To write, inspiration descends on me in the bathroom
By MODESTUS CHUKWULAKA, Abuja
Sunday, June 15 , 2008

•Agada Photo: Sun News Publishing

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What should a writer do if an inspiring idea for a new book descends on him right inside the tub, having his morning bath? For many, deciding on what to do could pose a dilemma, but for Dr. Anthony Jerry Agada, Minister of State for Education 1, it is as simple as ABC: tie a towel round your waist, dash out of the bathroom as fast you can, and put down the idea before it takes flight. It is a situation Agada has had to deal with several times, and his response has been fairly standardized.

It is something he just has to do because those ideas that came like a flash in the bathroom could turn out to be great books. “The greatest time that I have my inspiration is when am in the bathroom in the morning, bathing. I don’t know how it happens but so many things will be crossing my mind, then sometimes I even tie my towel and run and go and collect my piece of paper, jotter and pen to write it, because if I don’t do that, by the time I get out of the bathroom I will forget,” he said.

But it is not only while in the bathroom that the muse visits Agada.
The national vice-president of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) told Sunday Sun in Abuja that an inspiration could come anytime and anywhere. And at times the way he reacts makes people to wonder what could have come upon him. Agada said there had been instances when he was spontaneously baptized with powerful inspirations while driving to his office, and the right thing to do at such a moment would be to pull up by the roadside to jot down the ideas.

“You know writers are like mad people, because if you are walking on the street and an idea occurs to you will just stop on the road and start jotting it down, and someone will say he saw one mad man he was writing on the street without realizing that it was because an idea occurred to you and you just had to put it down, because if you don’t if you move to the next step you will forget and it would not come back again.”

For the minister inspiration comes naturally. It could be as he talks with people, it could be in the dream as he is sleeping. But whatever is the case, he makes sure he puts down the idea when it is still fresh in his mind, even it means having to wake up from his sleep. According to the minister, there have been instances when he had come across words in the dream, only to discover it is not in the dictionary when he checks for them in the morning. He believes that ideas have wings and can easily fly away if not properly harnessed. “As we are discussing, something may cross my mind and I will take my pen and jot that point down and continue talking with you. When I have the time, I assemble the little jottings that I have done and turn them into books,” he said.

Like any other creative writer, Agada has had his own share of writer’s block, that period of somewhat creative barrenness when inspiration deserts the writer as he struggle to write. Ironically, he said it happens especially when he has time for writing at his disposal. However he said such period of blankness only happens for a moment before the words would start to flow again, even to the point that he might not want to sleep throughout the night.

So far, Agada has written 10 books. Asked which of them he considers the best, he said: “It is the one that I’m yet to write. Once I finish writing a book, I know that that one is gone. “Being a minister with very demanding schedule has not stopped Agada from writing which he considers his second nature. Right now, he is putting finishing touches to his latest manuscript, Soap Box, a book he started writing it when he was contesting for the governorship in his native Benue state. The minister believes it could be his best work when published.

“That is why I said that my best book is the one I’m yet to write, and when I’m through with that, I will start another one, and so on. I’m still very much involved in my writing, because I do not think that there is anything that will separate me from my writing. It will be difficult because I do not do any other thing, so I must write,” he said.

Agada has a warning for aspiring authors: Success as an author is not measured in pecuniary terms, at least in Nigeria. According to him, “the author should not concern himself much with the money he is getting out of his writing, but with the fact that you are published and your work is there. And one of my works, titled secret deal has actually won an ANA prize, it is a collection of short stories, but they are still not the best; my best is yet to come.”

If there is any Nigerian that should be worried by Nigeria’s notorious poor reading culture, it should naturally be Agada. For one he was a teacher, second, he is an author, and above all he is Nigeria’s education minister. As Minister of State for Education (1), Agada is the coordinator of the READ Campaign, an initiative aimed at getting more Nigerians to embrace reading as a habit. He said the present administration is very serious about improving the reading culture of Nigerians, a
pointer to the fact that it is not reversing the reform of the previous administration which initiated the READ campaign.

“We taught it was a laudable idea that it would improve the lives of all Nigerians and should be encouraged, and we went ahead and launched it and we are going ahead with it. We have invited the president, vice president and other distinguished personalities to come and read to the public that day,” he spoke ahead of last week’s dinner organized by the READ campaign.

Agada sees Nigerians’ aversion to reading as a monumental character flaw, why? He answered: “Because to read is to be educated, you may not have a degree, but when you read newspapers you become well informed. That is why in advanced countries, while traveling in vehicles or trains, people carry voluminous novels and before the next destination they have finished it. But here people tend to converse and spread rumors, giving others bad name as a result of being idle.”
The minister’s plea is that all Nigerians should embrace the reading culture, since, according to him, reading is meant for all, the old and the young alike. “Reading is like death, it affects everyone, it is not for any special group,” he said.

