The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili

  • 2019: Ezekwesili promises hope, new nation

    Presidential candidate of Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili on Monday said she would give a new direction to the country and put it on the path of progress, if elected.

    Ezekwesili restated the promise while speaking to party faithful and residents during her campaign in Lagos.

    She said the country needed a new direction, promising to make it great by bringing about the needed change.

    “ We will give our country a new direction. We will restore hope. We will disrupt the present narrative of hopelessness and put the country on the path of prosperity.

    “A working Nigeria is a possibility, we will make the country great,“she said.

    The Presidential candidate said she would pursue robust reforms and implement the right policies to revamp the economy.

    She said it was possible for the country to achieve great economic strides of China, promising to implement result-oriented actions to transform the country’s economy.

    Ezekwesili decried the high rate of poverty in the country and its attendant problems.

    The ex-minister promised to lift 80 million Nigerians out of poverty, if elected.

    She said she would support the private sector to create jobs and invest massively in agriculture to  drive development.

    The ACPN candidate said she would diversify the economy and open up critical sectors for increased revenue.

    Ezekwesili described education as the new oil, pledging to invest in human capital to drive the country`s development.

    She also promised to invest in infrastructure and digitalise government for ease of government-people transactions.

    Ezekwesili pledged to run an office of the citizens that would listen and give hope to all Nigerians of different backgrounds.

    She urged Nigerians to trust her with their votes, saying together with the people, she would buld a country of everyone`s dream.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ezekwesili, alongside her running mate, Alhaji Abdul Ganiu Galadima, and supporters, later interracted with traders, transporters, amongst others, on her vision for Nigeria. (NAN)

  • My administration will make education new oil, gold – Ezekwesili

    Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, the Presidential Candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), says she will make education the new oil well and gold mine, if elected.

    Ezekwesili made the pledge during her presidential campaign visit to Alhaji Mohammad Baba, the Hakimi of Ushafa, in Bwari Area Council, FCT, on Sunday.

    According to her, education will fast-track the quest for all-round development of the country and open doors for various segments of the nation to fully develop.

    She said the ACPN government under her would equally give priority to agriculture, security, youth and women empowerment to alleviate poverty in the country.

    “I am running so that women, children and young people will prosper and achieve their goals.

    “We will liberate Nigeria, rescue the youths and less privileged from sufferings and set the country on the path of prosperity.

    “Education will become our new oil wells and gold mines through adequate policies,” she said.

    The candidate, however, advised supporters of the party to form a united front to enable the party to attain victory during the general election.

    Responding, the Hakimi of Ushafa, said Nigeria at the moment needed somebody like Ezekwesili to rescue it from its numerous challenges for better.

    He noted that women were good managers and had solutions to the problems confronting the country. (NAN)

  • How I intend to reduce unemployment –Ezekwesili

    The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, says she will drastically reduce unemployment in the country if she emerges president.

    Ezekwesile gave the assurance in a statement issued by her Hope’19 Campaign Organisation on Thursday in Lagos.

    Her assurance was in reaction to the data released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS)on Wednesday that the unemployment rate had risen from 18.8per cent in the third quarter of 2017 to 23.1 per cent to the corresponding period in 2018.

    The ACPN presidential candidate promised that no fewer than 80 million Nigerians would be lifted out of poverty by her administration.

    She said that her administration would implement productivity and competitiveness initiatives to create new opportunities and jobs in some key sectors.

    She listed the sectors as agriculture, fisheries, livestock, and agribusiness which according to her, more than one-third of Nigeria’s active labour population is found.

    “There will be jobs from light manufacturing industries, construction, housing and public works, renewable solutions, services including trade, telecoms and technology, domestic tourism, and creative industries.

    “These industries not only hold the key to putting more Nigerians to work, but provides a much-needed boost to the nation’s productivity.

    “Promoting and supporting these industries will occur through a mix of sound policies on trade, tax, infrastructure, skills, training, and research and development,” Ezekwesili added.

