The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has expressed concern about the lack of real progress in improving education in northern Nigeria.
The forum’s Spokesperson, Professor Tukur Mohammed-Baba, in an interview with Trust TV highlighted the critical gap between government initiatives and tangible improvements on the ground.
The spokesperson said although some states had made strides in agriculture, progress in education existed largely in the media.
He said, “A lot of areas in the north had suffered decline in social conditions, the backbone of the economy in the north has remained agriculture.
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“Agriculture becomes very challenging activity. Activities of bandits, climate change and so on; these have effects on access to education, access to health, infrastructure.
“There were many areas that much more could have been done but there were not. A lot of agricultural support by the previous government actually did not get to those who it was meant for.
“There are few states where a lot has been done in agriculture but there are many more where the improvement in agriculture, improvement in education are all on TVs, on cameras and so on but in reality not much has been done.
“Go round the North, go round all the local government areas, go round the villages. You find schools with dilapidated rooms despite the amount of money by both the federal and state governments in basic education where in fact you will think that the federal government has no business in basic education.
“You find most of the students don’t have facilities, you hardly see new schools despite population growing.”
