THE provision of a functional educational system should be the highest priority of government. This is more important than even addressing the short fall in the power/energy sector as an adequately developed human capacity is the greatest asset any country or people can have.

Nations can excel without mineral resources as long as they have a well-developed workforce, e.g. Japan, Israel, Singapore, etc; while nations that have huge mineral and income generating assets are often a painful disappointment in terms of development due to their often very high illiteracy levels. A well-educated populace will demand and expect good governance and can hardly be cajoled into mass destructive actions as we witnessed after the presidential elections.

Action steps
*This will entail an enrichment of current school curricula from the basic to the tertiary institutions to reflect current trend and needs in the economy to produce pupils who will be job creators rather than job seekers. Entrepreneurship development should become a major part of our educational development.

*It will also involve massive investments in technical and commercial post-primary institutions as against the blank secondary school system that is fashioned to passing on just knowledge and not necessarily badly needed industry skills. Kindly notice that there is a remarkable gap in the market for well educated middle level manpower in the manufacturing, automobile, building, oil and gas sectors of the economy.

Technical and commercial education is imperative for a developing company, a situation where foreigners head any successful construction, oil and gas company is not good for a developing nation. The current emphasis on mere importation and trading is detrimental to long-term real economic growth. Notice that wave making nations like China and India have very viable and thriving industrial base built on a competent and well skilled technical manpower.

*Faith based organisations must be encouraged to  build and manage schools as was the case before the ill-fated take-over of schools in the 1970s which eventually led to a significant rut in our educational systems as education is not only academic but is built on a good moral foundation. The development of the man must go hand in hand with the development of his mind!

*Most public schools are long overdue for massive renovation and up-grade; private schools which are better developed are out of the reach of the average man. In Lagos State where education is free, public schools are not attractive to the discerning public. Extra curricula activities must also be encouraged for the comprehensive development of the total being.

Therefore, inter-house and inter-school sports, debating activities, boys scout/girls guide activities must be reactivated to encourage healthy competition amongst schools. This healthy competitive spirit when developed in childhood is carried on to adulthood with great effect- notice that the very active pupils usually make very active and achieving adults. The up-grade of public schools at par with private schools will eventually reduce the cost of private schools.

*Remuneration for primary and secondary school teachers must be reviewed to attract capable hands.
Infrastructure concessioning and development: Our approach to infrastructure development needs to be radically reviewed. A situation where government is expected to provide all infrastructure across the country at all levels is obviously out-dated and has proved ineffective.

The private sector which is much more efficient in the provision of services must be encouraged to play a major role in the provision of much needed infrastructure, especially where these are proven to be viable investment. That way government can adequately focus its scarce resources in areas which will not be attractive to the private sector. Kindly notice that the government did not spend a dime for us to have an efficient telecoms sector but simply played a regulatory role through the NCC.

This same model, under several shades, can be applied in the development of other sectors of the economy. In this regard viable major inter-state roads, hospitals, urban water supply, housing, refineries, river basin authority/agricultural schemes, power plants, gas plants, schools, airports, seaports, train service, etc, can be concessioned to the private sector in build-operate-transfer, BOT; renovate-operate-transfer, ROT; rehabilitate-lease or rent and transfer, RLT; build-own and operate, BOO, schemes; this model can be  applied by the Federal, state and local governments.

The collateral effect of this will be that government will use its scarce resources to address issues that are not attractive to the private sector and ultimately achieve much more than it is doing presently. This model is the ultimate panacea to our very poor power problems. Public-private partnership, PPP, is the key to adequate infrastructure provision in the future.

A very well-developed regulatory and financial guideline will, however, be needed for this to succeed at the scale in which the desired impact will be achieved in the country. The pioneering effort of Lekki Concession Company needs to be the object of critical study and appraisal for possible implementation in other areas and sectors of the economy.

Health care development- A healthy nation is invariably a wealthy nation and prevention has always been more effective and cheaper than curing. Our emphasis in the health sector should not only be in the area of primary health care but more importantly on preventive healthcare.

The efforts at curing malaria with more effective drugs are commendable but it is ultimately better and more efficient to eliminate the female anopheles mosquito which spreads malaria. Our embarrassingly high infant and maternal mortality rate can be comprehensively reduced by adequate ante-natal and post- natal care which can be free in the rural and urban-poor areas. Health insurance ought to be given more credence so that healthcare is made available for the poor, elderly and students.

The office of sanitary inspectors should be revived as some of these health challenges can be addressed by mere sanitation. Health education in schools and public media should be geared at teaching basic preventive and first aid measures, thereby reducing the probability of ill-health.

This will eventually reduce the pressure on our tertiary health care institutions which should be so equipped that there will be no need to fly people abroad for treatment. As part of measures towards enhancing preventive healthcare the provision of potable pipe-borne water needs to be reviewed as water borne diseases can be checkmated therein, in this regard and as earlier proposed the provision of urban water supply can be concessioned to the private sector while government concerns itself with provision in the rural areas.

Mr. DAVID OCHU,  a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.