Why Dr Aliyu Usman Tilde, the immediate past Commissioner for Education in Bauchi State quits his role barely six months before the end of the first tenure of his boss, Bala Mohammed, remains a subject of interest to many.
While Dr Tilde established himself to become an anointed education administrator in not just Bauchi State, where the highest percentage of Nigerian children not attending any formal learning institution exists, but also the northeast subregion.
For instance, the Northeast Governors Forum appointed him to spearhead the repositioning drive of the region’s already ailing education sector – the region accounts for over 60% of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
But in the eyes of ordinary Bauchi teachers, and other government employees manning the education sector of the state, the former commissioner is an archaic leader bent to disrupt and mechanically alter old corrupt ways of doing business on which their entire life depends.
During his three-year stint as commissioner, he introduced and initiated three main policies that paired him against teachers and parents. The first is the technology-empowered- biometric attendance which demands that primary and secondary school teachers sign in and sign out from duty stations in real-time. The Technology also demands that a change of lesson from one subject to another be done on time while tech-savvy Tilde monitors from a large screen in his office.
WikkiTimes gathered that teachers’ cumulative monthly attendance was used to pay salaries. The overall attendance at the end of the year was used to promote teachers.
Secondly, Dr Tilde initiated a mock examination for SSIII students in Bauchi State. The state government only pay WAEC and NECO examination fees only for students who passed the mock exams, thereby, abolishing the old formulae where the government paid the two exams for students without any criteria.
Just-In: Bauchi Commissioner of Education, Dr Tilde, Resigns
However, this does not go down well with many indigent parents and students alike.
The third was a drive that scrapped 35 boarding schools. A special examination was designed for students interested in securing admission into boarding and special schools.
However, a staff of the Bauchi State ministry of education who does not want to be mentioned told WikkiTimes that Dr Tilde’s resignation would not have come at a better time than now.
“We were completely fed up with his counter-productive policies and demands for work,” he said.
A Tripod Reasons Spurs Dr Tilde’s Resignation
Gradually, fresh details continue to emerge expatiating motives that prompted the resignation of Dr Aliyu Tilde as a commissioner for education.
While nothing is available in the public domain that could juxtapose why he resigned at the moment, WikkiTimes independently gathered that the former commissioner resigned to rejoin APC, being a passionate admirer of the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.
“He resigned to be able to join the crusade for the actualisation of the Tinubu/Shettima 2023 presidential ambition,” one of the personal staff of Dr Tilde told WikkiTimes.
Barely two weeks after his resignation, the former commissioner, in a post on December 20th this year on his official Facebook account explained why Tinubu deserved his vote in next year’s presidential elections.
“On 25 February 2023, I will pick this voter’s card, walk to the polling centre and cast my vote for His Excellency, Chief Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the Jagaban Borgu. This is a firm commitment given after a history of association, honour, demographic reality, constitutional requirement, weighing pros and cons as well as the personalities of the candidate and his running mate.
You Are A Persona non grata—BAHA Tells Aliyu Tilde, Passes Vote Of No Confidence On Him
“There will hardly be any southerner better fit for the position of a partner to the North than the Jagaba today. He is our Abiola, if not better. As some of my readers rightly said, he has patronized us many times: Atiku in 2007 under AC, Ribadu in ACN (2011) and Buhari in APC (2015). This is a consistent friend in need. Honour begets reciprocity.
“These are my reasons for answering the call to support the Tinubu/Shettima ticket. And I call on every dispassionate mind to do so for the sake of unity and progress of our country. I am not only promising this cause my vote and that of my family, but I will also work hard to earn it many more, as much as my talent, body and resources can afford me in the next two months. Come with me,” the post read in parts.
Explicitly, Dr Tilde could not continue serving in dissonance in a PDP government with a mind fixed on the actualisation of an APC presidential mandate in 2023.
While his resignation may well appear to have saved him from being tagged as an agent of anti-Bala Mohammed’s PDP success at the polls, he put to question the confidence of successive PDP Bauchi Governors that gave him a role to serve since Ahmed Mu’azu.
Mustapha Isah, a public affairs commentator argued that the former commissioner plunged into a deep water of political confusion. “It is apparent that that Tilde is for Tinubu. Who will he support to win Bauchi gubernatorial election in 2023? Sadique or Bala?” he asked.
He added, “Could Tilde work against the victory of Bala Mohammed in 2023 having served as a cabinet member of his government for three consecutive years?”
WikkiTimes learnt that prior to Dr Tilde’s resignation, a disagreement ensued between him and Bala over a plot around Jahun secondary school. At that time, the former commissioner insisted that the plot be used to collect refuse, contrary to the wish of his principal that it should be developed to allow people to build houses.
Tilde Echoes Frustration Over Inability To Fix ‘Corrupt Education Sector’
The former Education Commissioner said that the educational system is corrupt beyond repair, adding that people working in the sector are resistant to change.
This is coming less than a month after his resignation when he spoke at the reunion of Pioneer Students of Bauchi Special Schools in Bauchi.
“I met a system that was corrupt, I couldn’t trust anyone, yes because if we send people out for an examination they will collect money from Education Secretaries, from the Principals and so on, then cheating will take place and everybody is marked passed.
“So I felt that I need people to outsourced, credible people that will help me conduct some operations that are very important to the success of the ministry. And I explained this to people who asked me then why I scrapped boarding schools when I was a product of it. I told them because they are the products of what I want to institutionalise here. They will understand my language, we can operate with them in the same way,” he said.
Justifying his actions, Tilde further said the students he co-opts were products of a disciplined system he instill when he was Chairman of the Special Schools Management Board and that they understand the need for merit and ensure that justice is done to any child in the public schools because they were served justice during their school years.
“I continue to insist today that if anybody going to boarding secondary school must pass a test like that, yes because being there is not an ordinary thing, it is a great opportunity for character building. And government expend so much money on it. As of the last day I left the ministry, I believe one child in any of our boarding secondary schools, government spend about seventy-five thousand naira per annum to feed him.
“I continue to insist that I I have that opportunity tomorrow I would repeat the same thing that I did 27 years ago. You know 22 years it was the same, 3 or 4 years ago it was the same thing and if there will be any opportunity in the future it will be the same”, he said.
