By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi
A University Don, Professor Umaru Pate has expressed dismay that ethno-religious violence, insurgency, violent crimes, widespread corruption, poor governance, incompetence and worsening management of Nigeria’s diversity and multi-cultural settings have continued to undermine peace, integration and development of the country.
Professor Umaru Pate, who is the Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Kashere in Gombe state noted also that poverty, weak institutions and indiscipline hightened by digital hate speech and misinformation have subvert Nigerian concept of trust for one another.
Accordingly, he said, “Ethnic fundamentalists are rewriting our history: Increasingly, what we have is, for example, Ijaw history of Nigeria, Yoruba history of Nigeria, Tiv history of Nigeria, Hausa history of Nigeria, Fulbe history of Nigeria, etc. Nigeria is increasingly defined and presented through sectional and partial interpretation of ethnic jingoists”.
Pate, at the just concluded convocation of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, was presenting a paper titled, “Education and Nigeria’s National Integration In The Digital Age: Matters Arising” at the institution’s 1000 capacity theatre of it’s Yelwa Satellite Campus.
“The role of education in making us, and integrating us can hardly be surpass. In other words, just like the schools you attend and thebooks that you read which eventually define your behaviour and conceptually direct you in life, so also the kind of education that we were also to give to our children which emphasizes multi-culturism, diversity, pluralism and slot of the complexity of Nigerian system”.
According to the perception, “Somebody in Edo is not verse, that only you in Bauchi that is good, but all of us are Nigerians, that should be the number one loyalty. If we are able to do that, I believe our nation’s progress and development will be better.
“If our young people are able to learn together, understand together, grow up together, there will be a future for us, otherwise, dangerously we are distancing ourselves from each other, and certainly in education should not be part of this”.
Professor Pate observed that some of the young Nigerians have narrow thinkings on various national issues and therefore need to put them on right skills, stressing, “We must have a critical mental ability, without which, people will continue to consume and become dustbins of rubbish that are disseminated on all platforms, and at the end of day, subvert and undermines their feelings and their belongingness to Nigeria, so we must be far more careful”.
Taking into cognisance that insecurity affect education directly, the Vice Chancellor said however that poverty, corruption and bad governance are beyond the education sector to address, but for the leaders who coordinate the system to take conscious steps to address, for education to be what it should be, while leadership should be by example.
“Our media system must also try to be federal to be federal to reflect everybody in the context. The transport system which should enable people to move all over the place also needs to be addressed. When the roads are bad, people will not send their children to schools. When airspace are expensive, people will not travel, but all these are things you ought to think about to improve our federal structures, as well as improve the flow of goods and services across the nation”.
The paper presenter also stressed the need for the country to make schools attractive as, according to him, people would not send their children if such structures are poorly funded and handled, saying that such issues have to be addressed to promote multi-lateral and do ersity sensitive curricula.
While holding the view that the school curricular should also be sensitive to multi-cultural dimensions and set-ups to enhance access to knowledge and use of digital technologies, the guest speaker said that any child who is digitally illiterate or school that is poorly equipped will not have ways to exchange knowledge and ideas.
He said, “We have lecturers today in Kashere who are teaching from Dubai, from UK, from US, they are teaching but through online services. And if we have them, that will help our young people to connect with scholars from other parts of the World. So we need to enhance these technologies very seriously so that we can also connect with other people outside, and of course promote media literacy and critical consumption of social messages”.
Professor Umaru Pate observed that challenges in education are hardly addressed because they are issues that are continuous that need to be addressed from multiple perspectives at local, state and federal levels, and all sorts of sectors that requires the attention of everyone, but which also is in concurrent list of the country’s constitution.
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