By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN
The importance and role of Pressure Groups in educational development cannot be over-emphasized. Pressure groups make the government more attentive to the needs of the people. This is because as groups with many members sometimes nationally spread, they command more respect than individuals who may be fighting for similar causes. With their national spread, pressure groups play the role of integrating their different interests into a manageable whole while drawing the government’s attention to their needs.
For example, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was able to get a special salary and intervention fund to turn around the spate of dilapidation and rot in the higher education system in Nigeria. Furthermore, ASSU has been able to force a national discourse and sensitization on key issues plaguing the public varsities to which the Federal Government is forced to attend to. It is also through the expertise of ASUU and other pressure groups that led to checks and balances of the power of the executive arm of government in the implementation of policies affecting the education sector.
THE CRISIS OF LEADERSHIP
Unless we tie the process of leadership recruitment to performance, the track record of aspirants and their integrity, we will most likely keep going around in circles as a nation. We cannot perpetuate the system of pulling up neophytes into positions of authority only to end up achieving nothing but lining their pockets at the expense of the State.
The other aspect of the crisis of leadership is the process of emergence of leaders. Given the confusion thrown up by certain ambiguous sections of the Electoral Act 2022 on the issue of primary elections, the resignation of public officers, the prohibition against aspirants partaking in multiple primary elections, etc, the process of electing leaders has continued to experience manipulations by various political interests.
INTERNATIONAL/ LOCAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES
The United Nations and UNESCO have initiated the majority of legal texts and protocols concerning education development and acknowledged the same as an inalienable right since the end of World War II. It started with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the 10th of December 1948. Article 26 therein states:
“(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.”
The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO remains a universal agency with a specialized responsibility to promote education around the world for the purpose of attaining sustainable development.
Credit:Sahara Reporters
