Education does it, not fossil fuel

Development does not start with mineral resources; it starts with quality people, who are educated, organized and disciplined. Education is a force multiplier in the development calculus of a nation. It is one of the key factors for improving the quality of people in order to develop new skills, cultural values and behavioural patterns needed in the industry. Discipline on the other hand involves teaching people to obey rules or code of behaviour, using punishment to correct disobedience, while organization refers to an organized body of people with same purpose and interest in a society. Without these three attributes, all other resources will remain latent, untapped and in their potential form. The prime cause of poverty lies in certain inadequacies in education, organization and discipline. The Holy Scripture says that ‘my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge’. But any country, no matter how small in terms of resources but with high level of education, organization and discipline will achieve an economic miracle within a short period of time. Singapore is a classic example of a nation without fossil fuel but developed with high Human Development Index of 0.9. Those who have been to Singapore will attest to this assertion.

In today’s knowledge-based economy, educated people represent the most critical natural resource, not fossil fuel. The power of a nation is determined by the huge number of educated people it can muster, not by the abundance of oil and gas. This has been seen with events in the global oil market in the past 12 months. While societies whose people are educated, organized and disciplined are enjoying the drop in the price of crude oil in the international market, Nigeria’s economy has been on the decline since June 2014. Nigeria is the sixth-largest oil producer in the world but has low Human Development Index of 0.5.

The oil and gas industry is one of the world’s largest industries with huge revenues. The price of oil is determined by global powers. However, revenues derived from the sale of oil in the international market do not lead to economic and social developments in Africa and Nigeria in particular. This is because the revenue accruable from oil is limited in its capacity to bring prosperity to the people unless it is invested in education, infrastructure, science and technology to enable the nation regain its long-term competitiveness. With the sale of crude oil, Nigeria does not lack the resources to reach its development goals, rather its resources have been utilized inefficiently. The refineries are working below installed capacity for several years, and the result is importation of fuel which the nation has in abundance. Thus, Nigeria’s fuel subsidy continues to overshadow other development spending annually. According to media reports, Nigeria spent more than N4.9 trillion in seven years (2006-2012) on fuel subsidy. In 2013, fuel subsidy constituted about 20 percent of the entire budget and twice the amount appropriated for education (N426.53 billion). At the time of writing, report has it that nation has disbursed about N154 billion in 2015 while oil marketers claim the government owes them about N200 billion for oil products imported. Despite the colossal sum of money disbursed to import fossil fuel, it has not enabled development in Nigeria as Nigerians still queue for petrol while kerosene is occasionally available at exorbitant price. This is due to poor governance, ill-implemented macro-economic policies coupled with financial indiscipline of governments over time.

Tanker drivers and their employers have displayed lack of discipline and organization as reflected in the manner tankers have taken over Apapa from residents and business entities.
The 2015 budget showed a proposal of N492.034 billion for education as compared to N493 billion in 2014. Although when aggregated together alongside contributions from other agencies, media report has it that Nigeria’s budgetary allocation to education in the last five years is about 23 percent. This is less than the approved 26 percent by UNESCO. Currently, Nigeria has 40 federal universities, 47 private universities, and 59 state universities (www.nuc.edu.ng). Also, the country has 21 federal polytechnics, 38 state and 25 private polytechnics in addition to numerous colleges of education, agriculture, and health technology as well as technical colleges (www.nbte.gov.ng). It is known that Nigerian tertiary institutions are poor in infrastructure, while reading culture among students is poor and research culture amongst staff is weak. In addition, students in tertiary institutions are still involved in vices such as cultism that are counterproductive to the overall success of the education sector. In spite of gains and setbacks of the education sector, experts are of the view that about 30 percent of budget would be appropriate for the education sector in 2015. This may not be feasible in an economy that is dependent on sale of crude oil for its survival.

Nigeria with about 173.6 million people is one of the richest countries in mineral resources in Africa. Going by the abundance of resources, Nigeria could be regarded as a ‘land of opportunities’ harbouring about 10.5 million youths that are out of school spending their formative years hawking cheap goods made by other nations on streets and motor parks. This, according to a government official, is ‘indeed an embarrassing literary statistics on Nigeria’. It was also reported that ‘the number of illiterate adults has increased over the past two decades to reach 35 million’. By implication, about 45.5 million people, which is about 40 percent of Nigerians of working class (15-65 years), are illiterates. The nation needs to empower this group of people through education to enable them generate wealth from knowledge.

It is to be stressed that an educated and healthy workforce is critical to increasing productivity in all sectors of the economy. Whilst it is conceded that an appreciable level of success is made in the education sector in Nigeria, serious questions still remain regarding the quality. This is because in the past decade, the country has drifted to a situation of low academic standard. The proliferation of tertiary institutions has not improved the quality of education as most students are ill-prepared for the industry. In Nigeria, most universities have not matched their missions with national development objectives. Furthermore, there are limited number of science, engineering and technology graduates to meet high demand for skilled manpower in a knowledge-based economy, while the contributions of Nigerian universities to global research and development efforts are limited. The shortfall between educational provision and demand for places in the nation’s industry is so substantial that many youths spend most of their precious time searching for work. This is because graduates of tertiary institutions lack skills and qualifications that are pro-industry.

The truth about education is that Nigerians must possess a culture that is characterized by motivation to learn and acquire new knowledge, focus on quality and deep roots in excellence. Will the incoming government have the political will to remove fuel subsidy, privatize the oil sector, and increase funds to the education sector? An educated nation is a winning nation and, as a matter of urgency, Nigeria must salvage the situation because education is the most valuable resource, not fossil fuel.

 

MA Johnson