    She also said priority would be placed on building a rapidly expanding economy, which would be powered by the private sector based on an economic structural change agenda.

    “A majority of those operating in the economy are in the informal, low productivity sectors, while previous governments have focused largely on the formal sector in their poverty reduction and ease of doing business agenda.

    “The informal sector, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is over 60 per cent of the Nigerian economy ($240bn).

    “Unable to tackle the factors which lead to informality, such as low level of education, previous governments have chosen either to ignore the problem or militate against it.

    “The informal sector also suffers low productivity due to high business costs which outstrip earnings.

    “These barriers on them mean that those that work the hardest in our economies fail to earn a decent living.

    “Investments in the formal sector over the last couple of years, while significant, have not yielded the kind of growth rates achieved by the informal sector.

    “This sector grew at an annual average rate of about 8.5 per cent between 2015 and 2017, in comparison with the formal economy which grew by 0.8 per cent in 2017.

    “However, increased informality, if unchecked, could lead to higher rates of poverty and inequality.

    “We will move to embed the productivity and competitiveness agenda within initiatives that give incentive for the nation’s informal businesses and workers to, on their own, enter the regulator inequality.

    “This enables adequate access to government support, accounting, tax reform necessitated by a larger number of registered workers, and the capitalisation of investments in domestic industries.

    Read also: Good governance possible in Nigeria — Ezekwesili

    “In order to revitalise key aspects of the economy and implement dramatic reform, the government will pay significant attention to the informal sector, as the principal creator of employment and as a catalyst for growth and development,” she said.

    According to Ezekwesili, Nigeria’s growth and productivity can only happen when the people have lots of jobs and when they earn incomes that pull them out of poverty.

    The former Vice-President of the World Bank said “Right now, people simply do not have jobs. Under the present government, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) over 20 million Nigerians are unemployed.

    “Again, think about that for a second. Those are not just numbers – they are humans; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight million humans. They have families. They have people who depend on them.

    “We all know someone who has lost a job in this economy. You may even be one of them. We all have families and friends who call us on the phone, pleading for any change we could spare at all to help them survive one more day.

    “How long can we continue like this? The right candidate is Ezekwesili.” (NAN)

  • Ezekwesili calls for radical education

    Ezekwesili calls for radical education

    Former Education Minister, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili has called on the Federal Government to run an education sector that is revolutionary to keep up with the disruptive technological development of the present age.

    Dr Ezekwesili spoke in Lagos at the launch of the Girls4Tech initiative of Mastercard Foundation held at the River Bank School, Victoria Island, Lagos last Wednesday.

    The Senior Economic Adviser with the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative (AEDPI) also said values should be a strong part of this education to give a human face to development.

    Mrs Ezekwesili said human capital investment, not natural resources would grow Nigeria.

    She said: “The Federal Government of Nigeria needs to focus on key reforms that will reform the education sector. We cannot be left behind as we embrace the world of technology, artificial intelligence, the robotics and internet of things and we go into the world of simulation science; big data. It is human capital that can make the difference for us and we really need to make our education reflect enough.

    “The government should make sure that the education sector is as revolutionary as possible in its policies, institutions and in regulatory system that it has so that the learning takes place. Our children need to be as skilled as any other child of their own age in the world; they cannot be behind the curve so education must be for a purpose.

    “Education for purpose means that it has to build competitive skills in our people to give them the kind of values and consciousness that make character the most important thing in the way you’re going to adapt and work in the new economy that the world is embracing. In the present industrial revolution, the machine will do a lot of things for us however it will take people who have values to be able to adapt to technology in the way that doesn’t destroy the world.”

    The participants, children aged eight to 11, did exercises that exposed them to the rudiments of programming.

    Mrs Omokehinde Adebanjo, Mastercard Business Head, for English West Africa, said Mastercard has set a target of exposing 200,000 girls worldwide to technology by Year 2020.

    She said through the project, employees of Mastercard would serve as mentors to young girls and teach them about the technology that drives the firm’s payment system.

