Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole
Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has said he is surprised that no one is in jail over corruption in Nigeria.
The governor, who was guest lecturer at
the 2013 convocation ceremony of Benson Idahosa University, in his paper
titled, “Education and National Development,” said instances of corrupt
practices abound, yet no one was being held answerable.
Represented by the Secretary to the Edo
State Government, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, the governor said, “If with a
leadership from the South-South, we have not made appreciable progress
on the conditions of the Niger Delta, the East-West Road and the coastal
railway, let us continue to hope, because we are used to hoping; the
elasticity of hope in Nigeria is limitless.
“Nigerians spend over N80bn annually on
medical tourism and treatment overseas just as we put our kids in
foreign and African universities and this is with over N2tn lost to the
fuel subsidy cartel, not to mention how much is lost annually to oil
thieves.
“The list of imperfections, failures,
problems and contradictions can go on and on. The important issue today
is how we can relate these issues to the importance of education and
therefore national development. Things go bad and no one is caught.
“Our idea of development revolves round
interest and exchange rates, import-export ratios, GNP per capita, even
GDP and foreign reserves. These may show that growth and maybe
accumulation are occurring; they do not show that development, which is
people-focused, people-based and people-driven, is occurring.
“Major companies like Unilever and
Dunlop are closing down, setting up shop in Ghana and throwing thousands
of families into unemployment, hunger and social pressures.
Bemoaning the state of education in
Nigeria, the governor said, “When education takes citizens in the
opposite direction of these values then it becomes dangerous to societal
development. In fact, an educational system that produces election
riggers, intimidators, looters of the treasury, bad drivers, disregard
for communal values, lazy public servants, kidnappers, inefficient and
ineffective workers, political opportunists, thugs, and bad politicians
that visit pain on the people and contaminate and undermine institutions
of society cannot be regarded as positive education.”
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