‘Private Sector Participation Vital for Revival of Education in Nigeria’

Damilola Oyedele in Abuja

The Chairman/Founder of the Lead British International School (LBIS), Hon. Wole Oke, has harped on the need for the encouragement of the private sector to boost the country’s ailing education sector.

This is as he lauded the invitation extended to Turkish businesses to establish schools in Nigeria, by President Muhammadu Buhari, during a recent visit to Turkey. President Buhari, in a recent visit to Ankara for the G8 meeting, had urged Turkey business sector to establish schools and hospitals in Nigeria.

Oke speaking during a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of LBIS in Abuja Saturday, said establishing a school cannot be motivated by profit, but rather as a way to impart values in developing children and establishing legacies.

“You may have a gigantic structure but what is important is what comes out of it. Legacies are important. What value are you adding to others? Our focus is that when you give us your little boys and girls, we return them to you as responsible men and women,” he said.

The Guest Lecturer, Prof. Abdullahi Y Shehu, lamented that several Nigerians who benefitted from the public school system have seemingly contributed to the decline of the public education system.

Shehu is former Director General, ECOWAS Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) and currently Director, Olusegun Obasanjo Good Governance and Development Research Centre, National Open University of Nigeria, Abuja.

The Guest lecturer noted that those who ought to change the situation of education in Nigeria have their children studying abroad, and therefore have no stake in the sector.

He added that Nigeria’s national budget has consistently failed to allocate enough to the education sector, thereby lagging behind other African countries despite its status on the continent.

At the ceremony, the school honoured its alumni who have made first class in their tertiary studies. The honorees include Miss Hauwa Umar Usman, who bagged a first class in aeronautical engineering from the University of Brighton in July 2017, and is the first female aeronautical engineer from Northern Nigeria.