    “The reason we are interested in this is because we are going into a future and decade the jobs where the skills that are required are really STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) skills.  Studies show that about 70 to 80 per cent of the skills you need for jobs that will be available in the future will need a kind of STEM skills and if you look around the world now and look at the girls who have made it into STEM careers, global average is about 30 per cent. So if we put all that together, we know that we need to start thinking about STEM education in girls.”

    Mrs Adebanjo said the need to learn to programme had become more urgent than ever.

    “We are going to a future where no matter what language you speak, it won’t matter, instead, your programming language is more important because everybody needs to be coding.

    “As we go into this second machine age where we have robots doing one thing or the other, they need to be thinking like that. So it is the re-orientation of their mind and interest,” she said.

    The Girls4Tech project is being implemented in collaboration with Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF) in Nigeria and Kenya.

    The initiative could feature as  Girls4Tech in a Day in which Mastercard employees and partners fit a streamlined programme about areas in payment technology designed to fit into school schedules; or as Girls4Tech and Code – an entry level 15-week course that provides an introduction to Computer Science concepts and programming.

    CEO of YTF, Njideka Harry, said the project is aimed at changing the thinking that girls cannot excel in technology.

    “We want to change the mindset so girls can be at the forefront of technology,” she said.

  • Salaries: Lawmakers are unarmed robbers – Obasanjo

    Salaries: Lawmakers are unarmed robbers – Obasanjo

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo Thursday in Ibadan described members of the National Assembly as a “bunch of unarmed robbers”, over their huge salaries and allowances.

    Obasanjo, who hit hard at the National lawmakers, said the current legislators are one of the highest paid lawmakers in the world, despite the fact that  an estimated 75 percent of Nigerians populace live in poverty.

    He added that the arm of government should be roundly condemned.

    The former president spoke at the book presentation of Prof. Mark Nwagwu entitled: “I am Kagara, I Weave the Sands of Sahara”.

    The event, which held at the University of Ibadan, had Obasanjo as the Chief Host while the former Minister of Education, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili chaired the occasion.

    Stressing that he is expecting another round of bashing from the federal lawmakers, the former President said he would continue to lambast them for constituting a huge percentage of the nation’s overhead cost.

    He lamented that the nation would hardly develop when about 90 percent of revenue was spent on overhead costs, rather than on capital expenses.

    Speaking on the ongoing impasse between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over the 2009 agreement, Obasanjo, said government allowed itself to be stampeded into signing agreements without full consultation within government.

    However, he added that regardless of that, the government was bound to implement whatever agreement reached with workers’ unions.

    He said: “Government allows itself to be stampeded into signing agreement particularly when one group or the other withdraws their service and go on strike. After the agreement has been signed, without full consultation within government, and implementation becomes an issue.

    “But an agreement is an agreement whoever the agent is that signed that agreement on your behalf, you are bound by it. You may now have to renegotiate to have a new agreement but the agreement earlier signed remains an agreement.

    “The universities teachers go on strike, there is an agreement; doctors go on strike, there will be a special agreement. And when the universities teachers see that the agreement reached with the doctors is different from theirs, they again go on strike and this is bad for our economy.

    “The way we are going about spending all our revenue to pay overhead, we will not develop. And we will have ourselves to blame. Ninety percent of revenue is used to pay overhead, allowances, salaries and not much is left for capital development.

    “In a situation like that, we have to rethink.

    “It is even worse for the National Assembly. They will abuse me again but I will never stop talking about them. They are a bunch of unarmed robbers.”

    “They are one of the highest paid in the world where we have 75 percent of our people living in abject poverty. They will abuse me tomorrow and if they don’t, maybe they are sleeping. The behaviour and character of the National Assembly should be condemned and roundly condemned.”

    In her remarks at the occasion, the Chairperson of the event, Dr. Ezekwesili, remarked that the 289-page book, was a tool for Nigeria to examine the extent to which she had lost her values and culture.

