By ‘Kunle ADEBAJO.

The mood in Nigeria has generally been celebratory since Wednesday, following the release of 105 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from the Government Girls Science and Technical College, Yobe State.

But this has not stopped allegations, counter-allegations and even conspiracy theories from seeping into the ongoing conversations. Most prominent of all, the APC-led Federal Government has been accused of staging the saga, from the abduction to the eventual release of the girls.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) levelled this allegation on Wednesday through its official Twitter handle, and called on “the @UN and the International Criminal Court to declare this evil by the @APCNigeria Federal Government a war crime against humanity and immediately commence investigation on the matter”.

Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, made the same allegation at a press conference in Abuja.

“Nigerians know that the main aim of this devilish act was to delude the public, set the stage for an orchestrated rescue, create a heroic myth and false sense of achievement around the APC administration and serve as a spur for President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration to contest the 2019 presidential election, perhaps in the coming weeks,” he said.

More specifically, eyebrows have been raised regarding a picture making the rounds, showing the Dapchi girls in pink hijabs and heavily-loaded “Ghana-must-go” bags. The picture was used by PremiumTimes Hausa in a report published on Wednesday about the ordered closure of boarding schools in Dapchi and Borno.

One of the prominent personalities who have raised questions respecting the photo is lawyer and former minister, Femi Fani-Kayode.

In an article published on Thursday, he wrote: “So many questions need to be answered. For example how do you explain the Ghana Must Go bags that the girls were carrying on their return? Did they go shopping in Sambisa Forest? Or is it that when they abducted them they gave them time to pack all their clothes and allowed them to bring them back when freed?”

Another blog has the picture uploaded and asked two similar questions, “Were they kidnapped or did they go on vacation? How did they come by the Travel Bags and the items therein when they were kidnapped from the School?”

Many other Nigerians have shared the picture on the social media with questions and allegations along the same line.

THE SOURCE OF THE PICTURE?

Although the exact source of this picture is unclear, it has been on the Internet for at least a month before yesterday’s release of the Dapchi schoolgirls, also in connection to the case.

In fact, The Cable used it on February 24 in a story titled ‘FULL LIST: The 105 missing Dapchi girls’.

Daily Post had used it two days earlier in another story: ‘2 Yobe schoolgirls killed in rescue operation, others still missing’. The same platform again used it on February 25 in a published list of the names of the missing schoolgirls.

Also on February 25, 2018, Business Online used the same picture in a report of the Federal Government’s confirmation of the abduction.

FACES OF THE REAL DAPCHI GIRLS

Let us start with this photo news by Daily Nigerian with eight pictures showing some of the released schoolgirls in light brown hijabs.

PM News also uploaded a similar picture on Wednesday with the caption, ‘The released Dapchi girls’.

A story from Punch contains even greater detail. The feature image used has the caption, ‘Freed 106 Dapchi girls assembled at the Nigerian Air Force Base in Maiduguri on Wednesday. Source: @buharisallau Instagram page.’

Buhari Sallau, who describes himself as a news personality, has even more pictures showing the schoolgirls indoors on his Instagram page.

The Guardian Nigeria has also uploaded an image showing the released girls, which was credited to Ola Lanre of Reuters. The caption states: ‘Some of the newly-released Dapchi schoolgirls are pictured in Jumbam village, Yobe State, Nigeria March 21, 2018.’ Similar pictures were published by The Cable and Vanguard.

CONCLUSION

It is NOT TRUE, based on available evidence, that the released Dapchi girls were wearing uniform pink hijabs, bearing large travel bags colloquially known as ‘Ghana Must Go’.

On the contrary, many of the schoolgirls wore brown hijabs upon their return and were seen nowhere close to the ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags suggesting they had time to pack their belongings before the abduction or that their abductors gifted them the bags and their contents.

Whether or not the government played an active role in the abduction and release is in doubt, but the circulated picture DOES NOT substantiate the theory that it was “stage-managed”.

By Chikezie OMEJE.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently reported that the number of children who enrolled in public early childhood education dropped from 4,672,908 in 2015 to 2,694,787 in 2016. Enrolment in private early childhood education also reduced from 2,076,420 in 2015 to 1,457,461 in 2016.

The report was contained in Education Statistics (2014 – 2016) that NBS published on its website on February 16, 2018. Subsequently, the report made the headlines in several media platforms.

This early childhood education refers to children attending organised education programme before primary school. It is a form of education that is also known as pre-primary, preschool, playschool, kindergarten or nursery.

WILD SWING IN ENROLMENT

Enrolment in public pre-primary school increased by 70.6% from 2014 to 2015 and decreased by 73.4% from 2015 to 2016. In private pre-primary school, enrolment increased by 34.1% from 2014 to 2015 and decreased by 42.5% from 2015 to 2016.

