Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honorable Yakubu Dogara has urged the government to prioritize education at all levels, saying that if citizens are not educated, there is no way for them to compete and thrive in the future ahead.
Speaking at the 50th anniversary of the failed Memorial School, Panyam, Mangu LGA in Plateau State, Dogara urged the government to focus on access to qualitative education in Nigeria rather than infrastructure development if they want to lift Nigerians out of poverty. Focus on improvement.
According to him, education is the engine room for any meaningful development of a nation because only through proper education the country can be taken out of poverty.
“Recently, I got into a debate about the place of education (human capital) compared to roads, electricity, bridges and the rest of the physical capital. And my argument was that look, we need more investment in human capital development than physical capital development and my reason is very simple. “Imagine our future without education.”
'For any government to be called serious, it must prioritize education because if we do not educate our citizens, there is no way they can compete and thrive in the future that is unfolding before our eyes. Can. And that is definitely the path to poverty.
''If you are educated, even in the absence of infrastructure, the educated mind will create the infrastructure that is lacking. Those who are educated will build the schools we do not have, they will build the roads and produce and distribute the electricity we never have enough for domestic use and industrial production.
“In fact, resources are abundant in this country, especially on the plateau here. When we are talking about the endowment provided by God, there are a lot of minerals buried beneath the surface of our earth, but the truth is that we need education to bring them out.
“Where you do not have qualitative education, both human beings and your underground resources will rot. Unfortunately, this has been the case with Nigeria also. But where you train your citizens and empower them with knowledge even in the absence of resources, they can transform their country into the first world. We have seen it with South Korea, we have seen it in many other countries, especially the Asian Tigers.
''When we were making our way here, we were lamenting about the fact that although Kenya is not our size in terms of population and they do not have oil and a lot of resources that we have here in Nigeria; It is shocking that Kenya's budget is bigger than Nigeria's. This means that Kenya has managed to create more wealth than Nigeria.
“Just go back home and think about it. Think deeply about why this is so? “This may be because literacy levels have gone up in Kenya, while in Nigeria we are struggling to educate our citizens.”
Asserting that he is not opposed to infrastructural development, Dogra said, “I am not saying that the infrastructure is bad, but the truth is that without education the infrastructure will deteriorate. We need educated people to maintain the infrastructure and keep it functional.
So, honestly speaking, we should prioritize investment in education in this country otherwise we are wasting our time if we think we can progress by keeping our people ignorant.
“I looked at the needs of my community and easily saw gaps. I now run a foundation which provides scholarships to poor students. Right now, I have about 200 students in my network who are studying in universities in Nigeria. Of course, that is a drop in the ocean and nowhere near enough.”
Dogra congratulated the students and the Old Students Association on the 50th anniversary of the school and urged them to invest more not only on the physical improvement of the school structures but also on the quality of teachers to provide qualitative education to the children. students, as well as established a scholarship fund so that students from homes who would never have had the benefit of education could be trained there.
“It will open the door to the future we enjoy, rather than closing the door on those coming behind us,” he said.
Source link