    She decried the loss of community spirit, warning that Nigeria must never negotiate her values.

    According to her, the world was currently such that humanity tried to figure out what happened to morality.

    The book reviewer, Mr Nwachukwu Egbunike, in his remarks on the book noted the theme of feminism and how women navigate life intricacies towards achieving success in life.

    Egbunike also lauded the author’s ability to weave around different concepts in both the spirit and natural world.

    Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, University of Ibadan, Professor Olanike Adeyemo remarked that Nwagwu’s book was a veritable instrument to help the younger generation keep touch with culture.

    The event was attended by both academic and non-academic staff of the university who were on hand to celebrate the author and his wife, Helen.

     

     

     

  • Sambisa tour: BBOG joins FG’s search team

    Sambisa tour: BBOG joins FG’s search team

    The Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group has sent a delegation to join the Federal Government’s team on a day search sorties for missing Chibok girls to Sambisa Forest.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the group reviewed the conditions it earlier gave to the government to travel with the team heading for the North East to witness first-hand the military’s ongoing search for the girls.

    The BBOG delegation included the convener of the group, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, the spokesperson of the Chibok community, Dr Manasseh Allen, Aisha Yusuf and Ibrahim Usman.

    It will be recalled that following the invitation extended to the group by the government to participate in the search mission the BBOG had given certain conditions before its members would join.

    Specifically, the group requested a  Pre-Tour Meeting with government officials and a retraction of some remarks allegedly made by the Chief of Army Staff, which it found to be slanderous.

    The government in a letter signed by the Minister of Information ad Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed had rejected the conditions given by the group and insisted that the team would proceed on the trip as scheduled.

    Following the position of the government, NAN reports that the BBOG reviewed the conditions and indicated acceptance to participate in the exercise.

    In a letter to the Minister on Sunday night, the group asked the government to “quickly provide us more details of the tour duration and detailed logistics including the names of the local and
    international media on the delegation.

    ” We need this information to enable us to send you a more substantial letter conveying our acceptance to join the Guided Tour”.

    NAN reports that the Minister responded to the request by giving details of the trip and other requests by the group.

  • Buhari should pardon convicted soldiers – Ezekwesili

    Buhari should pardon convicted soldiers – Ezekwesili

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    A former minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has asked Nigerians to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to get pardon the soldiers arrested for mutiny in the fight against Boko Haram.

    Ezekwesili, leader of the Bring Back Our Girls group, said the soldiers were wrongly punished for refusing to fight the insurgency ill-equipped, considering that some former public officials shared the money meant to equip the army.

    Delivering a keynote address titled: “A caring society grows faster and better,” at the launch of the Bunmi Adedayo Foundation on Tuesday in Lagos, Ezekwesili said the diversion of the funds was a demonstration of how political leaders and citizens exhibit ‘I don’t care’ attitude towards governance.

    She said: “The exemplification of a society of ‘I don’t care’ could not have been worse in manifestation than recent revelations that while the tragedy went on in the Northeast, those responsible for governance sat around the table, watched citizens being taken out by the bunions of terror and felt comfortable to share the resources meant to equip the fighting soldiers and then turned around and said to those among the soldiers that refused to be sent on a suicide mission that they deserved to die.

    “How else can you define ‘I don’t care’? I hope you will join me in telling the President of our country that those soldiers don’t deserve to die.  Our President must use the prerogative of mercy that the constitution gives him to waive any kind of charges against those ones, we are not saying all soldiers, because some may have misbehaved in the course of this war.

    “But we are saying that it is reprehensible that our society will degenerate to the level where leaders, who as are found in these other societies, stay awake worried about the challenges of their citizens, in our own case, stayed awake sharing the resources, meant to protect the territory and the people.”

     

  • Ezekwesili charges Nigerians to vote quality legislators

    Ezekwesili charges Nigerians to vote quality legislators

    Former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili on Friday advised Nigerians to assess the quality of each candidate before electing members of the House of Assembly.

