To demonstrate Government expectations in
terms of standards, government owned a few model schools. In the old Eastern
Region, the Government Secondary Schools were: Government College, Umuahia;
Queens College, Enugu; Government Secondary School, Owerri; Government
Secondary School, Afikpo; and Government Comprehensive Secondary School, Port
Harcourt. Most of thre Schools at both the Primary and Secondary tiers were
shared between the missions: Catholic Mission, Methodist, Anglican Mission,
Presbyterian Mission, Qua Iboe Mission, Lutheran Mission. Other schools were
owned by communities. Very few private schools but they were very high
standards. These missions had their managers who supervised these schools and
ensured that the standards set by the ministries were maintained.
Every mission strove to ensure that it
compared with the Government Model Schools at Umuahia, Owerri, Afikpo, Enugu
and Port Harcourt. These schools acquitted themselves creditably by the
standards they set so that nobody could ever find fault with the products of
the great Hope Waddel Institute, the unique Christ the Kings College and its
Anglican counterpart also in Onitsha, the Dennis Memorial Grammar School. There
was the Etinan Institute owned by Qua Iboe Church, College of Immaculate
Conception at Enugu. There was also the great Methodist Girls School, Ovim and
Methodist College, Uzuakoli and the Aggrey Memorial College in Arochukwu. Who
would forget the Union Schools at Elelenwo and Ibiaku or the Rosary Schools at
Nsukka, Onitsha and Umuahia? Who could quarrel with the product of these
institutions?
Then the Government of the East Central
State led by Dr. Ukpabi Asika took over schools and by that process took away
God from the schools. In the South East of Nigeria in particular, it marked the
beginning of the descent in quality of education and culminated into the rot
that pervades the entire educational system today. Any visit today to any of
these formerly tested Government Model Schools in Umuahia, Enugu, Owrri, Afikpo
and Port Harcourt would make one weep. If the founders of these great schools
were to resurrect today they would place curses on all of us who have destroyed
what they took pains – great pains to build.
At the old Government College Umuahia, the
WAEC would send down question papers well in advance to the Principal of the
School who kept such question papers safely and sacredly until the exams were
taken on schedule without any compromises of any sort. I am told that the
practice was not exclusive to Government College, Umuahia. Other leading school
principals were satisfactorily assigned the same roles and they acquitted
themselves creditably. What do we have today in our school system in the South
East? I want to share some statistics with you on this matter. These statistics
are from WAEC and they are verifiable. But before the statistics, let me
reproduce an observation that I made in 2008 during my inaugural lecture.
• EXTENT OF THE ROT: At the Secondary level the rot is awesome.
Secondary schools have no laboratories and science is studied just like history
and literature. Teachers are in short supply and schools are overcrowded.
Teachers’ salaries are often in arrears. Agricultural practical are hardly
attended to. The private secondary schools answer esoteric names like
educational giants and arrogate examination miracles to themselve in a bid to
attract misinformed but rich parents who are ready to pay huge sums of sums of
money as a guarantee for securing good certificates not backed by knowledge for
their wards.
Consequently a new trend has become the
norm rather than the exception. Special external examination centers spring up
daily to give illicit cover to school pupils as they cheat themselves to
questionable external examination certificates. The situation is so bad that
WAEC had to issue this report which is quite long but which I have tried to
reproduce as a way of explaining the extent of the rot.
“For a very long time now, conduct of west
African Examination Council (WAEC) in Ukwa Zone has become very hazardous. It
has become a matter of life and death on the part of candidates, invigilators,
supervisors, inspectors, and WAEC officials on examination duty in the area. It
has reached a point where examination officials, namely WAEC staff,
Supervisors, Invigilators and other inspectors have vowed not to go Ukwa ant
longer for examination.”
The report therefore gave eleven specific
examples of the nature of malpractices before drawing conclusions. One of such
examples, the eleventh is stated thus:
“During the current November/December 2005
West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), about ten (10)
hefty and fierce men in black apparels, like cultists, stormed a centre and
started harassing candidates and examination officials by collecting money from
them. This happened in September 26, 2005 during Biology 2 Paper. There was
confusion and the examination was disrupted.”
