Senator representing Bayelsa East constituency in the National Assembly, Ben Murray-Bruce has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in the education sector.
Failure to do so, according to him, would put Nigeria at risk of a backward slide into the ranks of the least educated countries in the World.
Murray-Bruce made this known in the latest video of his Common Sense Series posted on his Twitter page.
Murray-Bruce identified 10 countries described by the World Economic Forum as the most educated, namely Finland, New Zealand, Australia, United States of America, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland and Singapore, as also the most peaceful and stable nations in the world; while the most uneducated countries, listed by the same body as Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Chad, Niger, Guinea, Benin Republic, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Senegal, were not surprisingly ranked among some of the most unstable in the world.
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He also argued that Nigeria, with a population that is growing much faster than her economy, ought to replace oil, which is the country’s main export and foreign exchange earner, with human capital.
The senator said, “The time has come for us Nigerians to realise that a large population may not automatically be an asset. However, a well-educated large population would most likely turn out to be an asset. But, if a population is largely illiterate, then it is a liability.
“Unfortunately, Nigeria does not have enough skilled manpower. This is a time-bomb going into the next decade. It is not a coincidence that the most uneducated and deprived places are also the most violence-prone and epicentre of terror. Terror and violence grows where education is low.
"The only way to do that is by investing massively in education. For this reason, I am, therefore, calling on Mr. President to immediately declare a state of emergency in the education sector so that Nigeria can get the 11 million out-of-school children, also known as Al-Majirin, off the streets and into the classrooms.
“The failure on the part of the Federal Government to block all conduit pipes leading to unnecessary wastage of Nigeria’s natural resources may result in the classification of the country among the least educated countries in the world and more socio-economic problems in the future.”
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