While expressing shock that nobody has been jailed as a
result of corrupt practices despite the persistent alarm from the
Federal Government about oil theft and several other corrupt
practices, he warned that Nigerians are tired of excuses and
may decide to take their destinies in their own hands.
The Governor who was the Guest lecturer at the 2013
convocation ceremony of Benson Idahosa University Benin
City, spoke at a lecture entitled: " Education and National
Development".
Represented by the Secretary to Edo State Government,
Professor Julius Ihonvbere, Oshiomhole noted that Nigerians
spend over N80 billion annually on medical tourism and treatment overseas "just as we put our kids in foreign and
African universities and this is with over N2 trillion lost to the
fuel subsidy cartel, not to mention how much is lost annually
to oil thieves".
According to him, "the list of imperfections, failures, problems and contradictions can go on and on. The important
issue today is how we can relate these issues to the importance of education and therefore national development.
Fleetingly, about people, it is, in the first instance, about cars,
skyscrapers, money in the bank, huge bureaucracies and those
things that may be symptoms of growth rather than
development.
"Our idea of development revolves round interest and exchange rates, import-export ratios, GNP per capita, even
GDP and foreign reserves. These may show that growth and
maybe accumulation are occurring; they do not show that
development that is people-focused, people-based and people-
driven is occurring".
He further stressed that "major companies like Unilever and
Dunlop are closing down, setting up shop in Ghana and
throwing thousands of families into unemployment, hunger
and social pressures. I believe we should just leave the issue
of power for another day after we fully understand what the
GENCOS, DISCOS,and TRANCOS are doing.
"Until leadership in Nigeria changes from the arrogance of
power, perpetual infighting, accommodating corruption and
impunity and finding excuses for failure to meet popular
expectations, I am afraid, most of our educational institutions,
private and public, would never meet world standards.
"With an unstable, non-hegemonic and unreliable state, frequent policy changes, an economy in crisis, and leaders
that use power and public funds for personal aggrandizement;
the university must prepare to engage the negative forces in a
changing global order and a reforming Nigeria.
"When education takes citizens in the opposite direction of
these values then it becomes dangerous to societal development. Infact, an educational system that produces
election riggers, intimidators, looters of the treasury, bad
drivers, disregard for communal values, lazy public servants,
kidnappers, inefficient and ineffective workers, political
opportunists, thugs, and bad politicians that visit pain on the
people and contaminate and undermine institutions of society
cannot be regarded as positive education" he stated.
Via: Vanguard
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