    Ezekwesili said in view of the nationwide House of Assembly election, which is scheduled for April 11.

    Speaking at a public presentation of the book entitled “Strategic Intervention in Governance” written by Pastor Tunde Bakare in Lagos, she decried the situation where people vote for those they knew little about.

    In her speech entitled “Reflections on Nigeria” the former education minister said no matter how good the President might be he could not develop the country alone.

    She said that legislators were germane to the development of any nation.

    “I am sure many Nigerians voted along party lines for the legislators rather than based on individual merit in the National Assembly election.”

    Ezekwesili said it was time for Nigerians to stand up and make demands of those in power as that was the only way to make a difference.

    Although she applauded Nigerians for trying to consolidate on the nation’s democracy, the former Minister, however, bemoaned the absence of strong institutions in the country.

    “Individuals build the institutions. The quality of the individual determines the quality of institutions.” she said.

    She further added that Bakare’s approach to issues in governance, especially education, was commendable.

    Also speaking, a former Minister of External Affairs, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, who chaired the occasion, lauded Nigerians for conducting an election that, for the first time, received praise from the world.

    “President Goodluck Jonathan has achieved a legacy with this election” Akinyemi said.

    Presenting the book, Dr. John Ayeni, Chairman Skye Bank Plc, said that Nigeria was very lucky to have people such as Bakare.

    “The book will enrich our knowledge and help us to know more about our society and what our character should be in building the nation.

    In his speech Bakare, the Convener of the Save Nigeria Group and Overseer of the Later Rain Assembly Church, said Nigeria urgently needed men and women of goodwill, who are selfless and determined to make the country great.

  • Path to good governance in Nigeria, by Ezekwesili

    Path to good governance in Nigeria, by Ezekwesili

    Former Minister of Education Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili has advocated sound policies and strong institutions as path to good governance.

    She spoke at a public lecture on the theme: “Good Governance and the Challenges of the African Child”, organised by the Dorcas Oke Hope Alive Initiative (DOHAL) at the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, at the weekend.

    The former World Bank boss noted that the policy she suggested for transformation of the 102 Unity Schools was abandoned after her exit as minister of Education.

    Mrs. Ezekwesili stressed that the policy was not to sell those schools, but to restore academic excellence to them.

    The policy, according to her, would have ensured that the schools were funded by the Federal Government and managed by the old students’ associations.

    The former minister said the policy would have ensured good governance in the schools and safeguard the future of the pupils.

    She explained that good governance requires that everybody should shun bad conduct and values that took the nation on a race to the bottom instead of the top. The right activist noted that the drive also requires individual commitment to the idea that a new Nigeria is possible and it requires the effort of all the citizenry.

    “This has to be a society that functions on the basis of sacrifice. But it is the last thing that ever occurs to the minds of average Nigerians, even worse to the mind of the leaders in Nigeria. No society that ignores sacrifice can be a society that would treat its people with a sense of equality,” she said.

    The former World Bank chief listed transparency, responsibility, accountability and participation as the attributes that the public should look out for  in differentiating between good and bad governance.

    Dr. Ezekwesili described transparency as an important attribute of good governance because it would help in curbing corruption.

    She insisted that Nigeria was lagging behind in terms of transparency in governance, noting that responsibility would help both the leaders and followers to do what ought to be done.

    Her words: ”This attribute is not only for leaders, the citizens also need it because they must obey the law of the land. If the citizens do not play their part, the leaders will not be able to perform well. As citizens, you must perform your civic responsibilities such as payment of taxes.”

    “Accountability is the third attribute of good governance, which is the basis of democracy. Citizens must demand accountability from the people they elected into power so that they would know that they are accountable to the citizens,”

    Ezekwesili also stressed that participation as an attribute of good governance has two sides of supply and demand.

    In this regard, she said, the government supplies while the public demands.

    She noted that the demand side was absent in Nigeria because the public has not been demanding, adding that the active involvement of citizens in governance was what makes it participatory.