Al-Makura and The Challenge Of Providing Free Education For PLWDs

Human resources have been described as the most important of all the resources. Other factors of production such as land, capital and raw materials can never be optimally utilised or maximised unless there are high quality human resources to manage them. That is why all serious nations of the world have made the development of human resources the topmost priority of their various governments. And the best institutions well suited for the development of human resources are the primary and secondary schools as well as the tertiary institutions including colleges of education, polytechnics and universities. Therefore if Nigeria is a serious country, education should be the top priority of government at all levels over the years. But education has been neglected by successive governments and the rest is the excruciating poverty that stare the country in the face. And the worst hit in the total neglect of the education sector is the north of the country which was the last region to be exposed to Western education. The current violence and insecurity in parts of the north has been blamed on illiteracy and poverty. That is why many were elated recently when the governor of Nasarawa State in North Central Nigeria, Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura announced that his government will provide free education to children of Nasarawa State from primary to secondary schools. Poverty cause by illiteracy and corrupt leadership have over the years impoverished majority of Nigerians including parents who are hard pressed to send their children to school. Parents who can hardly feed their families in a country where there are no safety nets for the poor cannot be expected to afford school fees for their usually large families. What Al-Makura has done would therefore be a big relief for the poor parents of Nasarawa State who would now channel the money usually spent on school fees to other sectors that would add value to their families. Perhaps the most significant of the announcement made by Governor Al-Makura was that his government is committed to giving Persons Living With Disabilities(PLWDs) free qualitative education from primary school to university level. This perhaps is unprecedented in the history of free education in Nigeria in general and in the north in particular. A civilised society is judged not so much by how it takes care of the rich and powerful, but how it takes care of the most vulnerable of the society. Several years of corrupt leadership at all levels have impoverished majority of Nigerians, thereby making the number of those in need of safety nets enormous that Nigerian governments have been scared to propose any such programme in the country. However there is no debate that Persons Living With Disabilities(PLWDs) are the worst hit in the Hobbesian Nigeria that we live today. The PLWDs are facing the same challenges that many impoverished Nigerians are facing today, but their challenges are more than double that of their able bodied neighbours. Therefore any one and any government which makes it one of its top priorities to alleviate the suffering of these people especially by offering them free education to tertiary level needs the encouragement of all Nigerians. The significance of what Al-Makura has done is better appreciated when it is discovered that Nasarawa State receives one of the least federal allocations from Abuja. Nasarawa State’s very low federal allocations juxtapose with its equally poor Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) and huge wage bill could have been convenient excuse not to do anything for the welfare of the most vulnerable in the state. Al-Makura by his action has thrown a challenge to other governors in Nigeria and in the north in particular that poor allocation from Abuja is not enough reason why the most vulnerable in the society should be neglected.