Then the report concluded thus:
“It is not that examination malpractices
do not happen in other places in Abia State in particular, or Nigeria in
general, but those being experienced in Ukwa Zone are out of the ordinary.
Malpractices that involve armed robbery, threats to life, fighting and injuring
people and hostage at gun points appear to be on the extreme. We should not
fold our hands until examination officials are killed before we act.” (Report culled from 2005 WAEC Report).
If you look critically at the table below
you would be curious at the distribution of total candidates per state who
enter for WAEC examinations.
THE WEST AFRICAN EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2000, 2001, 2002 AND
2003 WASSCE (P)
Entry Figures (Statistics Of Entry Examination Centres)
S/N State 2000 2001 2002 2003
1 ABIA 25,903 92 32,670 110 37,816 149 15,234 72
2 ABUJA 17,610 52 23,423 77 24,443 13 10,341 45
3 ADAMAWA 3,488 13 5,261 24 4,030 20 2,580
14
4 AKWA IBOM 16,747 64 23,920 25 29,022 107 15,485 66
5 ANAMBRA 25,004 94 27,212 94 37,207 72 8,201 48
6 BAUCHI 2,388 10 3,746 16 3,079 13 1,183
10
7 BAYELSA 2,993 10 2,869 12 2,892 17 954 6
8 BENUE 9,716 35 11,766 41 10,737 43 3,992
26
9 BORNU 5,253 19 7,503 30 4,791 20 2,214
11
10 CROSS RIVER 27,753 98 22,657 80 16,482
87 6,641 75
11 DELTA 46,290 160 47,097 168 42,033 168 20,414 96
12 EBONYI 7,097 26 10,972 37 11,126 41 5,089 33
13 EDO 53,528 180 58,908 108 76,436 153 25,716 103
14 EKITI 10,556 36 16,739 58 13,978 61 6,171 38
15 ENUGU 50,609 170 53,038 77 58,099 312 29,765 139
16 GOMBE 725 4 1,667 7 1,119 09 282 5
17 IMO 37,620 130 50,359 149 63,141 230 31,573 118
18 JIGAWA 1,148 5 1,107 7 1,061 06 417 5
19 KADUNA 27,542 92 31,572 118 28,180 107 9,931 45
20 KANO 10,982 38 12,779 46 9,031 36 3,597
24
21 KATSINA 2,520 11 3,576 14 3,128 17 1,396 11
22 KEBBI 1,524 5 2,099 7 1,911 09 514 9
23 KOGI 10,278 39 12,779 44 15,276 57 4,211 39
24 KWARA 28,225 96 32,423 112 29,239 110 10,881 48
25 LAGOS 50,949 717 276,012 819 294,059
909 205,250 867
26 NASARAWA 2,963 13 3,682 19 2,945 18 1,705 13
27 NIGER 7,624 31 10,610 44 8,266 41 3,208
24
28 OGUN 45,550 142 4 4,167 158 49,883 198 2,416 167
29 ONDO 19,648 69 27,920 98 27,653 109 12,478 55
30 OSUN 45,550 142 55,272 178 64,596 214 29,127 141
31 OYO 77,460 262 89,370 310 90,364 325 38,924 137
32 PLATEAU 13,199 46 14,511 60 15,289 64 7,405 48
33 RIVERS 5,799 190 55,296 193 59,457 237 38,757 161
34 SOKOTO 5,799 19 4,914 19 3,843 19 2,366
16
35 TARABA 1,333 6 1,208 8 940 06 375 05
36 YOBE 984 3 1,941 9 1,007 06 338 02
37 ZAMFARA 976 4 2,706 11 1,170 09 552 07
TOTAL 943,270 3,086 1,083,192 3,447 1,094,919 3,979 582,410 2,765
Note:
- In 2000, Abia State entered 25,903
students for WASCE, Rivers entered 5,799; Abia had 20,204 candidates more than
Rivers State.
