Nigeria needs resourceful leaders to save education from imminent collapse – Author

An author and a retired Executive Director, Transition Company of Nigeria (TCN), Dr Bulus Danmagaji, says the nation’s education sector needs visionary leadership to save it from imminent collapse.

Danmagaji, who also served as Human Resource Manager, Power Holding Company of Nigeria, spoke in Abuja on Saturday at the launching of a book titled: “Leadership and Education Reform in Nigeria”.

The author said the education sector would continue to experience a mirage until the problem of leadership and education quality were adequately tackled.

According to him, education is the most powerful weapon to change the world and Nigerians must learn from the past leadership failure to transform the sector.

“The corridor of the entire system is in confusion and it is from leadership. How much attention do we give to education and what is the quality of the attention?

“We must work hard to give birth to effective human capital else we will wake up one day and there will be nobody.

“We need visionary and committed leaders to transform the sector,” Danmagaji said.

He said if one has corrupt leadership, one will have corrupt followers and if the leadership is committed to education, the country’s future and the future of children will be secured.

Also, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mrs Sarah Alade called on the government to give priority to education by injecting more funds into the sector.

“We need quality education in this country to survive. Whatever we are going to do, unless we have that human capital development, we will not get anywhere.

“At the moment, we need to give education priority by putting more money in the budget for education going by the percentage of GDP.

“We must have safe schools and ensure that every child that is of school age also goes to school if we are going to make progress,” Alade said.

In the same vein, the book reviewer, Dr Philip Hayab, said the application of poor administration had impeded the sector, hence the need for a new strategy to correct the errors.

Hayab, a research fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution, said that the country’s education system needed embodied philosophical ideas that would foster the worth of individual development.

He explained that the book challenged the way children interact with technology while recommending a national conference to access the education policy that would advance the future of education in the country.