Minister of State for Education, Mr Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, speaks on the Appeal Court judgment that confirmed the victory of President Goodluck Jonathan at the April elections, the conduct of the Adamawa State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP ) gubernatorial primary and efforts at developing the nation's educational sector through international collaborations, among other issues. Johnson Babajide brings excerpts.AS one of the principal witnesses of President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Election Tribunal, how would you react to the judgment delivered by the Appeal Court on the petition filed by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)' The judgment was well considered, erudite and in consonance with what transpired on the election day. The position of the court is a vindication for Nigerians, the Nigerian media, the general electorate and the international monitors who participated in the electoral process. Everyone, at the close of the election, applauded the umpires and congratulated Nigerians on the feat they achieved. This was not the case in the recent past. With that election, we made strategic progress towards deepening and strengthening our democracy.For those of us who played key roles in coordinating the election for President Jonathan, we are happy that a seal of judicial approval has been given to a most transparent and well conducted presidential election. As I said when I testified at the court, the election was free, fair and transparent, and the data which we received from all over the country on the election day proved our position.If you carefully analyse the results, you will see that President Jonathan was accepted across the six geo-political zones and in some areas where he lost, he had a great showing. The judiciary has again proved that it remains the bastion of hope for the sustenance and strengthening of our democracy.What would you say about the critics of the electoral process and the judiciary' We must continue to keep faith with our electoral process; it has continued to grow from one stage to another. After my testimony at the Presidential Election Tribunal, I told journalists outside the court room that, as politicians, we must learn to accept the verdict of the people and that of the courts, whether they are palatable or not. It is not in the interest of our democracy to eulogise the electoral process where it favours us and turn around to attempt to discredit it where the people vote against us. We must realise that the people have the final say in every electoral contest.In the extant case, the Nigerian people chose President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP), bearing in mind the quality programmes laid out on the table by the president during his campaigns. For the judiciary, they have looked at the facts presented before them dispassionately and have arrived at an informed judgment that has been hailed by the vast majority of Nigerians, including some objective members of the opposition.Recently, you conducted the PDP gubernatorial primary in Adamawa State. What is your impression of the exercise' Without sounding immodest, I want to score the primary that we conducted in Adamawa State very highly. As the chairman of the committee that conducted the primary, I ensured that everything was done transparently. Right from the very beginning, I made sure that the two aspirants, Dr Umaru Ardo and Governor Murtala Nyako, were carried along in the process. I met with the two aspirants separately, together with members of the committee, and met the two of them together at the Adamawa State PDP Secretariat in the presence of the media.At that open meeting with the media in attendance, we discussed everything pertaining to the election and both aspirants raised whatever concerns they had and they were addressed within the mandate of the committee. On the day of the primary, we insisted that, beginning from the accreditation of voters to the actual voting, everything must be done in the full glare of the public. The primary was broadcast live on national television and it was done transparently. For us, we insisted that the right thing was done and the members of the party were satisfied.You were part of the leadership of the Nigerian delegation to the 36th Conference of the UNESCO in Paris. What message did you pass across to the international community' The Nigerian delegation participated in all critical meetings to help develop our education, science and culture. In the education sector, we presented before the international community our efforts aimed at addressing issues of access to quality education and developing critical infrastructure to enhance the sector. I had interactions with different international stakeholders and we reached a consensus on areas of intervention to assist the basic education sector that I oversee. But the most important message that I put across to the international community, through the international media, was that the present administration, under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan, had placed education on the front burner and our nation was working extremely hard to ensure that we achieved the Education for All (EFA) goals by 2015.Only recently, I visited some project sites for girl-child education schools in parts of the North, while the construction of almajiri schools is to commence in the no distant future with the mobilisation of contractors. Our president and the Federal Ministry of Education are committed to enhancing quality access to education in our country. Our commitment to addressing the challenges of education is borne out of the desire to develop a highly literate society that would eliminate growing insecurity and poverty through an enhanced capacity for our people. We have, in the last three months, trained over 500,000 teachers in intense capacity building programmes across the 36 states through key parastatals in the education sector. We have also developed critical curricula relevant for our nation for the basic education and states are already keying into this curriculum.As you can see, everyone appreciates the renewed commitment to tackling the education challenges facing the nation and we assure Nigerians that we will strive for the best international practice.Aside the UNESCO conference, you have, in the last three weeks, engaged the Taiwanese and South Koreans on efforts to improve basic education in Nigeria. Any positive results' Yes, there are positive results. The international community has seen our commitment to improving the basic education sector and they are prepared to key in. That is why we are collaborating with different countries and agencies to change our educational landscape. The truth remains that once we get the basic education right, the other levels of education would follow suit. I have held discussions with the representative of the Republic of China and they have agreed to invest in the development of the science and technical aspects of our basic education.On behalf of the Federal Government, I also placed before them the need to start their investments in the development of science laboratories in our federal unity schools. We are developing a concrete programme alongside the Taiwanese to help build our education. I was in South Korea recently and our interactions centred on the development of basic education for the country. We are collaborating with Canadians and Danes, also with the aim of developing basic education. The fruits of our efforts will soon take shape.
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