- In 2003, Abia entered 15,234
experiencing a decline of 10,669 Rivers entered 88,757 experiencing an increase
of 82,958.
- In 2000, Abia was leading Rivers with
about 19,000 candidates. In 2003, Rivers was leading Abia with about 73,000
candidates.
These statistics tell so much about what
is going on in these areas. Rivers State shares a common boundary with Ukwa LGA
in Abia State. It is not uncommon to see Abia indigenes leaving Abia State at
times of external examinations in drove to Rivers State to write their
examination with very high levels of success. But these successes are quite
questionable when you interact with those candidates with these miraculous
results. There is no doubt that Rivers State has made giant strides in
educational attainments in recent times but those statistics of the results and
the atmosphere under which the exams are taken. Without casting aspersions,
there is need for the Nigerian society to look at these figures with greater
circumspection as they are more likely to conclude that these could not but be
evidence of the rot in the system.
Below is the statistics of sale of forms
for WASCE for 2005 as they pertain to selected Igbo States and Rivers State.
Suddenly Rivers State enrolls more candidates in WAEC examinations that the
three (3) Igbo States put together. What I think is happening is that
conditions in Rivers state makes it possible for candidates from Igbo States,
especially Abia and Imo to go there to take examinations in conditions which
guarantee high level of success that are no reflections of the candidates
abilities.
STATES NO. OF ENTRIES
ABIA 4,975
ANAMBRA 5,223
EBONYI 2,957
RIVERS 23,157
a. Where does Rivers State, for instance,
recruit its seasoned burst of students from?
b. Are Abians no longer interested in
educational pursuits?
c. Why is it that students prefer to write
exams in certain States when there are facilities begging for use in their home
States?
d. Has Nigeria, any part of Nigeria for
that matter, got enough Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics lecturers to handle
such subjects in our secondary Schools across the Country?
e. And if the answer is NO, why are there
so many graduates in the fields looking for jobs and receiving no attention?
I had stated earlier that although Prof.
Kesandu served in other public service posts, he was primarily a teacher and a
medical doctor. As a teacher, if he were to re-incarnate in whatever form today
he would certainly not be pleased with what we, his successors, have done with our
educational system and I am not limiting myself to the first and second tiers
of education - the rot also manifest at the third tier. I was particularly
worried when about six years ago or thereabout, our University of Nigeria law
Faculty lost National University Commission (NUC) accreditation. Although it
did not take long to get it back into reckoning, it was something that could
not have been contemplated in the years of Professor Nwaogwugwu and others who
too were great pioneers and foundation builders. I may not need to say it loud
lest Kesandu hears it too that recently our own College of Medicine was denied
accreditation not because of dearth of human capacity or indeed other
capacities but because of certain practices that he would have frowned at. I am
reliable informed that the situation has been corrected and our College is back
on stream. Situations in our tertiary institutions that make students never to
know when to be issued with their certificates and mobilized for NYSC is to say
the least most unfortunate. Sometimes graduates are kept for decades by their
supervisors. However, I know that some of these graduate students are
substandard, people who in the old tradition would never have been allowed into
graduate school. There are a number of practices to mark the older years when
our Icon and his contemporaries served with humility and commitment. Something
needs to be done about the fallen standards in our school systems from bottom
to top.
7. DECAY IN THE HEALTH SECTOR: Between
1963 AND 1967 when the civil war erupted I grew up in Abakaliki at age 6 – 14.
The Abakaliki General Hospital as it was known then functioned very efficiently
as my own judgment then would tell me. The Senior Medical Officers (SMO) then
was a certain Dr. Azie. I recall that when I was admitted into Government
College Umuahia and was told to bring a medical certificate of fitness from a
Government Hospital, I went unaccompanied to the Abakaliki General Hospital and
at no cost and with little constraints. Dr. Azie (SMO) examined me and gave me
a paper on which he wrote what he found out about me. Several times the too, if
I fell ill I would go to the hospital and get treated at no cost. There were no
protocols. Health services were there for everyone who needed it and it was
free. Governments then did not go about announcing “XYZ free medical programme”
that never existed as is the practice today. What happened at the Abakaliki
General Hospital was not an exception. It was the rule all over Eastern Region.