Agada also spoke on the vexatious issue of access to university education. Of the 1.054 who entered for the Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) this year, only about 200,000 will eventually be admitted in the existing universities. This means that about 80 per cent would not be admitted, their performance in the examination notwithstanding.

Describing this development as situation as pathetic situation which the nation’s education authorities have to face, he attributed it to the problem of low carrying capacities in the universities, saying the government is not relenting in its efforts to make sure this problem tackled.
One way of doing is the liberalization of the university through the licensing of private universities. Besides the licensing of private universities, the minister also said government is committing a lot of funds into its own universities to upgrade and strengthen the facilities, so that more people can gain access into the system.

Reminded that most private universities are expensive, and, therefore, inaccessible to ordinary Nigerians, the minister said it was becoming increasingly imperative that a formula for cost sharing in the tertiary education system in the country be worked out. His contention was that education is costly, and if we must sustain a quality education, then something has to be done in the direction of fees.
“There is the need to look at it critically and see that the cost of maintaining a student in the university is high, so that certain percentage can still be paid by the student, parents and government and even the organizations,” he said, pointing out that “anything that is free is always mismanaged.”

According to him, if one must talk of access he must also talk of cost, hence wanting everything free would be difficult. Although he recognizes that education is a social service, he reasoned that “Nigerians should be ready to make commitments in terms of paying for the cost, so as to get quality. So that one does not just go the university for the sake of going, and don’t learn anything and come out empty with nothing to show for it, it is not the best , because it is either there are no facilities or infrastructures.”

Although there is a functional Open University, Agada said it has not been able to significantly mitigate the problem of access because most of the people who are supposed to access the facilities of the Open University still want to go to conventional universities where they have to sit in the lecture room. “The perception of most people about the Open University is that it is like an adult education where you can be doing your work and maintaining your families, like a house wife doing all your chores and still has access to university education. The Open University is actually functioning like the way it should, but most people who are supposed to access it do not want to attend the Open Universities, that is the problem,” he said.

Against the background of the fact that most polytechnics and colleges of education are undersubscribed Agada regretted that young Nigerians have not been able to take full advantage of the polytechnics and colleges of education because of the perceived discrimination against graduates of polytechnics, a discrimination he said does not exist.

There is also the question of what looks like discordant tones between the federal government and some states over the minimum qualification for teaching in primary schools. Although there is a policy that pegs the minimum qualification at NCE, some northern states are still running teachers’ training colleges which are producing grade 2 teachers.
Agada said such states are still acting within their power because education is on the concurrent list in the constitution.

“It means that states and local governments have a right to design the way they want to pursue education in their various communities. The involvement of the federal government is only at the tertiary level, except in unity schools (which) are built for specific reasons”. But then the federal government formulate policies for states to look at, and model after and if they like they can copy, but the government does not have the right to directly instruct or order the state,” he explained.

Noting that the issue of NCE as a minimum teaching qualification in schools came as far back as in the 1990s, the minister said it was a national policy adopted firstly by the Joint Consultative Council on Education. According to him, the technical aspect was looked into and taken to National Council of Education where it was approved and taken to the Federal Executive Council, which also approved it.
Although states were expected to follow the policy, the concurrent nature of education also confers on them the power to take that policy or leave it. So what has happened is that that some states feels more comfortable with TC 2 as minimum teaching qualification that NCE. Northern governors after a recent meeting issued a communique calling the restoration of teachers’ training colleges.

“The federal government has not changed that policy of the NCE being the minimum teaching qualification till today, we stand by it. So if the states choose to do otherwise, it is because they have the constitutional right to do it that way, which is not the making of the federal government or the ministry of education,” he said. Where does this leave the standard of education? Agada pointed out that
most states are currently organizing education summit in search of better ways to reform their educational sector, and what policy they eventually adopt depends on what suits their purpose.

But in terms of standard of education, he said, whether the NCE or the TC 2 is adopted as minimum qualification, pupils from across the federation will still have to write the same UME WASCE, NECO examination. “If a state decides that this is the way it wants to prepare its students, then at the end of the day all the students sit for the same national examinations, and if they don’t pass, they will not gain admission into the university system, so to me the standard still exists,” he said.

According to him, what is at stake is the way to reach the standard. For instance, recently a state said it no longer recognized certificates issued by NECO, and when they came to ask him, the minister reminded them that education is on the concurrent list. “So if somebody comes from that state and he is not qualified based on what he has then it is entirely their business. But as far as the federal government is concerned NECO is a recognized examination body to provide the same standard examination like WAEC does,” said the minister.