A former Presidential Aspirant under the National Rescue Movement party and an educationist, Prof. Benedicta Egbo has identified civic infidelity as the major problem of Nigeria and not corruption, contrary to popular opinion.
Egbo, who spoke during an Annual Lecture in her honor and the Public Presentation of her Book entitled, “Education and Sustainable Development in 21st Century Nigeria,” on Thursday, called on Nigerians to unite to build a better country.
The Canada-based Emeritus Professor of Education, however, admitted that endemic corruption was part of Nigeria’s albatross, however argued that if the citizens in Nigeria are patriotic, they will unite and build bridges for peace and national development for the common good of everyone.
“If you are patriotic and you love your nation, you will not want to engage in corruption. Patriots understand that the country’s commonwealth is not a personal asset to be converted to private use. Similarly, patriots do not exploit diversity based on primordial sentiments and loyalties,” she stated.
She stated however, that the country’s challenges are not insurmountable adding that the reason for the lecture is for Nigerians to collectively unite and discuss ways to make a difference in the country.
“This august gathering is premised on the belief that our socio-economic and political challenges are not intractable. They can be changed because Nigeria has so much talent, resources and potential.
“Moreover, I am convinced that with the right policies, governance and architecture, strong institutions, and a peaceful thriving economic environment, Nigeria can once again live up to its nickname as the giant of Africa and also become an exceptional respected member among the committee of Nations,” she said.
While speaking about her book, Egbo stated that the book covers a wide range of topics in education and sustainable development within the context of a competitive 21st Century global arena that demands innovation, creativity, adaptive skill, multiple literacies, including knowledge of ICTs, environmental stewardship and responsibility.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Planning Committee of the event, Dr Alfred Chiakor, stated that the choice of the public lecture could not have come at a better time, considering the myriad of challenges mushrooming at different locations around the country.
He expressed hope that the stakeholders in the lecture will do justice to the purpose of the event which he noted was to find solutions not only to the problems of the day, but to join hands in building a nation that fulfills the collective dreams and yearnings of “our generation, and to bequeath a legacy to generations yet unborn”.
While delivering the Public Lecture a professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow, Centre for Democracy and Development, Prof. Adele Jinadu, accused politicians of making it difficult for the election body in the country to conduct credible elections.
Speaking on the Theme, ‘Reclaiming Nigeria’s Future: Strategic Frameworks for achieving transformation change,” Jinadu called on past leaders of the country to speak up against the ills in the country, adding that continuing to remain silent will spell doom for the country.
Also speaking, a Prominent activist, Barr. Dotun Hassan, called for immediate and total educational restructuring in order to drive holistic development in the country.
Hassan emphasised the need for a more comprehensive approach to education, stating that the current system is too focused on academic performance and neglects other important aspects of development such as emotional intelligence, morals, critical thinking, among others.
He said, “We believe that Mr. President has come up with a renewed hope agenda in which education is part of his vision and a bus stop on his table.
“We want to use this opportunity to let him know that he needs to come up with a national plan on education to increasing the budgetary allocation to education to 35 per cent to ensuring the curriculum in the educational system is reviewed and ensuring proper administration and administrative ordering whereby no more ASUU strike, no more NASU strike and we believe that the best way we can achieve this is through restructuring.
“The constitution of the country is long overdue. We are not talking about a constitutional review , we need a new people’s constitution whereby issues of education will have a life of its own and of a proper planning and the issue of security would be properly outlined.
“And other issues that are bedeviling this country we can all review and revisit proper documents. We have gotten documents in the past , we have had the Confab report, we have had to review the constitution in the past so there is no need for a new constitution.
“What the president must do is to come up with a presidential fiat by ensuring he rights the national assembly on the need to reconstruct the constitution based on existing proposals in view of of the Confab report of previous administration, in view of the SDG goals and proper document and even the 1963 constitution needs to be merged together. We can improve a lot if we have the right constitution.”
