Ngige’s challenge

Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige holds an outstanding record of nationalistic commitment with the recent graduation of his second son, Andrew Ngige, from the College of Medicine, University of Abuja. It was the third successive graduation of the minister’s brood from different Nigerian medical schools within a span of 16 months. His first son, Ralph, graduated from the College of Medicine, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Amaku Awka, Anambra State, in September 2020. Some 10 months later, in July 2021, his daughter Marilyn graduated from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. And in December 2021, Andrew got certificated for the lab coat and stethoscope by UniAbuja College of Medicine. Although he oversees the Labour portfolio, Ngige is himself a Nigerian-trained medical doctor, and so is his wife, Evelyn, with whom he sired the freshly minted medical doctors.

Ngige’s is a unique family, having a shared profession – medical doctors all, the way the Dafinone family is one of luminous accountants. The serial graduation of his children is a feat any parent would be proud of, but the minister as well made the point of celebrating that they are ‘made in Nigeria’ doctors. In a recent social media post, he wrote: “My 2nd son, Andrew Nnamdi Ngige, graduated today  December 17th 2021 with an MB, BS  degree from the College of Medicine, University of Abuja. He will be the 3rd medical doctor child from myself and my wife Evelyn. Please join us to praise and thank God Almighty for this favour and to also thank all their teachers, both medical and non- medical, for assisting in the training of my ‘made in Nigeria’ doctors.” He explained that the children graduated in quick succession owing to Covid-19 dislocation of the academic calendar. At the induction of Ralph in September 2020, he had told journalists that he was happy that his first son graduated from a university he signed into existence as Anambra State Governor. He said he was proudly Nigerian and would do everything possible to support the growth of Nigerian institutions, calling on other privileged Nigerians to train their children in local institutions as part of efforts to rehabilitate Nigeria’s public education system. “Rich Nigerians should patronise Nigerian universities by sending their children to study there. The only way to build world class institutions in the country is to patronise them and pay attention to them. If our children are in those local universities, we will do something to make them the best in the world,” he stated.

With the record of the schools – public and Nigerian – through which he put his children, Ngige walked his talk and is a moral beacon to the entire spectrum of the privileged class who in schooling their children never touch the Nigerian education system even with a vaulting pole, far less so the public school system. Many do this regardless that they are directly responsible and answerable by virtue of their offices for putting right the Nigerian system: they can’t taste the broth they have the mandate to cook because they know the cooking is lousy. After all, this is a country where the political elite from the highest rung on the ladder put their children through schools abroad and flaunt the fact because they obviously have no confidence in the Nigerian education system and could afford to send their children for schooling abroad. The Central Bank of Nigeria, in a report last August, estimated that Nigerians spent in excess of $28billion (some N11.6trillion at official exchange rate) on foreign education in the last 10 years.

And it isn’t only the political elite that hanker after foreign education for their children, other Nigerians do same or, in worst case scenario, patronise the private school system in pointed avoidance of the public system. When Ngige attributed the graduation of his children in quick succession to Covid-19 dislocation of the academic calendar, he did not tell the entire story – well, perhaps deliberately so since he is very much involved – because the public university system is as well  hobbled by recurrent and many times protracted industrial actions that teachers on the platform of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) wage. Recall that the public university system was grounded for nearly all of last year, 2020, because ASUU pulled out its members on a nine month-long strike. The union repeatedly threatened hitting the trenches again in this outgoing year, 2021. Owing to the fitfulness of the public university system, Nigerians who cannot afford to send their children abroad, including ASUU members, would give whatever it takes to have them in private institutions. In other words, the public university system in Nigeria grossly lack patronage appeal, and that was why the minister’s commitment to patronising the system resonated deeply.

“If Nigerian ‘big men’ take Ngige’s cue, the country will make headway with building up its education system from their first-hand participatory experience.”

Cynics might argue that Ngige’s choice was one huge grandstanding, he knowing he could subsequently send his children abroad for additional education and career pursuits; or if he so chooses, he could get them fixed up in Nigerian jobs where parental leverage would overawe whatever disadvantage they might have had by reason of their public schooling. But even if so, it was nonetheless helpful that the minister was in the loop as a parent in the public school system, and he was bang on point in saying the only way to build world class institutions in the country is to patronise them and pay attention to them. If Nigerian ‘big men’ take Ngige’s cue, the country will make headway with building up its education system from their first-hand participatory experience. 

It is curious though that despite his vantage position both as a parent and the minister in charge of labour matters, Ngige could not save the public varsity system from the prolonged paralysis that resulted last year from the nine-month strike by ASUU, which has threatened a repeat, citing alleged failure by government to fulfil agreed terms of a Memorandum of Action (MoA) it signed with the union on implementation of the 2009 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between both parties that was renegotiated in May 2020. ASUU vowed it would no longer enter fresh MoA or MoU with government but rather insist on implementation of the ones already signed. The teachers often said no serious teaching or learning was going on in public universities because the prevailing condition was not conducive to that core business; government, according to them, was short-shrifting on revitalizing the system and failing other benchmarks agreed upon in the signed deals. Not that the teachers don’t have any blame for the sorry state of public schools, but you nonetheless can’t help notice indications of red tapes and stultifying bureaucracy in government delaying the resolution of the industrial crisis. When the union served a three-week ultimatum for resumed strike in November, for instance, Ngige said it would not need to do as threatened because government was diligently attending to the terms of the agreement signed, but the minister couldn’t explain the delay in disbursement of some funds said to been approved already by President Muhammadu Buhari for payout to the sector. If key officials of government put their children through Nigerian universities as Ngige did, there will perhaps be more sensitivity to expediting official processes so to avert the collapse of the public school system.

Electoral Act amendment fiasco

Contrary to expectations, this year is wrapping up without the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021 being enacted into law following the decision of President Buhari to withhold assent. The reasons adduced for the presidential veto are debatable, but so also is the motive of National Assembly members in injecting the controversial ‘direct primaries’ clause along with other radical reforms enunciated in the proposed legislation. With the 2023 general election already looming large in all governance and political calculations, it is imperative that the bill is urgently reworked by NASS to meet the terms for presidential assent, or NASS should leverage its potential to override the presidential veto in line with Section 58(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as Amended). Either way, we need the law in place in the early weeks of Year 2022.