Posted by By IME OLA on
Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, Thursday got a taste of the hell Lagos motorists go through everyday as she was forced to walk much of the way, in the scorching afternoon sun when her convoy was held up in the characteristic traffic gridlock at the Kirikiri area of city.
• Ezekwesili at The Sun, speaks on education reforms
Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, Thursday got a taste of the hell Lagos motorists go through everyday as she was forced to walk much of the way, in the scorching afternoon sun when her convoy was held up in the characteristic traffic gridlock at the Kirikiri area of city.
Ezekwesili, who was billed for a courtesy/working visit to the corporate headquarters of The Sun Publishing Limited had to spend over an hour in the traffic jam when her entire convoy got trapped between container-laden trailers which had lined up the area, cutting off both lanes of the road, and making vehicular movement impossible.
The trailers, many of which were permanently parked on the bridge leading into Kirikiri from the Berger auto market, along the Oshodi/Apapa Expressway, were headed for the five or so bonded terminals at the Kirikiri area.
The grand irony of it all was that Ezekwesili, an apostle of due process, deregulation and privatization, had to come face to face with one of the many side effects of the concession regime at the ports, a situation she maintained, cannot diminish the propriety of the ports reforms.
However, the traffic situation was worsened by the largely unmotorable road leading into the area - a road for which repairs the Kirikiri industrial community had contributed a whopping N10 million to the state government efforts. Incidentally, the road went bad again within four months of its resurfacing.
Mrs Ezekwesili who does not use siren, as she said she dislikes the sound of it, had to stay in the traffic until she eventually decided to come down and walk, accompanied by her security detail and some members of the entourage.
It was only after she had covered much of the distance on foot that she was able to get out to the opposite end of the traffic mess, where she was able to board another vehicle sent by the management of The Sun Publishing Limited to ferry her down to the company's headquarters.
The minister, who would not want to be dragged into arguments over whose responsibility it was to fix the road and manage the traffic, described the experience as "horrible", and the traffic situation as constituting "colossal economic waste". She also attributed the problem to indiscipline on the part of trailer divers who not only parked their vehicles on the bridge, but also abandoned them indiscriminately at every point on the road.
"It is bad enough that they parked indiscrinately on the road and abandoned their vehicles wherever they broke down, but the biggest danger is the habit of parking such huge vehicles on the bridge… The bridge was built for them to drive through, not to park on", she restated.
Reminded that the bridge had actually caved in less than two years ago, when the then Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, had to rush to salvage the situation, Ezekwesili said that the menace of the trailers on the bridges had persisted because the relevant authorities had refused to enforce the laws prohibiting such illegal and criminal parking. "Once one of them does it and nobody talks, and another does it and gets away with it, they would now go and tell their other colleagues that there is a place to park - on the bridge".
Even after nearly two hours of enlightening The Sun team on the controversial reforms in the education sector, Mrs Ezekwesili still had to follow a detour route to get out of the area: her convoy had still not managed to make it through the traffic jam.
The Minister, who was at The Sun office to explain some of her more misunderstood reform proposals for the education sector said that the country's education has got to a crisis situation, with dwindling student performance and achievement index as well as systemic rot in the civil service structure that has run the sector up till now.
She said that unless something drastic is done to halt the decline, the country will, in the next three years, not only have an army of mis-educated citizenry, but there would also be about 10 million angry and frustrated youths who would be willing, but unable to get addmission into any higher institution.
On the now very controversial reform proposal for the country's decaying Unity Schools, the minister said: "It would work in the kind of way that we set the rules to guide the operations of the schools. The school fees won't change because it is not commercialization. For the ministry, we say we want to fund our children's education, not through bureaucracy.
"Lets find our partners in the Parents Teachers Association (PTA), school based organisations, Old boys/Girls Association, we want to take the bureaucracy away so that our children can excel."
She expressed confidence in the partnership, adding that it would work because their interest in the school is not for profit.
When asked how she would be able to accomplish what she has set out to do given the little time she has left as Minister of Education, she said: "Nigeria is not a nation of seven months. I cannot be a Minister that would plan on the basis of months and education cannot end when I leave office."
She commended The Sun newspapers for changing the face of journalism. Her words: "Your columnists are the best and your editorial board very effective."
To The Sun MD Mr Mike Awoyinfa and DMD Mr Dimgba Igwe, she added "two of you have taken journalism outside what it used to be. I really want to celebrate you also."
Earlier in a brief remark, Mr Awoyinfa said The Sun management was highly honoured by Ezekwesili's visit. He described her "as a woman we all admire, an icon, a woman of substance, a woman who is a catalyst wherever she goes. We feel very happy that you are the Minister of Education. Without education we cannot have a future. We support what you are doing because it is something that would revolutionize the education sector, something that would motivate teachers and make them what they should be so that our children can be given good education."