FOR years, my position has been clear: take the burden of education and health off the masses, and you would have solved over 50 per cent of poverty in Nigeria. Many parents today are hypertensive not because of genetics but because of fear. Fear of school fees. Fear of hospital bills. Fear of “what happens to my children”. That is why the model of Chief Obafemi Awolowo remains the most productive blueprint for governance in a developing economy like ours.
**Awolowo’s 4-Cardinal Programme: **
1. Free Education. 2. Free Health Care. 3. Gainful Employment. 4. Rural and Urban Integration. In the 50s, he delivered free primary education and health. He integrated rural and urban areas. Awolowo built solid roads connecting cities and villages across the West. He developed industries, schools, hospitals, markets, estates and established farm settlements, dairies, etc. in rural areas. In 1979, UPN governors under his leadership built on them. From 1983, we lost momentum. Today, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government is reviving the Awolowo model with a contemporary touch.
Cardinals 1 & 2: Education and Health – Easy education
At the Federal Level: Through NELFUND – the National Education Loan Fund, the burden of tertiary education has been lifted off parents. About 1.5 million Nigerian students are now in school without begging for tuition. No collateral. This is what I brand Easy Education. On health, the federal government is rejuvenating primary healthcare centres all over Nigeria, drug supply chains, and health insurance. But the real impact will come when states step up.
At the State and LG levels: This is the call. With the increased allocations from subsidy removal, states must now take full responsibility for free, quality secondary education and free primary/secondary healthcare. LGs must deliver free primary education and functional primary healthcare centres in every ward. Awolowo did it as Premier. UPN governors did it. As sub-nationals are receiving humongous allocations from the centre, they must justify it by investing in our children’s classrooms and hospitals.
Cardinals 3 & 4: Gainful Employment and Rural-Urban Integration
From Abuja to Lagos, Maiduguri to Calabar, Tinubu’s government is opening up rural Nigeria. FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike has, in 3 years, integrated urban and rural FCT more than all the ministers since 1976. Roads, water, schools, and clinics are reaching forgotten communities. At the federal level, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Lagos-Maiduguri Super Highway are opening up rural areas in virtually every state. They will move farm produce, create jobs, and connect markets. That is Gainful Employment and Integration.
The bottom line: The purpose of the pain
Subsidy removal was painful because we were borrowing to fund consumption. Today, we are investing in production. The pain was at the pump. The gain is in the classroom, in the clinic, on the highway, and in the village. Awolowo gave us the vision. Tinubu is advancing it with contemporary touch. States and LGs must now deliver their part.
That is Awolowo 2.0. That is how we build a new Nigeria. That is how to achieve the much-sought-after true federalism without hurting one another.
•Olaosebikan, a journalist and public affairs analyst, writes from Ibadan.
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