Vincent Ujumadu
4 December 2008
Awka — FORMER minister of education and Vice President of the World Bank, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili has said that education remains the key for quality human capital development needed to reshape the emerging world economy.
Speaking at the third Anambra Development Summit organized by the League of Anambra Professionals at the Women Development Centre, Awka, Ezekwesili explained that qualitative education helps to build an informal, virile and progressive society necessary for the growth of democracy.
While commending the administration of Governor Peter Obi for his interest in education and simultaneous development of all sectors of the economy, Ezekwesili urged the state government to maintain the focus on education to explore its comparative advantage of using it to develop the necessary skills and competence to harness technological potentials and necessary knowledge that would stimulate sustainable growth in other key sectors.
According to her, time has come for the state to put off the toga of marginalization as it has the potentials to become a major player in the Nigeria project and emerge as one of the modern economies of the world, especially with the huge agricultural endowment, steady growth of the non oil sector and decline of the oil sector.
She stressed that economic growth was a necessary precondition to tackle poverty and called for specific macro-economic reforms that would open up frontiers of opportunities for job creation.
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My name is Dr. Sampson. I am an international scholar at the Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, State of Israel. Before now, I and a specialist in Public Policy and Management, Management Institute of Canada. I took time to describe myself because we are not supposed to be annonymous in facing the issues of national interest. It might interest you to know that I am a medical doctor by trainig and a Nigerian and will still remain Nigerian. I believe in Nigeria. Now, education. Which education are we talking about?. There are many facets to this argument. You cannot give what you do not have. Education is supposed to be a legacy and an empowerment, but if a father will give the type of education in Nigeria, I will take it but I will never appreciate him. This is not to mean that I am persimistic of where we are going but a warning at the interim. Dr. Ezekwesili has a lot of question to answer to the teaming Nigerian Children for not giving education the needed Paradigm shift despite all political will and support given her by Obasanjo. Which Budget are we talking about?. Why blame Yar'adua and budget or Finance Ministry and all those stories?. Is everything money?. You have to make ground for money to be invested. Being a well articulated advocate would have been enough for Oby to return our education to Global scene. Advocacy was used by ex-president to secure debt cancellation that yielded all the DRGs that every sector is enjoying including education. My view is that all Nigerians are in a hurry. People want to be rich overnight. People want Nigeria to look like London overnight. This is what is obtainable in a country where majority are illitrates which comes round again to our educational sytem that I do not want to talk about. Blame is usually an instrument of operation where incompetence and endemic corruption reigns. The blame from whoevere is because he does not know his onions in the Managerment of Financial affairs of the Government, even if he has spent the whole of his life in Finance Ministry because interest and commitment are key issues here. People talk anyhow in Nigeria and go free because they do not understand what government policies are all about. They do not understand the power of the 'political elites' who sit far but controls the government. It is everywhere. They distract government attention whenever she settles down for business. Look at what is happening in Jos. Look at Niger Delta, the Senate alone is a big issue. The Senate is more of bunch of half baked and none to near partial educated 'Honourable members'. Could you believe that one Senator from one of the Igbo constituencies stood up to argue that the Insecticide Treated Nets being distributed by government did not reach his house in the village without knowing the policy restrict it to children under 5 years of age and pregnant women and none was in his compound by then. I quickly taught him that policy without wasting 'a' time. I have passion in Nigeria. It is still giant of Africa. I am fully respected here in Hadassah because of my intelligence as a Nigerian. As an international schoolar and a public policy reseacher, that is the same thing in the whole middle East countries. The power of 'elites' cannot be undermined. Nigeria is a difficult scenario. Even the indefatigable 'Barak Obama' will find it difficult. America may be easier because of high litracy level. Please, lets not blame anybody. Lets give Mr. President the time and patient. I have seen his strategies and they are of international best practices. The Policies will lead us to the promise of the imminent globalisation with market driven economy in an era of technological advancement with hightech communications. Nigeria might still be in a problem because we will then understand what Oby Ezekwesili did or failed to do. The illitreates cannot cope with the globalisatio. Sampson Hadassah, Ein Karem Jerusalem (Holy Land, Israel.
Bravo!! Madam. That is exactly my point in responding to Shamsudeen's blame-game for the delay in presenting the 2009 Budget. Given the paltry sum allocated to Education in the 2009 budget, it seems like the Presidency still don't get it even though it is aware that the quality of products from our educational system is not only dragging us backwards, it has also affected the current administration's output and the main cause of the previous and current riots and deaths we witnessed in Jos. If the Presidency is intentionally playing this game so as to keep Nigerians ignorant and relegated to perpetual fiefdom, then the Senate ought to correct that by throwing the entire 2009 budget back at the Presidency to rework it until adequate provision is earmarked for our schools and teachers including health care because a healthy body is a healthy mind that will not take nonsense from a corrupt and indolent govt.