Visiting United Nations special envoy, Mr Jakaya Kikwete, has challenged Nigeria to invest in skill-based education for its youth. Kikwete feared that in future, robots would send many out of jobs and only those with the right entrepreneur skills would survive hard times.
Kikwete made this declaration shortly after he met with the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, in Abuja. He told newsmen in Lagos that Nigeria must act fast because time is running out.
Mr Kikwete was met on arrival in Lagos by a businessman, Emperor Chris Baywood Ibe and former foreign affairs minister, Mr Odein Ajumogobia among other dignitaries.
He said: “I came here to see the Vice President. I’m a special envoy of the International Commission on Financing of Global Education Opportunity. It is a Commission set up in 2015 to do an in-depth study of the state of education in the world. On September 2016, we presented our report to the then secretary general of the UN, Mr Bank Ki Moon.
“Already, we have finished our work and now we are at the stage of telling the leaders of the world the work of the commission. So the commission decided to start with 14 countries in Africa which are also referred to as pioneer countries, with Nigeria as one of them.
“The conclusion of the Commission is that the world is currently facing an alarming education crisis, which is more pronounced in the lower and middle income countries. These countries lag far behind developed countries in terms of education development and achievement. We are 70 years behind the developed countries. So the Commission is looking at how these countries can catch up with the rest of the world. What the Commission is simply saying is that this catching up game has to be achieved within a generation. That is why we call the vision ‘millennium generation vision’. The other aspect is that the Commission looked at access to education, students completing their education, and the third is the learning outcome.
“My visit has been very fruitful. The Vice President is on top of the state of education in Nigeria. He was appreciative of the work of the Commission and the advice it has so far given. He assured that Nigeria was ready to play its role as a pioneer country in the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission.”
Kikwete, who is former president of Tanzania, was optimistic about Africa’s future. He added that the key to that access is education.
He continued: “The first thing that the youths need now is education that will give them the necessary skills required in the job market. They need skills that will make them employers of labour. This is where the problem lies; we have to do that now because as the situation is, by 2050, two billion jobs will be lost to machines. It is only those with higher skills that will have the cutting edge. This will happen to young people. So if we can invest in their quality education now, when that times comes, the young people in African will be able to compete in the global market.”
He expressed interest in working with various NGOs and admonished government to also work with non-state actors in education youth development.”
Ibe, who is the founder of Baywood Foundation, noted that as future leaders, equipping youths with requisite skills for the future was imperative.
“We are planning a one-million-youth rally in Abuja to draw attention to the plight of the youths. We want every government to do something fast to ameliorate their sufferings.”
In his remarks, Ajumogobia, also thanked the UN commission, and hoped that the collaboration would immensely benefit youths in Nigeria.
