@smoofstarface: AWOLOWO TOLD GOWON: "MAKE EDUCATION COMPULSORY AND FREE." GOWON REFUSED. INSTEAD, HE WAITED FOR PARENTS TO SPEND THEIR MONIES TRAINING THEIR CHILDREN AND THEN MADE NYSC COMPULSORY. LET POSTERITY JUDGE THE WICKEDNESS OF GOWON'S POLICY. In 1971, Chief Obafemi Awolowo sat in General Yakubu Gowon's Federal Executive Council as Commissioner for Finance. He had a proposal. It was simple. Radical. Patriotic. "Make education free and compulsory at all levels from January 1974." Awolowo had done his research. He tabled figures. He showed Gowon that Nigeria, swimming in oil boom money, could afford to educate every child in the North and South. He had done it in the West in 1955 when the West was poor. Now Nigeria was rich. Why not do it for the whole country? Gowon refused. In Awolowo's own words in a 1985 interview, "I advocated for free education at all levels... I resigned." Gowon only cherry-picked free education and health as a programme for 1974/75, but never made it compulsory and free for all as Awolowo demanded. Instead, Gowon waited. He waited for the poor farmer in Ekiti to sell his cocoa to pay school fees. He waited for the market woman in Ibadan to sell her wrapper to pay WAEC fees. He waited for the parents to bleed, to borrow, to suffer for 16 to 21 years training a child from primary to university. Then, after the parents had finished, after their pockets were empty, Gowon came with Decree No. 24 of 1973 and said: "Now bring that child. I have made his service compulsory. He must go and serve Nigeria for one year. If he does not, he will never work." What wickedness is this? Awolowo said: Make the INPUT compulsory. Make education free, so every child can be trained by the state. Gowon said: No. Let parents pay the input. I will make the OUTPUT compulsory, so I can control the finished product. This is the economics of a slave master. You don't feed the slave child. You wait until he is grown and strong by his mother's sweat, then you claim ownership of his labour for the nation. If education had been made compulsory and free in 1974 as Awo proposed, every Nigerian child today would have been educated. There would be no Almajiri, no out-of-school children, no bandits who cannot read. We would have unity through the classroom. Instead, Gowon gave us unity through the bush camp. He gave us khaki and jungle boots instead of books and laboratories. And 53 years later, what is the result? 20 children who left Ibadan last Thursday to go and obey Gowon's compulsory decree were kidnapped in Imo State. Their parents who paid their school fees for 21 years are now being asked to pay N50 million each to see them again. Parents pay twice. First to the school. Then to the kidnapper. Awolowo wanted to free parents from burden. Gowon doubled the burden. Let posterity judge the wickedness of Gowon's policy. Awo's legacy is Liberty Stadium, WNTV, free education that still produces professors today. Gowon's legacy is a compulsory scheme that cannot protect those it compels. History has already judged. Written by Julius Afolalu Social Commentator | Ado-Ekiti #smoofstarface #omokalakuta4eva #felakuti #badgovernment #AwolowoWasRight

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Monday 05 October 2026 08:05:48 GMT