My father often tells my siblings and I, that “education is not an inheritance, any one can’t take away from you once you have it, “. I agree, but the sad reality is that in Nigeria the young are deliberately and systematically denied the opportunity to have an education.
So between the poor leadership, to corrupt officials, Boko Haram insurgency, the abject poverty and the ASUU strike, the young are in dire situation.
The politicians and religious figures blare on that Nigeria has got something to crow about which we know is far from the truth. More than 40 million Nigerians are unemployed, that’s astounding and unmtigating disaster. The national unemployment rate for university graduates is 23.9 percent; the unemployed young numbers over 20.3 million; and the poverty rate stands at 71.5 percent. These figures, I am sure, is a conservative estimate as many more young people are not in training and education. These young people are been denied their birthright and a future. That is what we are doing to our future. Should we not wish our young a better future than ours?
Education is so important to the recovery of our country and though the majority of our nation are sliding back into the abyss, Osun State is steaming ahead by distributing its e-learning tablet called the tablet of knowledge, the OPON IMO. These tablets are to being distributed to all secondary school students to assist with their learning. These innovation and investment will pay untold dividend and the difference will unfold in the academic acumen of the recipients of the tablets.
The Project Manager of OPON IMO, Mr. Sam Omoruyi,said: “The plan is to distribute 600 tablets of the device everyday and with the approach adopted by the distributing team, the distribution of the tablets would have been completed by the first week of November.”And furthermore he added that “no government had ever done such a thing, it would put the students of Osun State ahead of their peers across the country”.
Rauf Aregbesola has laid down a strong foundation for education in Osun State; other states will do well to emulate him. Better still, other states should be demanding why their Governor cannot do likewise. They have no excuse; after all Rauf has paved the way and shows it can be done.
Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. ~G.K. Chesterton
The 1 GAME campaign is an incredible innovative and humanitarian voluntary organization that I have been avidly following and it so heartening that even in the midst of chaos and deprivation , that 1GAME is paving the way to get education to areas where it is mostly needed. 1 GAME founder, Philip Obaji rightfully believes that education defeats violence and that it is necessary that education paves a positive alternative for those who otherwise are denied and as result, their outcome is very predictable ;leaving a life of poverty, deprivation, resentment and crimes.
They do say that a devil finds work for idle hands. That is so true in this case. Education is the solution to the cause and effect of the ills that plagues our society at least in many parts and it could go a long way to tackle and address the violence ravaging the nation.
The 1 GAME founder, Philip Obaji spoke so eloquently that education defeats violence and that leads to a destructive and violent path. I cannot agree more where the campaign did a baseline survey they discovered that 90% of those that pick up arms had no basic education. I am sure if they were given an opportunity to learn they would not perpetuate a life of crime and destruction.
In a recent donation of books, pens and reading materials ,galvanized many parents to register their children in school in Gombe, now that is so powerful . They were due to follow suit in Yobe but are unable to do so , because of the latest murders of young people at the agriculture college.
1GAME is blazing the trail and I hope, people will support and contribute to the cause. When someone says it can’t be done, it can and it has been done so, what are their excuses?
One life is too many and to die the way these young men died was beyond the realms of imagination. The attacks have been unrelenting that of the week’s odious attack in Benisheikh, where more than 160 people were shot and slaughtered, then attacks in Yobe that left more than fifty innocent students and civilians killed. These murderers are psychopathic criminals. They have no justifiable cause that warrants the spilling of the blood of defenseless and innocent people.
There is no justification for the level of anarchy that goes unabated in these areas and contrary to what some people say; it affects the whole of Nigeria. The country has been held to ransom for so long by the group of people hell bent on spending fear, abductions, depravity, intimidation and chaos. Even the present administration has fled to the safe confines of the Rock to celebrate a low key independence day and the Eagle square? , well, that has not been an independence march past there for the last three years.
What is the message that is filtering through to the ordinary man on the street? That even the government is fearful and they cannot assure the safety of its citizens. The government has not done enough to protect its citizens and the whole world knows that. They are united that it is about time that Nigeria acted and acted decisively too.
Although, we have had nothing of note to celebrate of late, the incessant killings have added poignancy to the plight of many innocent and defenseless Nigerians.
THE United Nations and the United States of America have lent their voices and concerns to this latest murders that the President act resolutely. The US asked the Nigerian government “to find and bring those responsible for this deplorable violence to justice.” and the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, in a statement from the UN Secretariat, called for the “the perpetrators to be swiftly brought to justice.”
The US has” encouraged the Government of Nigeria to work together with the families of the victims and affected communities to find and bring those responsible for this deplorable violence to justice, and to enhance the protection of civilians to ensure respect for the rule of law.”
