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• Warns millions of children’ll lose access to quality education
The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has urged the Federal Government to immediately halt what it described as renewed plans to concession the Federal Government Colleges, popularly known as Unity Schools, to private individuals under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, warning that the move could destroy one of Nigeria’s most enduring educational legacies.
In a statement yesterday in Abuja, the union said any attempt to hand over Unity Schools to private interests would make quality secondary education unaffordable for millions of Nigerian children and undermine the country’s constitutional responsibility to provide accessible education.
The statement, jointly signed by the President of ASCSN, Shehu Mohammed and the Secretary-General, Joshua Apebo, followed reports that the Federal Government had approved the concession of King’s College, Lagos, to its Old Boys’ Association.
According to the union, the concessioning of the King’s College could set a dangerous precedent that would eventually see all the 120 Federal Government Colleges transferred to politically connected individuals and business interests, effectively dismantling the Unity School system established to foster national integration.
“We are alarmed by renewed efforts to sell the Federal Government Colleges to private business individuals under the guise of public-private partnership. Once King’s College is concessioned, the remaining 119 Unity Schools could be shared among political elites and their stooges, thereby killing the Unity School System,” the labour leaders said.
The union recalled that Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, conceived the idea of Federal Government Colleges in 1966 to promote unity among young Nigerians by bringing together students from different ethnic, religious, social and economic backgrounds to learn and live together as one people.
It noted that the first three Unity Colleges were established in Okposi, later relocated to Enugu, for the Eastern Region, Warri for the Western Region and Sokoto for the Northern Region, laying the foundation for what has grown into 120 Federal Government Colleges across the country.
According to the ASCSN, the schools had maintained a reputation for academic excellence over the decades and remain among the most sought-after secondary schools in Nigeria, attracting children of prominent Nigerians alongside students from ordinary families.
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The union also revisited previous attempts to privatise the schools, recalling that former military Head of State and later President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, championed efforts to withdraw the Federal Government from secondary education beginning in 1978 and continued the policy after returning to power in 1999.
It said organised labour strongly resisted the move through sustained engagements with the government, a seven-week nationwide strike, litigation and nationwide mobilisation involving trade unions, student bodies, parents, civil society organisations, religious leaders and traditional rulers until the policy was reversed in 2010 by President Goodluck Jonathan.
“The struggle continued until July 2010 when former President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the resumption of the junior components of the Unity Colleges and normalcy returned to the Unity School System,” the statement said.
The ASCSN further argued that commercialising secondary education would violate Section 18 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which directs the government to provide free and universal education at various levels, insisting that education should never become an exclusive preserve of the wealthy.
Drawing comparisons with developed countries, the union said government-funded secondary education remains the norm globally. It cited the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany as examples where thousands of publicly funded secondary schools continue to operate despite their capitalist economies.
“All these schools are funded and run by the government. Since these are capitalist societies, we do not know where Nigerian politicians got the idea that the government cannot run secondary schools,” the union stated, adding that those interested in owning schools should establish new private institutions instead of taking over public assets built with taxpayers’ funds.
The labour leaders warned that allowing private entrepreneurs to take over Unity Schools could ultimately lead to the conversion of school facilities and their expansive lands into commercial ventures such as hotels and shopping malls.
They, therefore, called on the Federal Government to abandon the concession plan and preserve the Unity Schools as a national legacy handed down from the Balewa administration for the benefit of the present and the future generations of Nigerians.
