Invest in education to compete with emerging world, Dogara tells FG
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has charged the federal government, wealthy individuals and corporate organisations to invest heavily in education in order to stand the chance of competing with the emerging world.
Dogara stated this while giving his speech as chairman of the 50th anniversary ceremony of Nakam Memorial School in Mangu local government area of Plateau state last Sunday.
He said, “For any government to be termed serious, it must prioritise education because if we don’t educate our citizens, there is no way they can compete and thrive in the future that is unfolding before our very eyes. And that is sure pathway to poverty.
According to him, if Nigerians are educated, even in the absence of infrastructure, the educated mind will produce the infrastructure that is lacking, stressing that, “Those that are educated will build the schools that we don’t have, they will build the roads and generate and distribute the electricity that we never have enough for domestic use and industrial production.
“As a matter of fact, the resources in this country are humongous, especially here on the Plateau. When we are talking about endowment by God, we have a lot of minerals buried beneath our earth surface but the truth is that we need education to bring them out. Where you don’t have qualitative education, both the human beings and the resources that are buried under your ground will decay.”
Noting that the literacy level in Kenya has surpassed that of Nigeria, Dogara explained that, “although Kenya doesn’t have our size in terms of population and they don’t have oil and much of the resources that we have here in Nigeria; it is shocking that Kenya’s budget is higher than that of Nigeria. That means Kenya has managed to build more wealth than Nigeria.”
The former lawmaker commended Nakam Memorial School management for the strides so far recorded and admonished the founders to remain focused in order to break the jinx in the area.
