A popular African proverb clearly States that; if you do not speak up, you'll die unheard.
There is need for anybody reading this to know that Kurmin-mashi Community is located in one of the Local Governments in the Central zone of Kaduna State, a part of the State's Capital.
The trip from the Community to the State's Government house is as cheap as Fifty-Naira. Yet, the community still suffers lack of basic amenities ranging from Unsteady power supply, Poor infrastructure, uncomfortable learning environment and poor health care facilities, owing to years of inaction, diversion of public funds, poor planning and supposed corruption-ridden lopsided deals.
This has not still changed, as the good people of Kurmin-mashi haven't seen the impact of the change of Government on their community.
The most worrisome one is the aspect of education which the government has not shown any serious concern about.
A famous Pan-Africanist, Late Nelson Mandela said and I quote; " Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world".
Sadly, in this part of Africa, our today's leaders often do not take serious the education of their future leaders. how then can the world change?
It is Paramount to note that, teaching and learning are two important aspects of education process which by extension is the foundation of the leaders of tomorrow, therefore, lack of good learning environment will have negative impact on the education process.
The dilapidated and almost abandoned structure you are seeing in the pictures below is supposed to be L.E.A Primary School, Kurmin-mashi Kaduna, one of the two public schools within the locality where most of the middle-class populace enroll their children, and one of the most popular public schools in that Local Government Area.
The school which is located at Kurmin-mashi Community is attended by pupils from different nearby communities like Hayin-Danmani, Mahuta, Badikko, ungwan sunusi, ungwan shanu, Abakwa among others.
It will interest you to know that the school in question houses about Four INEC polling units within it.
In fact, since 2015, the current government in power has never lost in any of the four aforementioned polling units.
What bothers me and all well-meaning people within the community the most is the State Government's laxity and passiveness to affairs relating to our community.where did we go wrong? or Is it that our representatives aren't representing us well?
I would have said it is a form of political vendetta against an opposition party dominated community if not for the fact that the current government in power was voted massively in the community in the last two general elections. More so, among the appointees of the government are people selected from this community. therefore, it can't be a political vendetta.
Those who are very familiar with the media would recall that, last year in the month of January, during a Kaduna SDGs acceleration conference held at Umaru Yar'adua Hall Kaduna, The State Governor made a keynote presentation where he layed lots of emphasis on restructuring schools that are within Kaduna. Stating in his keynote speech, the Governor mentioned that, standardizing education is among the key SDGs that ought be achieved by the year 2030, and as such his government has introduced school rehabilitation programmes to provide decent classrooms, furniture, water and toilet facilities, But up to this very moment, the good people of Kurmin-mashi Community are yet to see any school rehabilitation program.
It would also be clearly recalled that, not quite long ago, the executive Governor of Kaduna State, Mal. Nasiru Ahmad El-rufai got his child enrolled into a public school, and that led to lots of controversies on the media. Well, it's something superb and a step towards exemplary leadership, but while we commend him for this display of exemplary leadership, we will also bewail the fact that other public schools were not standardised before going ahead to do so, thereby giving the outside world the impression that all that has to do with public schools has been solved.
There were lots of pandemonium both within and outside the community as to why the Governor left other public schools with dehumanizing and dilapidated structures when he took his child to a Public School far from the Government house and made sure he rehabilitated and furnished the school to standard before enrolling him.
No matter what the case may be, we are calling on him to act according to his slogan, "Putting People first" , because we the people of Kurmin-mashi Community have not practically seen the impact of that slogan yet. we've obviously been put Last!
It is on this note we are humbly appealing to the Kaduna state government to as a matter of relevance, save the future of our tomorrow leaders in the spirit of equity, Justice and fairness by kindly rehabilitating this school and also restoring it to standard.
We do hope that our tears will be wiped-off and our demand will be granted.
Yours in Struggle
Comr Ibrahim Suleiman Ibrahim
Co-founder, Kurmin-mashi Students Forum.
09023564755
