By Amos Tauna
Participants of a 2-day stakeholders meeting for the Regulators’ Monitoring Programme, REMOP, for basic education and electricity have expressed concern on potential development disaster, if regulation and performance continue to slide in the two sectors.
The meeting is coming ahead of the 2017 Wole Soyinka Media Lecture Series to examine the nexus between basic education and electricity.
A statement issued by the Coordinator of Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), Motunrayo Alaka, says the stakeholders, comprising representatives of government, pressure groups, non-governmental organisations, private sector and international development partners, lamented that faulty regulatory system, official secrecy, corruption, poor media coverage and paucity of data, are some of the challenges plaguing quality basic education and electricity supply in the country.
The Centre Coordinator had explained the vision behind REMOP to the participants, emphasising that, “The change we seek is the change we need, therefore, it is important that all concerned put pressure on the current government to deliver on its promise.”
Regarding basic education, the participants were worried that the sector was grappling with a myriad of challenges, including the 8.7million children who are out of school, based on the UNESCO Institute of Statistics reports.
“Haruna Danjuma, President, National Parent Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), highlighted the fact that the figure is one of the highest globally.
“Corroborating the sad state of basic education in Nigeria, Olusegun Ajiboye, Registrar, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), stated that there is a need to pay attention to the quality of teachers who instruct students at this level,” the statement observes.
It adds that Abosede Adelaja, Secretary to the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Lagos, who represented the Deputy Governor of the state, Idiat Adebule and the Chairman of SUBEB, Ganiyu Sopeyin, said Lagos State continues to lead the rest in ensuring standard education.
“Despite the huge investments on basic education, especially through the Universal Basic Education Commission’s (UBEC), Olatunde Adekola of the World Bank, who was represented by Solomon Adebayo, bewailed the fact that the sector is yet to make significant improvement in the drive to offer quality education to the 44 percent of its population who fall under the age of 15, which incidentally covers the age bracket for the basic education programme. How are we spending the little we have? How are we prioritising targets?” Adekola queried.
The participants observed that the consensus on the availability of electric power supply, on the other hand, was that, although the regulatory framework for the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, makes the body very powerful, the system was yet to work, as it should.
According to Frank Jacobs, President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, the challenges bedeviling NERC had thus far made electricity more expensive for manufacturers who now spend 40 percent of their cost of production on power supply as against their counterparts in Ghana who deploy about 20 percent and those in China and Europe who use less than 10 percent.
Joy Ogaji, Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), particularly blamed the inconsistencies in the sector on the clear lack of coordination.
He lamented that various government authorities were compromising the independence of NERC.
Tomi Akingbogun, Chairman, Network of Electricity Consumers Advocacy of Nigeria (NECAN), in his contribution, noted the damage the challenges with power supply had inflicted on the Nigerian people with huge cost of tariff despite the unavailability of electricity.
Chief Executive Officer, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, ANED, Azu Obiaya, asked the gathering to reflect on the humongous cost of investment that could guarantee electric power supply.
“Risk is assigned where it is best borne. The consistency we hope to achieve in the sector will cost money. Someone has to pay.” Obiaya emphasised. “There is a need for Nigeria to decide whether it wants to keep electricity as a social service or fully privatise it,” he added.
“The Stakeholders’ meeting on basic education and electricity is a major part of the REMOP initiative supported by the MacArthur Foundation, which seeks to foster proactive disclosure of information, transparency and accountability among regulatory institutions in Nigeria through the active engagement of the media and other actors.
“The WSCIJ intends to continue the conversation at the public annual lecture scheduled for 10am at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja on Thursday 13 July, which would be Wole Soyinka’s 83rd birthday,” it explains.
