Mr Ozekhome, who was the guest lecturer at the event, said Nigeria is a failed state
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was full of apologies at the convocation ceremony in Afe Babalola University Thursday after "bad roads" caused the former president to arrive late to the event.
Mr Obasanjo, who was president between 1999 and 2007, expressed displeasure at the deplorable condition of the roads in the country, describing it as an impediment to the movements of citizens in the pursuit of their businesses.
He was attending the Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti (ABUAD)'s 10th convocation ceremony.
"Kindly accept my apologies for coming late to this ceremony," said Mr Obasanjo, 85, who travelled to the event from his home in Abeokuta, about 300 kilometres away.
"I thought if I leave Abeokuta at 4.30 a.m. that I will get to ABUAD at 10 a.m. But when we got to the middle of the journey, the conditions of our roads were bad.
"We started asking which was the best route to take to get to Ado Ekiti. It was tough before we could get here, kindly pardon me."
In his speech, the former president praised the university's founder, Afe Babalola, for replicating and surpassing in ABUAD, what he did at the University of Lagos when he appointed him the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council.
Mr Babalola served as the pro-chancellor of the University of Lagos between 2000 and 2007.
Mike Ozekhome, a human rights lawyer, was the guest lecturer at the occasion. He spoke on the topic: The Place of Education in a Crisis-Ridden Nigeria.
He described the abduction of children in schools, banditry, and endless borrowing as evils now killing Nigeria's education system and portends signs of a "failed" state.
He called for proactive and aggressive actions in tackling "corruption, poverty, insecurity, commercialisation, mediocrity, illegality, deprivation, cultism, poor funding," if Nigeria could be brought back to sanity.
Mr Ozekhome warned against the commercialisation and poor budgetary allocation to education, saying allotting 7.7% to education, rather than the prescribed 20-25%, may continually dim Nigeria's future and create despondency for many citizens.
"We have gotten to a terrifying situation where armed bandits and kidnappers now hoist flags on Nigerian soil, collect taxes from Nigerians; and give them identity cards and passes," he said.
"They challenge Nigeria's sovereignty. Some hold school children hostage and demand from their parents, bags of salt, rice, maize, millet, and beans; baskets of tomatoes, pepper, tatashe, and miango hot pepper.
"They also demand for jerry cans of palm oil, vegetable oil; Maggie cubes, ugba, and other condiments. These are necessary to feed the children of traumatized Nigerians held firmly in their gulag, to keep them alive for payment of enforced ransom.
"Herdsmen invade homes and farms freely. They kill, maim, rape and pillage. The government appears helpless. When non-state actors are more powerful than the state actors, when we keep on borrowing endlessly, if these are not symptomatic of a failed state, then tell me what a failed state is.
"These alarming figures were corroborated by the United Nations International Children's Fund in a statement to mark the International Day of Education the 24th day of January 2022. According to the world body, In 2021, there were 25 attacks on schools, 1,440 children were abducted, and 16 children killed.
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"In March 2021, no fewer than 618 schools were closed in six northern states of Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, Niger and Yobe over the fear of attack and abduction of pupils and members of staff. The closure of schools in these states significantly contributed to learning losses for over two months."
Mr Babalola in his speech at the lecture regretted that Nigeria's total debt profile as of March 2022 was N41.60trillion, saying the federal government and "patriotic Nigerians" must take proactive measures to offset the debt.
He suggested that Nigerians, who are private jet owners, proprietors of universities, all presidential aspirants, owners of multinational companies, and successful individuals should contribute millions to defray the debt.
