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Govt may sue Zamfara over ban on non-indigenes' admission
INDICATIONS emerged at the weekend that the Federal Government may drag Zamfara to the Supreme Court over the state government's recent ban on admission of non-indigenes into its schools.
The Education Minister, Prof. Fabian Osuji, while responding to The Guardian inquiry in his office at the weekend, said the matter was not within ministry's purview, but a Federal Government affair, which should be handled as such.
Zamfara State government, in about a fortnight ago, rolled out a policy decision allegedly banning non-indigenes of the state from gaining admission into public schools in the state.
This is in addition to another policy pronouncement sometimes last July when the state government introduced "discriminatory" fees against non-indigenes resident in the state.
But following outcry by Nigerians, the state government last week beat a retreat when it denied introducing a policy banning non-indigenes from sending their children to public schools in the state.
It restated its commitment to the fees charged non-indigenes resident in the state.
Speaking to The Guardian, the minister said the matter was not his ministry's problem and suggested a resort to the highest court of the land to resolve the issue through legal interpretation.
His words: "It is not the matter for my ministry, it is a constitutional matter, it bothers on citizenship, it bothers on Nigerianship, if you like, what can a state do or not do, relating to citizenship of Nigeria.
"It is not a matter for the Ministry of Education because, I cannot for example tell the governor of Zamfara State or any state government for that matter in the country what to do about Nigerians resident in their states because it is a constitutional matter.
"Our job at the Federal Ministry of Education are to set standard and regulate such standards for the sector, we don't set conditions on which people stay or settle in a particular state or whether or not they would be resident or whether they will pay school fees or not."
According to the minister, the intervention of President Olusegun Obasanjo would go a long way in resolving the tango.
"We have to address the matter legally in the constitutional manner, and that is why the Attorney-General is stepping into it. The whole issue has a lot of implications," the minister said.
"The fact that you are there and you cannot send your child to school, even when there is a law that says every parent must send his child who is 6 years and above to school and that this education is free, compulsory and universal, that law was passed by the National Assembly, so it has to be applied.
"Secondly, what about the fact that somebody is in the state paying tax to the state and his children cannot have access to the facilities to which other citizens have access. Those are some of the implications, and as I said, it goes beyond the realm of education and we hope that in no distant time, the Attorney-General would take it up.
Osuji also made reference to a similar incidence in the state where non-indigenes alleged that they were banned from registering for the National Examination Council (NECO) in Zamfara schools.
Osuji said: "If we can get the Supreme Court to make a declaration on the matter, that is what happens in other federalism outside here. If it happens even in the U.S., that is what they will do. They will get Supreme Court to give a ruling on the matter. But this is a federal structure, there are matters that cut across states."
The Attorney-General and Justice Minister, Akin Olujinmi, in his reaction to the Zamfara policies recently described them as treasonable.
His word: "If it is true that Zamfara State has rolled out the policy of stopping non-indigenes from attending public schools, then is a negation of relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution and amounted to a threat to the unity and cohesion of the corporate entity called Nigeria.`***okay
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