Investment in education will lift Nigerians out of poverty — Dogara urges Govt

Rauf Oyewole, Bauchi

Former Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has said that investment in quality education rather than prioritising infrastructure would lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty.

The ex-lawmaker said that any serious government must prioritise education, saying that failure to educate the citizens, such a population would fail to compete and thrive in the future. “And that is a sure pathway to poverty,” he said.

Dogara said this in Mangu local government area of Plateau during the 50th anniversary of Nakam Memorial School, Panyam. He emphasised that education is the engine room for any meaningful development of a nation.

“Through proper education, the country will be lifted out of poverty,” Dogara said.

“If you are educated, even in the absence of infrastructure, the educated mind will produce the infrastructure that is lacking. 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.

“Unfortunately, that has been the case with Nigeria. But when you train your citizens and empower them with knowledge even in the absence of resources, they can turn their country into a first world. We’ve seen that with South Korea, we’ve seen it in several other countries, especially the Asian Tigers,” he added.

The former Speaker said that “Just as we were making our way here, we were lamenting about the fact 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. Just go back home and think about that. Ponder hard as to why it is the case. It may be because the literacy level in Kenya has gone very high up there, while in Nigeria, we are struggling to educate our citizens.’’

Dogara clarified that he is not opposed to infrastructural development but without education, the infrastructure would decay. “We need educated people to maintain the infrastructure and keep it functional. So, honestly, we should prioritise investment in education in this country otherwise we are simply wasting our time if we think we can make progress while keeping our people ignorant.”