The Jewel in the Savannah is the nickname of Gombe State. Gombe State is in the heart of the north eastern part of Nigeria. There are 11 local government area and have diverse tribes with Islam and Christianity as the main religions practiced. There are hardly cases of ethnic or religious crises in Gomber State.
The state is rich in agriculture and solid minerals, has huge potentials for even more commercial activities and tourism. This reasons might be the reason why Gombe is home to one of the ancient railway stations in Nigeria. The trains brought people of various cultures and traditions, it brought the yorubas that dominates Jekada fari and Igbos to Sabon layi, both in the hear of town.
After the initial faulty start of the state after gaining "independence" from Bauchi state, Gombe transformed from been a glorified local government headquarters to a state capital. All thanks to the immediate past Governor of the state - Mohammed Danjuma Goje.
Goje has set a high standard for anyone who aspires to lead Gomber state by delivering roads, hospitals, stadium, housing estates, rural roads, schools etc. However, in all his achievements, the primary education became the orphan. He did the best he could but it was not enough.
With a university that is the envy of even the old federal universities, a schoool of health technology and a school of nursing and midwifery, the schools charged with the responsibility of providing these higher institutions with students are yearning for attention.
The secondary schools are mere structures with little attention given to the human development of teachers and students. The result of the SSCE examinations in 2010 gives an insight into the state of the schools. The rate of growth of private primary schools with no little monitoring says all about the public school system. There was a time in the 1980s when all the pupils of Hina Central Primary School passed common entrance exams and qualified for admission into unity schools. Hina is a village about 50km from Gombe on the highway to Maiduguri. Today, the rate of pass of common entrance of the whole state will have to be looked into.
The major challenge confronting the new Governor and immediate past Account General of the Federation - Ibrahim Dankwambo is how to revise the state of the primary and secondary schools, revive the competition for places in public schools by parents rather than letting them pay so much for yet so little education for their wards/children.
We are expecting that he will search, nominate and appoint someone with a sense of urgency in reviving the primary and post primary education in Gombe State. The appointee need not be a Professor or Ph.D holder but one with sense of discipline and patrotism, one who benefitted from public school system and rose to their present status.Just like His Excellency himself. Its not gonna be easy but this is one thing he MUST do. And monitor he MUST do as well the performance of such a Commissioner.
Maybe the governor should make it an appraisal issue and base the continued retention of any cabinet member of the performance of their sector in the state. For education, the rate of failure in national exams must be used a yard stick for measuring the performance of any Commissioner, Director of Schools, School Principals etc and continued service to the State.
I pray he gets the right person to execute this tall order.
