We must declare state of emergency in education sector - Gbajabiamila

Femi Gbajabiamila 2

Femi Gbajabiamila

Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, at the weekend in Lagos said that the time had come to declare a state of emergency in the education sector of Nigeria.

Gbajabiamila said this in his keynote address as special guest at the occasion of the 80th anniversary lecture of the Crescent Bearers, a Lagos based Islamic Organization founded in 1939 for the purpose of development of the Muslim child through education.

House of Representatives Speaker, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila (2nd left); INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu (2nd right), Alhaji Lateef Femi Okunnu, SAN (first from right) and Prof Rahman Ade Bello at the event.

He decried the state of education in the country, adding that, “It is important that we all join hands together to address the decline and rot in the education sector if we want to give our children the best education can offer.”

The Speaker said education was not a privilege but a fundamental right of the Nigerian child and, therefore, obligatory for all, particularly the government to provide.

Other eminent Nigerians who were at the occasion to discuss the parlous state of education in the country are Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Dr Wale Babalakin (SAN); Chief Bode George; former Attorney General of Lagos State, Alhaja Wonu Folami; among others.

General Secretary of Crescent Bearers, Mr Oluwakemi Pinheiro SAN, also the Master of Ceremonies at the event

Founding fathers of the association include former Chief Justice of Nigeria, the late Justice Atanda Fatayi-Williams; Mobolaji Odunewu; S.M Onigbanjo; IAS Adewale; Ola Aboaba; and N. A Kekere-Ekun.

Others are M.R.B Ottun; R.A Gbajumo; Ade Thanni; K.B Shomade; T.A.B Oki; K.A Fashola; S.A Olorunnisola; and Hamzat Balogun.

According to the Chairman, Alhaji Wahab Babatunde Dabiri, ” the primary objective of the body is promotion of acquisition of western education by Muslims for their collective improvement and upwardly social mobility in a colonial society where Muslims experienced marginalization”.

Also the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Crescent Bearers, Alhaji Lateef Femi Okunnu SAN, said that “at the time all the founding fathers of the Crescent Bearers were born, there was not a single Muslim Primary or Secondary School in Lagos, or elsewhere in Nigeria. But like bigger Islamic organizations of that era, the Bearers fostered lofty ideals of Islam towards educating the Muslim child, and also in defence of Islam”.

The INEC chairman, Prof Yakubu who delivered the annual lecture went down memory lane on the history of education in Nigeria. The lecture was titled ” Education as a resource for growth and development of a nation: The Nigerian case”.

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Babalakin in his contribution said that Nigerian Universities should be able to fund themselves as government no longer had the capacity to do so.

“The mindset of the universities is from the oil boom era where they believe government must fund everything”, he said, adding that if government must declare education as a fundamental human right as canvassed by the Speaker, it must be ready to fund it, and not do so only by word of mouth.

According to him, Nigerian youths face the danger of not knowing what good education is, adding that anyone in in the country not in the late 40s to mid 50s age bracket cannot claim to have enjoyed good education in Nigeria.

Former governor of Ondo State and a political chieftain, Chief Olabode George, quoted the popular saying that ” education makes a people to govern but absolutely impossible to deceive”, adding that rather than talking alone about the troubles in the sector, there must be a way out in terms of solutions.

Alhaja Folami said the fundamental problem of education was the content. “We produce graduates that cannot adapt to modern challenges. They therefore roam the streets looking for 9-5 jobs.

She cited modern technological inventors like Facebook and Alibaba who might not have had university education.

Folami, therefore, stressed the need to “strengthen our technical education”.

She said most Chinese and Indians working in Nigeria were only technical people who never had university education, but yet doing well in Nigeria.

The Crescent Bearers include former Managing Director, Habib Bank, Mr Akin Kekere-Ekun; Chairman Calverton Group, Mr A. M Makanjuola; former Attorney General of Lagos State, Adeniji Kazeem SAN; and Mr Gbolahan Elias SAN.

Others include Mr Uthman Oluwakemi Pinheiro SAN, who was also the Master of Ceremonies of the occasion; Hon. Segun Oki, an aviation consultant; and a host of others.

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