DETERMINANTS OF EARLY SCHOOL ENROLMENT

A study by Olanrewaju Olaniyan of the University of Ibadan points out that parents’ education, income and geographical zone influence early school enrolment in Nigeria. Educated parents are more likely to enrol their children in school early. Also, parents with stable income are likely to enrol their children in school. The influence of geographical zone means that children from certain parts of the country are more likely to enrol in school than children from other parts.

Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey of 2017 shows that 35.6 percent of children between the ages three and five years attend an organised early childhood education programme but there is a huge regional disparity. While only 23.2 percent of children in northern Nigeria are attending preschool, 80.5 percent of children in the southern part of the country are enrolled in preschool.

Early school enrolment is influenced by social, cultural, economic, policy and historical factors, according to Unicef, the UN children’s agency. Curiously, there is no evidence of unprecedented economic, social and policy disruptions in Nigeria that accounted for the disproportionate increases and decreases in pre-primary school enrolment between 2014 and 2016.

TRENDS IN ENROLMENT

Enrolment in pre-primary school has shown a steady increase since 2006, according to Nigeria Education For All Review Report (2000-2014), published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The report indicated that enrolment in both public and private preschool rose from 2 million in 2006 to 2.7 million in 2010. Improvement in enrolment was sustained in subsequent years, as enrolment in public pre-primary school rose from 2.1 million in 2011 to 2.2 million in 2012 and 2.9 million in 2013.

These enrolment figures in the UNESCO report were based on the first Nigeria Digest of Education Statistics from 2006 to 2010 and the second in the series from 2011 to 2013.

QUESTIONABLE DATA FROM STATES

The education statistics uploaded by the NBS on its website show that enrolment in public schools in Rivers State increased by 5,470.7% from 2014 to 2015 and decreased by 11,520.3% from 2015 to 2016. In private preschool, enrolment decreased by 1,050.4% between 2015 and 2016 in the state.

The state recorded 1.8 million children in public preschool enrolment in 2015. Overall, the state had 2.4 million in both public and private pre-primary school in 2015. This number of children in preschool was not proportionate to the population of the state.

The Rivers State’s population as of the 2006 census was 5,198,716. In view of Nigeria’s annual population growth of 2.6 percent, the state’s population would have been projected at 6,549,714 in 2015. It was unlikely that more than one-third of the population of Rivers State in 2015 was enrolled in pre-primary school in 2015.

Other states in the southern part of the country also showed disproportionate increases and decreases in enrolment between 2014 and 2016. For example, Lagos State recorded 134,578 children in public preschool in 2014 but only 90,640 in 2015 and 69,240 in 2016. Similarly, Ondo State recorded 668,494 in public preschool enrolment in 2014 and 671,341 in 2015, but the figure fell to 296,369 in 2016. Also, Imo State recorded 50,600 in 2014 and 54,255 in 2015 but skyrocketed to 172,597 in 2016.

ORIGIN OF THE CONFLICTING FIGURES

The education statistics (2014 – 2016) published by NBS was the third edition of the Nigeria Digest of Education Statistics compiled by the Federal Ministry of Education.

In presenting the data, Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education, described it as a “masterful effort to marshal education data” to address obvious gaps in education statistics. He said the education statistics would fulfill the need for reliable and accurate data in education for effective planning and decision making.

“I would, therefore, wish to urge researchers, planners and policymakers to use the data presented here with confidence for all purposes,” Adamu said.

NBS is the custodian of nation’s statistics, but it analysed and published the data without validating it.

CONCLUSION

It is most certainly inaccurate and untrue that enrolment in pre-primary school decreased drastically in 2016. The fluctuations in enrolment reported by several media platforms based on NBS education statistics were based on invalid and unreliable data that originated from the Federal Ministry of Education.

There is no evidence that enrolment in pre-primary school decreased in 2016. It is more likely that there has been a steady increase in enrolment since 2001.

Mounir Gwarzo, the suspended Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on Tuesday insisted that Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance, has no power to remove him from office.

Gwarzo stated this during the House of Representatives hearing into the circumstances leading to his suspension.

“On whether the Minister can suspend me from office, the answer is no,” Gwarzo said when Tajudeen Yusuf, Chairman of the probe panel, gave him the opportunity to make his final comments.

However, Adeosun maintains that she, as the Minister of Finance, has powers to suspend Gwarzo, adding that she would be making recommendations to President Muhammadu Buhari based on the matter.

“Mr Mounir is not removed, he has been suspended and he is not the first DG of SEC to be suspended. In the absence of a board, the Minister does have powers to suspend,” Adeosun said.

