Protests are inevitable in a democracy. They are a part of what makes democracy what it is -the people’s government. So, when one breaks out, it makes better sense, and more productive too, to dwell on the issues that the people protest against. This is because protests signify the people’s discontent with government policy or decision. However, it is fine also to understand that people protest for different reasons.

In the recent nationwide protest, though it was tagged #Endbadgovernance, it is understandable that different people protested for different reasons -some for lack of suitors, some for lack of food, some against an end to bad governance, while some protested not knowing why they had to. For some, it was an opportunity to burgle and steal from shops, offices and residences while for others it was a divine opportunity to openly express discontent over failed relationship with the ruling team. Some refused to protest in protest against the lack of attention to their form of protest over the years, and some scorned the protesters in protest against their political choice in 2023. As they say, it was all about the people expressing their democratic rights to protest against issues that pique them.

So it was for Gov. Uba Sani of Kaduna state. He also protested. His protest was against the failure of past leaders of northern states to ensure the education of the children of the North. In his protest, Gov. Sani openly stated a truth that many people, including governors, from the region, would rather overlook and shy away from for reasons of political correctness. But he showed leadership firmness and courage in openly admitting the failures. In doing so, Sani ranks as the first governor of any state of the northern region to openly hit the hammer exactly on the head of the nail. He deserves commendation for speaking truth to power. What has been the norm here is that governors, who fail their states by betraying public trust, often push the blame on the federal government even though their budgets and development plans are not managed by the federal government. It takes a conscientious leader to identify and admit a problem as Sani has done.

Cast your mind back a few years ago. Recall that Gen. Jeremiah Useni, as a national leader of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), had told a story of his invitation to a state in the northeast to commission projects executed by the governor. He narrated how during a ride about town with the governor he had seen a horde of kids of school age loitering on the roadside and asked the governor why the kids were not in school. According to him, the governor said the kids would be useful during the election. In other words, leaders of states in the north deliberately keep kids out of school and away from formal education for political reasons. Northern leaders who encouraged this trend blamed the federal government when those kids became the army for the operationalisation of Boko Haram. This is where the outcome of the #Endbadgovernance protest in some states of the north takes its form. That is why Governor Sani is protesting the failed leadership of northern states.

The implication of what was seen in those states is that many of the kids who got involved in criminal vandalisation, and, or, looting of public property, and even ruptured the peaceful nature of the protest, did not know the issues involved in the protest. For them, it was just another of those opportunities that nature presents to enable them to exhibit their lack of education which derives from leadership failure in states of the north. I had argued that if all those kids were in boarding schools, properly defined, perhaps, the #Endbadgovernance protest in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina etc., would have turned out differently.

This, for me, is where Gov. Sani’s protest takes its meaning. As governor, Sani must have made a quick mental calculation of the impact past leaders of states in the North had made in the education of those kids against the impact the same leaders made in the education of their biological children. This is because government exists for the “welfare and security of the people.” If you define welfare and security in the context of the education of citizens, you probably would understand what Sani was driving at.

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A contextual analysis of the recent protest will clearly show that no child of the rich and educated northern leader was on the street vandalising and looting; even a signpost. This suggests that the protesters we saw in those northern states acted in accordance with their level of education. Where an educated kid sees concrete slabs as necessary cover for drainages which would also prevent accidents, the uneducated kid sees hidden iron rods which he needs to extract and sell to buy food, and possibly, drugs. The difference is education which inculcates values.

This is why recent statistics by StatiSense about the percentage of kids in Nigeria that could neither read nor write, tilts against the north. That clearly defines leadership failure. Perhaps, leaders of states in the region, since 1999, would have been able to arrest the drift had they paid more attention to education than they paid to prayers. This is where the bomb is timed. It promises to explode with devastating consequences for the region and the country at large.

Keeping those kids in school has its benefits for society. It will open them up to the social values of the property they freely vandalise. It will enable the government to spend less on replacing those properties and channel the funds to other development needs. It will open up the kids to brighter futures. It will help manage population growth. It will make societies safer. The fact that no governor of any of the northern states stepped out to help calm those kid vandals indicates that even the Government House won’t be a safe haven when the rage of the illiterate population strikes beyond the capacity of the security forces. With Boko Haram, we have seen a trend which suggests that the more you gun down, the more they emerge.

Gov. Sani should now be in a position to begin the chase to change this trend. As a leader in the North, he needs not to fail where his predecessors collapsed. His is a future of possibilities made more possible by his capacity to envision tomorrow and drive a process that can change the trajectory. The Goodluck Jonathan administration attempted to change this by building schools that created a mix of Almajiri education and Western education. It was spurned by leaders of the north for politics. A governor in the government that came in 2015 declared such schools built in his state “very expensive” to maintain. He abandoned them and returned to what he considered a cheaper education model. The outcome was obvious during the #Endbadgovernance protest.

Perhaps, northern leaders need to revisit the Jonathanian education model to rescue those kids and guarantee them a future. Maybe too, it is time for governors of the region to drink a little bit more from the insights of the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi, on the education of the children of the North. Perhaps, it is time the governors of northern states declared an emergency on the education of the children of the region and channel funds spent on fruitless palliatives towards education. This is a charge for Gov. Sani. He ought to take his protest to his fellow governors. He has already lit the fire and he must put more fuel to ensure it burns fervently. By openly speaking the truth, Sani ought to now lead the present crop of Northern leaders to think differently, act differently, and develop workable models that will help them to grow the number of Northern kids that can read, write and understand the value of concrete slabs, police station signposts and a technology incubation centre alongside other public infrastructure.