In a recent chat with NAIJ.com in Abuja, Dr Ononuju said the issue of Boko Haram insurgency and other vices in the North can only be cured if the problem of despair and ignorance in the northern part of the country are looked at.
President Muhammadu Buhari
“Look at the Boko Haram. I looked at it and looked at it holistically for what it is. For us to fight Boko Haram you need to look at it holistically. You need to be able to cure one, two things. One, is despair. Then you fight ignorance. Economic despair and ignorance. That is what you have here in the Sunni heartlands where you have the old Arewa federation extending from the part of Nigeria where the federation was into parts of Niger, Chad and of course parts of Cameroun. It goes as far as Maradise, and Zinda.”
Dr. Ononuju posited that the disadvantaged north who lagged behind in education and in the psychological understanding of the capitalist market system could meet up since Nigeria moved to democratic era. This, he said fuelled the call for Sharia which was not needed at that time.
He stated: “The minute when we approached democracy which is in sync with the capitalist demands of a competitive economy built on merit. Those without the tools to compete and succeed could basically have two things; one is education and two is a psychological understanding and the workings of the market system which comes through experience.
“They protested and that was the reason why you saw the introduction of political Sharia under President Obasanjo’s term. Obasanjo didn’t do anything for that to be brought up. It was simply the fear of the change that was brought about by democracy and the capitalist competition.
“And I said for us to get away from there the government needed to invest in a marshal plan for education. In a system where you have 79 percent of educated population from the south and only 19 percent from northern Nigeria you do not have an honest balance of forces between the two parts of the country.”
He also reiterated the importance of education as the reason why the south will always benefit from democracy more than the north.
“If you sustain democracy, the south will continue to gain more. So for those who talk and complain and demand for economic inclusion, I tell them that the only way to gain economic inclusion in an expanding economy is to invest in a marshal plan for education. That way we would be able to give the north what they have not had since 1953. The reasons why when Anthony Enahoro introduced the motion for independence in 1953 and the north said no is because didn’t have a good number of educated people needed to compete in a democracy then.
“That was why the Sardauna introduced what was called the northernisation policy. Since we do not have a lot of educated people we would do the northernisation policy and it included among other things employing expatriates to work in areas of the north. Then in training northerners so that after they have now matured and gain experience through education they will come and replace those expatriates.
“Since 1953 to today why haven’t we had this massive investment in education? Now we have Boko Haram which if you ask me after the introduction of political Sharia the areas where the political Sharia was introduced….and then you saw a mutation from political Sharia to Boko Haram. And the way to solve the problem of despair and ignorance is to invest in education. The United Nations said we should invest at least 20 percent of our resources as a developing nation in education but the government as at today only invest about 6 to 7 percent in education.”
The effects of the Boko Haram insurgency is telling on the economy of Nigeria, as Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state says, IDPs in his state alone, eat 1800 bags of 50 kilogrammes of rice daily, while those in regular camps consume 984 bags of rice everyday.
The renowned researcher said the difference between Yoruba Muslims and the Sunnis in the Northern Nigeria is that the Yorubas acceded to education while the Muslims from the north did not.
“Awolowo achieved what he achieved in western Nigeria by investing 50 percent of the resources of western Nigeria in education that was why you saw that quantum leap. The Yorubas do have a lot of them who are Muslims, who are Sunnis, who are Shiites, but they embrace education. That is the difference between the Yorubas who are Muslims and the Sunnis in Northern Nigeria who did not agree or accede to education.
“States like Yobe, like Borno, where you have the Boko Haram still ravaging have some of the highest figures of illiteracy in West Africa. Yobe is about 84 percent, in Borno it is about 75 percent. How are we going to get far with such?“ Dr. Ononuju said.
Dr Ononuju further stated development in northern Nigeria will continue to be undermined, because of the Almajiri system adding that there is need for Nigeria to draw up a marshal plan in education for northerners to be able to compete in a market driven capitalist economy.
“For us to cure this problem called Boko Haram we need a marshal plan in education to give those children there the tools necessary to compete and succeed in a market driven capitalist economy built upon merit and competition.
“If you check the current budget it is not there. That was why the previous government thought there was a need to discard Almajiri the way it was. Nothing else undermines the interest of young people in northern Nigeria like the Almajiri system. The Almajiri syllabus is the same as that of Sunday schools in the south. Sunday school does not provide holistic education what it gives you is the indoctrination of the doctrine of the church and some teachings about morality.
“The Almajiri syllabus doesn’t have physics, doesn’t have English, does not have mathematics. The syllabus does not have biology, does not have geography, does not have chemistry. There are reasons why in the university we are taught GST classes apart from the core subject or the filed you come to read in the school you are also taught other things so that by the end of the day a child through the GST embracing will become politically education. Let us provide the young people in northern Nigeria a holistic education. If you don’t no amount of guns will solve the despair and ignorance that gave rise to Boko Haram,” Dr Ononuju emphasised.