WHAT THE INVESTMENTS AND SECURITIES ACT SAYS

Section 8 (1) of the Investments and Securities Act 2007 provides how a Director General or any member of the SEC board could be removed: “A member of the Board shall cease to hold office if he (a) becomes of unsound mind; (b) becomes bankrupt or makes a compromise with creditors; (c) is convicted of a felony or any offence involving dishonesty; (d) is guilty of serious misconduct in relation to his duties; or (e) is a person who has a professional qualification, and is disqualified or suspended (other than at his own request) from practicing his profession in any part of Nigeria by the order of any competent authority made in respect of him personally.

“The President may at any time and upon the recommendation of the Minister remove a person to whom subsection (1) of this section applies: Provided no full-time member of the Board of the Commission shall be removed from office without the approval of the Senate.”

The Investments and Securities Act 2007, however, is silent on whether a Minister can suspend a serving SEC DG, pending investigation. In fact the Act did not make any provision for the suspension of a serving DG or commissioner.

On Adeosun’s remarks that “in the absence of a board, the Minister does have powers to suspend”, nothing in the Act supports this.

WHAT THE PUBLIC SERVICE RULES SAYS

During Tuesday’s investigative hearing at the National Assembly, Gwarzo pointed out that the letter of suspension issued to him stated as follows: “This suspension is in line with the Public Service Rule 03405 and public service rule 03406 pending the conclusion of the investigation.”

He, however claimed that “this public service rule that she quoted does not exist in the Public Service Rule. Her intention is to make reference to 030405 rather than 03405. That 030405 does not give the Honourable Minister the power to suspend the DG of SEC”.

ICIR found Gwarzo’s claim to be true. There are no rules 03405 and 03406 in the Public Service Rules, and rules 030405 and 030406 do not confer on the minister the express authority to suspend a DG.

According to Rule 030304 of the PSR, “(a) It shall be the duty of every officer to report any case of misconduct that comes to his/her notice to an officer superior to the officer involved.

(b)  When an officer’s misconduct is brought to the notice of his/her superior officer, it shall be the duty of               that superior officer to report it to the Permanent Secretary/Head of Extra Ministerial Office without                   delay. If he/she considers it necessary that the officer should be interdicted, such recommendations                 shall be made in the report.

(c) On receiving the report, the Permanent Secretary/Head of Extra Ministerial Office shall take action in               accordance with Rule 030302-030306 as appropriate and, if necessary, shall interdict the officer.

(d)  At the appropriate point in the investigation, the officer may be suspended in accordance with Rule                  030405.”

Rule 030405 states: “(a) An officer who is under interdiction or suspension shall notify his/her Permanent Secretary/Head of Extra Ministerial Office of his/her intention to leave his/her station. He/she shall however not leave the country without the specific approval of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

(b) An officer under interdiction is also responsible for keeping his/her Ministry/Extra-Ministerial office                      informed of the address at which instructions to him/her can be delivered.

(c) If he/she fails to comply with the instructions delivered to him/her at such address within seven                         days of such delivery, he/she will be regarded as absent from duty without leave.”

Rule 030406: Suspension should not be used as a synonym for interdiction. It shall apply where a prima
facie case, the nature of which is serious, has been established against an officer and it is considered
necessary in the public interest that he/she should forthwith be prohibited from carrying on his duties.
Pending investigation into the misconduct, the Federal Civil Service Commission or the Permanent
Secretary/Head of Extra Ministerial Office (if within his/her delegated powers) shall forthwith suspend
him/her from the exercise of the powers and functions of his/her office and from the enjoyment of
his/her emolument.

Gwarzo also argued that the Public Service Rules cannot be used to suspend him since SEC has its own separate rules and regulations, as contained in the Investments and Securities Act. He quoted PSR 160103 to support his claims.

“If you look at the Public Service Rule, which is 160103, it clearly states that, for an institution that already has their own policies, they should be guided by that. My letter of appointment clearly states that my appointment will be governed by the provisions of the Investment and Securities Act. So, the question is, what instrument did the honourable Minister use or rely on in my suspension?” Gwarzo said.

Now, PSR 160103 states: “Parastatals are to retain and improve existing rules, procedures and practices in their establishments and ensure that there are no deviations from the general principles contained in the Public Service Rules. For example variations in probationary periods and maturity periods for promotion only reflect organizational peculiarities and not inconsistencies with the Public Service Rules. However in the absence of internal rules and regulations on any matter, the relevant provisions of the Public Service Rules shall apply.”

