Former President
Goodluck Jonathan has said that there is the need for better security and
education for Africa in order to promote development even as he said that
poverty remains the bedrock of terrorism or crime.
Jonathan spoke
yesterday at the Geneva Press Club in Switzerland during a publicised world
press conference on “Security, Education and Development in Africa”.
Jonathan , who said
his intention was to share some of his thoughts for a better security and
education for Africa, added that he did his best to promote education when he
was in office as the president.
He said, “If you
peruse the official UNESCO literacy rates by country, what you will find is
that all of the top 10 most literate nations in the world are at peace, while
almost all of the top 10 least literate nations in the world are in a state of
either outright war or general insecurity.
“Lower education
levels are linked to poverty and poverty is one of the chief causative factors
of crime whether it is terrorism or militancy or felonies.
“With this at the
back of my mind, I began the practice of giving education the highest sectoral
allocation beginning with my very first budget as President in 2011.”
Presenting his
stewardship while in office as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces in
respect of fighting insurgency in the North-Eastern part of the country,
Jonathan said it was no coincidence that the zone, which is the battlefield
between government troops and insurgents is also suffering from high illiteracy
rate and underdevelopment.
He added that his
policy while in office was to fight insecurity in the immediate term using
counter-insurgency strategies, the military and for the long term he fought it
using education as a tool.
He said, “As I have
always believed, if we do not spend billions educating our youths today, we
will spend it fighting insecurity tomorrow. And you do not have to spend on
education just because of insecurity. It is also the prudent thing to do.
“Nigeria, or any
African nation for that matter, can never become wealthy by selling more
minerals or raw materials such as oil. Our wealth as a nation is between the
ears of our people.”
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