8 September 2008
Lagos — A leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Ime Umanah, has hinged the success of Nigeria's Vision 2020 on qualitative and accessible education for the masses.
"And for the masses to have access to education, then Nigeria must embrace free education to the secondary school level in the minimum," Umanah said in a statement made available to journalists in Lagos yesterday.
He therefore commended Governor Godswill Akpabio for the free primary and secondary education in Akwa Ibom State, noting that the gesture would bring smile to the face of thousands of people of the state who had been shut out of school for lack of means.
The PDP governorship aspirant in the April 2007 general elections noted that most of the national leaders of today had the opportunity of either free education or fully funded studies up to the tertiary level within and outside Nigeria, and therefore should not deprive others of such benefit.
He said: "No nation can acheive greatness without putting some premium on education. Education is the best lagacy any leader can leave for its society. We have talked so much about vision 2020 without conceptualising it within the prism of educational opportunities.
"Not until we have placed the required emphasis on education can we make any meaningful progress as a nation. Education, given the resources available to the nation now, should be free, and that will chart a sure course for Nigeria to be among the best 20 economies of the world in 2020.
"The people need to be empowered. Not by the short-term microfinance schemes which are like putting the cart before the horse. Without the required financial education, for instance, any financial intervention to make life better for the people is bound to achieve little or no result. Hundreds of schemes that have gone under in the past are a clear pointer to the futility of the cart-before-the-horse approach."
He therefore commended Governor Godswill Akpabio for the free primary and secondary education in Akwa Ibom State, noting that the gesture would bring smile to the face of thousands of people of the state who had been previously shut out of school for lack of means.
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