For decades, two questions have lingered across Zamfara North Senatorial District: why is the zone the only one without a state-owned tertiary institution in the state? And why did successive governments fail to establish even a single one of the state’s seven tertiary institutions in the zone?
An analysis of the distribution of state-owned tertiary institutions across the state shows that out of seven institutions, three are located in Zamfara West, four in Zamfara Central, and none in Zamfara North.
Many concerned citizens from Zamfara North have spoken out against this sense of unfair treatment and perceived marginalization through different channels. This writer was part of that agitation, having come from the zone and served then as the Publicity Secretary of the Zamfara North Senatorial Development Forum (ZANSEDEF).
The agitation boiled over in 2022 when a letter from the Federal Ministry of Education proposing a Federal Science and Technical College in Zamfara North surfaced online. It escalated when attempts were made to relocate the proposed institution to another part of the state, against the recommendation from the FMOE. But that is a bye gone.
The corrective steps being taken by the Dauda Lawal’s administration to address the decades long imbalance by establishing a tertiary institution in Zamfara North is worthy of commendation. This week, precisely on Monday 20 July, the Zamfara State Executive Council approved contracts worth N3.3bn for the construction of the take-off structures for the College of Nursing Sciences in Zurmi LGA, Zamfara North.
This landmark project is a victory for the people of the zone that have been yearning for more tertiary institutions close to their homes. The only tertiary institution currently in the zone is the Federal Polytechnic, Kaura Namoda. Setting up an additional institution in the region will therefore enhance access to tertiary education, accelerate development, and boost the zone’s socio-economic activities, especially in the college’s host local government—Zurmi.
Sometimes in May this year, I had a constructive engagement with a fellow citizen who is also a health professional. He argued that funding a new College of Nursing Sciences is a “misplaced priority” because, according to him, we have “over 1,000” nursing graduates in the labour market in the state searching for jobs. He further claimed that Zamfara has fewer than 2,000 nurses in active service.
I disagreed, arguing that establishing an additional college is not a misplaced priority, especially when it is located in a region with scarce higher institutions of learning. Proximity always matters. Distance is one of the key factors denying many people access to education and other essential services.
Access to quality education and access to employment may be related, but they are two different things. A person can only seek employment if he is employable, and employability comes from acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills, a gap that the college is meant to bridge. Also, it is good to note that unemployment is not, by itself, proof that we have trained enough people. We need more trained professionals across sectors to make up for the shortfallsariding from brain drain and migration.
The new College of Nursing Sciences in Zurmi will therefore address the problem of access, especially for prospective students in northern Zamfara. By producing more nurses, we are preparing a workforce for employment, either by government or private organisations within and outside the state.
Granted, no government can guarantee every graduate a job. However, if it is true that we have 1,000 unemployed nursing graduates in Zamfara, according to my friend, it means we will soon have no unemployed nurses in the state. Currently, there is an ongoing recruitment of about 1,000 nurses and allied health professionals in Zamfara as approved by Governor Dauda Lawal.
It is good to understand that if there is political will, it takes a relatively short time to secure executive approval for recruitment. In contrast, it takes about three years to produce a nurse. So the real question now is: which should come first? To educate more nurses now, or wait until a recruitment window opens and manpower crisis arise only to find that we have no qualified people to hire? Kudos to Governor Lawal for not only being proactive but also sensitive to the need for fairness and justice for all senatorial districts of Zamfara State.
Suleman Ahmad Tudu is the Senior Special Assistant on Media, Office of the Secretary to the Zamfara State Government. He can be reached through [email protected]
