Political stunt season, Nasir el-Rufai's turn

Two or three years ago: I vow to enroll my child in a public school to prove that Kaduna State public schools are now as good as private ones under my governorship.

Today: This is me and my son (with a large entourage and security detail in tow) in Capital School, Kaduna, about to be enrolled in primary 1 as I promised.


But wait, Capital School? That is the elite "public" school in Kaduna. Has always been and still is. It has produced the elites of the Northern Nigeria's millennials and Generation X.

And, by the way, the Kaduna State government gleefully announced and had it published in national newspapers that it had renovated Capital School with about N200 million Naira last year March.

Obviously, this stunt is for those unfamiliar with Kaduna and northern Nigeria. A lot of these stunts are for the consumption of the Southern Nigerian press. The pedigree of Capital School, Kaduna, and its role as the educational incubator and reproduction factory of elitism in Kaduna is a topic deserving of a special study.

It is like saying, "I will enroll my child in a public school" and then announcing that your child has been enrolled in Kings College or Queens College--both public schools.

Or me saying I will enroll my child in a US public school to make the point that public schools are just as good as private ones and then I enroll my child in a Magnet public school. Or saying that my child will not join the Ivy elite but will rather attend a public university and then enrolling her in UCLA or the University of Michigan.

Or some other Nigeria top government official saying, "I am with the masses, the talakawa, so my child will attend university in Nigeria and not go abroad like the children of other officials" and then he enrolls the child in Covenant University, which has been ranked as Nigeria's best university (public or private) and one of the best in Africa. It is also one one Nigeria's most expensive universities.

And I hope we're allowed to ask why this stunt is necessary after el-Rufai's older children have graduated from or are still enrolled in expensive institutions abroad (the picture on the right is that of another son living it up abroad and displaying cash). Are we allowed to question the timing?

Well, it all makes for a great, entertaining political spectacle.




By:

Moses Ochonu