Former Governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, has raised concerns about the quality of education in Northern Nigeria, stating that no state in the region has up to 50 per cent of its teachers qualified to teach.
Aliyu disclosed this during the 22nd Daily Trust Dialogue held at the NAF Conference Centre, Abuja, on Thursday.
Themed “Food Security: Availability or Affordability,” the event also served as a platform for the former governor to advocate for improved educational and agricultural reforms in Nigeria.
According to Aliyu, the lack of qualified teachers is a critical factor hampering the development of education in the northern region.
He noted that even among the students currently attending schools, the quality of teaching remains questionable, further deepening the educational gap in the region.
“The second thing I am pursuing is education. In the northern states, there is no state with 50 per cent qualified teachers. Even those who are attending the schools now, let alone those who are not able to attend school,” he lamented.
Aliyu urged the Federal Government to leverage universities specializing in agriculture and education to address the twin challenges of poor teaching standards and insufficient farmer education.
“Use federal universities of agriculture and universities of education to educate people. We need education to have people who are passionate about a particular thing,” he emphasized.
The former governor also questioned the efficacy of Nigeria’s border closure policy, describing it as counterproductive.
Despite the closure, he said, Nigerian goods continue to flood markets in neighboring ECOWAS countries, highlighting the porous nature of the nation’s borders.
“What is the importance of closing borders while the population of Nigeria is almost the population of other ECOWAS members? Every market you go to in ECOWAS countries, you will discover that more than half of the things in that market are from Nigeria,” Aliyu said.
He further pointed out price disparities in livestock trade between Nigeria and its neighbors, using the example of cows being cheaper in Niger Republic than in Nigeria, a trend he said had persisted even before the current inflation crisis.
Aliyu called on the Ministry of Livestock to partner with educational institutions to provide farmers with the necessary training to improve food production and ensure food security in the country.
“Please, do what you have to do. Do also the education,” he urged, stressing the need for well-rounded reforms to tackle the interconnected challenges of education, food security, and economic growth in Nigeria.
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