It is now an exception. In the past nearly ten (10) years, it has become the
practice of Native Doctors to organize trade fairs in the premises of
Government owned Broadcast Houses where they announce how they can cure all
sorts of diseases especially the “gonokakus and staphilokakus” varieties. They
recite well crammed medical terms to give the impression of authenticity and
deceive the less informed of the society. When you hear them recite medical
jargons with rehearsed efficiency you wonder which Medical College they
attended. Each time Government owned media allow them to deceive the public
with their “deodorized shit” I weep for our country. I weep for the medical
profession. I am not a medical doctor but I know that the ethics of the
profession do not permit self advertisement. How would Kesandu react if he were
alive to listen to this medical trash? These days native doctors call
themselves tradomedical practitioners and at public functions they are usually
introduced as Dr. so so and so. These days when anybody tells me he is a
doctor, I ask whether trado or orthodox? I could go further to ask his
specialty: whether Gonokakist or Staphilokakist. That is how low the medical
practice has gone.
In the newspaper recently, the issue of
the Billions of naira spent by the Federal Government in equipping our Tertiary
Medical institutions has been on; not for good reasons but just because the
equipment have not been located or that those that were located are not
functioning. Who gave the shipping list? What role did Doctors, especially,
Doctors at these tertiary institutions play? Where were you? There is a Naval
Hospital in Calabar; where there exists a very large structure that has gotten
to the level of 90% completion since the past 30 years. It has remained so ever
after. In the USA, military hospitals are research institute that boast some of
the best in all fields of medicine. They are equipped to carry out medical
emergencies at short notices and to collaborate with good effect with
University Hospitals. Here, our emergency wards are located in far away India.
Some twenty years ago, some of us left our shores to go and practice in Saudi
Arabia. I do not know if your Hippocratic Oath prescribes that a doctor in a
third world country can abandon his patients to go and practice in Saudi
Arabia. Was that the best way to confront the challenge?
Biafran doctors practiced medicine in
deprived Biafra and sustained our confidence. They performed medical feats with
crude implements and courageously commitment even when under fire from enemy
forces at day and at night. Kesandu and his colleagues: Udokwu, Kaine and
Nwokolo did so much to place this college on sound foundations. Why are we
allowing their foundations to give way? Those open air heart surgeries why have
they ceased to continue: or even improve? Why?
8. THE KESANDU CHAIR: Kesandu was a
teacher of outstanding qualities. He was an expert Gyneacologist in a class
marked out by it rarity. Any chair in his honour must not mock him but should
project those ideas he stood for. I am happy that a chair is being endowed in
his hour. The value of this chair must be quite high and commensurate with the
stature of our subject. It should be such as could attract the best the best brains
in his field of specialty. Such a brain should be able to re-invent the
discipline which the contemporaries of Professor Kesandu Ogan exhibited in
their time. He should not only be a distinguished professor of Obstetrics and
Gyneacology, he should be an erudite administrator who would be able to harness
all the resources available to him in the advancement of the teaching and
practice of medicine. He should also be able to pioneer research in new areas
that need to be tackled for the good of Nigerians and Africa. He should be able
to stamp his feet in the world map of Obstetrics and Gyneacology. His presence
should attract similar class of personnel from all over the globe. He should be
able to identify bright and young graduates with promise and retain as well as
grow them into great experts in the various fields of medicine.
I know that later today we would be called
upon to make donations towards this chair. I have already made some. I will
make some more today. I call on all of us here to make commitments so that we
will have sufficient funds to sustain this chair. The test would not be whether
we start today; it would be in the state of the in the next ten years and
beyond. Would the foundation be firm? Would it be able to stand the strains and
vagaries of tomorrow? Would it be able to meet the needs of man in the areas of
Health Services? If we are not sure of what we want to do, we could call it off
now and save ourselves future embarrassments. Kesandu was a great Obstetrics
and Gyneacology Professor who served his people very well. Some of the guests
we have today are structures; human that he constructed in his time. It behoves
us therefore to decide whether to consolidate these structures or demolish them
with criminal haste.
