By Obiabin Onukwugha
Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Austin Alegeh SAN, has stated that education is key to driving Nigeria’s economic growth.
Alegeh also stated that such issues as early marriages, subsistence farming, lack of training training, street trading where kids who are supposed to go to school are in the streets selling pure water, were contributory factors to lack of access to education in the country.
He also identified poverty, infrastructural deficit, manpower, teaching curriculum and Methodology, funding, and what he described as modern trend, where parents send their children abroad or to privates schools as other key contributing factors to Nigeria’s economic backwardness.
Alegeh, SAN, made the submissions while presenting a Keynote Address at the 41st Plenary of Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA), in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital at the weekend.
Speaking on the theme: “Education is the key Foundation for Building Legacies and our United Future”, the former NBA President emphasized that education is that critical ingredient that drives growth and development.
He said: “For there to be national growth and development there must be political stability, for there to be political stability the people must be educated to make educated choices at the elections. When illiterates go to vote they don’t know which is PDP, which is APC so what happens is that the party agents then helps them to vote and who will they help them to vote, their own party. So without education, you have a voting populace that cannot make informed decisions. If they cannot make those informed decisions they then cannot have good leadership and if they cannot have good leadership they can never have growth or development.
“We need to have that sense of a common heritage from education and knowledge. It is that lack of knowledge, that lack of education that enables the divisive elements who benefit from tightening our divisions to succeed.”
While noting that Unity Schools have produced enduring friendships, Alegeh recommended that there is an urgent need for governments across Nigeria to invest and fund education massively as education is the single most important factor in ensuring growth, development and unity.
“So without education we are nothing. Education is everything. For there to be development is education,” he added.
In his goodwill message, Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Dr Ovy Chinedum Chukwuma, thanked USOSA for their contributions to educational growth in Nigeria.
The commissioner, who described the theme of the event as apt, called for the plenary to produce a policy statement that can drive educational development in Nigeria.
He said the Governor Siminilayi Fubara-led administration in Rivers State focuses on three key areas viz; education, agriculture and health.
Earlier in his welcome Address, the President-General of USOSA, Michael Magaji, emphasised the need for government to address issues of education, especially at the primary and secondary levels.