Let’s Fight Poverty with Education, Says Atiku

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has asked the federal governments to carry out an urgent review of the Nigeria’s policy on education as part of its poverty alleviation strategy.
He said the measure was needed to pull the nation out of the stranglehold of abject poverty which is holding down a larger chunk of its over 170 million people.

Atiku, a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), made his position known in Abuja when he received a delegation from NURU International, a United States-based social venture that equips the poor living in remote, rural areas to end extreme poverty in their communities on a courtesy visit.

The organisation is currently engaged in interventionist programmes in the war ravaged communities in Adamawa State.
Atiku told the delegation that a retooled education system that would emphasise functional and problem-solving strategy remained the way to go if the war against poverty is to be won.
The former vice president said with functional education, the high incidence of school dropouts would be reduced while products of secondary education on graduation would have acquired skills that would serve as their source of income for life.

The Waziri Adamawa recalled that Nigeria and Nigerians benefitted from such educational system in the past but that things changed after the civil war when the country adopted an education system that mainly took interest in producing candidates for the universities and not for other levels of higher education.

He explained that in the past, incidence of school dropout was low because there were government colleges, secondary schools, technical schools and craft centres which provided spaces for primary school leavers to continue their educational pursuits based on their respective intellectual/mental ability and capabilities.

“I remember that in the 1960s in northern Nigeria, all students sat for one examination and their performance determined where they would be placed for further education. Everyone was accommodated within the four levels of higher education that was available then and this reduced the incidence of school dropout to its barest minimum,” he said.

Atiku, who is the founder of American University of Nigeria and AUN Academy in Adamawa State, said it is not every secondary student that is “a university material,” adding that there is need to ensure that secondary school leavers are armed with skills through which they could earn a living and raise families.
According to him, if the school leavers do not acquire knowledge and skill to engage their energies on graduation, they become willing and available tools for anti-social activities which could manifest in youth restiveness as being witnessed in the country.

Apart from investing in education, the former vice president said the micro-finance scheme promoted by him has empowered 45,000 families in Adamawa State by providing them with micro-finance facilities with which they have started small business.

He said the initiative, which targeted women as beneficiaries of the loan scheme, has lifted many families out of poverty.

Speaking earlier, leader of the delegation and founder/CEO of NURU International, Mr. Jake Harriman, said his organisation, which currently operates in Michika and Madagali areas of Adamawa State, is aimed at reducing abject poverty in those communities within the seven years the organisation will operate.

He said the essence of the visit was to solicit for the support of the former vice president so that NURU would succeed in its poverty intervention programme in the state.