Adamu’s masterstroke

Having made his mark as a highly-sophisticated mind and leading opinion leader who is well-cited in informed circles, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, appears to be intent on leaving indelible footprints on the sands of Education in Nigeria. Apart from producing a well-applauded Ministerial Strategic Plan intended to put education on its deserved pedestal, the Minister has also succeeded in drawing national attention to the dire state of education and the need for urgent intervention. This is commendable as the usual practice was to “cover up” sectoral problems and give the impression that everything is fine.

As reported by the The Punch newspaper of June 22, 2017 in a story captioned, “FG plans ministerial retreat over poor education standard”, the Minister said that a Federal Executive Council meeting that held the previous day had focused mainly on education and it was decided that a Ministerial Retreat would be required to appraise and address all the issues in order to proffer necessary solutions to them.

When that retreat of the Federal Executive Council, facilitated by a high-level team of experts and technocrats under the Chairmanship of the former President of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Emeritus Professor Michael Omolewa, held last Monday (November 13, 2017) at the State House Conference Centre, Presidential Villa,  Abuja, all stakeholders were unanimous that “change begins with education”. In the words of Mallam Adamu, “all change must begin with education because if we get education right, other areas of our national life will be right.”