By Razak Owolabi
Prof. Razaq Abubakre, a former Vice-Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, has urged Nigeria’s President – elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu to transform the country through educational development.
Abubakre, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said this would help Tinubu meet the hope of the electorate.
He said that education is one of the most critical areas the president-elect urgently needs to address.
“There is an urgent need for a major overhaul and revamp of the education sector in Nigeria.
“While UNESCO has advised that 26 per cent of a nation’s budget should be spent on education, a more critical focus for the incoming government should be innovative, strategic and prudent in utilisation of whatever resource is allocated to the sector.
“The resources that are allocated should be judiciously invested in ventures that will spur exponential return on investment that will assure financial independence and forestall perennial and avoidable industrial action,” Abubakre said.
The Professor Emeritus said that an inclusive education system that supports more citizens taking part in learning will reduce; out-of-school children syndrome and stem crime as well as terrorism.
Abubakre said education should be the bedrock of sustainable and high levels of growth in Nigeria by developing essential and modern skill sets that address societies’ needs globally.
“The next government should revamp the secondary and tertiary education curricula to enhance entrepreneurial and technological skillsets.
“Institutions must ensure that competencies such as virtual and augmented reality, the internet of things, quantum computing, blockchain technology and programming should be at the core of every degree.
“For example, as is the case at Cambridge, MIT and Harvard, Nigerian universities could explore having resident entrepreneurs (successful owners of businesses who are volunteers) who will serve as mentors to students and help commercialise ideas,” he said.
Abubakre said that having technology and entrepreneurship as the backbone of her education could be a source of comparative and competitive advantage regionally and globally for Nigeria.
He observed that, many global multinational companies are outsourcing and offshoring their services today.
Abubakre said the nation could thus be the technology hub, where Nigerian technology businesses in; fintech, software development, customer relationship management and entertainment could be better integrated into the global value chain.
“Successful transformation of the educational sector in partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry off Science and Technology will unleash a myriad of opportunities for the nation.
“A fit-for-purpose educational system will spur quality jobs, increase citizens’ earnings and encourage a national culture of lifelong learning, improve life expectancy, enhance well-being, and boost Nigerians’ standard of living and quality of life,” he said.
On the integrity of the February 25 Presidential elections, he said there has been widespread debate about its transparency and many have focused on technology.
“While I empathise with those whose candidates lost and those who raised concerns about the glitches, I wish to emphasise that while one is not justifying these errors, these technology bugs happen even in bigger multi-billion dollar projects.
“For example, the Obama care website in the USA crashed when it was first launched, the internet behemoth Google was down on the 16th of October, 2022, and Twitter was down some days ago.
“Though this Presidential and National Assembly election had some skirmishes,
it is arguably one of the most transparent elections since the return to democracy of Nigeria,” Abubakre said.
He said the election was almost devoid of cash inducement, and the people’s will appeared to be respected, with significant upsets in Katsina, Lagos, Kaduna and Nasarawa, which has the ruling party in control of these states.
According to him, the task ahead is for the President-elect to harmonise the nation and hit the ground running by addressing the citizen’s lofty expectations.
Prof. Abubakre, who was also the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ilorin from 2001 to 2003, is a member of Agba Osun (Elders of Osun) from 2021 to date. (NAN)
