BY PROVIDENCE OBUH
Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, last week, expressed concern over the country’s huge dependence on oil resources for its revenue generation.

Fashola put forward his worry while delivering a keynote address at the  Annual Luncheon of Government College Ughelli Old Boys Association (GCUOBA) in Lagos.

He said, “OftentimesI wonder where Nigeria would be today if we had no oil for which to derive this constant flow of foreign exchange, we now squander shamelessly in all manner of imports, perhaps we would now be in abject poverty.”  This is in spite of the country being the first in Africa to strike oil and earn foreign exchange in large quantity, yet it is completely incapacitated, depending on the rest of the world for shoes, underwears, food and even for its entire service.

“Why is it that even as a 51- year-old oil-producing country, we rely on the rest of the world for petrol to drive our imported cars, diesel to fuel our imported generators and kerosene to cook our imported rice? “

Speaking on the state of the nation’s educational institutions, he said: “Nigeria is fully dependent on others for virtually everything which is due to our error in education. We have to go back to our educational institutions and get things right before it is too late.”

To this end, he pointed out that there are no less than 20,000 Nigerian medical professionals working outside the country, stating that many Nigerians are doing research, innovation and invention abroad because their prosperity is assured there.

“Countries that ignore matters of education are subjugated to the rank of perpetual consumers, always importing goods and services including food and education when they can, and suffering literally in the midst of plenty when they cannot. When you look at countries that are good today, they are as good as the educational institutions they have put in place.”

We all know how universities in most developed economies fight hard to keep fund and retain best brains from all nooks and crannies of the world.”

On the Lagos State University (LASU) tuition fee hike, he said that “no nation offers university education for N25,000, decrying that even the fare to go and study abroad is more than the fee being paid in LASU.

He explained: “Every time you send children to schools in the UK, you are to pay about N3 million and on reaching the UK, they will pay the British cab driver who takes them to their destination and then pay tuition to British lecturers.”

Any leading nation is as a result of its education system.

Lagos State Governor, commend the reunion effort of the Government College Ughelli Old Boys, showing delight to the old boys for an initiative which offers an opportunity to the young again. “Government College Ughelli is one of those colleges of stature for which we can justifiably be proud of.”

The Chairman of the event, General Ike Nwachukwu, in his remarks noted that it is quite encouraging that a school that produced some of the best academicians, administrators and businessmen found it necessary to come together under the auspices of Old Boys Association to contribute to the onward movement of the Nigerian nation through qualitative education.

Nwachukwu disclose that young people between the ages of 18-40 years which form about 75 percent of the country’s working population are ill prepared for work.

He said “the basic principle in every Childs life is education; therefore it should be encouraged to prepare young minds to take over the leadership of the country.”