EXECUTIVE Director of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation and Chairman, African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc, Ambassador (Dr) Olatokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu, has said that the future belongs to nations that prioritise the education of their citizens over mineral resources.
Ambassador Awolowo-Dosumu made this statement in her goodwill message at the 2021 edition of the Obafemi Awolowo Free Education Order Lecture series organized by the Faculty of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, on Thursday.
The Theme of the event was ‘Awolowo Legacies in Education and Policies: Enduring Lessons for Contemporary Nigeria.’ Quoting copiously from books and speeches of Chief Awolowo as well as other sources, Ambassador Awolowo-Dosumu noted that education and honing of skills are the most valuable and renewable resources in the world today.
While noting “how extraordinarily visionary and prescient Chief Awolowo was,” in his view and actions prioritizing education, Awolowo-Dosumu pointed at today’s fast-changing world and its knowledge-driven economy.
“This will increasingly be the case as the future unfolds – a fast-paced world in which oil may well lose so much of its value that failure to plan adequately for alternative sources of revenue is likely to lead to dire consequences,” she said.
Chief Awolowo, she noted, stressed that “at every stage of human development or advancement, the moving spirits are invariably the men of education, science and technology. The more of them a country has, the brighter are its prospects for rapid economic progress for social justice and for political stability.”
She further declared that human development is the bedrock of Chief Awolowo’s legacy while adding that “the future belongs to innovators and digitilisation.”
She said that Nigeria’s children would compete in the modern world if we “update our educational curriculum appropriately and increase our investment, substantially, in the sector.
“Elsewhere in the world, the school curricula are already being updated to include training in innovative thinking and problem-solving. Nigerian children must be adequately prepared to cope in a 21st century world where technological innovation will be unleashed at a dizzying pace.
“In addition, there is a distinct possibility that in future, oil will no longer enjoy its current pride of place in the global economy. The consequences of this on a barely literate, unprepared and largely unskilled populace in Nigeria will only be ameliorated by our commitment, from now, to human development. That is the bedrock of the Awo legacy,” Ambassador AwolowoDosumu said.
Peace in S/West is Awo’s legacy –Bisi Akande
In his speech, the guest speaker, Chief Bisi Akande, said Chief Awolowo was an exceptional role model in Nigeria, noting the relative peace in the South West today as one of his legacies. “Today, Nigeria is in security crises. Despite all that were done to denigrate Awolowo’s educational ideology and to obliterate his people-oriented performances in office by the military administration and by his political adversaries, the impact of his policies remains indelible wherever he and his political disciples operated.
“While the people of the North and the East of Nigeria whose leaders then conspired against all these Awolowo’s innovative tendencies in governance are now at wars against one another and smarting under the constant siege of unknown gunmen, bandits, and terrorists, the then Awolowo’s western region from Lagos to Asaba is now, with the multiplier effects over time, so relatively more peaceful to serve as the refuge and to become the safe haven into which the insurgency-ravaged other Nigerians are now streaming to hide and to hibernate and, also, to flood for security, protection and business prosperity,” Chief Akande said.
Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, in his own remarks, stated that “Awo’s legacies in education, politics, prudent management of human and material resources could be several topics for Postgraduate students in the Departments of History, Continued Education, Political Science, International Relations and, of course, Economics.”
He called on Nigerian politicians across party divides to emulate the selfless nature of the late sage adding that if Awolowo was allowed to govern Nigeria as its president, we would have surpassed some so called developed countries.
“I always find it difficult to refer to Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the past tense because of his immense and innumerable contributions to the overall development of this country. If he were to be the president of this country, by now, no Nigerian would think of seeking greener pastures outside. Instead, this country would have been flooded by immigrants because the pastures that would have been created by Chief Awolowo would be the greenest.”.
Professor Ogunbodede then admonished “those who are using the name of Chief Awolowo in gaining political popularity to also be like him in action and in character.”
He appreciated the Awolowo family for sustaining the legacies of the sage.
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