Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one of the founding fathers of Nigeria, knowing the power of education to transform an individual, and its potency to birth a great nation, says:
“In order to attain to the goal of economic freedom and prosperity, Nigeria must do certain things as a matter of urgency and priority. It must provide free education at all levels and free health facilities for the masses of it citizens.”
Government at all levels must wake up this time. For the time calls for maximum seriousness and purposeful executions of citizens oriented projects. I believe we can have our streets tarred with gold, and our walls ornamented with diamonds if the vast untapped reasources buried in this continent are unearthed and utilised for purpose of the people.
We can’t talk about development without bringing education to the front burner. Education must be of great interest to governments in Africa. If possible, a major restructuring must be embraced to ensure beautiful future for African children. Our governments must beginning to see education as one of the basic tools, that will champion unhindered development.
It’s highly recommended that governments ensure all schools( both public and privates) are opened as soon as authorities issue the order for the re-opening of our schools, and that all children at all levels( from primary to tertiary) must return back to school. For this to materialise, dogged willingness is needed to rollout more scholarship aids, more grants, and more parliative for schools, especially privates. This is needed to aggressively extinct the poverty and under-development debilitating Africa. Tirfe Mammo would go so far to say:
“Poverty is generally underdevelopment and underdevelopment, in its turn, is associated with many factors. One among these factors is the level of education. The gaps in literacy level between Africa and the better-off countries are remarkable.” [1]
It is no news that several parents have lost their means of livelihood, many more will still follow suit due to the devastating impact of Coronal Virus (Covid-19) on the economy. Be that as it may, a massive bail out plan must be rolled out to create soothing effects for parents. This intervention will reduce the spate of crimes and criminality, and surpress increase rate of depressions.
The system of extortion, which we have come to know by its influence as ‘Neocolonialism’, is basically structured to sustain the ill-gotten wealth, during pre-colonial slave trade expedition and colonialism that came afterwards, to sustain the future of the countries involved in this extortion. Our governments must be equally interested in the future of our children. The Post-colonial chaotic influence plaguing Africa is as a result of weak educational systems. African States must be purposeful in reengeneering its educational system. Our academic system should be remapped to lead to mental revolution, which will usher in a major systemic reformation.
Coupled with this urgent proposed educational intervention programme should be aggressive plan to make food and a working health system available. The UN, World Population (1992) statistics, Africa has a large and industrious population base of about six hundred million (10 percent of world’s population ), of which well over 65 percent are economically active (under 65 years of age). The continent covers 23 percent of world’s landmass having over six hundred and twenty million hectares of arable land i.e. enough per capital for cultivation.
It is believed that every other sectors of the economy will geometrically improve when African Member States prioritised Education, food, and health.
The hope for a better tomorrow grows along with our children. Let’s secure this hope.
God bless Africa.
[1] Tirfe Mammo, The Paradox of Africa’s Poverty, 1999, p.32.
By: OLUWANBEPELUMI Adiv Pelumi-Folarin
‘PELUMI Adiv Pelumi-Folarin, is a Leadership Development Expert of over 10 years active experience. He’s the president of Shining Africans Testimony; A Lagos based NGO. Pelumi is passionate about the wellness of African Continent.
