Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says he’s worried about
the growing number of out-of-school children in the country.
Obasanjo spoke on Thursday at the opening of the GOTNI
leadership centre in Abuja.
On Wednesday, Rahama Farah, head of the United Nations
Children Fund (UNICEF) office in Kano, said more than 18.5 million children in
Nigeria don’t have access to quality education.
Speaking on the issue of out-of-school children, Obasanjo
said Nigeria won’t make significant economic progress until children get access
to education.
“When people come to me and say you are doing well, I say
‘no, that is not what I want because I am in a place to do well’,” he said.
“Don’t come and tell me that I am doing well. I want you to
tell me what I need to do and to do better. That is what I want to hear and not
for you to come and tell me I am doing well.
“The truth is that there is nobody that is born without some
amount of innate leadership capacity and it is development that is needed. By
the time we come to the GOTNI leadership centre, a bit of it is learnt.
“We should not forget that a lot starts from home, a lot in
the school, a lot in the church and the mosque, a lot within the community
itself. If we fail in all those areas, you won’t even get them to come here.
“This is one aspect of our life. The other aspect is what we
do. I am worried because no matter what we do here, as long as we have the type
of situation we have now of 15 million children that should be in school that
are not in school, if all of us in school are graduates of GOTNI leadership
centre, there will still be that gap of those who should be in school that are
not educated.”
The former president also said Nigeria needs quality
leadership that can make the right policies for the country.
“When you talk about the problem of an African country and
particularly of Nigeria, they will say it is leadership — leadership deficit
and leadership deficiency — and both can be taken care of in this GOTNI
leadership centre,” he said.
“Leadership can be taught. Leadership can be acquired just
like you can teach anything else. And anything that can be taught, can be
learnt. So, if leadership can be taught, it can be learnt. So, people must be
ready to teach and learn leadership.”
In his remarks, Linus Okorie, the institute’s proprietor,
said the centre’s goal is to develop quality leaders and promote competency at
all levels.
“The investment that we are making today, some of it might
not be speaking right now in the political space, but in the organisations, we
are already seeing stories of transformation and change going on,” he said.
“All I want is a critical mass of human beings investing in
this journey where we can grow leadership from high school up to political
level.
“Now that we are in
the political period, anybody who wants to seek political office at whatever level,
must come and sit down and understand what leadership is about so that when
they get into leadership positions, they will do well because they have been
groomed.
“They understand leadership competencies. They are visionary, men and women of honour and they can make things happen. For me, it’s in my agenda to transform leaders and create values. We must invest in them.”
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