of Corporate and Business Management Affairs; and for Related Matters sponsored by Hon. Julius Ihonvbere from Edo State.
Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has revealed that the reforms initiated and implemented by his administration led to the saving of the sum of N2.3 billion for the local government councils.
The governor disclosed this recently at the opening ceremony of an orientation programme organised for newly-elected local government council chairmen, vice chairmen, councilors and principal officers at Perdis Hotel, Akenfa.
Gov Diri stated that on assumption of office in 2020, some local government councils were highly indebted and unable to pay salaries but his administration took measures that resulted in regular payment of salaries, execution of projects and saving of funds.
The Bayelsa State Chief Executive restated his call on the Federal Government to create additional local councils in the state, saying it was injustice for some states to have more than 40 councils and receiving monthly allocation from the Federation Accounts Allocation Commission (FAAC), while the state had only eight.
He charged the newly elected local government officials to make good use of the two-day workshop to equip themselves with the requisite knowledge to carry out their responsibilities.
The governor also called on them to work as a team to ensure that development was felt at the grassroots.
“Local governments as at 2020 were unable to pay salaries, particularly Nembe, Ogbia, Ekeremor and Sagbama. There was some form of dissatisfaction in the system.
“After I went through the recommendations of the Deputy Governor, whom I entrusted with investigating the local government, I wasted no time in approving the recommendations.
“The recommendations included the ban on loans from any source by local government chairmen without approval of the governor; compulsory savings by every council; and the division of balance after payment of salaries into 60 and 40 per cent respectively. One part was for compulsory savings and the other to project implementation and immediate commencement of computerisation of their payroll as well as compulsory quarterly award of projects by each council chairman.
“We found a lot of fraud in the local government system. But as it stands today, our councils have N2.3billion as a result of the combination of the factors of reforms and proper supervision of that tier of government.
“The breakdown is N400million compulsory savings while N1.9 billion for capital projects. This is aside from the one done by caretaker committees in terms of project execution within the short period they stayed”, the governor said.
Gov Diri assured of his administration’s commitment to support the councils to achieve their goals and expressed confidence that the new officials would meet the expectations of the people.
“We firmly believe that good governance begins at the grassroots level. That is precisely why we have gathered here to equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge to improve our local government administration and enhance service delivery.
Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa
The Eze Oruamara/Regent of Okwuzi Kingdom in Ogba/ Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the State, Eze Victor Afaka, has sued for peace among the political class in the State.
Eze Afaka made the appeal while speaking with The Tide on the sidelines of the governorship victory thanksgiving service by the Ogba Egbema /Ndoni Chapter of the Simplified Movement in Omoku.
He said Governor Fubara should be allowed to display the vision that God has given to him to govern the state.
According to him, since every administration has its term and tenure, the man presently at the helm of affairs in Rivers State must be given the opportunity to complete his own term and tenure.
“I advise politicians to sheathe their sword and allow peace to reign. Politics and governance have their terms and tenure. When it is your tenure, you have your vision to display; when you conclude that vision God has given you as a leader of your community or of a state, you step aside and leave the next person to display the vision God has given to him” he said.
The traditional ruler said he and his people, including the youth, women and the Ogbakor Egbema, decided to attend the service because of the excellent vision of Governor Fubara
“We are happy, Okwuzi people are in full support of the government, the government of His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara”, he added.
He said that the governor’s peaceful disposition to governance has endeared him to His Kingdom, noting that Okwuzi kingdom was already a beneficiary of the present administration’s purposeful governance as the Omoku/Okwuzi road abandoned 10 years ago, was nearing completion.
“ONELGA, Okwuzi are benefitting from his government.The road that was abandoned for ten years is being completed right now and we know that there are so many other things he will do for us”, he said.
While urging the state government to give desired attention to the Okwuzi General Hospital that is in a state of dilapidation, Eze Afaka entreated Governor Fubara not to be distracted, but to continue to promote peace and development across the State.
John Bibor
A group of North Central stakeholders in the All Progressives Congress (APC) has stormed the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, demanding the resignation of the National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja yesterday, the protesters said their demand followed his recent suspension by a faction of his ward executives and the alleged bribery allegation levelled against him by the Kano State government.
While they chanted solidarity songs and displayed several banners some of which read, “Ganduje must resign” and “Return the APC chairmanship to North Central,” the protesters appealed to President Bola Tinubu and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, to consider returning the leadership of the party to the North Central.
Only on Tuesday, the Forum of APC State Chairmen had passed a vote of confidence on Ganduje, affirming their unalloyed support to him.
The protesters under the aegis of Concerned North Central APC Stakeholders lamented that the continued stay of Ganduje in office was a clear violation of the zoning principle in the party.
Mohammed Saba, who led the protesters, said unlike the 37 APC state chairmen, his people in the North Central have passed a vote of no confidence on the national chairman and equally demanded his immediate resignation.
Saba reiterated that the people of North Central felt betrayed when the position of APC national chairman was hijacked from them following the exit of Senator Abdullahi Adamu despite giving Tinubu the third highest votes after North West and South West at the 2023 presidential election.
He said, “We, the North Central APC Concerned Stakeholders, have resolved to unanimously agitate for our right and reclaim our mandate which was handed unto us by the National Convention of our great Party in 2022.
“Various sections of our constitution have established the procedure of replacing an executive member at all levels of the party in the event of death, resignation, incapacitation or expulsion from the party by any executive member.
“It is a fact that the emergence of Dr. Umar Ganduje as national chairman was done against the spirit and soul of the APC which is the constitution of our great party. This singular act has impacted negatively on us as a people in the North Central.
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