By Sulaiman Maijama’a
If the school teachers who do not take their job seriously, indulging in the habit of truancy and absenteeism, had their way, they would do everything humanly and inhumanly possible to stop the nomination of Doctor Aliyu Usman Tilde as commissioner. This is perhaps because of the increasingly growing culture of unpatriotic Nigerians who try to hit on the ground, whoever comes to change any narrative. Obviously, the uncommon enormity of seriousness with which Doctor Tilde piloted the affairs of ministry of education in Bauchi state, in the first instance must have posed a threat to anti-progressive gang.
Unqualified, ghost and lazy teachers see Tilde as nightmare because of his principle of “dance or leave stage for others to get where to dance”. Private schools owners also are there, seeing him as a threat, because they know when public schools are polished, the enrollment will drastically reduced. This is because they know Doctor Tilde, who was part of the brain behind actualizing “Special Schools” in Bauchi, is very equal to the task. Today, “Special Schools” produce the best secondary school students in the state. Part of the credit to this goes to this erudite academic of great eminence.
Only ledears of though, who understand and appreciate the impact of surrounding themselves with workaholic people, care to ponder who to appoint in their executive council. Believing that he needed professionals as lieutenants to help him deliver, governor Bala Mohammad had, right before completing his first 100 days in office, sent the list of his commissioners to the state assembly for confirmation. Doctor Tilde, who made the list, later was confirmed and assigned education ministry as predicted.
Born in 1961, in Tilde Fulani, Doctor Aliyu played significant roles in establishing and creating access to formal education for out of school children in his village. His wealth of experience of over 35 years in academic line had adequately prepared him for educational portfolio. Looking at sorry state of education in public schools, the appointment of Doctor Tilde whose track record portrays him to be a “game changer”, attracted applauses from across the political spectrum in the state. This was nothing but a signal of approval that governor Bala had made a right choice.
In less than two years, prior to the dissolution of the state executive council by the governor, Tilde justified the confidence people reposed on him. Immediately he assumed duty, he introduced digital attendance whereby fingerprint devices replaced registry booklets. This was meant to easily track workers’ attendance and to discourage absenteeism among primary and secondary school teachers as well as weed out ghost workers. This development followed a discovery where about 53.5 percent of workers were found to exhibit truancy which cost the education sector greatly.
Seeing the commitment of the commissioner towards reviving the list glory of education in Bauchi, governor Bala without delay flagged off the disbursement of five Hundred Thousand Naira to each to each of the 1320 schools in five local government areas of the state, who are the beneficiaries of the schools improvement project grants, a world bank project. The governor also provided 6.7 hectares of land for the construction of Northeast UBEC model school in Bauchi, so as to fast track the execution of the project.
In the same vein, the giant strides of Tilde in the education sector pushed Bauchi state to stand a better chance to have won the award of three million US Dollars for the implementation of “better education service delivery for all”, a federal government project.
In order to maintain professionalism and ensure that teaching and learning meets global best practice in the state, the commissioner organized workshops, training and retraining for primary and secondary school teachers. This was an attempt to ensure that students at the “O” level are well equipped and prepared, especially in basic subjects like English language, Mathematics, Civic education among others, so much so that they can compete with their counterparts across the country and the globe at large.
Doctor Tilde was not only imbued with the vision of the type of education system he wanted to establish, but also sweat to work towards actualizing it. As it is with tradition of leaders who take their responsibilities, seriously, Tilde used to pay unscheduled visit to schools under his purview. This made school teachers to take stock of their actions and perform their duties conscientiously.
Unfortunately, however, to critics of this commissioner, all these amazing transformations education saw under him do not matter. The dissolution of the state executive council by governor Bala Mohammad on June 9 this year, was to them, a glad tidings, so much that they could not suppress their happiness. Three month down the line, their euphoria was shortlived as the executive governor, Senator Bala Mohammad renominated the workaholic Doctor Tilde as commissioner. .
Dear Governor Bala, we acknowledge gratefully, the renomination of this model. This is the best and most deserved appointment you have made in recent time and whatever achievement he records, the credit will indirectly come to you. With Tilde, the quality education we hope, dream and deserve shall be actualized.
Maijama’a, writes from Faculty of Communication, BUK
sulaimanmaija@gmail.com