CONCLUSION

Going by the above rules, and by Adeosun’s narrative during the hearing, a prima facie case was established against Gwarzo after it was proven (through documents from the Corporate Affairs Commission as well as bank mandates) that he remained a director and shareholder in two separate companies while still DG of SEC. One of the companies, Outbound investments, had, in fact, transacted business with SEC by supplying diesel to the organisation.

Adeosun had also stated that a thorough investigation into the matter could not be carried out with Gwarzo still at the helm of affairs, and that there were information (not supported by evidence, though) that he was already moving documents away from his office, hence the need for him to be suspended.

It is also safe to say that since the Securities and Investments Act (cited above) is not clear on the suspension of the SEC DG, the ministry of finance was right to have relied on the Public Service Rules to suspend Gwarzo.

However, it appears Gwarzo has a valid point since his letter of suspension was signed by Kemi Adeosun, not the Federal Civil Service Commission or the Permanent Secretary of the finance ministry.

By Kingsley OBIEJESI.

On Friday, Goodluck Jonathan, former President, told a gathering in Malaysia that the education sector in Nigeria recorded significant improvement during his time in office.

Jonathan said this while presenting a paper at the International Summit on Peace, organised by the Junior Chambers International (JCI).

He said that his administration’s special attention to education was based on his belief that it was the only way to achieve sustainable peace and development in Nigeria.

JONATHAN’S WORDS

“My administration took education seriously because I saw education as the weapon with which we could break the bond between illiteracy and crime levels,” he said.

“Throughout the time I was in office, education enjoyed the highest sectoral allocation in the nation’s budget.

“This was why we were able to scale up our education programmes, especially at the tertiary level, where there was an obvious need to address the challenge of insufficient spaces for our youths.

“We built 12 additional conventional universities and two more specialised institutions, including one maritime university and a police university.

“With that, we expanded the opportunities to educate our youth in relevant fields, and produce the manpower needs of our economy.

“I am a firm believer in education, and just as I had said elsewhere, any nation that does not spend its wealth in educating its youth will eventually spend that wealth to fight insecurity.”

FACTS

Indeed, the Jonathan administration approved the creation of 12 new federal universities in states that, before then, had no federal university. They include Kogi (Lokoja), Nasarawa (Lafia), Gombe (Kashere), Taraba (Wukari), Jigawa (Dutse) and Katsina (Dutsin-ma).

Others are in Ebonyi (Ndufu-Alike), Bayelsa (Otuoke), Ekiti (Oye Ekiti), Yobe (Gashua), Kebbi (Birnin Kebbi) and Zamfara (Gusau).

It is also true that Jonathan commissioned Nigeria’s first Maritime university, located in Okerenkoko community in Warri, Delta State, in 2014.

Also, the Jonathan-administration upgraded the Nigerian Police Academy in Kano to a degree-awarding institution in March 2015.

It is arguable, however, whether the creation of these new universities translated into “significant improvements” for the education sector.

For instance, the Maritime University in Warri has remained a source of controversy, with Rotimi Amaechi, now Minister of Transportation, threatening that the federal government could abandon the project, and branding it “a waste of resources”.

Most of the newly-created federal universities, like almost all government-owned institutions, lack adequate funding and infrastructure to run optimally.

ASUU STRIKES UNDER JONATHAN

According to Isaac Obasi,a professor at the University of Abuja, the Nigerian university system recorded a total 14 months of industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) during Jonathan’s five-year presidency.

They are as follows: five months in 2010, shortly after Jonathan was sworn in to succeed late President Musa Yar’Adua; three months in 2011 and six months in 2013.

It must be said that the problem was not specifically caused by Jonathan, but, well, they took place under his watch.

JONATHAN’S BUDGETARY ALLOCATION TO EDUCATION

The budgetary allocation to the ministry of education in 2010 — when Jonathan was Yar’Adua’s deputy — was N295 billion. However, the amount increased considerably to N356.4 billion in 2011, Jonathan’s first full year on the job. And it kept increasing subsequently: N400.1 billion in 2012; N432.6 billion in 2013, N495.2 billion in 2014 before dropping slightly to N483.1 billion in 2015.

Under Muhammadu Buhari, it dropped to N367.73 bn (6.01 percent) in 2016 and N448.01bn (approximately 6 percent) in 2017.

CONCLUSION

Jonathan was right to state that the education sector received the highest budgetary allocation during his presidency, even though the allocations fell way short of the 26 percent recommendation by the United Nations.

However, just like successive administrations, the increase in the budgetary allocations to the education sector under Jonathan, did not directly translate to a “significant improvement” in the sector.

Many Nigerian students, mostly children of the rich, continued to flock out of the country in search of better education in Europe and America and even neighbouring Ghana.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommends that every country set aside at least 26 percent of its total budget to enable nations pay proper attention to rising education demands.