Education as common Northern responsibility: From 19 separate efforts to 1 Northern compact (2), by Usman Sarki
“The strength of a race is found both in material and spiritual things associated with that race, that form the kernel of its being and progress or, alternatively, its degeneration.” — John Buchan
When material and spiritual advance cease and degeneration becomes the norm, the perdition of a race or society becomes inevitable. The argument advanced in the first part of this article was straightforward: Northern Nigeria’s education emergency has become too profound and interconnected to be approached exclusively through nineteen separate state programmes. The historical experience of the Interim Common Services Agency (ICSA) demonstrated that the successor states of the former Northern Region once recognised an important principle: certain interests were better preserved and certain services better delivered collectively. The challenge today is not to recreate ICSA but to rediscover its philosophy and apply it creatively to twenty-first-century realities. If education is accepted as a common Northern challenge, what precisely should be done?
The first requirement is political acknowledgement. The nineteen Northern governors should collectively declare education a regional human-capital emergency and establish a Northern States Education and Human Capital Compact. Such a declaration should contain measurable obligations undertaken by each state and collective obligations undertaken by all. A small professional coordinating institution, perhaps a Northern States Council on Education and Human Capital Development, could support it. It need not become another costly bureaucracy. Its purpose should be coordination, data collection, standard setting, common programmes, resource mobilisation, benchmarking and independent assessment. Its governing body could include representatives of the Northern Governors’ Forum, commissioners of education, universities and colleges of education, traditional institutions, religious scholars, business leaders, women’s organisations and recognised education specialists. Its success, however, should be judged by results rather than meetings.
The first practical task must be to determine accurately the scale of the problem. Northern Nigeria needs a comprehensive Education Census and Human Capital Map. We need not wait for the Federal Government to provide this service. We should know, settlement by settlement, how many children are of school age; how many attend school; how many do not; how many teachers exist; what subjects they teach; the condition of school infrastructure; gender disparities; disability requirements; security challenges; and the reasons children remain outside formal education. This exercise is within our capacity, especially with the involvement of traditional rulers and community institutions. Without reliable information, policy becomes little more than speculation or spectacle.
The second objective should be bold enough to capture public imagination: “Every Northern Child Learning by 2030”, coinciding with the terminal date of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The objective must not simply be enrolment. Putting children into classrooms without ensuring that they learn merely converts an access problem into a quality problem.
Every child completing basic education should possess functional literacy, numeracy, digital familiarity, civic knowledge, communication skills and either preparation for higher education or an identifiable vocational pathway. The third priority is teachers. No educational transformation can occur without competent and motivated teachers. Instead of nineteen largely isolated and under-resourced teacher-development systems, selected institutions across the North could become specialised regional centres.
One might concentrate on training mathematics and science teachers; another on technical and vocational education; another on early-childhood education; another on special-needs teaching; and another on school leadership and administration. Northern states could jointly finance accelerated teacher training and continuous professional development. We should question the rationale for every state attempting to become self-sufficient in every specialised field when expertise can be shared and resources pooled.
The fourth priority must address Qur’anic, Almajiri and nomadic education with greater intellectual seriousness than has often characterised public debate. For centuries, Qur’anic schooling formed an important part of Northern Muslim society. The challenge is not religious education itself. The difficulty arises where children receive religious instruction without acquiring the additional knowledge and skills required to function effectively in contemporary society. A new Northern compact could therefore develop agreed minimum learning standards through consultation with respected Islamic scholars, traditional authorities and education specialists. A child attending Qur’anic education should simultaneously acquire literacy, mathematics, basic science, civic knowledge and practical skills where appropriate.
Rather than destroying an established institution, policy should modernise, strengthen and give it more respectability and relevance.
The fifth priority must be girls’ education. No society can develop successfully while substantially under-investing in half its population. The issue should be framed not as an imported cultural argument driven by instruments like CEDAW, but as a Northern development necessity. An educated woman contributes directly to household income, child health, social stability, the educational attainment of subsequent generations and broader economic productivity. Traditional rulers, Islamic scholars, Christian leaders, women’s organisations and community leaders should therefore become active participants in a renewed campaign for girls’ education across the region.
The sixth priority should be technical and vocational education. For too long, education in Nigeria has been conceptualised overwhelmingly as a pathway from primary school to secondary school, university and government employment, emphasising certification more than qualification. That model cannot absorb the enormous youth population now emerging. Northern Nigeria urgently requires technicians, electricians, irrigation specialists, welders, builders, tilers, painters, machinists, mechanics, solar installers, agricultural technicians, mobile-phone and computer repairers, veterinary assistants, ICT workers, leather processors and hundreds of other skilled occupations.
Every senatorial district should have access to high-quality vocational and apprenticeship opportunities connected directly to local economic activity. Education must be linked to production. In Kano, this may mean textiles, leather, ironwork, manufacturing and commerce. In Borno and Yobe, agriculture, livestock, irrigation, solar energy and cross-border trade may receive particular emphasis. In Plateau, Nasarawa and Niger, mining, agriculture and processing may feature more strongly. Educational planning should reflect economic geography.
The seventh area for common action is technology. A Northern digital learning platform could make high-quality lessons available across participating states at reasonable cost. Excellent teachers need not be confined physically to individual classrooms. Lessons in mathematics, chemistry, physics, English and technical subjects can be recorded, transmitted and shared. Solar-powered digital facilities could also assist schools where electricity remains unreliable. The eighth requirement is financing. Education must cease to be treated as residual expenditure after prestige projects such as airports and flyovers have been funded. Northern governments must commit greater and more efficiently managed resources to basic education. Collective action also creates new opportunities. Nineteen states acting together could develop major programmes with the Federal Government, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, Education Cannot Wait and other development partners.
Scale therefore matters. A programme involving several million children across a vast region, supported by reliable data and nineteen state governments, would possess considerably greater strategic weight than fragmented projects submitted independently by individual states. The ninth requirement is accountability. Every year, an independent State of Northern Education Report should be published. Each state should be assessed against agreed indicators, including enrolment, attendance, completion, literacy, numeracy, teacher quality, gender parity, infrastructure and vocational transition. The results should be made public. Healthy competition could then emerge. Instead of governors competing principally over flyovers, airports and government buildings, Kano could compete with Kaduna over literacy; Jigawa with Bauchi over school completion; Borno with Yobe over girls’ enrolment; Niger with Plateau over technical education; Kwara with Kogi over nomadic schools, etc.
Such competition would be far more consequential to the region’s future. This brings us directly to 2027. Education should become an electoral test. The Northern Elders Forum, Arewa Consultative Forum, the League of Northern Democrats and other civic organisations could invite presidential and governorship candidates to endorse a Northern Education and Human Capital Charter. Candidates should be asked for measurable commitments rather than rhetoric: What will you do during your first year? How many additional children will enter school? How many teachers will be recruited and trained? How will insecurity around schools be addressed? How will religious education be integrated? How will technical education be expanded? What proportion of the budget will be devoted to education? And will you support a common institutional framework among the nineteen Northern states? What are your plans for nomadic education?
These questions should be asked repeatedly throughout the campaign. Indeed, one of the most consequential presidential or Northern gubernatorial debates of the 2027 election season could be devoted entirely to education. Not to roads, contracts, offices or political appointments, but to our children, our human capital and our posterity. For Northern Nigeria, that is no longer merely an educational question. It is a question of survival and, as John Buchan noted, that forms the kernel of progress or degeneration. The choice is ours: whether to advance or to degenerate.
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