9. POSTSCRPT:
• CALLING OFF THE INDIAN BLUFF: I have
found that if Nigerians can travel to India to treat Prostate Enlargement then
they would be able to pay for the best medical services here in Nigeria if we
can raise our standards to the Indian kevel. Air transport to India costs
around one million naira. Accommodation bills are comparatively costly. Then
there is the cost of treatment. When, sometimes as it does happen, some of
these medical tourists die in India, it cost huge sums of money to bring home
the corpses.
I know that Nigerian Doctors are some of
the most skillful in their different specialties. You can come together and
invest in medical institutions that will stock state of the art equipment which
I think are the major constraints we have. With well articulated proposals, I
have no doubt that financial institutions can fund the proposals. If our people
who go to India to seek medical attention can find alternative services here,
they would cease to go to India. Medical Services of the best standards would be
given them at far more cheaper rates. The economy would be better for it.
Medical practice would advance here and the shame we suffer as a nation will be
wiped off. Kesandu would then smile in gratitude to all of you. That to me too
would be a befitting way of honouring him and others like him.
• LOOKING AT THE POLITICAL ANGLE: The
Nigerian Medical Association should sponsor a bill that will make it criminal
for any sitting President/Vice President, Governor/Deputy Governor and other
political officers to go abroad for medical attention. This in my opinion will
compel them to invest in our medical institutions so that the right equipment
will be procured, installed and maintained.
The Saudis used their oil wealth to grow
their medical institutions. We should do no less. I do not know how you feel as
doctors when you hear that some Nigerian patients suffering from burns are
flown to South African or Egypt for medical attention. It makes me weep. It
should not be.
10. CONCLUSION: Great Nigerians existed in
the time of Kesandu. In Commerce we had Sir Odimegwu Ojukwu; in History we had
Kenneth Dike; in the Military we had Ironsi and Ojukwu; in Politics we had Zik,
Okpara and Mbadiwe; in the Sciences we had Eni Njoku; in Mathematics we had
Chike Obi; in Literature we had a glut of them: Achebe, Ekwensi, Onuorah
Nzekwu, Chuukwemka Ike, Emmanuel Obiechina, Kalu Uka; in Political Science
there was Kalu Ezra. There is no field of learning or profession that our
people did not leave enduring marks. Although the Yorubas started before us, we
did, at one point, catch up with them. I am not sure that is the case today.
Every one of us must try to identify where we have failed to advance the
foundations of our great leaders, many who are gone. I am sure that whenever Achebe
reads the works Chimamanda Adichie he will smile, aware that the foundations he
left are still standing. With Onyerionwu doing the much he is doing in Literary
Criticism, I am sure that Obiechina, Emenyonu and their contemporaries will not
be disappointed. We need to re-invent Nigeria. We need to strengthen the
foundations. We need to reassess our attitude of running away to India or Saudi
Arabia. We need to stamp our feet on the ground and arrest the deterioration.
We need to feel for this great Gyneacologist, Kesandu, who went beyond the
literary meaning of his name, struggling to give life to his people. We need to
create a smile on his face wherever he is. I do not know why Nigerian Doctors
cannot invest in medicine outside Government and Mission Hospitals and practice
in their specialties according to the dictates of their consciences and
competences.
I hope that in the few years, other
Africans and perhaps Indians would be visiting Nigeria, especially University
of Nigeria Teaching Hospital to get treatment for some ailments, any ailment.
That would be a fitting tribute to the life of Professor O. Kessandu Ogan, and
the Great Foundations set up.
THE GREAT FOUNDATIONS: WHAT HAVE WE DONE
WITH THEM?
Being A Lecture Delivered By:
Elder A. A. Onukaogu
(Rector, Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, Abia
State)
On The Occasion Of Professor O. Kessandu
Ogan Memorial Lecture And Endowment Of Professorial Chair Held On Thursday,
November 17, 2011 at the University Of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu
For further information on this, please
call:
+2348065964557
No comments:
Post a Comment