By Ebele Orakpo

Knowledge, they say, is power and a nation, having majority of its citizens uneducated, cannot rise to its full potential. Currently, the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is alarming. Reports say Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world and this needs urgent attention. In this chat with Vanguard, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, Senior Pastor, Trinity House, and Managing Partner, SIAO, speaks on what Nigerian leaders must do to get education system right and lift people out of poverty.

Excerpts:

Education, a must

Every child in Nigeria must go to school up until secondary at the minimum. Then 70% of them must go to technical school or the university until we have 100% literacy then they can go ahead and do what they want with themselves as they now know right from wrong, good from bad and can have better hygiene.

Every woman must be educated

Every woman must be educated, empowered and enlightened because they are the ones who are going to train the children and they spend more time with the children. An illiterate mother looking after a child going to school may weigh the child down so there should be adult education for those who are interested.

Pastor Ituah Ighodalo

For those who are below 50 years, it is compulsory. You will be given five years within which to get your school certificate otherwise certain benefits will not accrue to you. These are the sort of policies we must have as a nation to lift ourselves out of poverty.

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Will it be free education?

Yes, as much as possible. It should be free or largely subsidized education so that people will know their left from their right, they can read and write and can take certain decisions.

It’s been alleged that the elite in the North don’t want the masses to be educated because that would mean empowering them…

I wouldn’t want to believe that but if it is true, it’s very unfortunate. It is in the interest of the elites that the people are educated; otherwise if they are not careful, the repercussions will be very serious in the future. Not only that, you can do the Dubai example.

Dubai example

In Dubai, most of the people are educated; not only that, they are empowered, not only are they empowered, they are exposed, comfortable and they leave their elite alone to continue to run the country. So what the Northern elite should be doing is to empower, expose and encourage their people, make sure they are comfortable and living decent lives. There is more than enough resource in the North to cater for every single northerner.

There is no uprising in Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia why? Even when Ghaddafi was then head of state of Libya, there was no uprising because the people were educated, enlightened, and comfortable; they were looked after. If people are looked after and well governed, they will keep voting back their people into power; nobody wants any stress or hassle.

If we have good government in Nigeria, what do I care? All I want is to do my business and pursue my purpose and add value to society. There are no uprisings in a lot of places. Singapore and Hong Kong are reasonably peaceful, even India to a large extent, because somehow, the government is trickling down to the people so a lot of people are minding their business but it is the elites that are killing themselves in India, fighting one another over small pieces of power. That is what the northern elite should do. If people can cope in India with their population, and the place is relatively safe, why not Nigeria? We shouldn’t shoot ourselves in the foot and it is every person’s right. We shouldn’t use ignorance to deny people their rights, people should put themselves in the shoes of others. That’s why the Bible says ‘do unto others as you would want them to do unto you.’ People don’t obey that simple law.