An Israeli researcher, Dr. Joseph Shevel said low investment in education by Nigerian politicians is attributed to the fact that the sector takes a long time to mature and getting returns requires patience.
In a keynote address he delivered at the third international conference organized by the Faculty of Social Sciences of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Shevel, who is the President of Galilee Institute, Israel and a member of Israeli Prime Minister’s committee on Social Policy, described education as the future for any nation because of its ripple effect on all sectors of human endeavour.
According to him, to be on the right path for development, a country’s budget for education must meet the basic international standard in line with the Dakar Recommendation. He expressed regret that while the recommendation was that budget for education must not be less than 5% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Nigeria’s budget for education has been hovering around 1.5%.
Shevel said the economic crisis facing Nigeria is an opportunity to go back to the basics, noting that the country’s problem is an interim situation that could be overcome with hard work and determination.
He said there was no reason for Nigeria to be among the world’s poorest nations going by the enormous resources she is endowed with.
“The rivers in Nigeria are enough for the country to have enough fish and for export. The land resources are enough to grow crops that can feed the whole of Africa. What is required is the will to do what is necessary,” Shevel said.
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15 Comments
The researcher is right! Because of the attribution of education takes longer than the other sectors (agriculture, fohealth, etc), it’s easy for our visionless leaders to take it seriously. You know, most leaders with eye-service mentality will only want to invest with what can be seen immediately and this is not right.
I am also appaled that our investment in education hovers around 1.5%! Really? 5% would have been better but 1.5%? It not wonder the country is the way it is…
The problem bedeviling the Nigerian government and its people are very simple. The Israeli researcher has simplified the situation, so I’ll admonish all of us to give him/her selves a ten minutes reflection on those salient but silent advice of the researcher. The situation at hand has gone beyond our usual rehoterics where our intellectual nonsense comes to fore with all manner of rubbish inputs from the so called Nigeria professors that could not handle just an ordinary election free and fair? We neither require the engagement of seventeen SANS, to defend if we had a school certificate or not, but now, we need thorough breeds with articulate knowledge on leadership irrespective of their state of origin. Nigerians, why NOT we try this two men and see the result in their first four years : Fmr. Govs. Peter Obi and Donald Duke = solution.
You’re very correct. I personally endorse Donald Duke