Z.E.D.A at 20

“Education makes people easy to lead but difficult to drive, easy to govern but difficult to enslave.” Lord Henry Brougham.

Twenty years ago, five young people from Zaria dared to dream. Dr Alimi Bello, late Aminu Jamoh, Alhaji Abubakar Tamimu, Dr Abdulkadir Kassim and Dr Isah M. Abbas sat down to review the lamentable state of education and the living conditions of people in Zaria, and resolved to initiate a movement to reverse a trend that showed all signs of worsening. They worried that if the trend then, captured by the statistics “degenerates a little further, there will hardly be anybody from this part of the country that will be qualified for admission into any institution of higher learning.” Yet institutions in Zaria admitted people from all over Nigeria, and these young people asked whether Zaria people should continue to allow themselves “to sit and watch others attend institutions of higher learning located in our environment to the exclusion of our brothers and children”? That dream was what culminated in the Zaria Education Development Association (Z.E.D.A)

The dream was not about stopping other young people from attending institutions in Zaria, a tradition the people of Zazzau had inherited and maintained for centuries. The vision was to improve the quality of the education provided by schools in and around Zaria in such a manner that more and more children from Zazzau emirate will compete favourably with others for places in all institutions. The more Zazzau children qualified and gained admission at higher levels, the more the chances that the decaying economy of Zaria will be improved. Fewer numbers of children will finish primary and secondary schools without qualifications to proceed to higher institutions, or any hope to acquire skills or vocation as self-reliant adults. You will arrest crime and destitutions, and limit the damage which almajirai schools dropouts and barely-literate secondary school leavers cause to themselves and the community.

The dream of creating a community based-initiative to reverse a most damaging trend could not have had a better setting than Zaria. Zazzau Emirate, the capital of which is Zaria, has been a center of learning for centuries. Zaria accommodates quite probably more quality institutions of higher learning per capita than any other city in the country. Its legendary contribution to national elite from institutions such as Alhudahuda College, Barewa College, St. Paul’s College (now Kufena College), Nigerian Military School, and the octopus that is now the Ahmadu Bello University, numerous tertiary and research institutions and a number of relatively-new excellent private schools place it squarely in the forefront of the development of Islamic and western education. It is no exaggeration that the institutions of Zaria educated more than half of Nigeria’s elite. Sadly, it is also no exaggeration to say that the number of Zaria people that attended them dwindled with the expansion of the many opportunities which these institutions provided.

Fortunately, the dream of those young people was given substance by the Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji (Dr) Shehu Idris, CFR and a number of prominent people of Zaria, all of whom had played pivotal roles in the development of education in Zaria in the past. The clarion call was answered by notable and distinguished people such as late Abdurrahman Mora, Muhammadu Lawal Sambo, Balarabe Mahmud, Engineer Abdullahi Nuhu Bamalli, late Muhammadu Bello Aliyu and Professor Mukhtar Abdurrahman, all of whom served on the Board of Trustees. Those who died were later replaced by equally distinguished and committed people such as Prof Yahya Aliyu, Dr Stephen Kitchener, Alhaji Muhammadu Jibo, Prof Idris Abdulkadir, late Engr Garba Yaroson, Alhaji (Dr) Gidado Idris, Hon Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, Mrs M.D. Akanya and Alhaji Ahmed T. Mora. Dr Alimi Bello has been the ubiquitous and indefatigable Secretary from inception.

Last week, the Zaria Education Development Association (ZEDA) celebrated its 20 years of existence with a series of events. The week of activity provided an opportunity for much stock-taking, congratulations and some lamentations over missed goals. There were many achievements to celebrate. A dream that become a reality and survived and developed over a twenty year period in our nation today is well-worth celebrating. It is even more a cause of celebration because it was a dream borne out of the desire of an elite to reach out and reduce the pains and deprivations of the underprivileged and the unfortunate. The anniversary celebrated many notable sacrifices which allowed excellence among school children to be recognized and celebrated. It acknowledged good teachers. It thanked those who provided scholarships and bursaries so that hundreds of students studied medicine, engineering, Arabic and political science; something they may not have been able to do. It acknowledge the uncommon spirit of communal self-support among the people of Zazzau Emirate; acknowledged their intellectuals, politicians, businessmen and leaders who supported the Association’s Remedial Programme, Vocation Training Programme, Prominent Indigene and Friends Scholarship Scheme, Workshops on Career Guidance and Counselling and the many competitions involving quiz, spelling and essays involving schools in and around Zaria. It received information that many communities and governments have sent study teams to learn how Zaria people did it.

On the whole, the 20^th anniversary provided an opportunity to assess how privilege can build bridges within its community in a manner that prevents irreversible damage. Sadly, it also took cognizance of failures to achieve targets set by communities because a lot of intervening variables come into play. One of these is the failure of leaders to recognize that investment in quality education and skills acquisition is singularly the most important objective of northern governments today. Another is the absence of vision among political and community leaders which should guide the imperatives of good governance and reduce the damage of corruption and impunity by leaders. The week was also a sad reminder that the absence of a comprehensive programme to reverse the decline in education in the north, including the failure to come to terms with the limitations of the almajirci system and the widening gulf between the quality of education of children of the rich and those of the poor; as well as those between the north and south of the country, represent the biggest handicap in the desire of the north to heal itself and develop in a nation where education makes so much difference.

The people of Zazzau emirate had a good reason to celebrate a very important initiative last week. They would also have sent signals to other like-minded associations and governments that it is possible and necessary to adopt a holistic approach to the problems of education in the north. Charity can make difference, but it cannot replace sound policies, investment and vision. For Nigerians living in the North, the yardstick to apply in electing people in any election should now be how they intend to tackle the education of the young, and create an economy that allows them to get jobs. No one should get our votes if they have their children studying in England, Ukraine, Dubai or Ghana. The rich and the powerful cannot be safe and secure when children of the poor receive no education, no skills and no guarantees of life better than those of their parents. ZEDA reminds Nigerians that communities can help themselves. But communities must also elect and insist that leaders spend public funds to reduce the gulf between wealth and poverty. No child should be deprived of the opportunity to study to the limit of his or her ability because they have poor parents.